See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including flu hitting hard across the U.S., ecologic features of plague outbreaks, and Canada’s biological response plan.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- Bio-preparedness needs to start at the frontlines of disease control (Contagion)
- Don’t drop the ball on outbreak preparedness (Outbreak Observatory)
- Agroterrorism a real threat to America’s food supply (The Hill)
- Protecting the public’s health from diseases, disasters and bioterrorism (TFAH)
- Canada’s biological response plan (CCDR)
- Biological weapons threat in the spotlight (Pandora Report)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- An infection preventionist’s take on the 2017 Bio Weapons Convention (Contagion)
- Ebola survivors sue government of Sierra Leone over missing millions (Guardian)
- Biothreats and WMD in the new national security strategy (MWI)
- Legislative battles to watch: A reauthorization for PAHPRA (STAT)
- The crime of gender inequality in global health (Foreign Policy)
- FDA announces it won’t enforce certain FSMA rules (CIDRAP)
- Analyzing the detection and response aspects of global health security (Contagion)
- The future of combating terrorism and countering the use of WMD (Hudson Institute)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- Philippines fines Sanofi, suspends clearance for Dengvaxia (Reuters)
- Nontraditional products in development to combat bacterial infections (PEW)
- Brazil expects to be declared free of foot-and-mouth with vaccination (Reuters)
- WHO prequalifies typhoid vaccine (OH&S)
SELECT AGENTS
- A discussion of Ebola virus and BSL4 containment (ASM)
- Ecologic features of plague outbreak areas, DRoC (EID)
- Single amino acid change in Marburg glycoprotein attenuates virus (mSphere)
- Small molecule oligosaccharyltransferase inhibitor with pan-flaviviral activity (NCBI)
- Toward national clinical guidelines for botulism (Oxford Academic)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Flu counts jump as 46 states report widespread activity (CIDRAP)
- E. coli deaths linked to romaine lettuce, officials say (NY Times)
- As H5N6 hits more poultry, researchers test threat of earlier strain (CIDRAP)
- Severe flu brings medicine shortages, packed ERs (LA Times)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Decoding the geometry of viruses could lead to better vaccines (Wired)
- Genome database resource with visualization and analysis tools (ViPR)
