See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including high containment lab incidents, battling antibiotic resistance, and the future of Plum Island.
POLICY & PRACTICES
- Federal report discloses incidents in high-containment labs (CIDRAP)
- CDC failed to disclose lab incidents with bioterror pathogens to Congress (USA Today)
- Government warehouse prepped for health catastrophes (NPR)
- Battling antibiotic resistance, Brexit and public health, and yellow fever (PR)
- The Supreme Court decision that’s shaking up biotech (STAT)
- Americans were more worried about Ebola than they are about Zika (WaPo)
- Roots, not parachutes: research collaborations combat outbreaks (Cell)
- Porton Down – inside Britain’s secret weapons research facility (BBC News)
- DHS has no future need for Plum Island, should be sold or transferred (Riverhead)
- UK scientists in limbo after Brexit shock (Nature)
SELECT AGENTS
- Annual Report of the Federal Select Agent Program (CDC, USDA)
- Quick, early test for Ebola could prevent epidemics (Princeton University)
- First-of-its-kind CDC study finds clues about why only some survive Ebola (WaPo)
- USAMRIID researchers make breakthrough with anthrax vaccine (Frederick News Post)
- Plague: A scourge from ancient to modern times (Live Science)
- Safeguarding deadly pathogens and poisons (CDC)
- Plague Exposure Found in San Jacinto Mountains Squirrels (NBC Los Angeles)
- What it’s like to have an Ebola scare (The Atlantic)
- Ibuprofen ‘disables’ Ebola virus (BBC News)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- Zika vaccine ‘works very well’ in mice (BBC News)
- There’s big money again in saving humanity with antibiotics (Bloomberg)
- Inside a monkey lab, research gets fast-tracked in the ‘Zika room’ (STAT)
- Vaccines protect mice against Zika infection (The Scientist)
- Why are there so many reports of autism following vaccination? (Logic of Science)
- Zika animal studies yield new disease clues, optimism for vaccine (CIDRAP)
- World’s first malaria vaccine delays — doesn’t prevent — infection (STAT)
- Limited protection of GSK’s malaria vaccine dwindles in 7 years (Reuters)
- Composite endpoints in clinical trials (The Scientists)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- ‘The Aleppo evil’ is making a comeback (NPR)
- Sex may spread Zika virus more often than researchers suspected (NY Times)
- MCR-1 detected in Salmonella in Portugal, E coli in Brazil (CIDRAP)
- Traditional and syndromic surveillance of infectious diseases and pathogens (IJID)
- Europe’s coming plagues: vector-borne neglected tropical diseases (PLOS NTD)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Wireless, wearable toxic-gas detector (MIT News)
- Breakthrough device can diagnose malaria in 5 seconds flat (Yahoo Tech)
- RT-PCR using FRET technology for Old World cutaneous leishmaniasis (P&V)
- Spirometrix lands 17M for breath-based diagnostic device (Mass Device)
- Luminex Corporation Completes Acquisition of Nanosphere (Luminex)
- DIY micro-Raman: Flexible and cheap (Spectroscopy Now)
- Flavivirus infection requires specific host genes (NIH Research Matters)
- Characterization of the microbial communities on Boston transport (Molecular Ecologist)
- Are science papers becoming too complex? (STAT)
HISTORICAL & SPECIAL INTEREST
- Dr. Jonas Salk and the continuing battle against polio (NY Times)
- Monica Green and Boris Schmid on plague phylogeny (Contagions Blog)
- The centenary of the discovery of trench fever (The Lancet)
- Vaxxed: The film that no one saw (ACSH)
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