See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including the end of Ebola in Liberia, preparing for Zika and future epidemics, and CRISPR’s potential to transform diagnostics.
POLICY & PRACTICES
- U.S. to send rapid-response teams when Zika hits here (WaPo)
- Beyond the Ebola battle — winning the war against future epidemics (NEJM)
- Lab Worker in Pittsburgh is accidentally infected with Zika virus (NY Times)
- Four reasons why Africa, Gates and Obama want to end malaria (Reuters)
- Don’t cancel the Olympics because of Zika (Bifurcated Needle)
- Bill proposes sea mammal protection zone around Plum Island (HSNW)
- Viruses like Ebola and Zika can be predicted, says new study (The Telegraph)
- Computing told us how close we came to a global pandemic of a drug-resistant flu (TC)
- NIH in uproar over report slamming Clinical Center, leadership shakeup (Science)
- Rubio: Give Obama $1.9 billion to fight Zika virus (The Hill)
- Forget Zika — the flu is the greatest threat of all (NY Post)
- DoD biosafety failures (Pandora Report)
SELECT AGENTS
- Ebola survivor meets researchers who developed the drug that saved her life (CBC)
- Revisiting targeting only B. anthracis toxins as a treatment for anthrax (ASM)
- End of the most recent Ebola virus disease outbreak in Liberia (WHO)
- North Dakota top vet: ‘Conditions right for anthrax in livestock’ (Outbreak News)
- Ebola virus can survive months in syringe needles, 1 week on money (CIDRAP)
- Redefining the Australian anthrax belt (PLOS NTD)
- Don’t drop the ball on Ebola fight – report (City Press)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- Walter Reed scientists test Zika vaccine candidate (DoD)
- From flu to smallpox, URMC clinical trials lead the way to vaccines (Univ Rochester)
- A review of clinical models for the evaluation of human TB vaccines (Human Vaccines)
- Addressing the challenges of influenza vaccination on college campuses (NFID)
- Yellow fever vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (WHO)
- The last days of Guinea worm (NPR)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Canada targets U.S. truck washes in fight against killer pig virus (Reuters)
- South Sudan hit by Ebola-like disease: report (Sudan Tribune)
- A deeper look at Legionnaires’ disease (CDC)
- Wisconsin reports 63rd confirmed Elizabethkingia case (Outbreak News)
- Sexual transmission of Zika virus in Germany, April 2016 (Eurosurveillance)
- Will Zika return to the ‘Old World’? (Microbes & Infection)
- EPI researchers receive RAPID grants to study Zika virus (UF)
- Oropouche outbreak in Peru (The Scientist)
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
- Army moving chemical weapons defense units from Maryland (CBS)
- Repairs at chemical weapons plant likely to cost about $20M (Kentucky.com)
- Start-up delayed at Pueblo plant to destroy chemical weapons (The Gazette)
- Russia’s chemical terrorism proposal: Red herring or useful tool? (BOTAS)
- Chemical Weapons Could Change the Game in Syria (Besa Center)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Could CRISPR gene-cutting tool transform disease diagnostics? (STAT)
- Air Techniques unveils next gen in real-time biothreat detection (CBRNe World)
- Germ sleuths go high-tech as labs get Illumina sequencers (Bloomberg)
- Panel endorses ‘gene drive’ technology that can alter entire species (NY Times)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- So long, and thanks for all the plagues (PopSci)
- New evidence for the long-term impact of the ‘calamitous’ 14th century (Antiquity)
- European black death as the source of ancient and modern plague pandemics (Cell)
- America nearly attacked Japan with chemical weapons in 1945 (National Interest)
- Alexander the Great’s mysterious death (New Historian)
