Public Health

(CIDRAP News) – School-based immunization campaigns have helped federal officials reach one of their top priority groups to receive the pandemic H1N1 vaccine, and lessons learned from the experiences may help other districts, not only this season but also during future flu seasons, experts said today at a US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) live webinar.

Jan 6, 2010

(CIDRAP News) – In early August 2009, when the pandemic virus started tearing through southern states where schools had already started, the pandemic preparedness team at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota felt a sense of foreboding that the virus was poised to strike the area a second time.

(CIDRAP News) – President Barack Obama, giving a push to a proposal that has been in the works for years, yesterday ordered federal agencies to develop a plan for the US Postal Service (USPS) to deliver medical countermeasures to households in the wake of a biological attack.

(CIDRAP News) – The nation's supply of pandemic vaccine has grown to 111 million doses, enough so that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is turning part of its attention toward boosting the percentage of adults who get vaccinated.

Dec 18, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – The nation is reaching a new milestone in its fight against pandemic flu, with the number of vaccine doses expected to reach 100 million by the end of the week and nearly half of states opening up immunization to anyone who wants it, federal officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – In its seventh annual report card on the nation's public health preparedness, the advocacy group Trust for America's Health (TFAH) praised the US response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic but also said it has exposed serious gaps in the ability to deal with public health emergencies.

(CIDRAP News) – About the same percentage of Americans were vaccinated against seasonal influenza this year as received vaccine last year, according to a survey released today that undercuts perceptions of extraordinary demand driven by pandemic-fueled awareness.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization's (WHO's) top influenza expert said today it's too soon to judge whether the H1N1 influenza pandemic has passed its peak, though he acknowledged that cases are dropping in the United States and Canada.