HHS has spent $440 million to bolster defenses against pandemic flu and other threats.
The federal government will provide up to $90 million to develop a new drug to treat two potential bioterror threats and possibly to combat antibiotic-resistant infections, the US Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS's) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) announced today.
In its annual snapshot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday noted that states in 2012 and 2013 again benefited from the agency's support for public health readiness and response through its Public Health Emergency Preparedness program.
The report, published by the CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), highlighted several success stories, including:
Two doses of a combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine (MMRV) were more efficacious at preventing moderate to severe varicella infection (chickenpox) than one dose of monovalent varicella vaccine and markedly more effective against varicella of any severity, according to a study today in The Lancet.
The bill provides increases for the CDC, DHS, and FDA and funds for pandemic readiness.
The source of the spores that severly sickened a Florida man in 2011 was never discovered.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed a fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) case in an Omani man that was reported by the media a week ago and revealed that he had extensive contact with camels.
Construction has begun on a plant in north Florida that will enable the Department of Defense (DoD) to produce its own vaccines and drugs against potential bioterror threats, an effort that appears to duplicate Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) efforts, the Los Angeles Times reported.
South Korea and the United States will establish a surveillance system against biological weapon threats from North Korea, Seoul-based The Chosun Ilbo reported today.
More than half of 70 first responders surveyed did not know that occupants of an entire building need decontamination following an indoor release of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, according to a study in the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.