Recent News

By Category: Biosafety

Bioterrorism Fear Led Scientists to Withhold Botulinum Toxin Info

(Nextgov) Researchers have uncovered a new breed of Botulinum toxin, however, they are withholding certain information about the neurotoxin out of concern it could be misused by individuals seeking to develop a biological weapon, National Public Radio reported on Wednesday. Botulinum toxin is produced by the bacterium, Clostridium botulinum, which is present in soil all Read More »

February 14, 2014
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, Bioterrorism, and Research
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Opinion: Why global health security is a national priority

(CNN) Eleven years ago this week, the world faced the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, a new epidemic that infected some 8,000 people, took the lives of 775 individuals, and inflicted $30 billion in damage to regional economies. The emergence of SARS was a wake-up call for the World Health Organization and Read More »

February 12, 2014
| Filed under Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, and Public Health
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Uganda: CDC Health Projects Improve Disease Detection and Control

(All Africa) The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) global health security (GHS) projects on early disease detection, response and prevention in Uganda and Vietnam have resulted in improvements in those areas. This was revealed in an article published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released by CDC on January 30. For Read More »

February 12, 2014
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, Countermeasures, and International
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EPA Study on Bioterrorism Decontamination Techniques

(Global Biodefense) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with federal partners, this week announced the results of a multi-year project called Bio-Response Operational Testing and Evaluation (BOTE) that tested and evaluated decontamination techniques for a biological incident.