Recent News

By Category: Public Health

U.S. Funds Tularemia, Botulism Treatment Research

The Canadian biopharmaceutical firm DiaMedica on Monday said it had entered a deal with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for continued study of a potential tularemia countermeasure (see GSN, April 5, 2010). The antibody under investigation inhibits a specific protein, a process that “has previously been shown to suppress the lethal Read More »

April 14, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Information sharing seen as public health “game changer”

Public health officials are pushing for the creation of shared databases that contain electronic health records (EHRs) to help combat infectious diseases and stop epidemics; a CDC official pointed to the positive impact that electronic health information exchanges (HIE) have on public health; during the 2003 SARS outbreak, Milwaukee helped establish a four-state network that Read More »

April 13, 2011
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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U.S. Provides Additional Funds for Smallpox Vaccine

A Danish biotechnology firm said on Monday it would receive an additional $54 million in U.S. funding for development of a freeze-dried form of a smallpox vaccine (see GSN, Feb. 3). The U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has boosted an existing contract with Bavarian Nordic from $40 million Read More »

April 12, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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New policy strategies needed to contain MRSA spread across hospitals

DALLAS — Better infection control strategies and policies are needed to control methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus outbreaks from occurring between hospitals, according to presenter here. “Hospitals are not isolated entities but, rather, parts of complex systems. Therefore, infectious disease control should take into account the entire system,”Sarah M. McGlone, MPH, of the Public Health Computational and Read More »

April 12, 2011
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Nasal spray vaccines more effective against flu

(Society for General Microbiology) Nasal vaccines that effectively protect against flu, pneumonia and even bioterrorism agents such as Yersinia pestis that causes the plague, could soon be a possibility, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Conference in Harrogate. Professor Dennis Metzger describes how including a natural immune chemical with standard Read More »