See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including predictions of a rough flu season in the U.S., need for increased funding for CDC, and the risks of DIY biohacking.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- Flu virus can be deadlier than war (VOA)
- The next flu pandemic will appear when you least expect it (NY Times)
- Can we predict the next big pandemic? (Ensia)
- Africa must seize opportunity to build better public health systems (Chatham)
- Australia’s influenza pandemic preparedness plans: an analysis (Springer)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- NIAID Sets interim paylines for beginning of FY 2018 (NIH)
- DHS creates new office for countering weapons of mass destruction (WaPo)
- Knowledge and attitude of Iranian nurses towards bioterrorism (IRCMed)
- ASM urges increased funding for CDC (ASM)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Emerging viral diseases from a vaccinology perspective (Nature)
- Viruses are the antibiotics of the future (Motherboard)
- Trial results of Zika vaccine Sanofi dropped show promise (Reuters)
- WHO swaps out H3N2, B strains in S. Hemisphere flu vaccine (CIDRAP)
- Vaccines aren’t enough – stopping polio for good (The Conversation)
SELECT AGENTS
- As foreign powers approve Ebola vaccines, U.S. drug makers lag (STAT)
- Research on deadliest microbes will soon begin at Boston lab (BG)
- Long and complicated relationship between humans and Y. pestis (Sapient)
- Researchers use migratory bats to track Ebola (PBS)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- In the U.S., flu season could be unusually harsh this year (NPR)
- Uganda ends Marburg virus disease outbreak (WHO)
- Diphtheria: What exactly is it … and why is it back? (NPR)
- Hawaii mumps outbreak stumps experts (US News)
- Supermalaria is on the way (Scientific American)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Field guide to pandemic, epidemic and sporadic clones of MRSA (PLOS)
- GMU, Stanford researchers join forces to study genome editing (Pandora Report)
- Modeling the worldwide spread of pandemic influenza (PLOS)
- Phylogenetic reconstruction for seasonal and pandemic influenza (BioRxiv)
- Assessment of insects acquaint biological weapons against humanitarian (JFS)
HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS
- Lessons learned 100 years after the Spanish Flu outbreak (CFR)
- The Stone Age plague and its persistence in Eurasia (ScienceDirect)
