Top Story

• Public health emergency declared for swine flu outbreak
  U.S. health officials on Sunday declared a public health emergency following reports of 20 cases of swine flu in five states, including California, Texas and New York. In response to the emergency, about 12 million doses of Tamiflu will be made available to the affected areas, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. The Washington Post (4/27) , Yahoo!/The Associated Press (4/26)

• Vaccine makers ready to aid health authorities in combating swine flu: Roche Holding, Sanofi Pasteur and other drug manufacturers said they are prepared to supply the World Health Organization and other health authorities with influenza vaccine in the event of a swine flu pandemic. The companies also said they are ready to start development of a new vaccine against the swine flu virus strain, which appears vulnerable to Roche's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. Reuters (4/26)

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Science & Health

• Study finds differences in performance of malaria rapid tests
  A study co-sponsored by the World Health Organization evaluated the performance of dozens of commercially available rapid diagnostic tests for malaria. The study found that some tests performed well in tropical temperatures and were able to identify low parasite densities in blood samples, and others were able to pinpoint the parasite at only high densities. "This is an important first step in establishing a broader system of diagnostics surveillance and quality assurance to ensure sound and accurate diagnosis of malaria in poor and remote settings," an expert said. New Kerala (India)/Asian News International (4/24)

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Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by AABB SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Pilot program aims to reduce blood transfusion complications (The Sun (Baltimore))

• Panel: Most blood transfusions in the U.S. unnecessary (MedPage Today)

• Lawyers drop blood transfusion case in Ireland (Irish Medical News)

• Blood Assurance gets new bus, updates donor criteria (Herald-Citizen (Cookeville, Tenn.))

• Researchers make induced pluripotent stem cells from blood cells (The Hindu (India))

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

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Emerging Trends

• Report advises hospitals to reconsider EHR priorities
  A Computer Sciences Corp. report recommends that hospitals put more emphasis on physician documentation and electronic problem lists when implementing electronic health records. The Virginia-based consulting firm said this "would provide a more complete information base for concurrent quality management." Health Data Management (4/24)

Industry News & Practice

• Immucor feels effect of antitrust investigation
  Immucor, a manufacturer of blood-screening products, saw its stock decrease 27% -- its biggest drop since 1987 -- after being subpoenaed by the Justice Department in connection with its investigation into "possible violations of the federal criminal antitrust laws in the blood reagents industry." The company also is the subject of an investigation launched in 2007 by the Federal Trade Commission for possibly engaging in unfair marketing methods. Bloomberg (4/24)

• United Blood Services opens new office at New Mexico hospital
  United Blood Services will set up a permanent office at the Carlsbad Medical Center in New Mexico in an effort to increase the number of volunteer blood donors in the area. As part of its agreement with the hospital, the blood service also will collect blood for pre-operative patients. Current-Argus (N.M.) (4/24)

• Vertex says combo of Roche drugs, telaprevir shows promise in study
  Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced that the combination of its hepatitis C drug telaprevir with Roche Holding's Pegasys and Copegus eradicated signs of the virus and elicited sustained response in 52% of patients, compared with 14% of those who received Roche's medicines alone. The yearlong study observed 453 patients who either relapsed after or failed to respond to previous hepatitis C therapies. Bloomberg (4/25)

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Government & Regulatory

• Ohio Senate passes bill to lower blood donor age
  The Ohio Senate has passed a bill that would allow 16-year-olds in the state to donate blood with parental consent. The bill, which will move to the Ohio House, is expected to provide an additional 10,000 blood units to the state's annual collections. Hudson Hub-Times (Ohio) (4/26)

• White House confronts swine flu without key health officials
  The Obama administration on Sunday declared a "public health emergency" in response to reports of a swine flu outbreak. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said "there is a team in place" to respond to the outbreak even as the posts of HHS secretary, surgeon general and CDC chief remain unfilled. The Politico (Washington) (4/26)

• Obama administration seeks ways to address doctor shortage
  White House officials are trying to address the shortage of general practitioners in the nation by introducing a number of proposals, including boosting Medicare payments to primary care providers. Meanwhile, specialists are calling on Congress to find ways to raise additional funding to support primary care without redistributing the money among physicians. The New York Times (4/26)

Association News

• Summary of BPAC meeting highlights discussions on Chagas' disease, hepatitis B NAT screening, plasma for further manufacture
  A summary of the recent meeting of the FDA's Blood Products Advisory Committee highlights presentations and debates about selective strategies to test blood donors for Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease; testing blood and HCT/P donors for hepatitis B virus infection using nucleic acid testing; and FDA's current considerations on plasma obtained from a whole blood donor for further manufacturing use. Read the summary.

SmartQuote

The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away." --Linus Pauling, American scientist