See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including digital pathogen detection, Ebola virus lingering in spinal fluid, and melioidosis outbreak drivers.
POLICY & PRACTICES
- Zika funding bill fails as Congress is unable to reach compromise (Time)
- Without immunization, Texas could see a return of the plagues (TribTalk)
- Appropriations bill for Department of Health and Human Services (House.gov)
- International security and foreign policy implications of disease outbreaks (DOS)
- Improving decision support for infectious disease prevention and control (Rand)
- Uncertain impact of critical biosecurity reports – Jan 2016 (DomPrep)
- Brexit is a global health risk (Foreign Policy)
- GOP backs new fund for public health (The Hill)
SELECT AGENTS
- Agent X still a threat to Warfighters (DTRA)
- Study: Ebola virus in spinal fluid may explain neurologic changes (CIDRAP)
- Filovirus survivors exhibit cross-reactive and long-lived antibody responses (ASM)
- This program may have stopped Ebola — but never had requested funding (VICE)
- Community engagement in ethics and Ebola: public health planning (Bioethics.gov)
- Identifying CBRN agents to stop disease in its tracks (HDIAC) .pdf
- Integrating gender in the response to Ebola (AFDB)
INFECTIOUS DISEASE COUNTERMEASURES
- To fight a virus, get a virus: military bets on mutant pathogen (Bloomberg)
- Austrian biotech plans Zika vaccine clinical trials in 12 months (Reuters)
- MSF denounces high price of vaccines for refugee children (MSF)
- Fighting a hospital superbug reveals an unexpected benefit (NatGeo)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- CDC: Zika passed from woman to man via sex (CIDRAP)
- Earliest known case of antibiotic-resistant superbug found in NY (STAT)
- Zika – old enemy, new threat (IIT Magazine)
- Risk of Zika importation from travel to the 2016 Olympics (CDC)
- Suspected Congo yellow fever cases up 38 percent in last three weeks (Reuters)
- Reports note melioidosis, mycobacteria outbreaks tied to healthcare (CIDRAP)
- Superbug gene detected in a second person in the U.S. (WaPo)
- Map: Here’s where Zika mosquitoes are likely found in California (KQED)
- PRRS has claimed 3,613 pigs since April (Business Standard)
CHEMICAL THREATS
- Researchers study combustion behavior of chemical weapons (Texas A&M)
- West Virginia chemical spill: high throughput screening assays (Nat Toxicology)
- Iran sought chemical and biological weapons in 2015, says German intel (Fox)
- Redstone Arsenal turns 75. How it almost didn’t make 10 (AL.com)
- UCF researcher studies chemical weapons in his lab (Orlando Sentinel)
- New method uses nanoparticles to identify chemical warfare agents (NanoWerk)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Army researchers explore digital pathogen detection (ECN)
- Dendrimer-RNA nanoparticles offer fast, customizable vaccines (C&EN)
- CDC influenza mobile app for clinicians and health care professionals (CDC)
- ASU professor works to screen for safe blood supply with new test (KJZZ)
- Kate Rubins, a biologist-turned-astronaut (Wired)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- Dancing Plague remains one of the unresolved mysteries of public health (MinnPost)
- Pence once peddled conspiracy theories about anthrax and Saddam Hussein (LA Times)
- History credits this man with discovering Ebola on his own. History is wrong (STAT)
