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(CIDRAP News) – Five years after the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic spread around the globe via air travel, significant barriers still stand in the way of tracking down and notifying airline passengers who may have been exposed to an infectious disease.

(CIDRAP News) – US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced yesterday that the Bush administration has boosted its fiscal year 2009 budget request by $275 million to increase funds for new food and medical product safety initiatives at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

(CIDRAP News) – Authorities in Hong Kong recently reported finding H5N1 avian influenza at a poultry market, marking the first detection of the virus in poultry there in more than 2 years.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently warned consumers nationwide to avoid certain raw tomatoes as the number of people sickened in a nationwide Salmonella outbreak grew to 145 cases in 16 states.

(CIDRAP News) – The first real test of a new program to screen some arriving passengers at the Honolulu airport for flu-like illness went smoothly this week, according to an official with the Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH).

(CIDRAP News) – The avian influenza virus that struck chickens on a farm in England this week has been identified as highly pathogenic H7N7 and is probably related to viruses that have sometimes surfaced in other European countries, British officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health minister said today the government has stopped the practice of promptly notifying global health officials each time it confirms a human H5N1 avian influenza case or death, a move some say will likely hamper efforts to monitor the world's pandemic risk level.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health officials in England yesterday announced that chicken deaths at a farm in Oxfordshire were caused by an H7 form of avian influenza, while a poultry company in Arkansas reported that chickens at a large commercial farm tested positive for antibodies to a low-pathogenic H7N3 strain of avian flu.

(CIDRAP News) – Tomatoes are the likely culprit in 57 recent cases of Salmonella infection in New Mexico and Texas, and another 29 cases in seven other states may be part of the same outbreak, according to federal health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – Proposed pandemic preparedness guidance released by the federal government today recommends that people wear face masks if they have to go into crowds during an influenza pandemic and says critical infrastructure businesses should consider stockpiling antiviral drugs, among various other suggestions.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that it is allocating states and major metropolitan areas $1.1 billion to strengthen public health preparedness and help healthcare facilities respond to emergency events such as an influenza pandemic or terrorist attack.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the release of complete genetic data for 150 avian influenza viruses in an effort to connect genetic information with the biological effects of the viruses and to improve diagnostic tests.

(CIDRAP News) –The World Health Assembly (WHA) recently approved a global strategy for managing intellectual property issues and made progress on a draft action plan that was presented by a World Health Organization (WHO) working group.

The WHA, which consists of delegates from all WHO member states and serves as the agency's policy-making arm, met in Geneva from May 19 to 23.

(CIDRAP News) – A survey of North Carolina families affected by a 10-day school closure due to a sharp rise in influenza-related absences found that the measure didn't cause families major hardships, but many did not heed a recommendation to avoid large gatherings.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists have found evidence that North American avian influenza viruses of the H7 subtype are becoming more like human flu viruses in their ability to attach to host cells, which suggests they may be improving their capacity to infect humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed that a 16-month-old boy from Bangladesh had an H5N1 avian influenza infection in January but has since recovered.

(CIDRAP News) – Indonesia's health minister asserted yesterday that 112 other nations at a meeting in Geneva last week expressed support for her country's position on avian influenza virus sharing, according to an Indonesian newspaper.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal agencies that play key food safety roles recently held a public meeting to clarify the obstacles public health officials encounter in investigating foodborne disease outbreaks and to build support for measures to improve the process.

(CIDRAP News) – Two more wild swans infected with H5N1 avian influenza were found in Japan this week, and authorities in South Korea said H5N1 viruses found in chickens there closely matched an earlier isolate from swans in Japan.

(CIDRAP News) – A team of food safety researchers, flanked by federal, state, and industry officials, today unveiled a sweeping report on how food safety information is shared and called for new federal policies to make the system more transparent and useful.