Bioterrorism

(CIDRAP News) – This year's report card from Trust for America's Health (TFAH) on state and national public health emergency preparedness shows some signs of progress along with major gaps, sagging funding, and worry that the current economic crisis will bring deeper spending cuts.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today said Kansas State University (KSU) is its preferred site among six candidates for a facility to replace the federal Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday released a draft of its national vaccine strategy, which, once finalized, will serve as the federal government's game plan for guiding its policy decisions on infectious disease vaccine.

The 85-page report, dated Nov 26, is intended to update the nation's vaccine plan, which was mandated by Congress and first released in 1994, according to the report.

(CIDRAP News) – Bavarian Nordic, a Danish pharmaceutical company, announced recently that a smallpox vaccine that it is developing for people with weakened immune systems showed promising safety results in a phase 2 clinical trial involving volunteers with HIV infections.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said recently it is making a few minor changes in its requirement for advance notice of imported food shipments, which is designed to give the agency time to decide which shipments need inspection for safety reasons.

(CIDRAP News) – An independent board that advises the US Department of Defense on science and technology issues issued a report on Election Day highlighting a range of priorities for the incoming Obama administration, including measures to prevent and respond to a bioterrorist attack.

(CIDRAP News) – Media coverage of infectious diseases such as avian influenza can create the impression that the conditions are more of a threat than they really are, according to a recent study from Canada.

See related article posted today: "Experts stress vigilance over emerging, unpredictable diseases"

(CIDRAP News) – Saying Americans are threatened by a rising tide of emerging and resurging infectious diseases, the nonprofit group Trust for America's Health (TFAH) today issued a report calling on the US government to launch a comprehensive campaign to battle the microbes at home and abroad.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has opened the door to voluntary anthrax vaccination for first responders, revising an 8-year-old recommendation against that step.

(CIDRAP News) – Two of the nation's five biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) labs lack outer-ring security controls to protect against a terrorist attack or theft of some of the world's most dangerous pathogens, such as the Ebola and smallpox viruses, according to a new report from the Governmental Accountability Office (GAO).