See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including emerging public health threats, gene-editing oversight, polio vaccine switch, and the avian flu threat.
BIODEFENSE POLICY & PRACTICES
- Protecting the U.S. from emerging public health threats (FDA)
- University leaders must take responsibility for lab safety, report says (C&EN)
- CRISPR: Transformative and troubling (Council on Foreign Relations)
- Zika response funding: In brief (Congressional Research Service)
- Neglected dimensions of global security (JAMA)
- Crisis sparks biosecurity assessment (Western Producer)
- Gene-editing surges as US rethinks regulations (Nature)
- China’s tougher vaccine rules “welcome”, complex to implement (Reuters)
- State of nation’s biodefense, lab safety tracking, and all things Zika (Pandora Report)
- Agriculture and public health challenges focus at IIAD Annual Meeting (IIAD)
- Global health partnerships: Are they working? (Science Translational Medicine)
- FDA guidance focuses on diagnostics measuring radiation exposure (RAPS)
- On Zika, Congress is failing to do its job (NY Times)
- The epidemiologist who gave CNN sass for asking a stupid question (NPR)
SELECT AGENTS
- Ebola – hiding in eyeballs (Hippocratic Post)
- Detecting botulinum neurotoxins in biological and environmental matrices (INTECH)
- Genotype analysis of Bacillus anthracis strains circulating in Bangladesh (PLOS One)
- Looking, hopefully, towards an Ebola-free future (WHO)
- Study finds elk habitat overlaps with potential anthrax reservoir in Montana (EPI)
- Developing countermeasures for bio-terror weapons (KVNO)
- Ebola survivors medical research at crucial point (Front Page Africa)
- Yellow fever outbreak kills 21 in Congo, WHO says (Reuters)
- Why a yellow fever outbreak in Angola is a potential threat for the entire world (Vox)
- Reversal of inhibition of IL-1β expression by anthrax lethal toxin (JCB)
- Phylogeography of Francisella tularensis from Tibet, China: (Science Direct)
- Improving treatments for post-Ebola syndrome sufferers (Science Daily)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- Antimicrobial drug pipelines presented at ECCMID (MNT)
- WHO group backs Sanofi’s vaccine in areas with high dengue rates (Reuters)
- Malaria resistance ‘unable to spread’ (BBC)
- New polio vaccine rolled out in massive synchronized worldwide switch (NPR)
- Parasites resistant to the atovaquone fail to transmit by mosquitoes (Science)
- Latest battle to wipe out polio begins with vast vaccine switch (Reuters)
- Mosquitoes are spreading Zika. Your neighbors aren’t helping (STAT)
CHEMICAL THREATS
- Scientists have created hollow molecules to trap toxic gases such as sarin (SA)
- New UN proposal aims at extremists use of chemical weapons (ABC News)
- WW2 nerve gas fears for Snowdonia hydro project (BBC)
- The human cost of dioxin, PCBs and pollution at Kadena Air Base (Japan Times)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- The looming threat of avian flu (NY Times)
- Zika virus confirmed as cause of microcephaly birth defect, CDC says (The Guardian)
- Assessing the potential risk of Zika epidemics in temperate areas (Eurosurveillance)
- Expert raises alarm over deadly tuberculosis outbreak in PNG (ABC Australia)
- Search and one will find: Zika virus everywhere (TRSTMH)
- Zika virus in the Americas: Early epidemiological and genetic findings (Science)
- Identification of vector-borne pathogens in dogs and cats from Brazil (Science Direct)
- Can preparations stop another outbreak? (Pilot Tribune)
- Health officials says that Rabbit Fever is back (Albany Daily Star)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Coded apertures improve, shrink mass spectrometers for field use (HSNW)
- Scientists learn to detect Zika virus using nuclear-derived technique (IAEA)
- Innovative partnership brings to market new tools for neglected tropical diseases (PATH)
- Increased use of diagnostic test poses challenge to tracking of foodborne illness (CDC)