Flu-response plan urges joint effort. President Bush's plan for dealing with a flu pandemic warns that the federal government will not be able to bail out communities reeling from illness and economic upheaval, and calls on businesses and individuals to take steps now. [News Source]

Pandemic would put homeland security in charge. The plan puts the Department of Homeland Security in charge of government operations during a flu pandemic, giving a secondary role to the nation's public-health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. [News Source]

Bird flu plan lacks a key detail. The Bush administration's pandemic flu action plan, issued Wednesday, is a good step toward getting the nation ready for a 1918-style flu disaster, health experts say, but it's missing a key element: how to pay for it. [News Source]

Lawmakers question safety of processing chickens in China. Spurred by concerns about bird flu, lawmakers voted Wednesday to block chicken processed in China from entering the United States. [News Source]

Wash and wonder. When consumers wash their hands with soap containing the widely used antibacterial agent triclocarban, much of it likely ends up intact in the sludge of wastewater treatments plants, which is reused as fertilizer. [News Source]

Ark. agriculture officials plan farm database to fight disease. A marketing campaign costing $100,000 is planned by Arkansas agriculture officials to urge farmers to register with the government so officials can keep track of dangerous animal sicknesses like mad-cow disease. [News Source]

Company targets air safety inside planes. Last week, Massachusetts-based Kronos Advanced Technologies became a partner in a Federal Aviation Administration project to improve and protect airline cabin air quality. [News Source]

Company targets air safety inside planes. Fighting the common cold, avian flu, SARS, or an act of biological terror in a packed airplane cabin is becoming Daniel R. Dwight's key focus. [News Source]

Preparing For The Bird Flu (KWWL-TV Iowa City) A severe outbreak of Avian Influenza, or the "bird flu", could take 4 out of every 10 American workers off the job, for weeks at a time. On Wednesday, the White House released a revised plan to deal with the possible outbreak, but warned the federal government cannot solve the problem alone. [News Source]

Avian Flu: Can IT Handle a Pandemic? (PC Magazine via Yahoo! News) Studies find most companies have yet to prepare for the work force impact of an avian flu outbreak. [News Source]

Computer Grid Helps Fight Avian Flu (Science Daily) During April, computers in the UK have been working overtime in the fight against avian flu. As part of an international collaboration, computers at eleven UK universities and research labs have put in one hundred thousand hours of time searching for possible drug components against the avian flu virus H5N1. The analysis used a computing Grid, a new network that brings together worldwide computer [News Source]

County hopeful, state less so on bird flu (Gloucester County Times) New Jersey isn't ready to handle an outbreak of avian flu, but Gloucester County is as prepared as possible. Following a drill in Trenton Wednesday, Corzine said the state needs its own testing facility and improved communications and set up a summit meeting on the bird flu problem for May 31. [News Source]