See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including Bill Gates on pandemic preparedness, Bacillus anthracis identification methods, and the return of a lethal bird flu to China.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- How best to prepare for epidemics? Strengthen primary care (The Conversation)
- Prescription Medication Preparedness Initiative (PHE.gov)
- Pandemic preparedness: Learning from experience (Pandora Report)
- A new kind of terrorism could wipe out 30M people in less than a year (BI)
- NU lab plays key role in biocybersecurity (KETV 7)
- Sustainable clinical laboratory capacity for health in Africa (Lancet GH)
- Big changes coming for hospital emergency managers (Emergency Management)
- Should I stay or should I go? Bioterror emergency response preparedness (PR)
- Use of pharmacy text messaging capabilities in a future pandemic (Healthcare Ready)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- Ebola funding surge hides falling investment in other neglected diseases (Nature)
- Establishing the Africa CDC: responding to Africa’s health threats (Lancet GH)
- Who should be allowed to use CRISPR? (PopSci)
- Vaccine programs are threatened by exemptions, ACA repeal (STAT)
- The sustainable development goals and the Global Health Security Agenda (Springer)
- International collaborations to defend against bioweapons: The UK/US experience (PR)
- Bill and Melinda Gates make the case US engagement in global health (STAT)
SELECT AGENTS
- Ebola ‘super-spreaders’ cause most cases (BBC News)
- U.S. shuts high-security labs over concerns about air hose safety (Reuters)
- Persistence of immune responses induced by Ebola virus vaccines (Lancet GH)
- ASM and APHL’s new interim recommendations for Bacillus identification (ASM)
- Single mutation in the envelope protein modulates flavivirus antigenicity, pathogenesis (PLOS)
- Removing the viral threat: two months to stop Pandemic X from taking hold (DARPA)
- Pneumonic plague transmission, Moramanga, Madagascar, 2015 (CDC)
- Selection of DNA aptamers against Botulinum Neurotoxin E (Wiley)
- An empirical analysis of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa (Scientific Reports)
- Evaluation of PCR systems for field screening of Bacillus anthracis (Health Security)
- New study describes role of Ebola super-spreaders (CIDRAP)
- The Ebola suspect’s dilemma (Lancet GH)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Could this common weed help fight deadly superbugs? (CBS News)
- Licensure under the FDA Animal Rule: A path to success (Pandora Report)
- ‘Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines save lives.’ (Pump Handle)
- Researchers study effective inhibition of MERS-CoV infection by resveratrol (ICT)
- Bacterial failsafe may unlock superbug treatment (Horizon)
- New way to fight superbugs found in noxious weed (NatGeo)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- A lethal bird flu returns to China (CFR)
- China bird flu deaths surge in what could be the worst season ever (Reuters)
- Predictive biology: Predicting emergence by understanding the past (PR)
- Rare disease strikes a Bronx area all too familiar with rats (NY Times)
- Zika persists in semen, but viral shedding stops in most cases in a few months (STAT)
- Veterinarians: Warriors in the battle against disease (The Hill)
- Taiwan bird flu culls reach nearly 130,000 as H5N6 cases confirmed (Reuters)
- Hard to detect, China bird flu virus may be more widespread (Reuters)
- Brazil’s expanding yellow fever outbreak started with monkeys (NPR)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Human gene editing receives science panel’s support (NY Times)
- Reactions to CRISPR patent decision (PLOS SynBio)
- Microscopic bots could swim through the bloodstream to deliver drugs (SciAm)
- Point-of-need diagnostics: Biosurveillance in Sierra Leone (BMJ)
- New point-of-care diagnostic test rapidly detects infectious bacteria (Healio)
- ECDC releases app for infectious disease threats on the go (ECDC)
- Harvard, MIT research institute holds on to gene-editing patent rights (Reuters)
- The birth of CRISPR Inc (Science)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- Here’s why NASA is sending a superbug into space (STAT) subscription
- Scientists sending a lethal pathogen to the space station this weekend (Gizmodo)
- The elite medical detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EID)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- Germ history: Milkmaids inspire vaccines, but the germs keep coming (NPR)
- Plague in Brazil: From now and then (Research Gate)
- Ötzi’s Lyme disease in context (Contagions Blog)
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