Recent News

By Region: North America

Burning Question: Do Germs Spread on Airport Security Lines?

(The Wall Street Journal) We live in a germy world, says William Schaffner, infectious-disease specialist and chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. “If we went down to Times Square and began culturing people’s noses, something like 10% to 20% of them carry the antibiotic-resistant Read More »

August 21, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, and Public Health
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Biowatch Has Problems But Should be Continued, Officials Say

(Global Security Newswire) While a federal program for detecting a biological weapons attack has operational weaknesses, the effort should not be discontinued, public health specialists said in a Friday Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy report. A recent Los Angeles Times report enumerated a number of technical shortcomings of the Biowatch program, which deploys Read More »

August 21, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, and Research
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Obama Cautions Syria on WMD Usage

(Global Security Newswire) Any attempt by the Syrian government to employ or strategically field biological or chemical weapons would cross a “red line” that could lead the United States to change its posture on dealing with the Assad regime’s attempt to remain in power, Reuters quoted President Obama as saying on Monday. “A red line for us is (if) Read More »

August 21, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, South Asia, International, Public Health, and Research
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Retailers Respond to Cantaloupe Salmonella Outbreak

(Food Safety News) Grocery retailers such as Wal Mart, Kroger and Valu Market are reassuring customers that none of the cantaloupes in their stores are those affected by the ongoing Salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes grown at an unnamed farm in southwestern Indiana that have killed 2 people and sickened at least 141 across 20 Read More »

August 20, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, and Public Health
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New book tells story of 10-year-old malaria project

(EurekAlert) Few infectious diseases can rival malaria’s ability to kill and cripple. Each year the disease causes hundreds of millions of people to be sickened and more than a million — mostly African children under the age of five — die. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the announcement of the genome sequence of Read More »