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By Category: Policy & Initiatives

Airlines Urged to Keep Flying in West Africa Amid Ebola Outbreak

(Bloomberg Businessweek) The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has reached crisis proportions but poses no particular risk to air travelers, according to health officials and airlines—and air service should continue to serve affected areas to help combat the disease. That’s the message the International Air Transport Association, a trade group for global airlines, is pressing, bolstered Read More »

August 19, 2014
| Filed under Africa, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Hundreds of bioterror lab mishaps cloaked in secrecy

(USA Today) More than 1,100 laboratory incidents involving bacteria, viruses and toxins that pose significant or bioterror risks to people and agriculture were reported to federal regulators during 2008 through 2012, government reports obtained by USA TODAY show. More than half these incidents were serious enough that lab workers received medical evaluations or treatment, according Read More »

August 19, 2014
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Limited Ebola Drugs Raise Ethical Questions

(Newsmax) A panel of ethicists convened by the World Health Organization Monday will begin weighing whether drugs that haven’t been widely tested for safety should be used in an outbreak where about 40 percent of infected people survive with just supportive care. If so, the panel members must address who gets the medicines, which so far Read More »

August 11, 2014
| Filed under Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Biological Weapons Convention Experts Meeting Concludes

(United Nations Office at Geneva) The 2014 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Meeting of Experts was held at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 4 to 8 August 2014. Formally known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, the Convention was Read More »

August 11, 2014
| Filed under Biosafety, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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DoD Establishes Ebola Task Force

(Global Biodefense) Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has established an internal Ebola task force to evaluate how the department can most effectively support overarching U.S. government and international efforts to prevent further transmission of the virus, the Pentagon press secretary said today.