See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including the current state of pandemic preparedness, investing in animal health systems, and the yellow fever vaccine shortage.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- Why are we more at risk than ever for a global pandemic? (Contagion Live)
- U.S. Preparedness Index points to scattered and mediocre progress (Pandora Report)
- The world needs a DARPA-style project to prevent pandemics (HBR)
- The current state of biodefense in the US (Global Risk Research Network)
- Pandemic preparedness in the homeless sector (Cambridge.org)
- New CDC guidelines on flu pandemic measures reflect 2009 lessons (CIDRAP)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- USDA announces 4.8M available to support food safety outreach program (EurekAlert)
- Community mitigation guidelines to prevent pandemic influenza (CDC)
- Viewpoints: keep investing in animal health system (Philly.com)
SELECT AGENTS
- 80-year-old ‘viable’ anthrax strain debunked using advanced genomic sequencing (R&D)
- B. anthracis edema toxin increases fractional free water and sodium reabsorption (ASM)
- Ricin to the challenge: Bid with vaccine excites Street (Soligenix)
- Unexpected relations of historical anthrax strain (mBio)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Advancing new vaccines against pandemic flu in low-resource countries (Vaccine)
- U.S. top court debates making copycat biologics available sooner (Reuters)
- WHO vaccine advisors weigh in on polio, cholera, Ebola, diphtheria (CIDRAP)
- Maximizing the impact of inactivated polio vaccines (The Lancet)
- Army rejects request to deny Sanofi an exclusive license for a Zika vaccine (STAT News)
- Flexible, highly potent and effective adjuvant for pandemic influenza vaccines (NCBI)
- Immunoglobulin infusion as therapy against influenza? (Science Direct)
- Forge Therapeutics antibiotics program scores 15M in venture funding (C&EN)
- Only weeks remain for US supply of yellow fever vaccine (CIDRAP)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Meningitis outbreak in Nigeria has killed 813 people – minister (Reuters)
- Campy, salmonella caused most bacterial foodborne illnesses in 2016 (OH&S)
- FDA resource page on Zika virus diagnostic development (FDA.gov)
- Zika in Africa—the invisible epidemic? (The Lancet)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Quick, sensitive diagnostic tests with CRISPR (NIH)
- Zika virus persists in the nervous system and elsewhere (The Scientist)
- Flow cytometry advances in the clinical and military arenas (MLO)
- Pathogen-specific cargo delivery platform based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (JACS)
- Managing disease spread through accessible modeling (Newswise)
- Atomic-level motion may drive bacteria’s ability to evade immune system (ScienMag)
SPECIAL INTEREST + HISTORICAL
- NBAF update: the lab as a buffer against catastrophic outbreaks (The Mercury)
- Applications sought for National Preparedness and Response Science Board (FR)
- Plague and Contagion in the Islamic Mediterranean (Google Books)
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