See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including emerging technologies as potential bioweapons, anthrax biosafety lapses and disciplinary actions, and the Zika funding standoff.
POLICY & PRACTICES
- Find the time to discuss new bioweapons (Nature)
- Why Congress’ Zika impasse could awaken Ebola menace (Politico)
- The disease slush fund (Pandora Report)
- Zika is the ‘most difficult’ emergency health response ever (The Atlantic)
- IFRC appeals for funding to help stop yellow fever outbreak in Angola (IFRC)
- Zika preparedness for state and local health departments (CDC)
- House panel set to endorse 1.3B increase for the NIH (STAT)
- Case studies: National biosafety systems (UPMC CHS)
- Influenza outbreak would cost U.S. billions of dollars in losses (HSNW)
- Panel slams plan for human research rules (Science)
SELECT AGENTS
- Army metes out punishment in anthrax scandal (USA Today)
- These scientists are racing to prevent the next Ebola (VICE)
- Study launched of Gilead’s Ebola antiviral (C&EN)
- First ever biosafety report details 199 mishaps with toxic agents (Reuters)
- Ebola left a terrible legacy—and another outbreak is likely (The Atlantic)
- CXCL10 as a bifunctional antimicrobial molecule against Bacillus anthracis (mBio)
- A double-risk monitoring and movement restriction policy for Ebola (Science Direct)
- Addressing infection prevention and control in first U.S. Hospital to treat EVD (AIM)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- New approach to severe bacterial infections and sepsis (Harvard Gazette)
- Yellow fever: A vaccine-preventable infectious disease emergency (UPMC CHS)
- Killer fungus destroys Zika mosquitoes from the inside out (Newsweek)
- Scientists discover new threat to antibiotic of last resort (STAT)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Arizona is site of largest current US measles outbreak (WaPo)
- Swine fever kills 600 pigs, outbreak alleged to come from Namibia (SABC News)
- Canada detects low pathogenic type of bird flu on duck farm (CNBC)
- MERS virus in South Korean hospital from one ‘super-spreader’ patient (Med Xpress)
- An open letter to Olympic athletes about Zika (STAT)
- 88 more yellow fever cases in Angola bring total past 3,500 (CIDRAP)
- Zika-infected person with underlying conditions dies in Utah (Slate)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Rapid test identifies disease pathogens (Fraunhofer Institute)
- NIH awards 55M to build million-person precision medicine study (NIH)
- Instrument-free point-of-care molecular detection of Zika virus (AC)
- A method to detect Zika-blocking bacteria (The Scientist)
- Maryland bioscience industry leader in NIH funding, venture capital (FNP)
- From slow viruses to prions (PLOS Pathogens)
