(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will soon release about 20% of the $1 billion in bioterrorism preparedness funding that is slated to go to states this year, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced Jan 25.
(CIDRAP News) In a flurry of pre-adjournment activity yesterday, Congress appropriated about $2.5 billion for bioterrorism preparedness, including $1 billion for state and local efforts, according to an aide to Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
(CIDRAP News) If bioterrorists released smallpox virus today, each person who contracted the disease could infect as many as 10 to 12 more before health authorities would recognize the disease and act to contain it, according to experts writing in the Dec 13 issue of Nature.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced seven new research grant programs to speed efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases related to bioterrorism.
(CIDRAP News) The American Medical Association this week declined to support any immediate steps toward vaccinating the whole population against smallpox, but endorsed planning for such a step in case it is needed in the future.
(CIDRAP News) Large-scale quarantine of potentially exposed people is not likely to be the optimal strategy for containing a disease outbreak resulting from bioterrorism in most circumstances, according to public health experts writing in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Nov 29, 2001 (CIDRAP News) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded Acambis Inc. a $428 million contract to produce an additional 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine by the end of 2002, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced Wednesday.
(CIDRAP News) If smallpox reappears in the United States, health authorities will strive to trace and vaccinate everyone who has had contact with infected or exposed persons but probably will not mount any mass vaccination campaigns, according to a draft plan released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
(CIDRAP News) Teams of specialists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been vaccinated against smallpox and are training to respond to any intentional release of the smallpox virus, the CDC has announced.
(CIDRAP News) Donald A. Henderson, MD, public health expert and director of the successful campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, has been appointed to coordinate the national response to public health emergencies. Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), named Henderson last week as director of the newly created Office of Public Health Preparedness.
