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By Region: North America

Scientists describe antibodies that protect against large variety of flu viruses

(EurekAlert)A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Crucell Vaccine Institute in the Netherlands describes three human antibodies that provide broad protection against Influenza B virus strains. The same team had previously reported finding broadly neutralizing antibodies against Influenza A strains. The isolation of the new broadly neutralizing antibodies, which was reported Read More »

August 10, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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Ebola in Uganda: Should we worry in the US?

(Fox News) In Uganda’s western town of Kagadi, a drama is playing put that has both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on high alert. In the town, 53 cases of the dreaded hemorrhagic fever disease Ebola are suspected, with 16 deaths reported so far. Physicians from the French Read More »

August 10, 2012
| Filed under Africa, North America, Biosafety, International, and Public Health
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Pentagon IG Wants More Oversight of Guard WMD Response Teams

(Global Security Newswire) The U.S. Defense Department’s inspector general in report issued last month said it believes there should be tighter management of the National Guard’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams.”We determined that the four Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (WMD CSTs) reviewed had plans in place to respond to chemical, Read More »

August 10, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Countermeasures, and Policy & Initiatives
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Scientists report successful vaccine developed against deadly Nipah virus

(EurekAlert) A team of federal and university scientists reports a major breakthrough in the development of a highly effective vaccine against the deadly Nipah virus. The results of their study, “A Hendra virus G glycoprotein subunit vaccine protects African green monkeys from Nipah virus challenge,” will appear in Science Translational Medicine online. The full study Read More »

August 9, 2012
| Filed under North America, Public Health, and Research
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Book details Soviet plans to wage germ warfare with lethal ‘designer’ strains

(The Washington Post) In the Soviet playbook for all-out war with the United States, the wasting of U.S. cities by nuclear bombs was to be followed by something equally horrifying: waves of plagues to kill any survivors. Soviet scientists spent decades preparing for the second attack, concocting new kinds of biological weapons more lethal than Read More »