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By Category: Research

A Crypto Expert’s View on Scary Bird Flu Data

(Scientific American) After months of contentious debate, the journal Science is publishing a controversial study on Friday about H5N1 avian influenza‘s ability to spread among mammals. The report faced a tortuous path to publication as some researchers sought to censor the study’s findings for fear that they could be replicated and put to nefarious use. Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Second of two blocked flu papers released

(Science News) A controversial research paper banned from publication in 2011 because it contained potentially dangerous information is now available for the world to see. The study, appearing in the June 22 Science, details experiments in which researchers in the Netherlands created a version of the H5N1 bird flu virus that can be passed through Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Bird Flu Paper Is Published After Debate

(New York Times) The more controversial of two papers describing how the lethal H5N1 bird flu could be made easier to spread was published Thursday, six months after a scientific advisory board suggested that the papers’ most potentially dangerous data be censored. The paper, by scientists at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, identified five Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Response to Comment on “Seroevidence for H5N1 Influenza Infections in Humans: Meta-Analysis”

(Science Careers Blog) We would like to respond to several points made in the comment by Van Kerkhove et al. regarding our recently published meta-analysis of seroevidence for H5N1 influenza virus infections in humans. Taking into account only four of the countries with documented avian influenza H5N1 infections—Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt, and China—there is a cumulative Read More »

June 22, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South Asia, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
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Chem-Bio Surveillance System Under Development in India

(Global Security Newswire) A surveillance technology being developed in India is intended to provide advance alert of a biological or chemical strike, the New Indian Express reported on Thursday. The project at India’s Defense Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory would incorporate nano-size systems and is intended to aid in biological and chemical defense, according to V.K. Read More »