Latest Julie Gerberding Stories
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a leading U.S. Senate Democrat, accused the Bush administration of a "cover-up" aimed at stopping the Environmental Protection Agency from tackling greenhouse emissions."This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the office of the vice president," said Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.Jason Burnett, the agency's former associate deputy administrator who appeared at a news...
By Rita Rubin Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wants to get this message out to Americans: Health care isn't only what takes place in a doctor's office, a clinic or a hospital. "We put way too much emphasis on treating disease rather than protecting health in the first place," Gerberding said in an interview. As a result, the United States doesn't even muster a spot in the top 10 on rankings of nations' health. On one list it's 26th, the...
By Brian Knowlton Public health officials on Tuesday urged the passengers and crew of two recent trans-Atlantic flights to get checked for tuberculosis, after learning that a man with an exceptionally drug- resistant form of the disease had flown on the planes. The man, an American who was not identified, flew on May 12 from Atlanta to Paris aboard Air France Flight 385, then traveled on May 24 from Prague to Montreal aboard Czech Air Flight 410 before driving back to the United States, the...
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bird flu could be incubating in areas around the world where no one is looking for it and U.S. agencies are struggling to help plug the gaps, agency heads told Congress on Thursday. But they said the spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus was looking worse than ever and asked for sustained funding to build networks to watch for and respond to disease outbreaks. "Our current situation now is not a good situation. We...
By Lisa Richwine WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. doctors should stop using two medicines to treat this season's influenza because the dominant strain has become resistant to the drugs and they are unlikely to work, health officials said on Saturday. The alert about antiviral pills amantadine and rimantadine applies to the seasonal influenza, not the H5N1 avian flu strain that experts fear could mutate and cause a global pandemic. Tests of 120 samples of the H3N2 flu strain -- the major...
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unexpectedly high demand for flu shots means some U.S. clinics have run out early, but the country will have plenty of influenza vaccine this year, health officials said on Thursday. They said the flu season had not taken off yet and Americans would have time to be vaccinated before the threat peaked, generally in February or March in the United States. "So far at least 71 million doses of influenza vaccine have...
WASHINGTON -- Hurricane evacuees living in crowded shelters and people at high risk of influenza complications should get priority for flu vaccines over the next six weeks, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday."We know those shelters could be a place where respiratory illnesses can easily spread, and if there is any population that deserves first access to the vaccine, it's the people who have already gone through so much difficulty," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three people have died from bacterial infections in Gulf states after Hurricane Katrina, and tests confirm that the water flooding New Orleans is a stew of sewage-borne bacteria, federal officials said on Wednesday. A fourth person in the Gulf region is suspected to be infected with Vibrio vulnificus, a common marine bacteria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters,...
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three people have died from bacterial infections in Gulf states after Hurricane Katrina, and tests confirm that the water flooding New Orleans is a stew of sewage-borne bacteria, federal officials said on Wednesday. A fourth person in the Gulf region is suspected to be infected with Vibrio vulnificus, a common marine bacteria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters,...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three people have died from suspected bacterial infections caused by the dirty water that Hurricane Katrina drove ashore last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.The CDC initially said it had reports that up to five people had died, but CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said three had died and another one was ill.The patients, possibly evacuees, were infected with Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, a water-borne pathogen that is related...
