Recent News

By Category: Agents & Toxins

Bag BioWatch because of its bugs? Bad idea

(LA Times) BioWatch, the Homeland Security-led effort to provide early warning if biological pathogens are released against the American people, has fallen into disfavor in some corners. The Times produced a series of highly critical articles, and the editorial board has chimed in, suggesting that the program be “squashed.” But calls to bag BioWatch, while Read More »

December 10, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Bugs without borders

(EurekAlert) Researchers show that the global epidemic of Clostridium difficile 027/NAP1/BI in the early to mid-2000s was caused by the spread of two different but highly related strains of the bacterium rather than one as was previously thought. The spread and persistence of both epidemics were driven by the acquisition of resistance to a frontline Read More »

December 10, 2012
| Filed under North 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 »

December 10, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, Biological Weapons, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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New study sheds light on how Salmonella spreads in the body

(EurekAlert) Findings of Cambridge scientists, published today in the journal PLoS Pathogens, show a new mechanism used by bacteria to spread in the body with the potential to identify targets to prevent the dissemination of the infection process. Salmonella enterica is a major threat to public health, causing systemic diseases (typhoid and paratyphoid fever), gastroenteritis Read More »

December 7, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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Proposed H5N1 Research Reviews Raise Concerns

(Science Mag) Researchers are giving a mixed reception to a draft U.S. government plan to do more stringent funding reviews of certain kinds of H5N1 avian influenza research—and perhaps even require some studies to be kept secret. The proposal, presented last week at a meeting of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, is the Read More »