(CIDRAP News) News reports that Panasonic Corp. has asked some of its overseas employees to send their families home to Japan because of the threat of pandemic influenza fueled puzzlement and speculation today about the global H5N1 risk and whether other companies might follow suit.
(CIDRAP News) – At an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) symposium in Washington, DC, today on seasonal and pandemic influenza, a group of experts fielded questions from reporters on some of the new trends and emerging issues, including prepandemic strategies for H5N1 avian influenza vaccines, now that some countries are stockpiling them.
(CIDRAP News) Minnesota health groups today unveiled two preliminary guidance reports designed to help the state make and implement difficult decisions about allocating scare resources such as antivirals, respirators, ventilators, and vaccines during a severe influenza pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) Yesterday the US House of Representatives passed an $819 billion economic stimulus bill that included funding for pandemic influenza and bioterrorism countermeasures, and now the Senate will debate its version of the measure, which also includes spending on some of the same items.
(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday released an assessment of progress states have made toward planning for an influenza pandemic. The report found that many scored well in areas such as protecting citizens and administering mass vaccinations, but showed major gaps in such areas as sustaining state operations, developing community mitigation plans, and maintaining key infrastructure.
(CIDRAP News) – The US government has awarded Novartis a $487 million contract to help build a plant in North Carolina that the company says will be capable of producing 150 million doses of cell-based pandemic influenza vaccine within 6 months after the start of a pandemic.
(CIDRAP News) In a progress report on federal pandemic influenza planning efforts, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says several companies working under federal contracts are on track to develop cell culturebased pandemic flu vaccines.
(CIDRAP News) – An H5N1 influenza vaccine made by Baxter International could become the first cell culture–based H5N1 influenza vaccine to be approved for marketing, following its endorsement by a committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) last week.
Recommendations of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) are usually followed by the EMEA within a few months.
(CIDRAP News) Cost issues and the risk of viral resistance drew considerable attention today in an online presentation by federal health officials on their revised guidance regarding use of antiviral drugs in an influenza pandemic.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two guidance documents this week, one on antiviral use in general and one on employer stockpiling of antivirals.
Editor's note: This story was revised Dec 17 to include an item that was mistakenly left out of the list of five main recommendations on antiviral use in a pandemic.
