See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including the state of the Strategic National Stockpile, blueprint for preventing epidemics, and the emergence of Zika virus.
BIODEFENSE POLICY & PRACTICES
- Congress raises bipartisan concern over avian flu vaccine stock (Digital Journal)
- Congressional request to BARDA for update on national stockpile (U.S. House) .pdf
- Margaret Chan wants countries to put their money where their mouth is (Science)
- Gunmen kill woman anti-polio volunteer in Afghanistan (Reuters)
- A research and development blueprint for action to prevent epidemics (WHO)
- Lawmakers question efficacy of 10-year-old vaccine reserve (BioWorld)
- Singapore-Malaysia-Indonesia-US dialogue on biosecurity (Health Security)
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
- Program for transforming deadly chemicals into harmless dirt gets underway (HDIAC)
SELECT AGENTS
- Guinea declared free of Ebola virus that killed over 2,500 (Ebola)
- Nearing triumph over Ebola (NY Times)
- The outbreaks of 2015: Ebola, MERS, and measles (VICE)
- Safety and immunogenicity of adenovirus-vectored Ebola vaccine (Lancet)
- NPC1 contributes to patterns of ebolavirus susceptibility in bats (eLIFE)
- How software developers helped end the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone (The Guardian)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- FDA designations promise to expedite the approval of drugs (The Scientist)
- Contamination of healthcare worker’s mobile phones by epidemic viruses (PubMed)
- First dengue fever vaccine gets green light in three countries (Scientific American)
- Opinion: Stop giving antibiotics to cows, pigs, and chickens now (STAT)
- Liquid salts deliver drugs through the skin with reduced toxicity (MNT)
- 2015 in review: Animal antibiotics (Food Safety News)
- Pediatric medical countermeasures public health preparedness (FDA)
- Lab Spotlight: NIH tissue chips (FLC Newslink)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Flu virus in pigs shows worrisome pandemic profile (CIDRAP)
- Everything you need to know about Zika virus: Signs, symptoms and treatment (Tech Times)
- Brazil declares emergency after 2,400 babies are born with brain damage (WashPost)
- Swine flu: New strain of virus found in China has potential to transmit easily to humans (SCMP)
- 2015: What kept us up at night and what will keep us busy in 2016 (CDC)
- Anatomy of the South Korean MERS outbreak (ScienceNews)
- Zika virus reported in Puerto Rico (CNN)
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
- DTRA/SCC-WMD chemical and biological S&T 2015 wrapup (YouTube)
INDUSTRY NEWS
- Special report: Ebola’s thin harvest (Science)
- JP Morgan conference turns SF into biotech hotspot (Global Biodefense)
DETECTION & PROTECTION
- SERS chip designed for on-site detection of active ricin in complex matrices (ACS)
- Challenges for next-generation sequencing in infectious disease diagnostics (mBio)
- Real-time norovirus detector (FLC Newslink)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- The chimp and the river: The origin story of HIV (Tracking Zebra)
