Biodefense Headlines – June 18, 2017

See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including WHO’s new emergency preparedness portal, China’s H7N9 poultry vaccination effort, and the devastating cholera outbreak in Yemen.

POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS

• The scary reality behind WHO’s updated essential medicines list (Contagion Live)
• The WHO just picked a new leader. These are the challenges he faces. (WaPo)
• HHS unveils updated pandemic flu plan (CIDRAP)
• US sanctions ISIS chemical weapons experts for first time (CNN)
• President’s budget leaves U.S. more vulnerable to health security threats (Baltimore Sun)
• Congressional members want U.S. Army to hold public hearings on Zika vaccine (MH)
• WHO launches new emergency preparedness and response portal (CIDRAP)

SELECT AGENTS

• Yersinia pestis, biological warfare, and bioterrorism (IDSA)
• Preservation of Bacillus anthracis vegetative cells for forensic analysis (Wiley)
• Epidemiology, diagnosis, and control of monkeypox disease (ResearchGate)
• Green tea and EGCG are bactericidal against Bacillus anthracis (FEMS Micro)

MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES

• Ebola vaccine trial finds good antibody persistence for VSV-EBOV (CIDRAP)
• China to vaccinate poultry against H7N9 bird flu next month (Reuters)
• Abivax Ebola antiviral gets financing (EU Biotech)
• Johnson & Johnson’s flu drug succeeds in mid-stage trial (Reuters)
• Conventional flu vaccines influence efficacy of a candidate universal vaccine (JoI)
• U.S. Supreme Court ruling on biologics has “immediate impact” (Reuters)

OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE

• Angry birds – the flu version (Pandora Report)
• Cholera ravages Yemen (NPR)

RESEARCH & TECH

• Essential Science: Battling infections with bioelectricity (Digital Journal)
• Mutations that allow bird flu strain to spread among humans identified (SD)
• Bats are global reservoir for deadly coronaviruses (Nature)
• Designing protective garments for warfighters (Inside Battelle)
• In defense of Bacillus thuringiensis as a microbial insecticide (Exeter)
• A few genetic tweaks to Chinese bird flu virus could fuel a human pandemic (NPR)

SPECIAL INTEREST

• Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey meets disease survivors (BBC)
• New VA leader supports efforts to help WWII vets exposed to mustard gas (STL Post)
• The awakening of frozen permafrost diseases (Pandora Report)
• 5 things I learned spending 10 days as a scientist (STAT)
• Catch whooping cough and get £3,500 (BBC)

HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS

• Plague’s urban breeding grounds at the dawn of the third pandemic (Cambridge)
• 15 historic diseases that competed with bubonic plague (Mental Floss)