Recent News

By Region: North America

U.S. CDC says to announce safety advisory panel by end of week

(Reuters) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will announce its safety advisory panel later this week following breaches in its handling of anthrax and a deadly form of bird flu in recent weeks, the director of the agency said on Tuesday. CDC’s Dr Thomas Frieden told reporters the members of the panel will Read More »

July 23, 2014
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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First Locally Acquired Chikungunya Case Reported in Florida

(Global Biodefense) Seven months after the mosquito-borne virus chikungunya was recognized in the Western Hemisphere, the first locally acquired case of the disease has surfaced in the continental United States. The case was reported Thursday, July 17 in Florida in a male who had not recently traveled outside the United States.

July 21, 2014
| Filed under North America, International, and Public Health
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Before anthrax mishap, CDC made similar lab safety pledges: lawmaker

(Reuters) U.S. lawmakers investigating repeated safety lapses at government laboratories questioned Thursday whether the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was up to the task of fixing the problem, given similar promises to remedy such breaches in 2012. The CDC is under scrutiny for a June incident, in which more than 80 lab workers Read More »

July 21, 2014
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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FDA found more than smallpox vials in storage room

(Washington Post) Federal officials found more than just long-forgotten smallpox samples recently in a storage room on the National Institutes for Health campus in Bethesda, Md. The discovery included 12 boxes and 327 vials holding an array of pathogens, including the virus behind the tropical disease dengue and the bacteria that can cause spotted fever, Read More »

July 17, 2014
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Shannon Richardson gets 18-year jail term for posting ricin

(BBC News) An actress who posted ricin-laced letters to US President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been given an 18-year prison term. Shannon Richardson, 36, from Texas, had accused her estranged husband Nathaniel of sending the three poisoned letters in an apparent attempt to frame him.