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(CIDRAP News) – A new food protection plan from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), released yesterday as part of a comprehensive import safety plan, places a heavy emphasis on preventing food contamination by enlisting other groups to help the agency focus inspection efforts on high-risk food products.

(CIDRAP News) – A new food protection plan released by the Bush administration today proposes giving the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) the power to require companies to recall unsafe foods, among a number of other steps.

(CIDRAP News) – Health experts who investigated Europe's first chikungunya outbreak involving transmission by local mosquitoes recently reported that cases could occur again next spring unless vigorous mosquito surveillance and eradication measures are used to control the disease in Italyand prevent its spread to other parts of Europe.

(CIDRAP News) – A 30-year-old Indonesian woman died of H5N1 avian influenza on Nov 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

The woman was from the same city as Indonesia's three previous H5N1 case-patients—Tangerang in Banten province, just west of Jakarta. Her death raises the number of WHO-confirmed H5N1 cases in Indonesia to 112 and the death toll to 90.

(CIDRAP News) – In the wake of evidence that Canadian beef contributed to recent Escherichia coli cases in the United States, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced plans to increase testing of Canadian meat and poultry products before they can cross the border.

(CIDRAP News) – The United States, Canada, and Mexico yesterday vowed to help each other during public health emergencies and outlined the types of aid they could provide and accept from each other in the event of a pandemic or other infectious disease outbreak.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government should step up efforts to prepare the nation's key infrastructure industries, such as energy and transportation, for an influenza pandemic, Congress's investigative agency said in a report this week.

(CIDRAP News) –Officials in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam have reported new outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry this week.

In Bangladesh, an official from the government's livestock department said the H5N1 virus was detected at three farms in the northern part of the country, Reuters reported today. Workers culled about 6,000 chickens, which were buried over the last 2 days, the report said.

Editor's note: This is the last in a seven-part series investigating the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts promising advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing large amounts of an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time.

(CIDRAP News) – General Mills recalled about 414,000 cases of frozen pizza today after health officials said it could be linked to an Escherichia coli outbreak that has sickened 21 people in 10 states.

Editor's note: This is the sixth in a seven-part series investigating the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts promising advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing large amounts of an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time.

Editor's note: This is the fifth in a seven-part series investigating the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts promising advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing large amounts of an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.

(CIDRAP News) – The US government's attempt to add a next-generation anthrax vaccine to its stockpile failed because of a premature contract award, unrealistic expectations, and confusion about how the vaccine would be used, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative agency of Congress.

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a seven-part series investigating the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts promising advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing large amounts of an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.

(CIDRAP News) – A Salmonella outbreak associated with pot pies from ConAgra Foods has increased to 272 cases in 35 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – A 3-year-old Indonesian boy hospitalized in Jakarta has H5N1 avian influenza, the country's health ministry announced yesterday.

Nyoman Kandun, director of disease control for Indonesia's health ministry, said two laboratory tests confirmed that the boy has the H5N1 virus, according to a report from Xinhua, China's state news agency. A Reuters report yesterday said the boy's symptoms were minor.

Editor's note: This is the third in a seven-part series investigating the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts promising advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing large amounts of an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.

(CIDRAP News) – The source of Escherichia coli O157:H7 that recently spurred a massive recall of ground beef by Topps Meat Co. probably was contaminated beef trim from a Canadian firm, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced.

(CIDRAP News) – Apparently healthy domestic geese and ducks in Europe may be harboring the H5N1 avian influenza virus, posing a risk to other poultry and to humans who have contact with them, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in a statement yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of the Treasury this week announced the results of a recent exercise to test the resiliency of the nation's financial services sector in an influenza pandemic, revealing that few firms were well prepared and most needed to improve their all-hazards plans.