Recent News

By Region: Europe

Weapon-Usable Tech Seen Challenging Bioweapons Convention

(Global Security Newswire) An array of advances in science and technology threaten to undermine the Biological Weapons Convention by enabling a nefarious actor to engineer disease agents to be more virulent or resistant to medical countermeasures, treaty signatories said on Friday. Growing capabilities to render pathogens more communicable, immune system-resistant, or honed to specific targets Read More »

December 17, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biological Weapons, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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Gene-altered mosquitoes could be used vs. dengue

(Southeast Missourian) Mosquito control officials in the Florida Keys are waiting for the federal government to sign off on an experiment that would release hundreds of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce the risk of dengue fever in the tourist town of Key West. If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it would Read More »

December 13, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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Long-term public health support needed to tackle infectious disease outbreaks

(EurekAlert) Outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as swine flu (H1N1) threaten global health and should be considered by funding agencies and humanitarian organizations as development issues rather than emergency situations, requiring long-term support and investment, according to US experts writing in this week’s PLOS Medicine. The authors from several US institutions, led by Tiffany Bogich Read More »

December 12, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, International, Public Health, and Research
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Texan tracking down disease outbreaks around the world

(States Man) Joel Montgomery spends most of his time working with his team of epidemiologists to suppress outbreaks of dengue fever and Rift Valley fever in Kenya. “Both are mosquito-borne diseases that can be fatal,” Montgomery said. “We’re concerned about Rift Valley fever getting to the U.S., because it can infect cattle.” But on a Read More »

December 11, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, International, Public Health, and Research
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Countries to Examine Options for Strengthening Bioweapons Convention

(Global Security Newswire) Nations are set at a yearly gathering next week to consider means of bolstering compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention and building on its ability to impede the creation or employment of arms-usable disease agents and toxins, the United Nations said. The meeting of treaty signatories would examine advancements since the 2011 Read More »