Health authorities in the U.S. are worried over the exposure of many air passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights to a rare form of Tuberculosis earlier this month after a man with this contagious disease traveled by air.

The infected man, who has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government, flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 104 from Prague to Montreal

Saint Louis University's medical school announced its plan Monday to lead a new study examining how long it would take for a new smallpox vaccine Imvamune to work if there were an outbreak of this disease in the United States.

The university's Center for Vaccine Development and six other U.S. centers will look at the possibilities if the new vaccine, supplied by Danish manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, would be as effective as a vaccine used in previous global smallpox eradication efforts

The U.S. Army now believes a series of vaccinations may have caused the death of a 26-year-old soldier.

According to the Pentagon, the soldier, Pfc. Christopher "Justin" Abston, received smallpox and injectable influenza vaccines in November 2005, at Fort Bragg, N.C., 16 days before suffering sudden death in his barracks room

Worried about the ever possible threat of a bioterrorism attack, researchers are working to find more readily accessible and effective vaccinations for smallpox. Manipulating human antibodies with Chimpanzee blood may prove to be an effective treatment.

A vaccine made by splicing chimp and human antibodies is said to be both safer and more effective than the current smallpox vaccine, according to researchers in a Reuters report

A survey of 19 public health clinics describes a wide variety of response times and medical advice given its researchers, who posed as doctors in telephone calls to clinics across the country in a test that stretched over nine months.

One health clinic officer told a caller describing botulism symptoms to go back to bed. Another told a caller describing signs of bubonic plague not to worry. And not one of the public health clinic surveyed by the RAND Corporation suggested isolating a patient whose face, arms and legs were said to be covered with pustules or other smallpox symptoms, reports The Associated Press