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(CIDRAP News) – The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has urged the federal government to move slowly and carefully on its pre-event smallpox vaccination program, with a pause after the initial phase to assess the vaccine's safety before moving to a broader inoculation campaign.

(CIDRAP News) – A researcher's report of missing vials of the bacteria that causes plague led to a full-scale alert and investigation at Texas Tech University in Lubbock this week, but the alarm was called off when the researcher revealed he had previously destroyed the vials.

(CIDRAP News) – As the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) prepares to offer irradiated ground beef to schools for their lunch programs, Minnesota state officials are planning a USDA-financed pilot project in three school districts to assess attitudes and test educational materials about irradiated beef.

(CIDRAP News) Ð The Food and DrugAdministration will hold a public meeting, broadcast via satellite link, Jan 29to discuss proposed rules to help prevent deliberate contamination of foodssold in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) Ð The federal AdvisoryCommittee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) affirmed yesterday that it's safefor people who live with a baby less than 1 year old to get a smallpox shot,though the shots are contraindicated for babies themselves.

(CIDRAP News) – Beef industry leaders attending a "summit" meeting on Escherichia coli O157:H7 this week announced plans to standardize meat safety testing at packing and processing plants and take other industry-wide steps to reduce E coli contamination in beef.

(CIDRAP News) – The London arrests Sunday (Jan 5) of six men and yesterday of a seventh in connection with discovery of the highly toxic material ricin have British physicians on the alert for signs of poisoning and citizens being reminded by officials to be "alert but not alarmed." The situation has heightened interest elsewhere, as ricin is among the agents considered as likely agents of bioterrorism.

(CIDRAP News) – Exotic Newcastle disease (END) has struck commercial poultry flocks in Southern California, causing quarantines in six counties and temporary Canadian and Mexican bans on poultry and poultry product imports from the area. Poultry is a $3 billion industry in California, and more than half the state's 12 million egg-producing hens are in the quarantine zone.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) heard various suggestions for improving its product recall procedures at a recent meeting, but there was no great push to give the USDA authority to order recalls of contaminated foods, according to a Minnesota official who attended.

(CIDRAP News) – State plans for giving smallpox shots to frontline healthcare workers list more than 3,600 hospitals that may participate in the program, and most of those hospitals have agreed to take part, according to federal health officials.

(CIDRAP News) – A new national survey suggests that most Americans have serious misconceptions about smallpox, including a belief that smallpox cases have occurred in the past 5 years and that smallpox is treatable.

(CIDRAP News) – VaxGen Inc., a California biotechnology company, announced plans this week to seek US licensing for an attenuated smallpox vaccine that is considered safer than existing vaccines but was developed too recently to be proved effective against the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Contrary to some reports, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will continue to take comments indefinitely on how it should implement a congressional directive to allow the purchase of irradiated food for the federal school lunch program, according to a department official.

(CIDRAP News) – Two recent public opinion polls suggest that somewhere between half and two thirds of Americans would get a smallpox shot if it were offered, despite the risk of serious side effects.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials project that about half of the estimated 10 million health and emergency response workers targeted for the second round of smallpox vaccinations will refuse the shots.

(CIDRAP News) – In a brief statement today, President George W. Bush announced that the government will begin giving smallpox shots to military and other government personnel in high-risk areas and to willing front-line healthcare workers.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush tomorrow will announce a plan to begin vaccinating military personnel and front-line healthcare workers against smallpox early next year and to offer the vaccine to the public in 2004, according to reports from major news organizations today.

(CIDRAP News) – The 7,000-member Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has urged President Bush not to make smallpox vaccine available to the public for now, on grounds that serious reactions to it could undermine public confidence in the shots and in other immunizations as well.

(CIDRAP News) – Following up on two pieces of antiterrorism legislation, federal agencies have established new rules on the handling of biological agents and toxins that could endanger people, crops, or livestock.

(CIDRAP News) – Thirty-eight of 62 US states, territories, and major urban areas have filed "pre-event" smallpox vaccination plans with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of today. The plans for vaccinating key public health and healthcare personnel were due to the CDC yesterday.