See what we’re reading this week at Global Biodefense on topics including resignation of the CDC director, Lassa fever in Nigeria, and the strain of this flu season on hospital systems.
BIOPREPAREDNESS
- The pandemic everyone fears is flu in the wrong place at wrong time (Smithsonian)
- Protecting public health from diseases, disasters, and bioterrorism (TFAH)
- Is the US prepared for an attack with a weaponized biothreat like smallpox? (Healio)
- Are we ready for the next Ebola outbreak? (Daily Beast)
POLICY, PRACTICES & POLITICS
- The CDC is about to fall off a funding cliff (The Atlantic)
- Protecting airports against bioterrorism (Manila Bulletin)
- Dr. Frieden: People working in public health are stewards of the public’s trust (Hill)
- CDC director Brenda Fitzgerald resigns (CNN)
- Biosecurity in Putin’s Russia (Middlebury Institute)
SELECT AGENTS
- Lassa fever infection soars in Nigeria (DW)
- Using cell phone technology to investigate B. anthracis release scenario (Health Security)
- New botulinum toxin found in Enterococcus from cow feces (CIDRAP)
- Yersinia pestis survival and replication in potential ameba reservoir (EID)
- Identification of a Botulinum neurotoxin-like toxin in Enterococcus faecium (Cell Host)
- It feels like the flu but isn’t: meet the adenovirus (Daily News)
- Challenges and achievements in prevention and treatment of smallpox (MDPI)
MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES
- How to build a better flu shot (The Scientist)
- Antimicrobial resistance surveillance efforts and needs (Pandora Report)
- Flu vaccine provided dismal protection against this winter’s virus, early data suggest (STAT)
- Global spread of hemorrhagic fever viruses: Predicting pandemics (Springer)
- Towards a universal influenza vaccine: different approaches for one goal (Virology Journal)
OUTBREAK NEWS & THREAT SURVEILLANCE
- Flu wreaking havoc on hospitals, infection control practices (Contagion Live)
- DPRK Influenza A outbreak information bulletin (IFRC)
- Infectious disease risk and vaccination in Syria after 5 years of war (PLOS)
- How severe is an influenza season? (UPMC)
- Malaria in Venezuela requires response (Science)
RESEARCH & TECH
- When the flu hits campus, the Gesundheit machine will be ready (NPR)
- Extracting business intelligence requirements of bio-surveillance systems (ATMPH)
- In utero exposure to the 1918 pandemic influenza and risk of dementia (Influenza)
- Estimation of cross-immunity between drifted strains of influenza A/H3N2 (Springer)
- Not just Zika: Other mosquito-borne viruses may cause birth defects, study suggests (STAT)
- Flushing toilets in hospitals capable of spraying pathogens (CIDRAP)
- What is CRISPR gene editing, and how does it work? (The Conversation)
- Handheld device sequences human genome (BBC News)
SPECIAL INTEREST
- What’s the real story about the milkmaid and the smallpox vaccine? (NPR)
- Today I discovered the gruesome story of London’s underground plague pits (Lifehacker)
- What we can learn 100 years later from the 1918 flu pandemic (CNN)
- Transmission: A story from infectious futures (Longitude Prize)