See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including zoonotic influenza and social contagion, increased NIH funding, botulism vaccines, and DHS tracking of public health threats.
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- Defense against biological attacks (Pandora Report)
- Massive Ebola data site planned to combat outbreaks (Nature)
- From Ebola to mudslides, Sierra Leone learns painful disaster lessons (Reuters)
- Did DHS ignore breakthrough tool to block bioterrorism? Trial will decide (LA Times)
- Senate appropriators approve $2 billion increase in NIH funding (STAT)
- GAO blasts HHS over failed effort to build network to track public health threats (FH)
SELECT AGENTS
- Vaccines against botulism (MDPI)
- Ecological niche modeling for filoviruses: A risk map for outbreaks (PLOS)
- Dissection of the molecular circuitry controlling virulence in F. tularensis (GenesDev)
- Atiometric nanosensor for bacterial spore biomarker (Science Direct)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Sierra Leone to begin cholera vaccination drive in disaster-affected areas (GAVI)
- Families sending kids to college get mixed messages on meningitis B vaccine (STAT)
- Tick saliva may be a secret ingredient to help HIV patients (WaPo)
- PATH receives $120 million to improve vaccine research (Healio)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- The challenges of detecting carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (Contagion)
- Deadly bird flu in China evolves, spreads to new regions (Goats and Soda)
- Yemen’s cholera epidemic hits 600,000, confounding expectations (Reuters)
- Latest H7N9 epidemic biggest yet, new vaccines sought (Healio)
- Two new Saudi MERS cases announced as WHO details household cluster (CIDRAP)
- Zika outbreak associated Guillain-Barré syndrome rates in Salvador, Brazil (PLOS)
- How current world threats may impact food safety (Food Safety)
- Saudi Arabia reports new MERS case in Riyadh (CIDRAP)
RESEARCH + TECH
- ‘Biological teleporter’ to fight pandemics (The Times)
- Zika genomics urgently need standardized and curated reference sequences (PLOS)
- New tests hope to diagnose bacterial infections more quickly (Forbes)
- Injecting Zika virus into adult brains? Researchers say it could shrink cancer (USA Today)
- Viewing antimicrobial resistance as international security threat (Resistance Control)
- Spreading processes: zoonotic influenza and social contagion (Warwick)
- From original antigenic sin to the universal influenza virus vaccine (Science Direct)
- Modeling pandemic flu in Canada: Predicted hospital resource burden (Univ of Ottawa)
- Consequences of insecticide resistance on malaria transmission (PLOS)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- GMU Biodefense MS – Open House on September 14th (Pandora Report)
- Global Open consultation for innovative Personal Protective Equipment (WHO)
- Hurricane Irma: Scientists in Florida prepare, Caribbean labs clean up (Science)
- On Ebola front line, Australian nurse encounters courage amid the horror (AU)
- Letter from Africa: Nigeria’s praised but unpaid Ebola heroes (BBC)
