See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics like plague countermeasures, Dual Use Research of Concern policy development, food safety funding and more…
FDA Approves New Antibacterial Treatment for Plague
The FDA approved levofloxacin for plague after tests on African green monkeys infected with the bacteria in a lab found 94 percent of the monkeys given the treatment survived. The agency also approved the drug to reduce the risk of getting plague after exposure to Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the disease. Infection Control Today
Controversial Bird-Flu Research Published: How Worried Should We Be?
A highly controversial research paper on bird flu was released by the journal Nature. It shows that a particularly troublesome strain of avian influenza, designated H5N1, which has been worrying public health officials for more than a decade, has the potential to become a human pandemic. In other words, H5N1 bird flu, which so far has been highly lethal to humans but has not acquired the ability to spread easily among us, could do so at any time. Many security experts believe no work on H5N1 transmissibility among mammals should have been conducted in the first place, and that the world would be a safer place if information about the results of the Kawaoka and Fouchier experiments and their methods were never disseminated. Scientific American
Reprieve from Criminal Prosecutions May Be Ending for Food Execs
Odwalla Inc., now part of Coca-Cola, paid $1.5 million after pleading guilty to 16 misdemeanors stemming from an outbreak of E. coli infection caused by unpasteurized apple juice that killed a child and sickened dozens of others in 1996. And Sara Lee Corporation pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge and agreed to pay $4.4 million in civil and criminal penalties for producing and distributing contaminated hotdogs and deli meats in 2001, causing 15 deaths. But those responsible for the big foodborne outbreaks since then — the ones causing multiple injuries and deaths — have skated, seemingly not drawing or keeping the attention of federal prosecutors. “You’d have to ask FDA precisely why its use of the criminal prosecution tool is relatively rare,” Greenberg says, “though it’s easy to surmise that part of the reason is that it’s so resource-intensive. Food Safety News
Ohio National Guard Exercise Tests Multiple Agencies
A key participant in the exercise was the Ohio National Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN), Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP), a 186-person unit which rapidly deploys to perform search and extraction, mass patient decontamination, medical triage and patient stabilization before transportation to a local hospital or medical treatment facility. DoD
NIH Preparing Tool to Help Cope with New DURC Policies
Federal officials are working on guidance to help local institutions implement the government’s new policy on the oversight of life-sciences dual-use research of concern (DURC). Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the NIH, revealed the development at a workshop on H5N1 research issues that was hosted by the National Academies. He said the NIH expects to put the guidance out for public comment over the next few weeks and is eager to learn what parts of the new DURC policy will be hard to implement at the local level. CIDRAP
Microbiological Data Program Ignored in Budget Process
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Microbiological Data Program will almost certainly be eliminated in fiscal year 2013 after the Senate Appropriations Committee decided to not include funding for the $5 million program in its budget bill.The program, which was launched in 2001, currently tests about 15,000 samples of fruits and vegetables each year. Public health officials pull samples of alfalfa sprouts, cantaloupe, cilantro, hot peppers, bagged lettuce and spinach and tomatoes to gather data on E. coli (STEC), E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogens that can contaminate these products. Dubbed “A Tiny Food Program That Matters” by the New York Times editorial board, MDP does more for produce testing than any other state or federal entity, but the program has also been criticized for being slow and housed under the wrong agency, at the Agriculture Marketing Service. Food Safety News