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(CIDRAP News) – Antiviral resistance and the global economic downturn might present new obstacles for corporate antiviral stockpiling, but two medical experts today said the medications are still quick, reliable tools that can help preserve business continuity in an influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Public health officials in four states are investigating a Salmonella outbreak associated with spices made by a California company that has so far sickened 42 people, 33 of them in California.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today warned consumers to avoid eating pistachios after a California producer recalled 1 million pounds of its product because of tests by a food company that showed contamination with four different Salmonella strains.

Mar 30, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – Federal inspectors who conducted a survey to identify gaps in the nation's food traceability system told a House subcommittee yesterday that they managed to trace only 5 of 40 products through the full production and distribution chain and that some food facilities didn't know they needed to keep source contact information.

Mar 26, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – A public health policy group today urged the government to put one person in charge of all food safety efforts at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a first step toward preventing the kinds of foodborne disease outbreaks that have plagued the nation in recent years.

Mar 25, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – A program to help the nation's largest metropolitan area deliver medications after a public health emergency such as an aerosol anthrax attack has improved their readiness levels, according to initial findings released yesterday by the Rand Corp.

– The annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America took place Mar 20-22 in San Diego. This News Scan Special Edition surveys a selection of the abundant research from that meeting on combating MRSA in healthcare institutions.

– The annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America took place Mar 20-22 in San Diego. This News Scan Special Edition wraps up interesting research from that meeting on the difficult problem of increasing influenza immunization in healthcare workers.

March 24, 2009

Mar 23, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – The second week of March brought a slight decline in influenza activity across the country, with 30 states still reporting widespread cases, down from 35 states a week earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists who analyzed 67 H5N1 avian influenza viruses from across Africa report that the viruses fall into three distinct sublineages, or families, and that some have mutations that make them resistant to antiviral drugs.

(CIDRAP News) – Members of Congress today grilled executives of three food companies about what role producers have in ensuring that their ingredients are safe, after revealing that Nestle did its own audits of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) facilities in 2002 and 2006 and rejected the company as one of its suppliers.

March 19, 2009