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By Category: International

Warming climate reveals links to infectious disease

(The Daily Climate) He predicts temperatures and rainfall will have an “overwhelming” effect on tick-borne disease. Strong winds could spread anthrax. West Nile virus is susceptible to changes in temperature and rainfall. Baylis noted that outbreaks of these diseases have not been common. In a 2008 study of 335 human disease outbreaks between 1940 and Read More »

April 9, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Agents & Toxins, International, and Public Health
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Tackling Bioterrorism

(The Diplomat) The United States is vulnerable to an attack that could kill hundreds of thousands. But the big threat might not come from a nuclear device falling into the wrong hands, and certainly not from a brigade of suicide bombers. Instead, argues James Glassman in an article Forbes article this week, “terrorists could spray Read More »

April 9, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, South Asia, Bioterrorism, Countermeasures, International, and Research
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Controversial bird flu experiments produced no killer virus, scientists say

(Washington Post) Two controversial research projects with the H5N1 bird flu virus haven’t produced a killer bug but have generated useful information, two researchers told scientists and bioethicists gathered here to talk about the benefits and pitfalls of manipulating deadly pathogens. “We can use this information to understand what’s happening in nature,” Yoshihiro Kawaoka of Read More »

April 6, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Censoring flu data could raise bioterror threat

(New Scientist) Efforts to keep science secret by “redacting” scientific papers might cause the very problems it is supposed to prevent. That was the warning from leading cyber-security specialist Bruce Schneier to a meeting of flu and security experts this week at the Royal Society in London in the wake of the decision by the Read More »

April 6, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Bioterrorism, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Censorship of Flu Research

(BBC News – Audio) Claudia Hammond discusses the issue of censoring science with the author of one of the papers, Ron Fouchier from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Professor Paul Keim, the acting chair of the National Science Advisory Board in Biosecurity, the US organisation with the power to decide on Read More »