(CIDRAP News) The United States has made little progress in the past year in improving its ability to blunt the impact of a biological weapons attack, says a new report from the commission Congress established to assess the nation's efforts to prevent and respond to terrorism.
(CIDRAP News) Warning against complacency about H1N1 influenza, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said she doesn't want to see a repeat of what happened in 1957-58, when a perception that the pandemic was over was followed by a winter surge of flu- and pneumonia-related deaths.
(CIDRAP News) President Barack Obama, giving a push to a proposal that has been in the works for years, yesterday ordered federal agencies to develop a plan for the US Postal Service (USPS) to deliver medical countermeasures to households in the wake of a biological attack.
Dec 18, 2009
(CIDRAP News) In its seventh annual report card on the nation's public health preparedness, the advocacy group Trust for America's Health (TFAH) praised the US response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic but also said it has exposed serious gaps in the ability to deal with public health emergencies.
(CIDRAP News) Though infectious disease experts say it is impossible to predict how severe the next wave of the novel H1N1 pandemic will be, experts from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) observe that it so far resembles the 1957-58 influenza pandemic in several ways. They report that the earlier pandemic caused minimal disruptions, in part because public health officials didn't close schools, cancel public events, or impose travel restrictions.
May 19, 2009
Apr 14, 2009
(CIDRAP News) The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently revised its recommendations about personal equipment for protecting first responders from airborne pathogens in potential bioterrorism situations.
