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(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services yesterday announced $350 million in grants for eight regional centers to lead and coordinate research on defenses against bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of new West Nile virus infection cases decreased in the past week compared with the previous week, but the number of deaths rose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said this week it is making $1.4 billion available to states and territories to improve their preparedness for terrorism and other public health emergencies.

(CIDRAP News) – A new study on anthrax in mice indicates that the organism kills its victims by a different mechanism than previously believed, a finding that could change the approach to drug development for anthrax.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) says influenza vaccination may yield an extra benefit this year: limiting the number of false alarms for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who compared the reported signs and symptoms of anthrax and of common viral respiratory tract infections have published guidelines that could help clinicians distinguish inhalational anthrax from more benign infections in the aftermath of an anthrax attack.

(CIDRAP News) – Worries about the ability to quickly detect a return of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and about hospitals' ability to handle a large number of patients were two leading issues at a recent national meeting on SARS preparedness, according to a participating physician.

(CIDRAP News) – After getting a green light from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a Salt Lake City company says it will launch the use of lactoferrin, a milk protein, as an antimicrobial treatment for beef carcasses in October.

(CIDRAP News) – The number of West Nile virus cases in the United States this year reached 1,442 yesterday, more than double the total reported a week ago, with 21 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – A Maryland company says it has received "fast track product" designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for ABthrax, a drug designed to help prevent and treat anthrax. The FDA grants fast-track status to speed the review process for products that address an "unmet medical need."

(CIDRAP News) – Laboratory analysis has ruled out the SARS coronavirus as a cause of nearly 150 cases of respiratory illness at a nursing home in a suburb of Vancouver, B.C., according to regional public health officials.

The virus appears to be another member of the coronavirus family, officials said. Earlier indications of the presence of a coronavirus had prompted concern about SARS and increased infection control precautions.

(CIDRAP News) – Emergency workers in the United States believe they lack adequate gear to protect themselves when responding to chemical, biological, or radiological terrorist attacks, according to a RAND study released last week.

(CIDRAP News) – Supporters of irradiation as a tool for preventing foodborne disease are dismayed by a generally negative evaluation of irradiated meat in the August issue of Consumer Reports.

(CIDRAP News) – A mysterious illness that sickened more than half of the residents of a nursing home in British Columbia and raised concern about a possible return of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is nearly over, according to Dr. Perry Kendall, provincial health officer of British Columbia.

(CIDRAP News) – Dr. D. A. Henderson, who led the global smallpox eradication campaign in the 1960s and 1970s, says researchers who recently reported on the duration of immunity conferred by smallpox vaccination were wrong in suggesting that immunity can last for decades or even for life.

(CIDRAP News) – Initial tests of the new cell-culture–grown smallpox vaccine now being stockpiled by the US government indicate that it may be slightly safer than the vaccine used in the current immunization program, according to a report by the vaccine's manufacturer.

(CIDRAP News) – As the number of West Nile virus cases continues to climb, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced that its scientists have created a promising new vaccine against the virus. The vaccine involves a distantly related virus, dengue type 4, in which some proteins have been replaced by corresponding proteins from the West Nile virus.

Editor's note: See Aug 21 CIDRAP News story for a critique by Dr. D. A. Henderson of the report described below.

(CIDRAP News) – A study of more than 300 people who received smallpox shots suggests that the resulting immunity to smallpox may last up to 75 years, according to a report published online yesterday by Nature Medicine.

(CIDRAP News) – The vector in the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak at the Amoy Gardens housing complex in Hong Kong last spring may have been roof rats, hypothesizes Stephen K. C. Ng of Columbia University School of Public Health in an article published in the Aug 16 issue of The Lancet. How the infection spread from the index case to more than 300 residents of the complex very rapidly has remained a mystery.

Aug 15 (CIDRAP News) – Two more deaths from SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) occurred this week in Toronto, one of them in a heathcare worker. That brings the total number of deaths in Canada to 44. Eight people remain hospitalized with the illness in Toronto.