See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including federal lab safety oversight, battling Zika, medical countermeasure innovations, and prion disease research.
BIODEFENSE POLICY & PRACTICES
- New website tracks oversight fixes for labs working with bioterror germs (USA Today)
- Our approach to financing epidemic response is broken (Bifurcated Needle)
- Federal perspective on the state of our nation’s biodefense (U.S. Senate)
- White House will dip into Ebola funding to fight Zika, possibly ending impasse (STAT)
- Federal Select Agent Program: Progress towards change (CDC)
- U.S. needs incentives, leader to battle Zika, biological weapons (Indy Star)
- White House finds temporary fix in Zika funding fight (Reuters)
- Uninfected or asymptomatic? Diagnostic tests key to forecasting epidemics (BBSRC)
- Emergency Use Authorization of medical products and related authorities (Federal Register)
- Climate change threat to public health worse than polio, White House warns (Guardian)
- S.2055 – Medical Countermeasure Innovation Act of 2016 (Congress.gov)
- A “bird’s eye view” of the Zika Action Plan Summit (Bifurcated Needle)
SELECT AGENTS
- Particulate delivery systems for vaccination against bioterrorism agents (WILEY)
- Liberia and Guinea step up coordination to stem new cases of Ebola (WHO)
- Yellow fever outbreak triggers vaccine alarm (Science)
- Evaluating the epidemic trend and effects of intervention of Ebola virus disease (PLOS)
- Plotting the course of Ebola vaccines (CIDRAP)
- Lassa fever in Sweden – case update (WHO)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- Bipartisan bill advances antibiotic development for seriously ill patients (PEW)
- Volunteers who say ‘bite me’ are helping to win the war vs. mosquitoes (NPR)
- CHMP issues positive opinion of AZ’s pandemic influenza vaccine (EU Biopharm Review)
CHEMICAL THREATS
- Navy, Coast Guard test their nerves (MyGuidon)
- ISIS carries out chemical weapon attack on Syrian army (Newsweek)
- Syria war: IS ‘used mustard gas’ on Assad troops (BBC News)
RADIOLOGICAL THREATS
- How worried should we be about ‘nuclear terrorism’? (Carnegie Endowment)
- Threat of terrorists acquiring nuclear materials is still serious (War on the Rocks)
- Measurement of Fukushima-related radioactive contamination (PNAS)
- What is a dirty bomb and how dangerous is it? (The Conversation)
- Could there be a terrorist Fukushima? (NY Times)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Zika is coming to the U.S. (NY Times)
- Travel alert for Angola upgraded as yellow fever outbreak grows (CIDRAP)
- In a remote Ugandan lab, encounters with Zika decades ago (NY Times)
- Zika – which U.S. military hubs are most at risk? (Military Times)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Endemic zoonotic disease transmission in African urban setting (PLOS Pathogens)
- New assay offers improved detection of deadly prion diseases (MDT)
- Particulate vaccine systems may help protect against bioterror threats (MNT)
- Increasing value and reducing waste in biomedical research (The Lancet)
- Noviplex device will diagnose and track Zika in the Amazon (MDT)
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