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In the Spotlight

• Pandemic Influenza: International Contingency Planning: International Veterinary Public Health Consortium, 27 October 2004.
  
• Avian influenza - update: Implications of H5N1 infections in pigs in China: World Health Organization, 25 August 2004.
• Update on Influenza A (H5N1) and SARS: Interim Recommendations for Enhanced U.S. Surveillance, Testing, and Infection Control: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 3, 2004.
• Bird Flu a Disaster for Poultry Production, Threatens Global Food Security: Statistics released by FAO earlier February showed that more than 450 million birds had been culled in Asia excluding China, about some 0.7 percent of the region's total inventory, prompting questions related to the deliberate use of biological agents.
• WHO/OIE/FAO: Need for Guidance: The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today that killing wild birds is not an appropriate measure to control the spread of bird flu, which has already ravaged domestic poultry farming in nine Asian countries. 
• UN agencies call for funds and technical assistance to prevent bird flu becoming global threat: UN News Service, 27 January 2004. Disease Outbreak News: World Health Organization
• SARS, flu tough to tell apart: It's mid-January and you've got a fever, a cough and an all-over achiness. Must be the flu, right?  Then again, could it be SARS? How are you -- or your doctor -- supposed to know? ``That's a very good question and one we have no answer for right now,'' said Dr. Marguerite Erme, the Akron Health Department's disease-control medical officer. National Flu Surveillance Network. For additional information on SARS, visit the HRI Biodefense Reference Library: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Epidemiological Tracking.
• Update of practice guidelines for the management of community-acquired pneumonia in immunocompetent adults: Infectious Diseases Society of America, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2003;37:1405-1433. See also: New guidelines give specifics for pneumonia care, American Medical Association News, Dec. 22/29, 2003.
• Co-Infection A-Fujian-H3N2 - Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA): MRSA, endemic in many hospitals, one of the leading causes of nosocomial pneumonia and surgical site infection and the second leading cause of nosocomial blood stream infections. Prevention Methods for Airborne transmission of staphylococcol pneumonia.
• Influenza: A-Fujian-H3N2/MRSA/Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS): Discussion papers, related information.
• Uninsured a risk to public health: Doctors worry that they are likely to spread disease in epidemics because of inaccessibility or fear of treatment, St. Patersburg Times, 7 December 2003. 
• Free flu vaccination for anyone over 55: CDC chief: Su Yi-jen, director of the Center of Disease Control (Taiwan), urged high-risk people to have themselves vaccinated against influenza, which he said is assuming pandemic proportions. The China Post, Saturday, 29 November 2003.  Click here for the  U.S. CDC Influenza Vaccine Information 2003-2004.
• Pandemic Influenza and Vaccine Production: 28 November 2003.

• Influenza - Medline: The National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health.
• Coronavirus -  Medline: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, The National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. 
• Human Metapneumovirus as a Cause of Community-Acquired Respiratory Illness: Emerg Infect Dis. 2002 Sep;8(9):897-901. See Also: A newly discovered human pneumovirus isolated from young children with respiratory tract disease.
• Severe Acute Repiratory Syndrome (SARS): Biodefense and Epidemiological Tracking.

• WHO Influenza Surveillance & Response: Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.
• CDC Influenza Surveillance & Response: National Centers for Infectious Diseases.
• European Influenza Surveillance Scheme (EISS): EISS includes 28 national reference laboratories, at least 10,600 sentinel physicians and covers a total population of 441 million inhabitants in Europe.

Genomic

• The Influenza Sequence Database: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Operated by the University of California for the US Department of Energy.
• Bioinformatics: Pathobiological Diagnostics: Humanitarian Resource Institute Biodefense Reference Library.

• Legal Resource Center Biodefense Reference Library: Topics, Legislation, Regulations and Policy.

• Pandemics: How They Start, How They Spread, and Their Potential Impact: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Preparedness for Deliberate Epidemics:  In May 2002, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution, Global public health response to natural occurrence, accidental release or deliberate use of biological and chemical agents or radionuclear material that affect health. See resolution. The Secretariat provided a background paper, Deliberate use of biological and chemical agents to cause harm for consideration by the World Health Assembly.
• Mental Health: Whether it is September 11 or pandemic influenza, this topic is of utmost importance.