(CIDRAP News) When vaccine supplies are limited, should children, young adults, or seniors move to the front of the line for shots? Is it appropriate to remove one person from a ventilator to put somebody else on the machine?
(CIDRAP news) Dr. Lee Jong-wook, 61, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) died this morning following emergency surgery for subdural hematoma (a blood clot on his brain) May 20. He never regained consciousness, according to a Reuters story today.
Lee, appointed director-general in 2003, had been spearheading the WHO's efforts against avian flu, HIV, and other significant infectious diseases.
(CIDRAP News) The creators of the fictional ABC-TV movie "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" blended medical facts from the 1918 influenza pandemic with current predictions from flu experts to portray a contemporary flu pandemic, but they added a liberal dash of sensationalism.
(CIDRAP News) – Combining vaccination with 14 days of antibiotic therapy after exposure to airborne anthrax may be an alternative to the current recommendation of 60 days of antibiotics alone, according to an animal study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is adding 5 million doses of anthrax vaccine to its stockpile for civilian biodefense, which will double its store of the vaccine.
HHS announced in a press release that it is buying the doses of Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA) for $120 million from BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich. The purchase augments the 5 million AVA doses that HHS bought from BioPort a year ago.
(CIDRAP News) A new study suggests that the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) can prevent deaths in ferrets infected with H5N1 avian influenza, according to reports today from an avian flu conference in Singapore.
News of the study's findings came as the World Health Organization (WHO) reported Egypt's 13th human case of H5N1 illness.
(CIDRAP News) In an effort to modernize vaccine production while preparing for an influenza pandemic, the US government today awarded five contracts totaling more than $1 billion to develop cell-based technologies for making flu vaccines.
(CIDRAP News) – The White House today released a lengthy new plan describing how the government intends to cope with an influenza pandemic, but officials continued to stress their standard message that states and communities will have to rely mainly on themselves in that situation, with the federal government in an advisory role.
(CIDRAP News) An agreement between US security and health agencies to share more data about travelers in order to keep infectious diseases out of the country has drawn criticism.
(CIDRAP News) Food stores may soon be able to offer ground beef and other meat products treated with a mixture of harmless bacteria that reportedly can reduce common pathogens by 99% or more.
