(CIDRAP News) Federal officials today unveiled recommendations for nonpharmaceutical steps to battle pandemic influenza, tying them to a new "Pandemic Severity Index" (PSI), similar to the system for categorizing hurricanes.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that if the threat of an influenza pandemic increases, it will release viruses to vaccine manufacturers before completion of some safety tests, a step that could save about 2 weeks in vaccine development.
(CIDRAP News) Influenza shots should be mandatory for healthcare workers, and public health officials should think of seasonal flu as a dress rehearsal for pandemic flu, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said today as it unveiled a 12-point plan to strengthen the nation's preparedness.
(CIDRAP News) – Decision makers in commerce and industry can explore how to plan effectively for an influenza pandemic at the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy's (CIDRAP's) second national conference on business preparedness, to be held Feb 5 and 6 in Orlando, Fla.
(CIDRAP News) There's no standard playbook on communicating with the public during an influenza pandemic, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working to educate public health officials and businesses about how to tailor successful messages.
(CIDRAP News) – In an effort to stretch the nation's supply of vaccines for a potential influenza pandemic, federal health officials today announced contracts totaling $132.5 million to help three companies develop dose-sparing substances, or adjuvants, to be used with H5N1 flu vaccines.
(CIDRAP News) A virus recovered from victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic kills by replicating so rapidly that it revs the immune system into overdrive, turning the body against itself, a team of scientists report in today's issue of the journal Nature.
(CIDRAP News) – In a recent update on pandemic influenza preparedness planning, the US government reported meeting more than 90% of a long list of objectives it set for itself about 6 months ago.
The report charts progress on a wide range of preparedness measures, from shoring up laboratory capabilities to planning for distribution of critical medical supplies and preparing checklists for various sectors of the economy.
(CIDRAP News) Scientists who analyzed mortality records from the 1918 influenza pandemic estimate that a similarly severe pandemic today would kill about 62 million people worldwide, the vast majority of them in the developing world.
(CIDRAP News) The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking help from the public in figuring out how to allocate scarce supplies of influenza vaccine in the event of a flu pandemic.
In a Dec 14 Federal Register notice, HHS invited the public to submit comments on which groups should have priority for receiving pre-pandemic and pandemic vaccines and on related issues. The deadline for commenting is Jan 18, 2007.
