See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including emerging foodborne pathogens, Zika rapid response team deployment, and medical countermeasures for high-dose radiation exposures.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- Putting shots in the locker: How to anticipate epidemics (The Economist)
- Are we unprepared for another Ebola outbreak? (Forbes)
- Emerging foodborne risks – How and why pathogens emerge (PEW)
- Ebola and Zika cautionary tales, forecasting disease hot spots (Pandora Report)
- CDC deploys new rapid response teams to fight Zika (USA Today)
- Uncertainty and the Zika virus: Why scientists need to think like poets (WBUR)
- #NatlPrep: Biodefense & pandemic preparedness (Avian Flu Blog)
- Emerging infectious diseases and the DoD (HDIAC)
POLICY & POLITICS
- Plum Island: Home to high-security lab and source of rumors (NY Times)
- The hunt to find the lawmaker blocking the Zika funding bill (Wired)
- How non-scientists can spot the hype in coverage on public health emergencies (Bioethics.gov)
- The emerging life sciences and the national security state (Strategic Studies)
SELECT AGENTS
- Anthrax-like Bacillus cereus strain eyed for Select Agent bioterror list (CIDRAP)
- Using Blue Waters supercomputer to better understand Ebola transmission (HPC Wire)
- J&J to start testing vaccine for Ebola strains, Marburg virus (STAT)
- Ebola virus lingers longer than scientists thought (Nature)
- Anthrax emergency: How to crush doxycycline (CDC)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Could a Zika vaccine break the vaccine stalemate? (Slate)
- The next generation of antibiotics could be bacteriophages (Labiotech.eu)
- Millions at risk as deadly fungal infections acquire drug resistance (The Guardian)
- Could ancient remedies hold the answer to the looming antibiotics crisis? (NY Times Mag)
- Benefits and risks of the Sanofi-Pasteur dengue vaccine (Science)
- Myeloid cytokines for acute exposure to radiation (REMM)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Rapid risk assessment on Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in Spain (ECDC)
- MERS-CoV: Infectious diseases epidemic threats and mass gatherings (BioMed)
- Pregnant women anxious as Florida’s Zika test results take weeks (NY Times)
- Guidelines for Zika vector surveillance and insecticide resistance testing (CDC)
- Travelers warned of fatal tick-borne disease in Western Europe (New Scientist)
- Guillain-Barré passive surveillance system (CDC)
- 9 hit by Legionnaires in Hopkins outbreak (Star Tribune)
- The Zika case that has experts stumped (Time)
CHEMICAL & RADIOLOGICAL THREATS
- Prototype for adult and pediatric medical orders during a radiation incident (REMM)
- Medical management of internal contamination in radiological mass casualty (PubMed)
- Chemical weapons watchdog continues hunt for Syria’s elusive nerve agent (FP)
- As ISIS closed in, a race to remove chemical-weapon precursors in Libya (WaPo)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Expert opinion on whole genome sequencing for public health surveillance (ECDC)
- Seattle scientists first to show monkey model of Zika damage (Seattle Times)
- Computational method identifies existing drugs with virus-fighting potential (ETHealth)
- How virtual reality could help stop the next Ebola outbreak (Nextgov)
- The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists (Vox)
- ‘No room for doubt’: New science proves Zika causes microcephaly (WaPo)
- Toggling CRISPR activity with a chemical switch (The Scientist)
- Mapping the emergence of synthetic biology (PLOS One)
