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By Category: Public Health

Army Brigade to Take on WMD-Response Role

An Army brigade at Fort Polk in Louisiana on Saturday is slated to take on a new mission — to rescue and protect civilians following a potential WMD attack on the United States, the Fort Polk Guardian reported (see GSN, July 13, 2010). In a special ceremony the 1st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade is set to Read More »

September 30, 2011
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Report: Prepositioning Antibiotics for Anthrax

If terrorists released Bacillus anthracis over a large city, hundreds of thousands of people could be at risk of the deadly disease anthrax – caused by the B anthracis spores – unless they had rapid access to antibiotic medical countermeasures (MCM). The spores can be inhaled, be ingested, or come into contact with the skin. Read More »

September 30, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Bioterrorism, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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What Contagion Missed

(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) It’s not often that Hollywood ventures into the realm of epidemics and public health, and when it does, the outcome is usually laughably out of touch with reality — like Outbreak, the 1995 movie about a deadly Ebola-like virus that infected a city. To prevent the virus from spreading, the Read More »

September 30, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Report: 395 mishaps at US labs risked releasing select agents

(CIDRAP) In response to a CIDRAP News query today, CDC spokesman Von Roebuck said he couldn't give more details but said that the agency plans to publish a report next spring on potential select-agent releases. He said the CDC for security reasons does not …

September 29, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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Hawaii gets $5.3M for emergency preparedness

(Bizjournals.com) Among the measures covered by the state's public health emergency preparedness planning and training are food safety defense, rapid detection, identification and response to toxins, bioterrorism preparedness and effective public notification and …