(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released a 6-month status report on its progress in implementing a food safety plan launched in November in response to high-profile contamination incidents involving domestic and imported foods over the past few years.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that it is allocating states and major metropolitan areas $1.1 billion to strengthen public health preparedness and help healthcare facilities respond to emergency events such as an influenza pandemic or terrorist attack.
(CIDRAP News) – Anticipating that a terrorist attack, influenza pandemic, or natural disaster will someday exhaust regional or national critical care systems, an expert task force recently issued a comprehensive series of reports that takes stock of current capabilities and recommends a surge framework that would care for as many patients as possible but would necessarily exclude some.
(CIDRAP News) Robin Robinson, PhD, who led the development of the first H5N1 influenza vaccine approved for human use, has been named the first director of the US government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA).
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Robinson's appointment this week.
(CIDRAP News) State shares of federal spending to combat public health problems ranging from bioterrorism to obesity vary widely, with midwestern states generally getting the slimmest slices, the nonprofit group Trust for America's Health (TFAH) reported today.
(CIDRAP News) Researchers who specialize in geography and environmental risk recently assessed the vulnerability of the nation's major urban areas to terrorism events and found that the highest risk areas were broadly located across the eastern and southern seaboards.
Editor's Note: CIDRAP's Public Health Practices online database showcases peer-reviewed practices, including useful tools to help others with their planning. This article is one of a biweekly series exploring the development of these practices. We hope that describing the process and context of these practices enhances pandemic planning.
(CIDRAP News) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced the appointment of two committees to help address public worries about the safety of a biodefense laboratory under construction in Boston, 3 months after the National Research Council (NRC) sharply criticized an NIH risk assessment of the project.
(CIDRAP News) A federal district judge has dismissed a lawsuit aiming to stop the Pentagon's mandatory anthrax vaccination program for troops serving in some areas overseas, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.
Judge Rosemary M. Collyer in Washington, DC, said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acted appropriately when it determined the vaccine was safe and approved its use, according to the AP.
(CIDRAP News) Officials at Texas A&M University announced yesterday that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has accepted the school's offer to pay a $1 million fine in connection with a 2007 report on several safety violations at its biodefense laboratory.
