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(CIDRAP News) – Though two top federal health officials recently were quoted as saying that half a million healthcare workers may be vaccinated against smallpox, the official word from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is that the scope of the vaccination program has not yet been decided.

July 9, 2002 (CIDRAP News) - Several national public health organizations are urging Congress and the Bush administration not to shift federal bioterrorism preparedness programs from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the proposed Department of Homeland Security.

(CIDRAP News) – Confirming earlier unofficial reports, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson today named infectious disease expert Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH, as the new permanent director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She becomes the first woman to lead the agency.

July 2, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – A recent series of 47 cases of salmonellosis in five states has linked an increasingly common multidrug-resistant strain of Salmonella enterica serotype Newport with ground beef, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

July 1, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – About half of the nation's supply of anthrax vaccine—previously dedicated almost entirely to military use—will henceforward be set aside for civilian use in the event of another anthrax attack, federal defense and health officials announced Jun 28.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that it will begin using laboratory testing to ensure that beef products from mechanical "advanced meat recovery" (AMR) systems are free of spinal cord tissue.

(CIDRAP News) – A clinical trial of the decades-old supply of smallpox vaccine held by Aventis Pasteur is in progress, and early signs are that the vaccine is still potent, according to a spokesman for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

June 25, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – Eating tabletop sauces at restaurants in Mexico may be an important risk factor for traveler's diarrhea, a new study suggests.

(CIDRAP News) – Caught between the unknown risk of a smallpox attack and concern about adverse vaccine reactions, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) yesterday recommended that only healthcare workers assigned to deal directly with a smallpox outbreak be vaccinated against smallpox.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it will increase testing of imported shrimp and crayfish to look for traces of the antibiotic chloramphenicol, which some countries have found in imports from China and Vietnam.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers at the University of Texas report that they have engineered antibodies that can protect rats from the effects of the anthrax toxin, possibly pointing the way toward development of similar antibodies that could protect humans.

(CIDRAP News) – The farm bill that was recently passed by Congress creates at least a possibility that irradiated foods eventually will be sold as "pasteurized" and served in government-subsidized school lunches. But it appears that those changes won't happen quickly, if they happen at all.

(CIDRAP News) – President George W. Bush yesterday signed a far-reaching bioterrorism bill designed to strengthen the public health system, tighten controls on dangerous pathogens, and protect the nation’s food and water supplies.

Jun 10, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – The smallpox virus has a protein that inhibits the human complement system far more effectively than does its counterpart protein in the closely related vaccinia virus, used in smallpox vaccine, according to researchers who compared the two proteins. This difference may be an important reason for the virulence of smallpox and may offer an avenue for research on treatments, they suggest.

(CIDRAP News) – Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a recent nationwide poll said they would get vaccinated against smallpox if they could, despite the risk of adverse reactions and the decades-old absence of the disease, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

(CIDRAP News) – President Bush's proposal to consolidate homeland security programs in a new Cabinet department apparently would take sizable bioterrorism-related programs away from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

(CIDRAP News) – The distribution of $747 million in federal grants to states for bioterrorism preparedness was announced yesterday by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.

The funds are being distributed following an HHS review of public health preparedness plans developed by the states, territories, and three major cities (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago), Thompson said.

(CIDAP News) – Blood serum tests have confirmed the suspected case of cutaneous anthrax in a Texas laboratory worker that was first reported in early April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) Ð A prolonged salmonellosis outbreak that affected 650 people from all 50 states was linked to a Dallas hotel food worker who was infected with Salmonella but had no symptoms, according to the Texas Department of Health (TDH).

(CIDRAP News) – The release of $43.4 million in federal funds to help states detect and respond to animal and plant disease emergencies was announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman.

The money is a share of $328 million in homeland security funds that Congress and President Bush approved earlier this year for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), USDA officials said in a news release.