See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including the life science – biodefense complex, local public health bracing for Zika, and clinical management of Ebola in children.
POLICY & PRACTICES
- How D.C. is preparing for nuclear, chemical, and biological weapon attacks (TW)
- Who isn’t equipped for a pandemic or bioterror attack? The WHO (BOTAS)
- Congress must fully fund battle against Zika and Ebola (Miami Herald)
- While Latin America struggles over Zika, Haiti faces epidemic with a shrug (WaPo)
- Apocalyptic pathogens, front line disease detectives, and One Health (Pandora Report)
- CBER laboratories in the life sciences-biodefense complex (FDA)
- Protect against bioterror – invest in bioscience to fight drug-resistant infections (Post Gazette)
- Without federal funding, counties brace to confront Zika on their own (WaPo)
- U.S. to help fund technology to eliminate Zika in blood supply (Reuters)
- Obama veto threat looms over latest version of Zika funding bill (CIDRAP)
- EU referendum: UK science wakes up to new future (BBC News)
- The right(s) approach to Zika (The Lancet)
SELECT AGENTS
- Ebola virus disease in children: towards better clinical management (The Lancet)
- Study: Capsule-conjugate anthrax vaccine protects macaques (CIDRAP)
- Emergent BioSolutions clears hurdle for anthrax vaccine facility (CNBC)
- Human cases of plague, tularemia reported in New Mexico, Colorado (CIDRAP)
- Two die in suspected anthrax outbreak in Kazakhstan (Reuters)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- U.S. spurns AstraZeneca’s nasal spray flu vaccine as ineffective (Reuters)
- ACIP votes down use of LAIV nasal spray for 2016-2017 flu season (CDC)
- Inovio Pharma gets green signal to test Zika vaccine in human trial (Reuters)
- Experimental Zika vaccine is approved for clinical trials for first time in US (STAT)
- Pilot implementation program for RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate (PATH)
- WHO to launch emergency yellow fever vaccination in Angola, Congo (Reuters)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- WHO team investigating viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak in South Sudan (Kaiser)
- Avian influenza in poultry in the Netherlands (Gov.UK)
- Global epidemiology of avian influenza A H5N1 from 1997–2015 (The Lancet)
- Stopping listeria required an arsenal of tools and an army of experts (APHL)
- Cases of Zika virus disease in the United States (Kaiser)
- MCR-1 findings in gulls show mobility of resistance threat (CIDRAP)
- Yellow fever: the consequences of neglect (The Lancet)
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
- Why I asked to be tear-gassed at Porton Down (The Telegraph)
- The science of chemical forensics in chemical weapons investigations (OPCW)
- Feds will review Hanford response to toxic vapors (Oregon Live)
- Encapsulation of a nerve agent detoxifying enzyme by a zirconium MOF (ACS)
- The scientific breakthroughs behind modern fabric (Newsworks)
- Petraeus on ISIS, chemical weapons, and terrorism threat (CNN)
- UN takes stock of landmark resolution on weapons proliferation (UN)
RESEARCH & TECH
- They’re going to CRISPR people. What could possibly go wrong? (STAT)
- Cancer is contagious among clams. What about us? (NY Times)
- Roche announces availability of LightMix modular Zika virus assay (Reuters)
- PositiveID’s mobile lab business completed 80 projects so far this year (PositiveID)
- Organs-on-chips allow new views of human biology (Scientific American)
- Mosquito bites may worsen viral infection (The Scientist)
HISTORICAL & SPECIAL INTEREST
- CBRNE: What would Ramazzini have to say? (CBRNe Portal)
- Did the microbe make me do it? A review of Infectious Madness (Tracking Zebra)
- Iceland, horses, and Hendra: Greg on vacation (Pandora Report)
- The value (and disvalue) of conducting secret science (Tracking Zebra)
- The epidemiology of greyscale (Aetiology)
