(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services yesterday announced $350 million in grants for eight regional centers to lead and coordinate research on defenses against bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases.
(CIDRAP News) A new study on anthrax in mice indicates that the organism kills its victims by a different mechanism than previously believed, a finding that could change the approach to drug development for anthrax.
(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who compared the reported signs and symptoms of anthrax and of common viral respiratory tract infections have published guidelines that could help clinicians distinguish inhalational anthrax from more benign infections in the aftermath of an anthrax attack.
(CIDRAP News) – A Maryland company says it has received "fast track product" designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for ABthrax, a drug designed to help prevent and treat anthrax. The FDA grants fast-track status to speed the review process for products that address an "unmet medical need."
(CIDRAP News) A person exposed to a heavy dose of airborne anthrax spores would need to take antibiotics for at least 4 months to avoid illness, twice as long as the regimen used after the anthrax attacks of 2001, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
(CIDRAP News) Six months after President Bush proposed the idea, the US House this week overwhelmingly passed "Project Bioshield," a plan to promote the development of drugs and vaccines needed to defend the nation against attacks with biological and other unconventional weapons.
(CIDRAP News) The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is offering a new computer model to help hospitals and health systems estimate how many staff members they would need to dispense antibiotics or vaccinate people in response to bioterrorism or a major disease outbreak.
(CIDRAP News) The US Postal Service (USPS) is poised to test anthrax detection systems at 14 mail-processing centers around the country once first responders in the local communities feel ready to deal with an anthrax alarm, according to a Postal Service spokesman.
(CIDRAP News) – The United States remains underinvested in public health even though terrorism and new diseases like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) have raised the public health system's profile, the nation's top disease-prevention leader told public health graduates at the University of Minnesota yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) – A study focusing on the two plasmids, or extrachromosomal DNA rings, usually found in Bacillus anthracis cells helps explain why different varieties of anthrax differ significantly in virulence.
