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By Category: International

First Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak reported in Guinea

(Vaccine News Daily) The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa announced on Sunday that it received notification from the Ministry of Health of Guinea that an Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak began in southeastern Guinea. As of March 22, there have been 49 confirmed cases of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, including 29 deaths. The case fatality Read More »

March 26, 2014
| Filed under Africa, Agents & Toxins, International, and Public Health
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EBOLA: “There is no treatment and no vaccine. The priority is to isolate suspected cases.”

(Pulse) The Ebola epidemic confirmed by the Ministry of Health on March 22 is the first to affect Guinea. The latest official statistics put the toll at 86 suspected cases and 60 deaths. The priority of the teams on site is to identify patients with Ebola symptoms and isolate them, while providing high-quality care. In Read More »

March 26, 2014
| Filed under Africa, International, and Public Health
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Biosecurity spending under the microscope

(Newstalk ZB) Biosecurity spending priorities are being put under the microscope. The Ministry for Primary Industries spent over $900,000 on an operation earlier this year after a single Queensland Fruit fly was found in Whangarei. Labour MP Damien O’Connor says the money had to be spent, and the work had to be done, but it’s Read More »

March 25, 2014
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Biosafety, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Information poses bigger bioterrorism threat than microbes

(Wired UK) It is the spread of information rather than microbes that poses the biggest bioterrorism threat today, concluded a panel of experts at Chatham House today. Biosafety is no longer simply about controlling substances and microbes, but information, says Laurie Garrett who runs the Council on Foreign Relation’s Public Health Program. While we have Read More »

March 25, 2014
| Filed under Europe, Biosafety, Bioterrorism, International, and Research
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A New Killer Virus in China?

(Science/AAAS) In June 2012, three men removing slag from a derelict copper mine in southwestern China fell ill with severe pneumonia and died. Six months later, researchers went spelunking in the mine—an artificial cave hewn from a hillside—in search of pathogens. After taking anal swabs from bats, rats, and musk shrews living in the cave, Read More »