See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including flu pandemic readiness shortfalls, CDP resumes live-agent training, and an Ebola pinprick test starts field trials.
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- Experts decry lack of flu pandemic readiness, commitment (CIDRAP)
- We are not ready for the influenza pandemic (Seattle Times)
- Global respiratory surveillance program detects dangerous pathogens (Stripes)
- The truth about those 7 words ‘banned’ at the CDC (CNN)
- Ban on deadly pathogen research lifts, but controversy remains (Harvard)
- Who will answer the call in the next outbreak? (STAT)
- Fallout from ‘nuclear button’ tweets: jump in sales of radiation drug (NPR)
SELECT AGENTS
- Inside the hot zone: A discussion of Ebola virus and BSL4 containment (ASM)
- Yersinia pestis survival and replication in potential ameba reservoir (EID)
- Center for Domestic Preparedness to resume live-agent training (EMS World)
- The resumption of live-agent training at the CDP (Anniston Star)
- Thermostable ricin toxin vaccine development (Soligenix)
- Pinprick test designed for Ebola heads for field trial (SciDevNet)
- Wound botulism in an intravenous drug user (Crimson)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Japan starts culling chicken after confirming bird flu outbreak (Reuters)
- Dengue virus exposures among deployed U.S. military personnel (PubMed)
- Flu in U.S. now widespread but season may be peaking (Reuters)
RESEARCH & TECH
- Resistance to common germs poses a hurdle to new gene therapies (SciAm)
- CRISPR hits a snag: Our immune systems may attack the treatment (STAT)
- Rapid differentiation of Acinetobacter baumannii strains by Raman (NCBI)
- Continental synchronicity of human influenza virus epidemics (PLOS)
- The bright side of synthetic biology and CRISPR (Pandora Report)
- Human antibodies made in cows could be developed to treat MERS (Reuters)
- Mortality from pandemic A/H1N1 2009 influenza in England (BMJ)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- Infectious disease mapping challenge launched (Pandora Report)
- Public health measures on the 1918 influenza pandemic in U.S. cities (PLOS)
- Busting 10 common myths about the “greatest pandemic in history” (SciAm)
- Ten myths about the 1918 flu pandemic (Smithsonian)
- Is Captain America a biological weapon? (Bifurcated Needle)
- A brief history of shigella (NCBI)
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