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Citing flu, Sebelius orders review of public-health defenses

Citing flu, Sebelius orders review of public-health defenses

(Warnings of H5N1 and H1N1 merging going pandemic and now this…)

By Rob Stein

Washington Post

WASHINGTON – A top Obama administration official, citing problems
with the swine flu vaccination campaign and other problems in
preparedness, announced plans yesterday for a major review of the
federal government’s policies for developing public-health defenses.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she had
ordered the review in part because the swine flu vaccine shortage had
highlighted the nation’s dependence on antiquated technology.

“We’ll look for the fastest ways to move to new technologies that
will let us quickly produce countermeasures that are more dependable
and more robust,” Sebelius said in prepared remarks to the American
Medical Association’s Third National Congress on Health System
Readiness, which is being held in Washington. “Not just for flu and not
just for infectious diseases, but for all the public-health threats we
face today.”

The review will be led by Nicole Lurie, the assistant secretary for
preparedness and response, and will be complete by “early next year,”
Sebelius said.

“We face a wider range of public-health threats than ever before,”
Sebelius said. “It could be anthrax delivered in an envelope. It could
be a dirty bomb set off in a subway car.”

continued

http://www.philly.com/philly/health_and_science/20091202_Citing_flu__Sebelius_orders_review_of_public-health_defenses.html

Egypt

• Death No. 22 from H1N1 (translated) (Link)

India

• 580 deaths total now (Link)

Indonesia

• Indications of Pandemic Influenza (translated) (Link)

United States

• US: The Emergency Use Authorization of Peramivir for Treatment of 2009 H1N1 Influenza(Link)

• IL: Ford County 11 yr old died quickly from overwhelming infection (Link)

• MA: Medford school where child died earlier now has teacher with ‘viral’ meningitis (Link)

• MD: Two resistant swine flu cases (Link)

• NC: Daughter of local pediatrician dies of H1N1 (Link)

• NJ: New Jersey confirms 2 more deaths, total now 31 (Link)

• NV: Las Vegas woman, 55, was the 30th in city to die of H1N1 (Link)

• OR: 1 new death, 24 new hospitalizations (Link)

• PA: Expect More Swine Flu Cases to Hit State (Link)

• PA: (3) more fatalities have been added (Link)

Vietnam

• Antiviral drug to be produced (Link)

• Two More H5N1 Suspects (translated) (Link)

• Two H5N1 suspects, one a chinese (translated)(Link)

General

• One-third of the world to be affected by H1N1: WHO (Link)

Commentary

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