All News

(CIDRAP News) – The current high prevalence of eczema, or atopic dermatitis (AD), suggests that a large share of the population could be at risk for the serious side effect of eczema vaccinatum (EV) if they underwent smallpox vaccination, according to specialists writing in the September Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is inviting public comments on a new draft report on how to control microbial pathogens in juices.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is taking several steps to improve the monitoring and analysis of adverse events related to food products, dietary supplements, and cosmetics.

The FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) announced it is working on a single adverse event reporting system that will replace separate systems for the three categories of products.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers report they have discovered the probable strategy that anthrax uses to kill macrophages, a step that may allow the pathogen to escape detection by the innate immune system.

(CIDRAP News) – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report will publish electronic reports related to terrorism and other public health emergencies whenever necessary instead of waiting for the usual weekly publication day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – The Department of Defense's (DoD's) vaccine acquisition program is poorly organized and underfunded, making it difficult for the department to obtain important vaccines and maintain the supply of existing ones, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

(CIDRAP News) – After the Sep 11 attacks in New York City, health officials quickly launched a program of syndromic surveillance—the classification and counting of emergency department cases according to whether or not they initially looked like a disease potentially caused by bioterrorism. The goal was to provide an early warning of any biological attack.

(CIDRAP News) – Workers who decontaminate buildings tainted with anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) spores should be vaccinated against the disease or receive preventive antibiotic treatment, according to new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – A recent meta-analysis does not support the idea that antibiotic treatment increases the risk of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in patients with Escherichia coli O157:H7 enteritis, but the authors say the question isn't settled yet.

(CIDRAP News) Ð The smallpox vaccine being produced by Acambis plc for the US government as part of the nation's bioterrorism preparedness program worked well in a Phase I trial, Acambis officials announced this week.

The vaccine, called ACAM1000, generated a characteristic skin lesion or "take" in all those vaccinated, and there were no serious or unusual side effects, the company reported in a Sep 3 news release.

(CIDRAP News) – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently sent a recommendation on smallpox vaccination policy to President Bush, but HHS officials still are not confirming reports that it calls for vaccinating as many as 500,000 healthcare workers.

"I can't confirm anything other than that the recommendation went to the White House," Bill Pierce, an HHS spokesman in Washington, DC, told CIDRAP News today.

(CIDRAP News) – As foodborne diseases increase, innovations for improving food safety are sure to follow. And, in fact, such practices are already showing up in grocery stores and at food science institutions around the country.

(CIDRAP News) – The results of a small study reported this week suggest that the immunity induced by smallpox vaccination may last 35 years or longer—considerably longer than experts have generally believed.

(CIDRAP News) Ð Low levels ofchloramphenicol, a potentially harmful antibiotic that cannot legally be addedto food, have been found in honey imported from China, federal officialsannounced yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) Ð The Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention (CDC) is much better prepared to deal with a terroristattack now than it was a year ago, before Sep 11 and the subsequent anthraxattacks, CDC officials said this week.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers at Rockefeller University report that they have isolated an enzyme from a bacteriophage that shows promise as a tool to quickly detect and kill Bacillus anthracis, the anthrax bacterium.

(CIDRAP News) – Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has named the 21 members of his Council on Public Health Preparedness, which will advise HHS on dealing with public health emergencies, including bioterrorism.

Aug 23 (CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection has been linked with visits to a Pennsylvania dairy and petting farm that allowed public access to animals. Findings of the extensive scientific investigation of the outbreak are reported in the Aug 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The article highlights the need to consider zoonotic transmission during searches for the source of such outbreaks.

(CIDRAP News) - Fresh produce is not generally considered a common source of foodborne illness but, in fact, the incidence of this problem is on the upswing, according to results of a survey published in the August issue of the Journal of Food Protection. In recent years, the number of cases of illness linked with eating fruits and vegetables has risen from 2% to about 8% of reported cases.

(CIDRAP News) – When epidemiologists at Miami–Dade County Health Department noted an unusual rise in the incidence of typhoid fever during the winter of 1998-99, they faced a mystery. According to a report by Dolores J. Katz and associates in the Jul 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, the clues to the source of the outbreak represented a new arena for public health surveillance.