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(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization has issued an alert over outbreaks of severe respiratory illness, including atypical pneumonia, that it has been investigating since mid-February in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and mainland China.

(CIDRAP News) – Two young adults acquired vaccinia virus skin infections as a result of contact with military personnel who had received smallpox shots, and a third adult had a similar suspected vaccinia infection, according to the latest report of adverse events in the smallpox vaccination program.

(CIDRAP News) –The results of a spraying program to control gypsy moths in British Columbia suggest that terrorists could use conventional crop-dusting equipment to spread anthrax spores over a city and potentially infect people, according to a report in a new biodefense journal.

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration's proposal to compensate health workers harmed by the smallpox vaccine has drawn mixed reviews from public health groups and unions, with some groups calling it a major step forward and others labeling it inadequate.

(CIDRAP News) – Seeking to remove a major barrier to its smallpox vaccination program, the Bush administration has proposed a program to compensate public health and healthcare workers who are harmed or lose wages because of the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Two women recently contracted vaccinia infections of the eye as a result of contact with military personnel who had been vaccinated against smallpox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture says it has begun routine sampling of beef from "advanced meat recovery" (AMR) systems to make sure it doesn't contain spinal cord tissue. AMR systems mechanically cut meat from carcasses without breaking bones.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it is mailing information packets about smallpox to 3.5 million physicians and other healthcare workers in a continuing effort to educate them about the disease and the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The civilian smallpox vaccination program has had its first significant adverse event after more than 7,000 shots, a case of suspected generalized vaccinia in a 39-year-old nurse in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Editor's Note: The text as originally published on Feb 26 was revised slightly on March 10, 2003.

(CIDRAP News) – As part of an effort to provide a safer smallpox vaccine, federal health officials today awarded contracts to two companies to develop and test a vaccine using a strain of vaccinia virus that can't reproduce in human cells.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using an advertising campaign to urge Americans to store emergency supplies and take other steps to prepare for potential terrorist attacks, including biological and chemical attacks.

(CIDRAP News) Ð No serious adversereactions have been reported among the first 4,213 civilian healthcare workersvaccinated against smallpox, according to the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC).

An investigation of the deaths of three men who had shared wild game feasts at a Wisconsin cabin revealed no evidence that the men's degenerative brain diseases were related to chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – Although federal health officials have not endorsed the use of an available safety needle in the current smallpox vaccination program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to take a careful look at the needle to determine if it should be used in the future, a CDC official says.

(CIDRAP News) – As the death toll from hemorrhagic fever in the Congo continued to climb, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed yesterday that the disease is Ebola virus infection.

The disease had claimed the lives of 59 people out of 73 infected as of yesterday, WHO officials said in a statement. An Associated Press report put the toll higher: 67 deaths among 80 cases.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 50 people in the Congo have died of a suspected acute hemorrhagic fever syndrome. A Reuters report said the disease is suspected to be Ebola virus infection.

Feb 14, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – A new study of the risk of Listeria contamination of deli meats indicates that safety measures such as post-packaging pasteurization would yield "dramatic" public health benefits, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

(CIDRAP News) – Two men have had encephalitis and one contracted myocarditis after getting smallpox shots in the US military vaccination program, but all three have recovered, a Department of Defense (DoD) vaccine expert said today.

(CIDRAP News) – The count of public health workers vaccinated against smallpox has more than doubled in the past few days, with a boost from a Florida program in which 503 people were vaccinated yesterday.