See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including how budget cuts might impact bioterrorism preparedness, operational research during Ebola outbreaks, and a look back at the devastation of the Spanish Flu.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- From EMS to NHS: Emergency management and health security (ASPR)
- Trump’s proposed budget cuts trouble bioterrorism experts (NY Times)
- World Bank says most nations not ready for pandemic (CIDRAP)
- Disease experts reveal their biggest worries about the next pandemic (BI)
- Could the latest Ebola outbreak help avert future epidemics? (PATH)
- A strategic framework for emergency preparedness (WHO)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- Report: CDC could do more to keep labs safe (USA Today)
- From panic and neglect to investing in health security (World Bank)
- The finish line in ending pandemics and the future of the WHO (Pandora Report)
- Lab at Fort Detrick faces closing under proposed federal budget (FNP)
- ASM summary on Trump Administration’s FY 2018 budget proposal (ASM)
- ASM letter regarding appointment of USDA Chief Scientist (ASM)
- House science panel joins Trump in questioning research overhead payments (Science)
SELECT AGENTS
- Operational research during the Ebola emergency (EID)
- Simple copper complex shuts down botulinum neurotoxin poisoning (Phys.org)
- Inhalable aerosol samplers with different filters for anthrax responses (T&F)
- Glutathionylation of Y. pestis LcrV and its effects on plague pathogenesis (mBio)
- Y. pestis YopK binding to the extracellular matrix adaptor protein matrilin-2 (I+I)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Antibiotics are failing against pneumonia, too (Vocativ)
- Polio endgame gets complicated, and a vaccine runs short (STAT)
- Plazomicin granted FDA breakthrough therapy designation (Globe Newswire)
- Tackling a novel lethal virus: a focus on H7N9 vaccine development (T&F)
- Clade-specific and broadly reactive live attenuated influenza vaccines (Virology)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Vets in Africa help prevent spread of Ebola and other zoonotic diseases (IAEA)
- Zika studies uncover early spread, factors fueling Florida outbreak (CIDRAP)
- How a usually harmless bacteria ended up killing 18 people in Wisconsin (Atlantic)
- Hospital outbreak of MCR-1 Klebsiella reported in China (CIDRAP)
- Candida auris: Emerging cause of hospital-acquired resistant infections (PLOS)
- Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus in Poland (VB&Z Diseases)
RESEARCH & TECH
- New tech allows for rapid diagnosis of Ebola in DRoC (WHO)
- Soluble needle arrays for delivery of influenza vaccines (Google Patents)
- Metabiota looks to new markets for its epidemic monitoring toolkit (TechCrunch)
- What Zika virus DNA tells scientists about its rapid spread (LA Times)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- Congrats newest GMU Biodefense graduates (Pandora Report)
- 17-year-old’s invention prevents spread of germs on planes (Teen Vogue)
- How many of us has a forebear who died of Spanish flu? (Spectator)
- The virus hunters (Undark)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- Retro report: Politics and plagues (NY Times)
- 100m dead: The deadliest disease in history (The Economist)
- Doctors didn’t know how cholera spread until one genius drew a map (Motherboard)
- The tragedy that killed a Stanley Cup (Ozy)
