See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including the depleted yellow fever vaccine supply, viability of ‘arboterrorism’, and the return of Ebola.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- Ebola returns in Congo, a test of ‘next time’ (Foreign Policy)
- Strength in numbers: community preparedness partnerships (ASPR)
- Growing threat of pandemics: enhancing global biosecurity (Pandora Report)
- Are we prepared to help low-resource populations mitigate a severe pandemic? (UN)
- Sacred Heart’s new infectious disease unit ready to handle Ebola (Spokesman-Review)
- Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework Q&A (WHO)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- Self-regulation of science: what can we still learn from Asilomar? (Muse)
- CRISPR makes it clear: The US needs a biology strategy, and fast (Wired)
- Arboterrorism: Doubtful delusion or deadly danger (JoB&B)
- ASM comments on draft Diagnostic Accuracy and Innovation Act (DAIA)
- Strategies for keeping you and your patients infection-free (JEMS)
SELECT AGENTS
- Ebola returns, and Central Africa’s virus hunters are ready (Wired)
- One shot: Chimerix still betting on drug to treat smallpox (WRAL TechWire)
- Botulinum neurotoxin gold nanodendrites/chitosan immunosensor (MDPI)
- Characterization of pathogenesis of Burkholderia pseudomallei K9243 (DTIC)
- Aptamer scaffold biosensors for detection of botulism and ricin (Springer)
- Improved antibody-based ricin neutralization by affinity maturation (PubMed)
- Characterization of the GTP sensing protein, CodY of B. anthracis (PubMed)
- Metal Ions effectively ablate the action of Botulinum neurotoxin A (JACS)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- CDC working to maintain yellow fever vaccine supply (OH&S)
- Zika virus-like particle (VLP) based vaccine (PLOS)
- Harnessing local immunity for an effective universal swine flu vaccine (MDPI)
- Broad patent granted for ENABL adjuvant technology (ABC25)
- Emergent Biosolutions moves things around, still sees growth (Motley Fool)
- Bell’s palsy and influenza(H1N1)pdm09 containing vaccines (PLOS)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo (WHO)
- Meningitis suspected in Liberia’s mystery illness outbreak (CIDRAP)
- Another measles outbreak that didn’t have to happen (Washington Post)
- MERS study indicates mild cases might be missed (CIDRAP)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Now that we can read genomes, can we write them? (The Atlantic)
- A new biosurveillance method based on convex hulls (EMR-IBS)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- Doctor, companies sentenced for misuse of vaccine research grant money (WBTW)
- Frontline facilities – highly pathogenic infectious disease exercise planning (ASPR)
- Course: Isolation and quarantine for rural communities (RDPC)
- Pandemic summer workshop sneak peek (Pandora Report)
HISTORICAL
- Pregnancy, ‘coffin birth’, and the Black Death (Contagions Blog)
- Plague bug may have lurked in medieval England between outbreaks (EOS)
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