PRP and Pandemic Influenza News

Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-21 [news release].
Washington, DC: The White House; October 18, 2007.

Bioterror test is in the mail
September 12, 2007

Border crossing by TB carrier prompts DHS, Hill reviews
June 1, 2007

Homeland Security Department officials are doing a complete evaluation of government policies for information-sharing, handling watch-list alerts and having trained medical personnel at major ports of entry after a 31-year-old lawyer from Atlanta was able to come across the border from Canada this week with a dangerous form of tuberculosis.

HHS Buys Next Generation Smallpox Vaccine
June 4, 2007

The smallpox vaccine is a completely new product that will be added to the Strategic National Stockpile.

Will The Healthcare Workers Go To Work During Disasters?
May 16, 2007

When disaster strikes, getting care to the victims is at the top of everyone's attention. But who will provide that care? In two studies researchers examined the factors that might affect whether healthcare workers and support staff would report to work during a disaster.

Partial Anthrax Vaccination Stimulates Significant Antibody Response
February 08, 2007

In an article to be published in the February 19, 2007 issue of the journal Vaccine and made available online in advance of publication, Lininger and colleagues report on their study of serum anti-protective antigen (PA) concentrations in marines who had been previously vaccinated with the FDA-licensed Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed (AVA). They found that those who had not completed a full vaccination series of 6 injections still had a significant antibody response and that 6 doses provided no significant advantage over 4 doses.

A test is being developed that could revolutionize the way influenza is diagnosed. Researchers at the University of Colorado, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and InDevR, LLC have designed a gene chip assay that can identify and subtype Influenza A virus, distinguishing, for example, between H3N2 and H5N1 in less than 7 hours.

International Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans Lack Prioritization

One-third of countries engaged in pandemic influenza planning have not prioritized who should get vaccinations and antiviral medications, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Ben-Gurion, University of Negav Israel.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche said it was ready to make 80 million doses of its Tamiflu bird flu drug in the United States each year, stepping up efforts to produce enough drugs to fight the deadly disease.

August 28, 2006 Plague is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. In 2006, a total of 13 human plague cases have been reported among residents of four states: New Mexico (seven cases), Colorado (three cases), California (two cases), and Texas (one case). This is the largest number of cases reported in a single year in the United States since 1994.

Heptavalent Botulinum Antitoxin to be Acquired by HHS

August 3, 2006 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a contract on June 1, 2006 for the purchase of 200,000 doses of heptavalent botulism antitoxin from Cangene Corporation (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) at a price of $363 million with delivery to the Strategic National Stockpile scheduled to begin in 2007. The heptavalent antitoxin is expected to be effective against all known types of botulinum toxin.

HHS To Acquire New Anthrax Therapeutic Treatment For Stockpile

July 20, 2006 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today it will purchase 20,000 treatment courses of ABthrax, an anthrax therapeutic treatment, from Human Genome Sciences of Rockville, Md. for $165,205,217. Delivery is expected to begin in 2009.

HHS Assists States with Antiviral Drug Purchases

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today announced a contract award with Roche Laboratories, Inc. to provide oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu®) to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories and the three Freely Associated States of the Pacific at a federally subsidized price. The contract will run for a period of two years with a total contract award amount of $149,110,000.

State Antiviral Allocations

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is stockpiling antivirals and is allocating them to states based on population. Purchases in FY2006 will bring the nation’s stockpile of antivirals to 20 million courses by the end of this year. With anticipated FY2007 funding, HHS plans to order an additional 24 million courses which will likely be delivered in 2008.

Avian Influenza Update

A new cluster of 8 family members were found in Sumatra infected with H5N1.  The WHO releases guidelines for treatment and prophylaxis of Avian Influenza. 

FDA may ban use of flu antivirals in poultry

Mar 21, 2006 (CIDRAP News) Veterinarians could not give poultry the same antiviral drugs being stockpiled the world over to battle a human influenza pandemic, under a rule proposed yesterday by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

3m doses of untested vaccine will not arrive in UK until May

Guardian Unlimited - More than 3m doses of an as yet untested vaccine are on their way to the UK while research continues into a drug that could protect humans against an avian flu pandemic. The doses of the H5N1 vaccine, which has been put through some clinical trials.

U.S. Now Has 26 Million Avian Flu Antiviral Treatments to Fight

March 23, 2006 - HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt yesterday announced additional purchases of six million antiviral drug treatments that could be used in the event of a potential influenza pandemic.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital has received a $78,101 federal grant to continue its plan to develop procedures that will enable local hospitals to respond to a surge in demand for pharmaceuticals and related medical supplies during a critical event.