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By Category: Biosafety

The Risk of Engineering a Highly Transmissible H5N1 Virus

(Editorial by Thomas V. Inglesby, Anita Cicero, and D. A. Henderson) Over the past 8 years, H5N1 avian influenza has sickened 571 people, killing 59% of them. To give some perspective, the fatality rate of the virus that caused the 1918 Great Pandemic was 2%, and that pandemic killed on the order of 50 million Read More »

December 19, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biological Weapons, Biosafety, Biotechnology, Public Health, and Research
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Kansas leaders approve bonds for bio lab facility

(CanadianBusiness.com) Kansas officials authorized issuing $45.4 million in bonds on Wednesday for the next phase of construction on the $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan. Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders who comprise the state finance council approved the bonds during a brief meeting at the Statehouse. Of the total bonds issued, Read More »

December 16, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, and Research
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Latest Risk Assessment for Boston Biolab Is ‘Substantial Improvement’

(National Academies) The National Institutes of Health has gone to great lengths to improve its draft assessment of the risks associated with a proposed biocontainment laboratory at Boston University, and it is closer to reaching the goal of being scientifically and technically sound, says a new report from the National Research Council. In general, the Read More »

December 16, 2011
| Filed under North America and Biosafety
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City gets high-tech research lab for testing of airborne diseases

(Hindustan Times) Last week, a laboratory – Biosafety Lab Level 3 – at the Haffkine Institute at Parel was certified by an independent agency, signaling the start of research work commissioned to understand organisms responsible for diseases such as swine flu, …

December 13, 2011
| Filed under South Asia, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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OFAB holds forum on Biosafety Policies in Ghana

(Vibe Ghana) Dr George Owusu Essegbey, Director of Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, has called for effective participation of policy makers, scientists and the public to achieve the importance of biosafety regime. He said Ghana needs to ensure …