See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including Ebola response lessons learned, conflicting studies on FluMist, and anthrax in Siberia.
POLICY & POLICTICS
- UN makes first public admission of blame for Haiti cholera outbreak (The Guardian)
- The fight against Zika can’t wait for a vaccine (Harvard Business Review)
- Event: Lessons from Ebola and Zika: How to prevent the next pandemic (Harvard)
- Worried Florida Republicans push Ryan for Zika action (Politico)
- CDC, HHS proposed rule on control of communicable diseases (Federal Register)
- ASTMH Presidents urge Congress to take action on Zika (ASTMH)
- Legal interventions to address the Zika threat – webinar (Pitt.edu)
- U.N. admits role in cholera epidemic in Haiti (NY Times)
- Keeping biological research safe (The Hill)
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- Ebola. Zika. Could a rapid-response fund help the US address crises faster? (STAT)
- Lessons learned in developing an effective regional Ebola CONOPS (ASPR)
- Upton leads oversight efforts of CDC bioterrorism response capabilities (Ripon Advance)
- Commentary: Failing on Zika (CSIS)
SELECT AGENTS
- D.A. Henderson, ‘disease detective’ who eradicated smallpox, dies at 87 (Chicago Tribune)
- Chemical warfare troops fight anthrax outbreak in Siberia (The Times)
- Anthrax outbreak in Siberia as a harbinger of the unfreezing of pathogens (Disease Daily)
- Next steps for Ebola vaccine: Deployment in non-epidemic, high-risk settings (PLOS NTD)
- Slow diagnosis, malaria limited response to 2015 Zambia plague outbreak (Healio)
- Bacillus anthracis sequence from the Sverdlovsk 1979 autopsy specimens (bioRxiv)
- British Ebola nurse ‘concealed temperature’ on return from Sierra Leone (Reuters)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Study says FluMist vaccine does indeed work, contradicting CDC (NPR)
- A roadmap for MERS-CoV research and product development (WHO)
- Navy researchers develop therapeutic cocktail of environmental phages (Armed with Science)
- Why the Pentagon is paying nearly $2 million for a custom-designed bacteria (CNBC)
- A field trip fit only for an infectious disease nerd: a flu vaccine plant (Tracking Zebra)
- Influenza vaccine for international mass gatherings (The Lancet)
- Hutterite flu vaccine trial: More questions on optimal flu vaccines (UPMC)
- Choosing not to vaccinate has real-world consequences (CIDR)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Polio reemerges in Nigeria (The Scientist)
- Outbreak of yellow fever in DR Congo could go global (Reuters)
- Zika, Miami and innovative alternatives to pesticides (Forbes)
- The case for leaving city rats alone (Nautilus)
- Zika now spreading in Miami Beach, sources say (Miami Herald)
- Assessing dengue diagnosis capability gap in the military health system (PubMed)
- From anthrax to Zika – we’ve got you covered (Pandora Report)
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
- How the Islamic State seized a chemical weapons stockpile (Foreign Policy)
- We need facts about the use of chemical weapons in Syria (The Guardian)
RESEARCH & TECH
- ‘Radically rewritten’ bacterial genome unveiled (Nature)
- New enzyme-mapping advance could help drug development (MIT News)
- The mystery of Zika’s path to the placenta (The Atlantic)
- Researchers discover new way to attack Staphylococcus aureus (Sci News)
- Drones transport microbiological samples without altering their content (mBiosphere)
- Method simplifies blood biomarker discovery and analysis (MDT)
- Streamlining the E.coli genetic code (The Scientist)
- VA says it has world’s top genomic database (HealthData)
HISTORICAL & SPECIAL INTEREST
- Genetic analysis yields new clues in 1979 Soviet anthrax accident (CIDRAP)
- Why get a liberal education? it is the life and breath of medicine (US News)
- Make this amazing plague doctor’s mask (Makezine)
- How to stop a zombie apocalypse – with science (The Conversation)
