French health authorities today announced a 65-year old citizen is hospitalized in intensive care with an acute respiratory infection after having contracted the emerging novel coronavirus (nCoV).
Where or how the patient contracted nCoV is still being investigated, but the Health Ministry reports the Frenchman fell ill in April after returning Continue reading
A report released this week by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) assesses approximately 60 percent of the chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) medical countermeasures in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) are approved for children, but in many instances approval is limited to specific age groups.
High costs and the high risk Continue reading
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is making available diagnostic materials to specifically detect the new avian influenza A (H7N9) virus found in China. The emerging reassortant virus has to date been confirmed in 119 humans, 22 of which have died.
On April 22, 2013, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the CDC Human Continue reading
Hurricane Sandy introduced the word “surge” into common use to explain the flooding of Manhattan and New Jersey. Storm surge is an offshore rise in water level caused by high winds pushing on the ocean surface. When added on top of tides, devastatingly high sea levels may result.
The real definition of surge is broader – “a sudden powerful forward or upward movement, especially by a crowd or by a natural force”. Today’s topic is medical surge, which often involves both crowds and natural forces. Officially, we define Continue reading
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency Division of Analytic Decision Support (BARDA/ADS) is seeking tools to support decision-making against Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threat agents, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases.
The solicitation calls for visual Continue reading
All possible steps to monitor and contain the spread of the H7N9 influenza virus in China are being taken by local authorities, the United Nations Health Agency today announced, while confirming that seven people across the Asian country had already succumbed to the disease. Continue reading
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) intends to award a sole source contract to the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for the the effort entitled, “Development of Antibodies Specific for Binding New Biomarkers of Exposure to Cholinesterase Inhibitors.”
The purpose of the Continue reading
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have recently released a report summarizing an extensive list of commercially available, hand-portable detection technologies for biological threats.
The report helps first responders such as firefighters, HazMat workers and police officers Continue reading