Recent News

By Category: Agents & Toxins

New H7N9 bird flu virus easily develops drug resistance

(CBC News) Resistance to the main flu drug Tamiflu seems to develop with some ease in infections with the new H7N9 bird flu, a concerning new study says. The work, published in the journal The Lancet, suggests that if this virus were to become easily transmitted among people, there might be minimal tools with which Read More »

May 29, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, Public Health, and Research
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Sugar polymer on cell surface of multiple pathogens could be key to developing broad-spectrum vaccine

(ScienceDaily) Developing new vaccines to protect against diseases that plague humans is fraught with numerous challenges — one being that microbes tend to vary how they look on the surface to avoid being identified and destroyed by the immune system. However, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have discovered a sugar polymer that is Read More »

May 29, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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Army Seeks Contract Support for Biosurveillance Centers

(Global Biodefense) The U.S. Army is soliciting proposals for contract support of Avian Influenza/Pandemic Influenza (AI/IP) and Other Emerging Disease Surveillance at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC) and Department of Defense (DoD) Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (DoD-GEIS) in Silver Spring, MD. Provision of personnel, facilities, materials, management, preparation, and completion Read More »

May 28, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biological Weapons, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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New Tools to Hunt New Viruses

(TheNewYorkTimes) A new flu, H7N9, has killed 36 people since it was first found in China two months ago. A new virus from the SARS family has killed 22 people since it was found on the Arabian Peninsula last summer. In past years, this might have been occasion for panic. Yet chicken and pork sales Read More »

May 28, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, South Asia, Agents & Toxins, International, Public Health, and Research
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Salmonella uses protective switch during infection

(EurekAlert) For the first time, researchers have found a particular kind of molecular switch in the food poisoning bacteria Salmonella Typhimurium under infection-like conditions. This switch, using a process called S-thiolation, appears to be used by the bacteria to respond to changes in the environment during infection and might protect it from harm, researchers report Read More »