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By Category: Research

Animal Studies OK for Plague Indication, FDA Panel Says

(MedPage Today) An FDA advisory panel has voted unanimously that an indication for pneumonic plague can be given to two already-approved antibiotics — ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin — based on effectiveness testing done only in animals. Although human infection with plague is rare, the bacteria involved, Yersinia pestis, could be used in a bioterrorism attack, according Read More »

April 6, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Censorship of Flu Research

(BBC News – Audio) Claudia Hammond discusses the issue of censoring science with the author of one of the papers, Ron Fouchier from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Professor Paul Keim, the acting chair of the National Science Advisory Board in Biosecurity, the US organisation with the power to decide on Read More »

April 6, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Lead Researchers Tout Value of Bird Flu Studies

(Global Security Newswire) The top scientists behind a pair of widely debated avian influenza studies touted the valuable data generated by their activities while insisting they produced no extremely lethal strain of the agent, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. A U.S. biodefense panel last week dropped an earlier call for the restriction of certain Read More »

April 6, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Public Health, and Research
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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
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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 »