(CIDRAP News) – An informatics expert from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today spoke with clinicians about possible public health connections to electronic medical records, which she said could have been useful during the H1N1 pandemic and might ease information flow during future public health events.
The discussion follows recent federal investments to promote greater use of health information technology.
(CIDRAP News) More than half of workers without paid sick days went to work when they had an infectious illness such as the flu, compared with 37% of those with paid leave, according to a report today from a nonprofit group that also found strong support for legislating paid sick days.
(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials looked to the relatively new model of school-based immunization clinics as an efficient way to deliver the pandemic vaccine to children, and a report from clinic observers detailed that the process worked well, though most schools would need more resources to hold future clinics.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) replied at greater length today to recent criticism of the way it used science advisors in pandemic planning, defending its response to the H1N1 flu pandemic but allowing that its policies concerning transparency and relations with the pharmaceutical industry need strengthening.
(CIDRAP News) Prompted by congressional hearings into foodborne illness outbreaks and the state of the nation's food safety system, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) today released its report on the US Food and Drug Administration's role, saying the agency needs a clear path to a risk-based strategy that delegates more inspection duties to states.
(CIDRAP News) An article published by the British Medical Journal says three scientists who helped frame World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on pandemic influenza preparedness had consulted for pharmaceutical companies that stood to profit from the WHO guidance and that the WHO did not disclose the scientists' industry ties.
(CIDRAP News) Based on an assessment of outside experts, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that it is sticking with its current pandemic alert level, based on recurring but low-level activity in some parts of the globe and until it has more information on the Southern Hemisphere's flu season.
(CIDRAP News) A letter and commentary published this week in Emerging Infectious Diseases explore the idea that "original antigenic sin"the hypothesis that the first influenza A virus a person encounters in childhood strongly influences his or her immune responses to all related flu viruses encountered latermay explain the partial protection that older people have against the pandemic H1N1 flu virus.
(CIDRAP News) Legal issues that came into play during the H1N1 flu pandemic provided a useful look at how laws can help ease the availability of the vaccine, but in some instances can work against immunization efforts, according to a legal expert who has analyzed events that unfolded over the past year.
(CIDRAP News) Delegates at the World Health Organization's (WHO's) World Health Assembly (WHA) wrapped up their 5-day meeting on May 21, taking aim at diseases such as childhood pneumonia and measles and addressing difficult issues involving equitable access to vaccines and medicines.
