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By Category: Research

Pandemic controversies: The global response to pandemic influenza must change

(Institute of Development Studies) “Evil” scientists, deadly viruses and terrorist plots are usually the preserve of Hollywood blockbusters. But when it comes to pandemic influenza, it is the stuff of real life. As controversy about H5N1 bird flu virus research continues, a new paper argues for a new approach to pandemic preparedness.

January 28, 2013
| Filed under Research
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Immune Cell Suicide Alarm Helps Destroy Escaping Bacteria

(Science Daily) Cells in the immune system called macrophages normally engulf and kill intruding bacteria, holding them inside a membrane-bound bag called a vacuole, where they kill and digest them. Some bacteria thwart this effort by ripping the bag open and then escaping into the macrophage’s nutrient-rich cytosol compartment, where they divide and could eventually Read More »

January 25, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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Cameroon Joins Biological Weapons Convention

Cameroon as of last week has become the 167th member nation to the Biological Weapons Convention, the United Nations announced. "The United States, as depository government, confirmed the accession of Cameroon to the convention" on Jan. 18, according to a statement from the U.N. Office at Geneva. The Biological Weapons Convention prohibits participating nations from Read More »

January 25, 2013
| Filed under Research
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At least 1 in 5 were infected in flu pandemic, international study suggests

(Imperial College London) At least one in five people in countries for which data are available were infected with influenza during the first year of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, according to a new study.

January 25, 2013
| Filed under Research
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Novel approaches needed to end growing scourge of ‘superbugs’

(EurekaAlert) With the rising awareness of the so-called “superbugs,” bacteria that are resistant to most known antibiotics, three infectious disease experts writing in the Jan. 24 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine called for novel approaches based on a “reconceptualization of the nature of resistance, disease and prevention.”