Recent News

By Category: Policy & Initiatives

Virus in one controversial H5N1 study wasn’t lethal

(CIDRAP News) – Breaking a prolonged silence, the author of one of two controversial studies dealing with mutant H5N1 viruses said today that the virus his team created went airborne to spread among ferrets, but it didn’t kill them.

January 27, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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RI to produce bird-flu vaccine by 2013

(Jakarta Post) Indonesia is aiming to manufacture its first, locally produced vaccine to combat the H5N1 avian influenza virus by 2013, with state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Biofarma working to prepare its facilities for developing the vaccine for mass production, a minister says. Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said that Biofarma was currently working on an Read More »

January 27, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Newly engineered highly transmissible H5N1 strain ignites controversy about balancing scientific discovery and public safety

(American College of Physicians) Below is information about two articles being published early online www.annals.org, the Annals of Internal Medicine website. The information is not intended to substitute for the full articles as sources of information. Full text will be posted at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26. Annals of Internal Medicine attribution is required Read More »

January 27, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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GAO Urges Improved DHS Guidelines for Using WMD Threat Analyses

(Global Security Newswire) The U.S. Homeland Security Department should create more detailed recommendations to guide its offices as they consider how to utilize WMD threat analyses in response preparations and resource acquisition and distribution decisions, the Government Accountability Office advised in a report released on Wednesday. The department in the last eight years has provided Read More »

January 27, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, Countermeasures, and Policy & Initiatives
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Invitation to a Dialogue: Research and Its Risks

(New York Times) There is great debate in the scientific and public health community about what should be done regarding recent experiments in which scientists mutated H5N1 bird flu strains so that they could spread readily between ferrets.