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(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today announced plans to launch several clinical trials of pandemic H1N1 vaccines in a race to gather safety and immunogenicity data in time for a possible fall resurgence of the novel virus. In some of the trials, volunteers will receive H1N1 and seasonal flu shots at the same time.

Jul 22, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday announced its approval of seasonal influenza vaccines for this year, the annual step that clears the way for manufacturers to start marketing their vaccines.

NIAID to study simultaneous seasonal-flu, pandemic vaccination

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials are proposing to list the virus that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) as a select agent, which means that dozens of laboratories possessing it will have to register with the government and adopt various security measures.

(CIDRAP News) – An expert panel that advises the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today supported the idea of moving quickly on pandemic H1N1 vaccine production with a goal of having "tens of millions of doses" available in September instead of October.

Jul 17 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Novel flu activity is still going strong but dropped for the third week in a row, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today during a media briefing that also sought to calm fears about vaccine availability.

(CIDRAP News) – Citing the questionable usefulness of reporting pandemic H1N1 case counts and the burden it puts on countries experiencing widespread transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today it will no longer issue regular reports of confirmed global case totals.

The WHO has issued 58 such reports since the start of the novel H1N1 outbreak, the last one on Jul 6.

Jul 16, 2009

American Lung Association recommends closing affiliated summer camps

(CIDRAP News) – A national consortium of groups that have a stake in managing foodborne illness outbreaks today released guidelines for outbreak response, a document that includes model practices for each investigation stage, giving local and state officials a baseline for assessing their current procedures.

(CIDRAP News) – Outpatient clinics should provide separate waiting and exam rooms for possible H1N1 flu patients and prepare business continuity plans, among other steps to prepare for a potential flood of pandemic flu patients this fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended today.

Jul 14, 2009

Rural doctor and 'genius grant' winner nominated as surgeon generalPresident Barack Obama today nominated an Alabama family physician and MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" winner to be surgeon general. Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA, founded a health clinic to serve tiny Bayou La Batre, Ala., home to poor, mostly uninsured African-American and immigrant Asian fishermen, and rebuilt it three times after two hurricanes and a fire.

Jul 13, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended today that governments put healthcare workers first in line for pandemic H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available and that countries should choose other priority groups on the basis of their own situations.

(CIDRAP News) – The pandemic H1N1 virus in different animal models causes more lung damage and can replicate efficiently in the trachea and deep in the lungs when compared with its seasonal flu counterpart—a pattern seen in the 1918 pandemic virus—according to a study published today.

(CIDRAP News) – In a series of 10 cases of severe illness with the pandemic H1N1 virus in Michigan, nine patients were obese, suggesting that very overweight people may be particularly vulnerable to life-threatening H1N1 infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

Jul 10, 2009

Jul 9, 2009