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By Category: Public Health

Fast-Acting Bioagent Detector Developed in Wales

(Global Security Newswire) The Welsh branch of a Germany security company has led development of a portable device that within minutes could reveal a bioterror agent that had been introduced into drinking water, the Cardiff Western Mail reported on Saturday. “Growing concern about drinking water safety and the highly distributive nature of water supplies highlights Read More »

April 10, 2012
| Filed under Europe, Biotechnology, Bioterrorism, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Ebola expert to give presentation on virus in Hamilton

(The Missoulian) In the summer of 1976, van der Groen was a 33-year-old biochemist and research assistant at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium. Reports of an unknown infectious disease led him and a team of scientists to the central African nation of Zaire, now named the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Near the Read More »

April 9, 2012
| Filed under Africa, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, Public Health, and Research
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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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Bioterrorism threat spurs authorities to invoke animal rule for J&J antibiotic

(MedCity News) An FDA advisory panel this week agreed that studies using monkeys demonstrated Levaquin’s effectiveness in treating pneumonic plague. The FDA can invoke the animal rule, which allows evidence to support the approval to be based entirely on animal studies, to provide a regulatory pathway when human studies aren’t possible, the paper said.

April 9, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, 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 »