Anthrax

(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(CIDRAP News) – In view of the specter of bioterrorism, it's time to overhaul the hodgepodge of outdated, little-known, inconsistent state laws dealing with public health emergencies in the United States, an expert on the subject told a conference audience in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 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) – British and American scientists have teamed up with several technology corporations in seeking to enlist personal-computer (PC) owners from around the world in the hunt for a molecule that can keep the anthrax toxin out of human cells.

Jan 22, 2001 (CIDRAP News) – The case of a postal inspector who handled anthrax-tainted equipment and came down with a lingering anthrax-like illness—but never had clear evidence of the organism in his body—continues to puzzle his physicians nearly 3 months after he first got sick.

(CIDRAP News) – A preliminary study linking anthrax vaccinations in pregnant women with an increased risk of birth defects in their babies has prompted the US military to step up efforts to prevent immunization of pregnant women.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials revealed this week that they are working on a plan to use immune globulin derived from the blood of anthrax-vaccinated military personnel for emergency treatment of patients with severe cases of inhalational anthrax, if needed.

(CIDRAP News) – A new nuclear medicine technique using a radioisotope-labeled antibody has shown enough promise for early diagnosis of anthrax infection to gain the Food and Drug Administration's approval for a clinical trial, according to a recent report in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.