Recent News

By Category: Countermeasures

20 Million in Mideast to Get Polio Vaccine

(TheNewYorkTimes) Health officials will try to get polio vaccines to more than 20 million children across the Middle East to contain a major outbreak there, the World Health Organization and Unicef announced last week. The region was polio-free for 10 years, until a Pakistani strain was detected in sewers in Egypt in January. It has Read More »

November 13, 2013
| Filed under Countermeasures, International, and Public Health
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Vietnam Releases Dengue-Blocking Mosquito

(Time) Nguyen Thi Yen rolls up the sleeves of her white lab coat and delicately slips her arms into a box covered by a sheath of mesh netting. Immediately, the feeding frenzy begins. Hundreds of mosquitoes light on her thin forearms and swarm her manicured fingers. They spit, bite and suck until becoming drunk with Read More »

November 5, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Countermeasures, International, and Public Health
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HHS Boosts Global Ability to Respond to Pandemics

(GlobalBiodefense) To build a sustainable capacity to manufacture influenza vaccine in developing countries and help reduce the global threat of influenza pandemics, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) recently announced grants totaling $15 million to two international organizations and two U.S. universities.

October 29, 2013
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Fighting a Deadly Dengue Fever Outbreak in Honduras

(DoctorsWithoutBorders) An epidemic of hemorrhagic dengue fever is spreading through San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second largest city, with more than three times as many cases as last year. This form of dengue can be deadly, with children most at risk. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have launched an emergency response to bring down Read More »

October 25, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, Countermeasures, International, and Public Health
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Scientists closer to universal flu vaccine after pandemic ‘natural experiment’

(ScienceDaily) Scientists have moved closer to developing a universal flu vaccine after using the 2009 pandemic as a natural experiment to study why some people seem to resist severe illness. Researchers at Imperial College London asked volunteers to donate blood samples just as the swine flu pandemic was getting underway and report any symptoms they Read More »