Recent News

By Region: Africa

Rapid Sequencing Method Can Identify New Viruses Within Hours

(DiscoverMagazine) In 2009, two teenagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo showed up at their village health clinic, vomiting and with blood in their noses and mouths — hemorrhagic symptoms of the notorious Ebola viruses. In three days they were dead. Yet it took three years for researchers to unmask the likely culprit: a brand-new Read More »

November 19, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Biotechnology, Public Health, and Research
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US trains Uganda in disaster management

(NewVision) The US government has started training Ugandan officials on the best epidemics preparedness and management techniques. Organised by the disaster preparedness programme of the US Africa Command, the four-day training has attracted officials from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), health ministry, Police and the army.

November 6, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, International, and Public Health
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Policing the New Scientific Frontier of Synthetic Biology

(ForeignAffairs) Ongoing research and discoveries in the life sciences — the latest and most promising involving synthetic biology — have led to extraordinary advances that will benefit society. But criminals and terrorists could manipulate such advances to disrupt public safety and national security. Since its founding in 1923, Interpol has learned that the most effective Read More »

October 28, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Biosafety, Bioterrorism, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Guinea Worm Moves Toward Eradication

(NPR) The world has eradicated just one human disease: smallpox. But another illness is getting tantalizingly close to elimination. No, we’re not talking about polio; that virus also has its back against a wall. But a report Thursday puts a parasitic worm ahead of polio in the race to extinction. The world recorded just 89 Read More »

October 25, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, International, and Public Health
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Polio Vaccination Campaign Launched in Eastern Equatoria

(VoiceofAmerica) Health officials in South Sudan have launched an emergency campaign to vaccinate 700,000 children under the age of 15 in Equatoria state against polio by the end of the week after a child in the state was diagnosed with the crippling and potentially deadly disease last month. The national Ministry of Health has also Read More »