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By Category: Agents & Toxins

Scientists Brace for Media Storm Around Controversial Flu Studies

(Science AAAS) “I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one,” adds Keim, who has worked on anthrax for many years. “I don’t think anthrax is scary at all compared to this.” Some scientists say that’s reason enough not to do such research …

S.America takes aim at foot-and-mouth disease

(PhysOrg.com) Agriculture ministers from six South American countries agreed at a meeting Wednesday to make the eradication of foot-and-mouth disease a regional priority. The Brasilia gathering followed a foot-and-mouth outbreak in Paraguay in September that led to …

Engineering a Deadly Flu

(The Scientist) The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity is investigating a research group that succeeded in making the avian influenza (H5N1) highly contagious in the lab, according to a post on NPR’s health blog. The researchers, led by virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, induced five mutations that rendered  Read More »

Bioterror fears could block crucial flu research

(New Scientist) “The benefits of publishing this work do not outweigh the dangers of showing others how to replicate it,” says Thomas Ingelsby of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, which has long warned of bioterror risks. …

A decade after anthrax attacks, US biodefenses need improvement

(The Star-Ledger) Ten years after envelopes containing anthrax spores were dropped into a mailbox in Princeton, we still have a long way to go to improve our nation’s biodefenses. …

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