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(CIDRAP News) – Eighteen medical groups, led by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA), released a report at a recent conference in Washington, DC, that contains 53 recommendations for improving the nation's response to mass casualty events such as terrorist attacks, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters.

(CIDRAP News) – The company that recalled its chili sauce last week after four people got sick with suspected botulism poisoning dramatically expanded the recall over the weekend to include products that contain meat, including one dog food brand.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) official in Cairo said yesterday that test results in a 25-year-old Egyptian woman were positive for H5N1 avian influenza.

The country's state news agency, MENA, said the woman is from the Nile Delta's Damietta province in northern Egypt, according to a Reuters report yesterday. She came down with a high fever 3 days ago and is in good condition after receiving oseltamivir, MENA reported.

(CIDRAP News) – Four people from Texas and Indiana were recently hospitalized with suspected botulism poisoning after they consumed hot dog chili sauce that may have been contaminated, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday urged all countries to strengthen their food safety systems, a day after President Bush issued an executive order establishing a group to examine the safety of imported food and other goods.

(CIDRAP News) – In an update on the nation's pandemic preparedness efforts, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday said it had stockpiled enough H5N1 avian influenza vaccine to protect about 6 million people and that federal and state supplies contain enough antiviral medication to treat more than 48 million.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday announced it was providing states, US territories, and four metropolitan areas with $896.7 million in public health preparedness funding, with $175 million of the total earmarked for pandemic planning.

Preparedness grantsThe bulk of the money is allocated toward Public Health Emergency Cooperative Agreements, which public health departments use to build capacity.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today confirmed that turkeys at a Virginia farm were exposed to the low-pathogenic North American strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Whenever my commitment to pandemic preparedness starts to flag, I read something wrongheaded by an opponent of preparedness. Here's my take on an example from a major medical journal.

(CIDRAP News) – The White House Homeland Security Council today released a 1-year update on the federal government's pandemic influenza preparedness strategy, reporting that it has met 86% of the objectives it set for itself a year ago.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists have hoped that disabling the body's destructive immune-system overreaction to the H5N1 avian influenza virus, known as "cytokine storm," could lead to new lifesaving treatments, but according to a new study, trials testing the strategy didn't protect mice infected with the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Canada broadened its safeguards against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, yesterday by banning the use of cattle brains, spinal cords, and certain other body parts from all animal feeds, pet foods, and fertilizer.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed yesterday that turkeys from a Virginia farm carried antibodies indicating possible past exposure to a mild form of H5N1 avian influenza virus.

Are you in charge of your company's crisis response plan or part of a business team trained to manage a sizable emergency that could threaten your organization's continuity? If so, you're no stranger to the concept of "all-hazards" preparedness. The business world has increasingly emphasized such an approach since the 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina experiences—and with good reason.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Perth, Australia, last week advised parents to seek medical care quickly for young children with respiratory symptoms, after three children under age 5 died of pneumonia as a complication of "mild" influenza A infections.

(CIDRAP News) – This year's round of federal grants to states to help healthcare facilities prepare for public health emergencies totals $430 million, down from $450 million last year, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced recently.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health ministry announced today that a 6-year-old boy from Banten province died of H5N1 avian influenza yesterday, according to several media reports.

Runizar Ruesin, an official with the health ministry's avian flu information center, said the boy died in a Jakarta hospital, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. He fell ill on Jul 1 and was hospitalized 4 days later, Ruesin said.

(CIDRAP News) – A Virginia agriculture official announced today that a turkey flock in Shenandoah County has tested positive for antibodies to a nonlethal H5 avian influenza virus, indicating possible past exposure.

(CIDRAP News) – Only 27% of Americans describe themselves as concerned about avian influenza, down from 35% last year, according to a national survey released this week.

In an Associated Press–Ipsos Public Affairs poll released on Jul 2, 41% of respondents said they were not concerned about avian flu, an increase from 31% last year. Another 34%—the same as last year—said they were moderately concerned.

Editor's note: This story was revised July 9, 2007, to make clear that plans call for the pandemic hotline model to be made freely available to anyone interested, not marketed as a commercial product. Some statements in the original version implied that the model would be marketed commercially.