Public Health

(CIDRAP News) – Today's historic US Supreme Court ruling upholding most of the 2010 healthcare reform law provides an important boost for preventive health services, including immunizations, public health and medical groups said in praising the ruling.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently updated its strategy for developing and acquiring countermeasures against threats such as bioterror attacks and pandemic flu, a document that spells out the federal game plan for the next 5 years.

(CIDRAP News) – During the 2009 influenza pandemic, clinicians were frustrated by the lack of useful diagnostic tests, the government had no national system for monitoring stress on healthcare facilities, and there was some duplication in federal media campaigns.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) during its meeting today took on two new tasks: to help guide federal efforts to improve situational awareness for potential public health emergencies and to help work out a strategy for improving and modernizing the management of the government's Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday unveiled two new tools designed to boost pandemic preparedness: an inventory of H5N1 avian influenza genetic changes and a system the CDC and its partners are developing to help evaluate the threat from flu viruses circulating in animals.

(CIDRAP News) – Though today's publication of the second of two H5N1 transmissibility papers ends a waiting period, it doesn't halt the uncertainty over what the 8 months of controversy means for future dual-use research of concern (DURC) and the status of a voluntary moratorium.

(CIDRAP News) – US health officials today announced the establishment of three public-private centers designed to give the nation a new and stronger ability to quickly make vaccines and drugs to respond to bioterrorist attacks, pandemic influenza, and other public health emergencies.

Jun 12, 2012

Jun 11, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – A federal program designed to prepare communities to quickly distribute medications to the population to blunt a bioterrorist attack generally seems to be working well and making an impact, but there's room for improvement, according to a new report from the RAND Corp.