(CIDRAP News) The nation's largest public health group, the American Public Health Association (APHA), yesterday released recommendations aimed at strengthening existing federal strategies for pandemic preparedness and encouraging local officials and businesses to play key roles.
(CIDRAP News) Indonesia and the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed today that Indonesia will resume sharing its H5N1 avian influenza virus samples while the WHO will work to ensure that developing countries have access to pandemic vaccines based on viruses they supply.
(CIDRAP News) Public health workers are urging Americans to stock up and plan for the next emergency, but when it comes to their own lives, the cupboards are often bare, according to a recent survey by the American Public Health Association (APHA).
(CIDRAP News) – The Bush administration's new budget proposes adding funds for pandemic preparedness while cutting some support for bioterrorism and local preparedness, drawing mixed reviews from national public health groups.
(CIDRAP News) Orlando, FL Julie Gerberding, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), today challenged health and business leaders to stay focused on the "marathon" of preparing for an influenza pandemic.
Gerberding, speaking at a conference on business preparedness, said it's not possible to maintain high public interest in the pandemic threat indefinitely, but leaders must keep preparing anyway.
(CIDRAP News) New federal recommendations on nonpharmaceutical measures communities can use to fight an influenza pandemic are drawing generally high marks from public health officials and others, but they say the plan spells a massive workload for local planners.
(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) Dr. Anne Francis, a pediatrician in Rochester, N.Y., says her group practice typically has a few doses of influenza vaccine left at the end of the flu season. But as of last week, with the demand for vaccination nearly gone, the clinic still had 580 doses on hand.
(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) 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.
