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(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials say that devices for quickly detecting Bacillus anthracis spores in the environment are not reliable and should not be used in assessing possible bioterrorism threats.

(CIDRAP News) – Three more cases of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection have been linked with ground beef recalled by a ConAgra plant in Greeley, Colo., bringing the total to 19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The House of Representatives' version of a bill to set up a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would keep the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in control of public health programs for dealing with bioterrorism, according to an official of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

(CIDRAP News) – ConAgra Foods is voluntarily recalling 18 million pounds of ground beef from a plant in Greeley, Colo., as a result of 16 cases of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection linked with meat from the plant, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials announced today.

The action, one of the largest ground beef recalls on record, is an expansion of a 354,000-pound voluntary recall that USDA announced Jun 30.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush's National Strategy for Homeland Security, released this week, lays out a lengthy agenda for defending the country against bioterrorism as well as other kinds of terrorist attacks.

Note: This article was updated on Jul 16, 2002, with comments from a senior health economist at CDC on the study discussed.

(CIDRAP News) – Though two top federal health officials recently were quoted as saying that half a million healthcare workers may be vaccinated against smallpox, the official word from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is that the scope of the vaccination program has not yet been decided.

July 9, 2002 (CIDRAP News) - Several national public health organizations are urging Congress and the Bush administration not to shift federal bioterrorism preparedness programs from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the proposed Department of Homeland Security.

(CIDRAP News) – Confirming earlier unofficial reports, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson today named infectious disease expert Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH, as the new permanent director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She becomes the first woman to lead the agency.

July 2, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – A recent series of 47 cases of salmonellosis in five states has linked an increasingly common multidrug-resistant strain of Salmonella enterica serotype Newport with ground beef, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

July 1, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – About half of the nation's supply of anthrax vaccine—previously dedicated almost entirely to military use—will henceforward be set aside for civilian use in the event of another anthrax attack, federal defense and health officials announced Jun 28.

(CIDRAP News) – A clinical trial of the decades-old supply of smallpox vaccine held by Aventis Pasteur is in progress, and early signs are that the vaccine is still potent, according to a spokesman for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that it will begin using laboratory testing to ensure that beef products from mechanical "advanced meat recovery" (AMR) systems are free of spinal cord tissue.

June 25, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – Eating tabletop sauces at restaurants in Mexico may be an important risk factor for traveler's diarrhea, a new study suggests.

(CIDRAP News) – Caught between the unknown risk of a smallpox attack and concern about adverse vaccine reactions, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) yesterday recommended that only healthcare workers assigned to deal directly with a smallpox outbreak be vaccinated against smallpox.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it will increase testing of imported shrimp and crayfish to look for traces of the antibiotic chloramphenicol, which some countries have found in imports from China and Vietnam.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers at the University of Texas report that they have engineered antibodies that can protect rats from the effects of the anthrax toxin, possibly pointing the way toward development of similar antibodies that could protect humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The farm bill that was recently passed by Congress creates at least a possibility that irradiated foods eventually will be sold as "pasteurized" and served in government-subsidized school lunches. But it appears that those changes won't happen quickly, if they happen at all.

(CIDRAP News) – President George W. Bush yesterday signed a far-reaching bioterrorism bill designed to strengthen the public health system, tighten controls on dangerous pathogens, and protect the nation’s food and water supplies.

Jun 10, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – The smallpox virus has a protein that inhibits the human complement system far more effectively than does its counterpart protein in the closely related vaccinia virus, used in smallpox vaccine, according to researchers who compared the two proteins. This difference may be an important reason for the virulence of smallpox and may offer an avenue for research on treatments, they suggest.