All News

(CIDRAP News) – Jeffrey P. Koplan, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 1998, has announced he will leave the position March 31.

(CIDRAP News) – Three case reports from the recent anthrax outbreak published in the February 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrate that even patients without obvious anthrax exposure may be at risk, pointing up the need for heightened public health surveillance and increased public awareness.

(CIDRAP News) – A report that paved the way for the World Health Organization's (WHO's) recent recommendation to keep intact the two known collections of smallpox virus cites a wide range of ongoing research on smallpox, including genome sequencing, molecular diagnostic techniques, antiviral drugs, and new vaccines.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it will take several months to determine if women in the US military who received anthrax vaccine in the first trimester of pregnancy had a greater risk of bearing children with birth defects.

(CIDRAP News) – An anthrax vaccine made by combining a component of the anthrax toxin with killed anthrax spores has been tested successfully in animals, according to a report in the February issue of Infection and Immunity. The report suggests that a similar vaccine for humans could be safer and more effective than the acellular vaccine now in use.

(CIDRAP News) – A study from Taiwan shows a rapid increase in fluoroquinolone resistance in Salmonella enterica serotype choleraesuis in humans over the past 2 years and suggests that the resistant strain spread from pigs. The findings prompted the researchers to urge a ban on fluoroquinoline use in food animals.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set up a new Web site to help food scientists develop and use mathematical models to predict how pathogenic bacteria in food will behave under varying environmental conditions.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will provide $20 million this year to build up a nationwide network of university-based centers for public health preparedness that was launched in 2000, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Merle D. Pierson, PhD, a food microbiologist from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI), has been appointed by Agriculture Secretary Anne M. Veneman as deputy under secretary for food safety in the US Department of Agriculture.

(CIDRAP News) – The proposed 2003 budget for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) features a 45% increase in spending for bioterrorism preparedness, with research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) accounting for much of the increase.

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration wants to provide the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) with an extra $146 million to protect the nation's food supply in fiscal 2003.

(CIDRAP News) – Testing has shown that anthrax found in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mail-processing facility in Maryland last week was a tiny amount that probably came from cross-contaminated mail, the FCC announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson yesterday detailed each state's share of more than $1 billion in bioterrorism preparedness funding and said states can start spending the first 20% of their shares immediately.

(CIDRAP News) – BioPort Corp of Lansing, Mich., yesterday received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin routine distribution of its anthrax vaccine after more than 3 years of effort to bring its operation up to federal standards.

"FDA is now satisfied that BioPort's renovated facility can produce a vaccine that meets FDA standards for safety and efficacy," the agency said in a news release.

(CIDRAP News) – A bioterrorist attack that caused mass casualties would very likely lead to shortages of medical resources, so preparedness planning must include a careful look at how to ration those resources fairly, an emergency medicine specialist told a conference audience in Minneapolis this week.

(CIDRAP News) – In view of the specter of bioterrorism, it's time to overhaul the hodgepodge of outdated, little-known, inconsistent state laws dealing with public health emergencies in the United States, an expert on the subject told a conference audience in Minneapolis yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will soon release about 20% of the $1 billion in bioterrorism preparedness funding that is slated to go to states this year, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced Jan 25.

(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration says it will seek $1.5 billion for bioterrorism-related research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal 2003, a five-fold increase over the $300 million budgeted this year.

(CIDRAP News) – Thousands of people who were potentially exposed to anthrax last fall will be interviewed over the next 8 weeks to assess the results of their postexposure antibiotic treatment, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Food safety regulators and specialists from around the world will meet in Marrakech, Morocco, Jan 28 through 30 in what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the first global meeting dealing with methods to ensure food safety.