Recent News

By Category: Public Health

Emergency medical delivery test went well, officials say

(Minneapolis Star Tribune) Sunday’s test of an emergency system for delivering medication to Twin Cities households via the U.S. mail went off without obvious hitches, but it’ll take time to assess it for less obvious problems and barriers, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday evening. Operation Medicine Delivery was the first Read More »

May 7, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Canadian doctor zeroes in on vaccine for Ebola virus

(Globe and Mail) Gary Kobinger has been chasing vaccines since childhood. Growing up in Quebec City in the early 1990s, he remembers being galvanized to action by documentaries about people infected with HIV-AIDS – back when the illness was still new, mysterious and terrifying. “In my mind, as a teenager, this was unacceptable. So I Read More »

May 7, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Lab Accident at San Francisco VA Leaves Man Dead of Bacterial Meningitis

(KQED News) A young lab assistant at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco died on Saturday after becoming infected with a deadly strain of bacterial meningitis that he had been working with in the lab. Officials at the VA wouldn’t release the man’s name, but said he was 25 years old and had been Read More »

May 4, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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“Operation Medicine Delivery” will test nation’s first comprehensive plan

(News Release) The scenario might be a widespread, life-threatening infectious disease outbreak. Or it might be a deliberate bioterror attack, targeting the entire metro area, using a deadly agent like anthrax. It could be any large scale health emergency that requires getting medicine to a very large number of people, very quickly. Public health officials Read More »

May 4, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Microbiological Data Program Ignored in Budget Process

(Food Safety News) The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Microbiological Data Program will almost certainly be eliminated in fiscal year 2013 after the Senate Appropriations Committee decided to not include funding for the $5 million program in its budget bill. The program, which was launched in 2001, currently tests about 15,000 samples of fruits and vegetables Read More »