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(CIDRAP news) Connecticut health officials announced today that the state has begun carrying out a plan to give smallpox shots to up to 6,000 healthcare and public health workers, but the Associated Press reported that only three people actually received shots today.
(CIDRAP News) As health officials in several states prepared to begin giving smallpox shots to healthcare workers, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tommy Thompson today signed a declaration that triggers liability protection for those who administer the shots.
(CIDRAP News) Ð Connecticut, Nebraska,Vermont, and Los Angeles County this week became the first jurisdictions in thenation to receive smallpox vaccine under the program to prepare for a possibleterrorist release of the virus, federal health officials announced yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it more than tripled the number of cattle it tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in fiscal year 2002 and is making progress on other regulatory steps to keep BSE out of the country.
(CIDRAP News) The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has urged the federal government to move slowly and carefully on its pre-event smallpox vaccination program, with a pause after the initial phase to assess the vaccine's safety before moving to a broader inoculation campaign.
(CIDRAP News) Julie Gerberding, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says the national smallpox vaccination program for hospital and public health workers must go forward despite the new recommendation from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to proceed slowly and cautiously.
(CIDRAP News) A researcher's report of missing vials of the bacteria that causes plague led to a full-scale alert and investigation at Texas Tech University in Lubbock this week, but the alarm was called off when the researcher revealed he had previously destroyed the vials.
(CIDRAP News) Ð The Food and DrugAdministration will hold a public meeting, broadcast via satellite link, Jan 29to discuss proposed rules to help prevent deliberate contamination of foodssold in the United States.
(CIDRAP News) As the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) prepares to offer irradiated ground beef to schools for their lunch programs, Minnesota state officials are planning a USDA-financed pilot project in three school districts to assess attitudes and test educational materials about irradiated beef.
(CIDRAP News) Ð The federal AdvisoryCommittee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) affirmed yesterday that it's safefor people who live with a baby less than 1 year old to get a smallpox shot,though the shots are contraindicated for babies themselves.
(CIDRAP News) Beef industry leaders attending a "summit" meeting on Escherichia coli O157:H7 this week announced plans to standardize meat safety testing at packing and processing plants and take other industry-wide steps to reduce E coli contamination in beef.
(CIDRAP News) The London arrests Sunday (Jan 5) of six men and yesterday of a seventh in connection with discovery of the highly toxic material ricin have British physicians on the alert for signs of poisoning and citizens being reminded by officials to be "alert but not alarmed." The situation has heightened interest elsewhere, as ricin is among the agents considered as likely agents of bioterrorism.
(CIDRAP News) Exotic Newcastle disease (END) has struck commercial poultry flocks in Southern California, causing quarantines in six counties and temporary Canadian and Mexican bans on poultry and poultry product imports from the area. Poultry is a $3 billion industry in California, and more than half the state's 12 million egg-producing hens are in the quarantine zone.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) heard various suggestions for improving its product recall procedures at a recent meeting, but there was no great push to give the USDA authority to order recalls of contaminated foods, according to a Minnesota official who attended.
(CIDRAP News) State plans for giving smallpox shots to frontline healthcare workers list more than 3,600 hospitals that may participate in the program, and most of those hospitals have agreed to take part, according to federal health officials.
(CIDRAP News) A new national survey suggests that most Americans have serious misconceptions about smallpox, including a belief that smallpox cases have occurred in the past 5 years and that smallpox is treatable.
(CIDRAP News) VaxGen Inc., a California biotechnology company, announced plans this week to seek US licensing for an attenuated smallpox vaccine that is considered safer than existing vaccines but was developed too recently to be proved effective against the disease.
(CIDRAP News) Contrary to some reports, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will continue to take comments indefinitely on how it should implement a congressional directive to allow the purchase of irradiated food for the federal school lunch program, according to a department official.
(CIDRAP News) Two recent public opinion polls suggest that somewhere between half and two thirds of Americans would get a smallpox shot if it were offered, despite the risk of serious side effects.
(CIDRAP News) Federal health officials project that about half of the estimated 10 million health and emergency response workers targeted for the second round of smallpox vaccinations will refuse the shots.