Letter carriers may deliver antibiotics during bioterror attack

The task of delivering medications to citizens during a bioterror attack may fall to volunteer mailmen (and mailwomen); trial in St. Paul

Shape of things to come
DARPA seeks ultrasonic tourniquets

New device, placed on the arm or a leg of an injured soldier or first responder will use ultrasound scanning to pinpoint internal bleeding, before focusing "high-power energy" on the bleed sites

Detroit airport to offer germ-free security checkpoints

Worried about microbes, bacteria, and fungi released at airport security checkpoints as travelers take off their shoes and place their belongings in a tray? At Detroit Metro Airport's new North Terminal you will not have to worry, with the application of new anti-microbial treatment

China syndrome
EU bans baby food with Chinese milk

Twenty-two Chinese dairies used industrial additive melamine in their products; 54,000 Chinese babies were sickened, 4 died, and more than 10,000 are still hospitalized; 27-nation EU bans baby food with Chinese milk

California tells residents not to flush pharmaceuticals

In an effort to limit the contamination of drinking water with pharmaceuticals, California launches "No Drugs Down the Drain Week"

China syndrome
China milk poisoning cases rise

The number of Chinese children sickened by milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine reaches 53,000; 13,000 children remain hospitalized; 22 Chinese companies implicated

Briefly noted

Debating whether DHS should have cybersecurity responsibilities... FDA revisits refused foods issue... DoD tests contractors' ID cards

China syndrome
Chinese dairies add organic base found in plastics and resins to products

Lab tests in Hong Kong find that Chinese company's dairy offerings, including milk, ice cream, and yogurt, were contaminated with melamine -- an organic base usually found in plastics and resins, and banned in food

Biodefense and food supply safety
Avalanche of drugs, scarcely any oversight, I

By the time St. Louis Children's Hospital called in its infectious-disease specialist on 4 January to diagnose a mysterious spike in allergic reactions to kidney dialysis, it was clear there was a major problem. Three patients had become ill after taking the blood-thinning drug heparin. One had developed the same reaction during a dialysis treatment in November. Minutes after dialysis needles punctured their veins, the boy's lips and eyelids swelled. Their blood pressure dropped, and their heartbeats raced at dangerous levels.

Biodefense and food supply safety
Avalanche of drugs, scarcely any oversight, II

Yesterday we wrote about the growing discrepancy -- a yawning gap --between the sheer amount of drug and food imported into the United States, and the resources available to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to inspect these imports and the companies which manufacture them to make sure they meet U.S. safety and health standards. Instead, U.S. drug companies, battling mightily to protect public health and their corporate reputations -- and congressional pressures -- often step in where FDA inspections have not. The Chicago Tribune's David Greising and Bruce Japsen write that Baxter, for example, attempted to do so: In September 2007 a Baxter team visited the Chinese plant from which it was buying herapin. By that time, though, timelines produced by Baxter, the FDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the suspect heparin already was making its way through the Baxter supply chain.