See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including gain-of-function research guidelines, synthesizing the human genome, and critical health security funding gaps.
POLICY, PRACTICES & PREPAREDNESS
- The edge of the antibiotic abyss (Contagion)
- WHO emergency panel to meet in June on Zika and Olympics (Reuters)
- Newly disclosed CDC biolab failures ‘like a screenplay for a disaster movie’ (USA Today)
- To stop the next pandemic, let’s focus on the boring diseases (Pacific Standard)
- NSABB finalizes GOF guidance; White House to weigh in (CIDRAP)
- It’s here! The 2016 National Preparedness Report (HSDL)
- Hustling dollars for public health (NY Times)
- Plan to synthesize human genome triggers mixed response (Nature)
- Gates Foundation on preparing for pandemics (NY Times)
- Africa starts its own disease control agency (CDC)
- Does the Olympics in Rio put the world in danger of Zika? (NPR)
- Back to the future of global health security (CFR)
- State, local public health lose critical funding because Congress fails to act (PH)
SELECT AGENTS
- Recommendations for dealing with waste contaminated with Ebola virus (WHO)
- Ethics in clinical management and response to the W. Africa Ebola epidemic (Dovepress)
- Maintaining maternal and child health during the Ebola outbreak (PLOS Outbreaks)
- Vaccination programs during pandemics spread via respiratory droplets (Eurosurveillance)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- Development of small animal models for Zika virus vaccine testing (AJTMH)
- US survey shows gaps in understanding of antibiotic resistance (CIDRAP)
- The power of vaccinating pregnant women (BBC News)
- How do frontline scientists respond to the threat of mosquito-borne viruses? (UQ)
- Pakistan’s quiet revolution against polio (Foreign Policy)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- While you were watching Zika, Chikungunya came to Texas (STAT)
- Mysterious hemorrhagic fever outbreak stumps disease detectives (NPR)
- WHO: Array of Zika birth defects equals new syndrome (CIDRAP)
- Defining the syndrome associated with congenital Zika virus infection (WHO)
- Should Zika really stop you going to the Rio Olympics? Here are the facts (Conversation)
- Yellow fever persists in Angola, DRC; suspected cases probed elsewhere (CIDRAP)
- Niger confirms bird flu outbreak in poultry (Reuters)
- Scoping review of the Zika virus literature (PLOS One)
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
- Assad may be using sarin gas – and the world is staying on the sidelines (Conversation)
- Training customs officials for detection of scheduled chemicals (OPCW)
- 2016 Emergency Response Manual (HazMat Magazine)
- Islamic State ‘stockpiling’ chemical weapons (Reuters)
RESEARCH & TECH
- New CRISPR system for targeting RNA (MIT News)
- Scientists find form of CRISPR gene editing with new capabilities (NY Times)
- ExThera seeks to commercialize technology to remove pathogens from blood (MDT)
- Nanosponge decoy fights superbug infections and poisons (Science 360)
- Scientists launch proposal to create synthetic human genome (The Guardian)
- CE-IVD Mark granted for ARIES Flu A/B & RSV assay (Luminex)
- Why does anyone go to the BIO convention, anyway? (STAT)
- Novel CRISPR system zeroes in on single-stranded RNA (The Scientist)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- See 18 gorgeous public health posters from the 1930s (Time)
- The new arms race against bacteria (The Actuary)
- Black-Death survey reveals incredible devastation wrought by Plague (Yahoo)
- The rabies vaccine backstory (The Scientist)
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