Recent News

By Category: Public Health

Little consensus at scientific meeting on releasing results of risky research

(Washington Post) A two-day meeting here brought scientists no closer to resolving the question of whether there are any kinds of experiments whose results should be kept from the public. Arriving at an international consensus about whether scientific journals should occasionally publish censored versions of papers because the full ones might prove useful to terrorists Read More »

April 5, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
Share

FDA to research prescription anthrax treatments

(UPI.com) Though emergency treatments have undergone pilot studies in recent years, the government is looking into creating a user-friendly consumer MedKit that the average American could buy, store at home and use properly in case of a bioterrorism attack. “Something could occur and people would not have access to their doctor or a pharmacist, so Read More »

April 5, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
Share

Dangerous flu mutations revealed

(Nature News Blog) Two scientists recently hit the headlines when they created mutant strains of H5N1 influenza, which can spread between mammals. But although Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, spoke publicly to explain and defend the work, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Read More »

April 5, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, and Public Health
Share

We’re Letting Our Bioterrorism Defenses Down

(Forbes) Both Michael Chertoff, former secretary of Homeland Security, and Admiral Mike McConnell, former director of national intelligence, have said that bioterror – not a nuclear weapon – was their greatest fear when they were in office. “In terms of catastrophic attacks, bio was at the top of the list,” said Chertoff, who served from Read More »

April 5, 2012
| Filed under North America, Bioterrorism, Countermeasures, and Public Health
Share

Lassa fever in Nigeria

(World Health Organization) At the beginning of 2012, WHO was notified by the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria of an outbreak of Lassa fever. As of March 22, 2012, 623 suspected cases, including 70 deaths have been recorded from 19 of the 36 States since the beginning of the year. Laboratory analysis undertaken at Read More »