See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including the new HHS director, transparency in global health security, and lessons from three decades of pandemics.
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- Treaty to stop biopiracy threatens to delay flu vaccines (Nature)
- Trump’s pick for health and human secretary takes office (STAT)
- Influenza virus guidance for surveyors, providers and suppliers (CMS.gov)
- 5 communication lessons learned in the wake of the Zika crisis (Forbes)
- CDC’s emerging infectious diseases center 2016 accomplishments (NCEZID)
- Global health security: how can laboratories help? (The Lancet)
- Greater transparency called for in global health security (HuffPost)
- Reimagining infrastructure investment to spur biotechnology innovation (Forbes)
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- My fears about bioweapons and synthetic biology (PLOS Synbio Community)
- What three decades of pandemic threats can teach us about the future (Health Affairs)
- Germs of terror – bioterrorism and science communication after Sep 11 (JCOM)
- Biodefense and cybersecurity research at UNL laboratory (KETV)
SELECT AGENTS
- Kansas bio-defense facility is on track (KFDI)
- Federal Select Agent Program update on transparency, community engagement (HHS/CDC)
- Study: Standard pasteurization kills Ebola virus in breast milk (CIDRAP)
- Ricin poisoning may one day be treatable with new antidote (Science News)
- Anthrax outbreak persists in Zambia despite public health efforts (Disease Daily)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- German biotech gets seed funding to repurpose cancer drugs for the flu (Labiotech)
- Millions of children to receive measles vaccine in north-eastern Nigeria (WHO)
- The surge of universal influenza vaccines (T&F)
- How the anti-vaxxers are winning (NY Times)
- Studies shed light on effects of serial flu shots (CIDRAP)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Mcr-1 and the end of the world (Reflections on IPC)
- Saudi Arabia reports severe MERS infection in Mecca (CIDRAP)
- Mumps virus infections are on the rise across the U.S. (Newsweek)
- Yellow fever kills 600 monkeys in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest (WaPo)
- Korea on high alert as second strain of foot-and-mouth disease confirmed (Reuters)
- H5N5 strikes again in Germany, other strains spark more outbreaks in Europe (CIDRAP)
- Zika virus ‘spillback’ into primates raises risk of future human outbreaks (ScienceNews)
- Drug resistant malaria found in EU. How worried should we be? (UN Dispatch)
- SARS and MERS: what’s next? (Vital Record)
RESEARCH & TECH
- The Colosseum that is CRISPR patent wars (Pandora Report)
- Effective rate of influenza reassortment is limited during human infection (PLOS)
- Disease and economic burdens of dengue (The Lancet)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- In studying sick fish, scientists trace history of fevers (NPR)
- Swiss antibodies and the US NIH will fight ancient viral DNA causing ALS (Labiotech)
- The mould that first made Penicillin – Alexander Fleming (Bonhams)
- Viral evolution: mummy virus challenges presumed history of smallpox (Current Bio)
