(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.
(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.
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 series exploring the development of these practices. We hope that describing the process and context of these practices enhances pandemic planning.
(CIDRAP News) Hospital workers who followed official infection control guidelines for pandemic influenza for 1 day used 10 times as many gloves as usual, generated three times as much clinical waste, and found that many tasks took longer than normal, according to a new report.
(CIDRAP News) – A new report from the University of Minnesota warns that an influenza pandemic could disrupt the coal industry, thereby endangering the nation's significantly coal-dependent electric power system and everything that depends on it.
