BBC NEWS: Obama warns of US food 'hazard'

President Barack Obama has said the US food safety system is a "public health hazard" and in need of an overhaul.

He sounded the warning during his weekly radio and video address, as he appointed a new head of the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

New York Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg has been named for the post.

DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND: The Demise of Public Health During the Bush-Cheney Years

A 2008 poll of American historians in which 107 of 109 rated the presidency of George W. Bush a failure, and in which 61% rated it the worst ever in U.S. history, doesn’t begin to provide an accurate picture of how bad the Bush presidency was. That presidency was filled with so much blatant corruption and crime that it is hard to know where to begin to describe how bad it was. If the willful demise of public health during the Bush presidency was the only black mark against it, that alone would have been enough to characterize it as a dismal failure.

BUSINESS FIRST: Health department to host nation’s first public health and safety satellite channels

The Kentucky Department of Public Health soon will launch three national satellite radio network channels dedicated to providing communications among public health agencies, hospitals and emergency medical services across the country.

The channels will enable public safety agencies to move around without losing critical communications, and participate in a nationwide two-way satellite radio conversation.

USA TODAY: West Nile virus cases were overstated in 2008 across U.S.

State health departments across the nation are learning this month the number of West Nile virus cases they thought they had in 2008 was overstated — in one case by more than 35% — because of faulty testing kits.

The problem test kits, from Inverness Medical Innovations of Waltham, Mass., resulted in incorrect diagnoses of West Nile virus in at least 42 states, said Kristen Janusz, an epidemic intelligence service officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The mosquito-borne illness, first identified in the U.S. in 1999, produces mild flu-like symptoms and can cause death.

AGRICULTURE BUSINESS WEEK: Detection, Response and Preparedness vs. Agroterrorim (Part 6)

Detection of infectious disease epidemics is a function of public health’s established systems of routine disease surveillance. Disease surveillance refers to the ongoing collection and analysis of disease information to lead to response and control measures. Traditional surveillance for infectious disease relies on a diagnosis being made, either because patients meet specific clinical criteria or because the diagnosis has been confirmed through laboratory testing.