Public Health

(CIDRAP News) – An advisory committee today called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to be ready to respond quickly to safety concerns that may emerge during this fall's novel H1N1 influenza vaccination campaign.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal education and health officials today unveiled updated guidance to help colleges, universities, and other institutions prepare for the return of the novel H1N1 influenza virus to campuses this fall, where school administrators may face difficult challenges.

(CIDRAP News) – On the second and final day of an Institute of Medicine (IOM) task force meeting on how to protect healthcare workers from the novel H1N1 virus, experts focused on issues surrounding the effectiveness and practical use of masks and respirators in work settings.

The IOM task force's goal is to make recommendations about how to protect healthcare workers during the H1N1 pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – State health departments will decide which providers will administer the pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine this fall, and a single company will be the distributor for all the doses, it was announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials recommended today that schools should not close down during novel H1N1 influenza outbreaks, though they emphasized that the advice is a guideline and that decisions should be made based on local conditions.

(CIDRAP News) – Though infectious disease experts say it is impossible to predict how severe the next wave of the novel H1N1 pandemic will be, experts from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) observe that it so far resembles the 1957-58 influenza pandemic in several ways. They report that the earlier pandemic caused minimal disruptions, in part because public health officials didn't close schools, cancel public events, or impose travel restrictions.

Editor's note: This story was revised Jul 31 after Besser contacted CIDRAP to say that the date listed for his start at ABC News was incorrect.

(CIDRAP News) – Richard E. Besser, MD, a long-time employee of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who served as the agency's acting director during the beginning of the novel H1N1 virus outbreak, is leaving the agency to work for ABC News.

(CIDRAP News) – Citing the questionable usefulness of reporting pandemic H1N1 case counts and the burden it puts on countries experiencing widespread transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today it will no longer issue regular reports of confirmed global case totals.

The WHO has issued 58 such reports since the start of the novel H1N1 outbreak, the last one on Jul 6.

(CIDRAP News) – A national consortium of groups that have a stake in managing foodborne illness outbreaks today released guidelines for outbreak response, a document that includes model practices for each investigation stage, giving local and state officials a baseline for assessing their current procedures.

(CIDRAP News) – Outpatient clinics should provide separate waiting and exam rooms for possible H1N1 flu patients and prepare business continuity plans, among other steps to prepare for a potential flood of pandemic flu patients this fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended today.