See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including MERS coronavirus vaccine development, Bioweapons Prevention Project, and the CBRNE Defense Act.
BIODEFENSE POLICY & PRACTICES
- Complacency, underfunding fuel state readiness gaps (CIDRAP)
- NAS panel tackles—and is tackled by—genome editing in animals (Science)
- The 2015 Meeting of States Parties (Bioweapons Prevention Project) .pdf
- Growing threat of bioterrorism from the surge of global terror (CBRNe Portal)
- Report notes deficiencies of MSF Ebola triage system (CIDRAP)
- House passes DHS CBRNE Defense Act of 2015 (GovTrack)
- It’s official: The NIH budget is getting an extra 2B (STAT News)
- Forging new partnerships for healthcare preparedness (DomPrep)
- More countries are seeing a last-ditch antibiotic failing (NatGeo)
- A Crispr future – a game changer (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
- Congress approves historic increase in food safety funding (PEW Trusts)
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
- U.S. official says use of chemical weapons is ‘routine’ in Syria (Reuters)
- Da’esh as a hybrid threat to European security (CBRNe Portal)
SELECT AGENTS
- New symptoms surface in Ebola patients months after initial recovery (Reuters)
- Anthrax crisis standards of care (Bifurcated Needle)
- Female survivor may be cause of Ebola flare-up in Liberia (Reuters)
- Surface contamination and respiratory viruses with pandemic potential (IPC Reflections)
- Tularaemia: clinical aspects in Europe (The Lancet)
- Online ‘recipes’ for bird flu virus add to bioterrorism threat (The Age)
- Experimental Ebola vaccine could tamp out last embers of outbreak (STAT News)
- Pregnancy as an Ebola Potentiator: Trying to Understand the Liberian cluster (Tracking Zebra)
- Duration of immune responses after Ebola virus vaccination (The Lancet)
- From joint aches to insomnia, Ebola’s effects linger in survivors (NPR)
- EU Lessons learned for Public Health from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa (EUR-Lex)
- Disease specialists identify post-Ebola threats (Nature)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- Mers vaccine ‘a step closer’, say scientists (BBC News)
- Studies uncover MERS patterns in camels, vaccine potential (CIDRAP)
- When the flu vax fails (The Scientist)
- Acetaminophen may do no good for flu (Reuter)
- Proposal: Set international targets for farm antibiotic use (NatGeo)
- Why the flu vaccine is less effective in the elderly (EurekAlert)
- New York City’s flu shot mandate for young children is struck down (NY Times)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- France reports new bird flu strain as outbreak spreads (Reuters)
- Explainer: What is the “flesh-eating” disease that’s spreading across Syria? (IFL Science)
- UF researchers call for close attention to flu viruses (Emerging Pathogens Institute)
- French bird flu poses no risk to humans – minister (Reuters)
- Superbug resistant to last-resort antibiotics now found on multiple continent (STAT News)
- Group A streptococcal infections: activity during the 2015 to 2016 season (Gov.UK)
- Real life epidemiologists play the Pandemic: Legacy video game (NPR)
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
- Nanodevices at one-hundredth the cost (MIT News)
- How a switchable polymer could combat antibiotic resistance (C&EN)
- NIH-funded trials dip, industry trials on the rise (Reuters)
- Fast diagnostics with polarized light (MDT)
- NIH releases first agency-wide strategic plan in 2 decades (Science)
- Which studies got the most media buzz in 2015? (Science)
INDUSTRY NEWS
- Yisheng Biopharma and USAMRIID collaborate on new vaccine against Ebola virus (PR Newswire)
- Luminex receives FDA clearance for NxTAG respiratory pathogen panel (Luminex)
- AirBoss of America Corp. director sells 45,000 shares (DFN)
- Our industry has a war on talent (Medical Design Technology)
RADIOLOGICAL & NUCLEAR THREATS
- Searching for CBRNe ID threats (European Defence Agency)
- Vote at atomic agency officially ends inquiry into iran’s nuclear past (NY Times)
