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By Category: Countermeasures

Compound Discovered at Sea Shows Potency Against Anthrax, MRSA

(InfectionControlToday) A team led by William Fenical at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered a new chemical compound from an ocean microbe in a preliminary research finding that could one day set the stage for new treatments for anthrax and other infections such as those caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Read More »

July 18, 2013
| Filed under Europe, North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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Research leads to affordable technology to fight mosquito-borne diseases

(EurekAlert) Technology that hampers mosquitoes’ host-seeking behavior, identified at the University of California, Riverside in 2011, has led to the development of the world’s first product that blocks mosquitoes’ ability to efficiently detect carbon dioxide, their primary method of tracking human blood meals. The initial research was performed in the laboratory of Anandasankar Ray, an Read More »

July 17, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, South America, South Asia, Countermeasures, and Research
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Findings offer alternative approach to creating a universal influenza vaccine

(ScienceDaily) A team of scientists, led by researchers at The Wistar Institute, has determined that it might be possible to stimulate the immune system against multiple strains of influenza virus by sequentially vaccinating individuals with distinct influenza strains isolated over the last century. Their results also suggest that world health experts might need to re-evaluate Read More »

July 16, 2013
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Public Health
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H7N9 influenza strain resistant to antivirals, but tests fail to identify resistance

(EurekAlert)Some strains of the avian H7N9 influenza that emerged in China this year have developed resistance to the only antiviral drugs available to treat the infection, but testing for antiviral resistance can give misleading results, helping hasten the spread of resistant strains. The authors of a study published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of Read More »

July 16, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, Countermeasures, and Public Health
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New Infectious Diseases like MERS Remains a Major Threat

(Time) About a week and a half ago, I was lucky enough to be walking through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on a purely perfect northern California summer day. I was thinking what I usually think whenever I visit the Bay Area: “Why don’t I live here?” (The BART transit strike that began the next Read More »