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(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization's top influenza expert warned at the end of a 2-day international meeting today that governments need to fund the development of vaccines to combat a feared flu pandemic that could kill millions of people, according to news services.
(CIDRAP News) – Massachusetts residents in at least three communities are hoping to obtain flu shots through the luck of the draw as local health departments seek the fairest way to distribute limited vaccine supplies among those who need them the most.
(CIDRAP News) The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and major US airlines announced an interim agreement this week to strengthen procedures for testing and disinfecting drinking-water systems on airliners.
(CIDRAP News) – The outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in Asia gives the world its first opportunity to prepare a vaccine in advance for a potential pandemic strain of flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today as it convened a meeting of vaccine companies and health officials to consider the challenge.
(CIDRAP News) – The current shortage of influenza vaccine has generated new support for proposed federal legislation introduced last January that would make the production of flu vaccine more financially attractive, according to sponsors of the bill.
(CIDRAP News) In an effort to spread the impact of the influenza vaccine shortage fairly, federal health officials today announced a plan to share most of the approximately 11 million remaining doses of injectable vaccine among states on the basis of need.
Editor's note: A correction was made in this story Nov 9 to make clear that the licensed anthrax vaccine does not contain the recombinant form of anthrax protective antigen.
(CIDRAP News) The Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) said last week that it plans to buy up to 5 million doses of the controversial anthrax vaccine currently used by the US military and put it in the national stockpile for civilian use.
(CIDRAP News) – An Iowa company will develop an avian influenza vaccine antigen bank that could produce up to 40 million doses of vaccine for poultry, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced recently.
Editor's note: A correction was made in this story Nov 9 to note that the existing licensed anthrax vaccine contains the natural rather than recombinant form of anthrax protective antigen.
(CIDRAP News) Federal health officials today announced the award of an $877 million contract for 75 million doses of a new anthrax vaccine to protect the public and improve on the existing vaccine used by the military.
(CIDRAP News) Two studies just published by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) suggest that injecting influenza vaccine just beneath the skin surface, instead of into muscle, may be a way to stretch flu vaccine supplies without sacrificing protection.
(CIDRAP News) A dead gray heron found in Hong Kong had H5N1 avian influenza, according to news reports.
A railway worker in the restricted area of Lok Ma Chau found the heron and turned it over to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department for testing Nov 1, according to Xinhua, the Chinese government news agency, and Agence France-Presse (AFP).
(CIDRAP News) – To guard against SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the Chinese government has banned the killing and cooking of civets, which have been carriers of the SARS virus in southern China, according to news reports yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded contracts worth more than $73 million to study the mechanisms by which certain infectious agents, including potential bioterror agents, trigger immune reactions, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has called a Nov 11 "summit" meeting of health officials and vaccine companies to discuss how to confront what is seen as the growing risk that avian influenza will trigger a human flu pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) Healthy-looking ducks may be acting as a "silent" reservoir for the deadly H5N1 influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.
A new laboratory study of domestic ducks infected with several 2004 H5N1 viruses shows that ducks shed more of this virus compared with ducks infected with H5N1 viruses from 2003, researchers in Tennessee found. Ducks also shed the 2004 viruses from 1 to 7 days longer.
(CIDRAP News) About 5 million additional doses of injectable flu vaccine have been identified that will hopefully be added to the US supply, according to an announcement made today by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson. In addition, 300,000 doses are being redirected to high-risk individuals from stores originally planned for military personnel and federal employees.
(CIDRAP News) The United States was on track to provide 100 million doses of influenza vaccine this year when half of its supply was withdrawn in early October because of contamination concerns over vaccine from Chiron Corp. Suddenly about 48 million doses shy of the expected supply, US officials scrambled to define priorities.
(CIDRAP News) The Department of Defense (DoD) has suspended its anthrax vaccination program in response to a federal court ruling that military personnel should not have to accept the shots against their will unless the president orders them to do so.
(CIDRAP News) In response to the national influenza vaccine shortage, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is calling on the federal government to find ways to make the production of vaccines more profitable.
(CIDRAP News) US and Japanese negotiators have reached general agreement on steps for resuming their beef trade after a 10-month interruption caused by the discovery of a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Washington state last December.