See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including neurotoxin research, gene-editing risks and rewards, and pandemic preparedness.
BIODEFENSE POLICY & PRACTICES
- The public and the gene-editing revolution (NEJM)
- Lack of evidence supporting the effectiveness of disaster supply kits (AJPH)
- Share research to fight Zika and prepare for the next pandemic (Herald Net)
- How open science can help solve Zika and prepare us for the next pandemic (WP)
- Cuts to public health could hamper Zika preparation, response (USA Today)
- WHO and the refugee crisis in Jordan and beyond (The Lancet)
- Smallpox investigations, pandemic response funding, genomics data (Pandora Report)
- Infectious outbreaks must be combatted strategically: Experts (HSNW)
- Pakistan polio: Seven killed in anti-vaccination attack (BBC)
- Q&A with Iowa’s environmental laboratory director (APHL)
SELECT AGENTS
- What anthrax has taught us about public health preparedness (Vital Record)
- Ebola PHEIC is over but emergency continues (The Lancet)
- Cellular protection of SNAP-25 against botulinum neurotoxin A (JACS)
- Therapeutic post-infection options for Ebola virus treatment set to broaden (Nature)
- Experimental Treatment of Ebola Virus Disease with TKM-130803 (PLOS Medicine)
- Trial suggests potential for sequential use of 2 Ebola vaccines (CIDRAP)
- Ebola resurgences suggest the virus can linger longer than expected (Quartz)
- List of Agent Orange-related diseases may expand (Military Times)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- Angola yellow fever outbreak exposes vaccine supply dilemma (Reuters)
- Billboards in Brazil rigged to lure and kill Zika-carrying mosquitoes (STAT)
- HHS funds final work on Basilea Pharmaceutica antibiotic (Bloomberg)
- Supermoms against superbugs: Meet the movement (PEW)
- China’s vaccine scandal threatens public faith in immunizations (NY Times)
- Polio eradication: ‘We have never been this close’ (STAT)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Mysterious outbreak: 5 things to know about Elizabethkingia (Yahoo)
- Human beings – and our offices – are crawling with microbes (The Conversation)
- EU publishes interim guidance on maritime transport and Zika virus (Eurosurveillance)
- Zika and Ebola, explained by their outbreak potential (Vox)
- Global emergence of enterovirus D68: a systematic review (The Lancet)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Tick–host–pathogen interactions: Conflict and cooperation (PLOS Pathogens)
- Lab-on-a-drone: Pinpoint deployment of nucleic acid-based diagnostics (ACS)
- Scientists unveil the ‘most clever CRISPR gadget’ so far (STAT)
- Exposure to routine viruses makes mice better test subjects (WUSTL)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- Beyond germs: Native depopulation in North America (Contagions Blog)
