Recent News

By Region: North America

H5N1 surveillance: Shift expertise to where it matters

(Nature.com) Tools and training for responding to diseases such as avian flu must relocate to countries where infections are most likely to emerge, says Jeremy Farrar. Every day on my way to the hospital, I pass streets lined with poultry. The birds disappeared a few years ago, but have gradually returned. This would be of Read More »

March 29, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agriculture, Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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H5N1: How to track a flu virus

(Nature.com) Four experts pinpoint ways to improve monitoring of H5N1 avian influenza in the field. The H5N1 influenza outbreak in Asia is unprecedented: never before has a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus prevailed for so long, spread to so many countries or generated so many genetic variants. Why? Partly because of its persistence in …

March 29, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, Agriculture, Countermeasures, International, and Public Health
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Scientists volley ahead of more dual-use H5N1 debate

(CIDRAP News) As researchers from both sides of the debate over two controversial H5N1 studies weighed in yesterday on full publication versus a more cautionary approach, two US journals said they are developing policies to address any future such instances. Martin Hirsch, MD, editor of the Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID), wrote in an editorial Read More »

March 29, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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How bad could it be?

(CattleNetwork.com) An outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the United States could shut down beef and pork exports and profoundly disrupt our markets for years. Fortunately, we have not had FMD in this country since 1929, and experts around the country are working to keep it that way. But today, with more international movement Read More »

March 28, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, and International
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Fort Detrick closure speculation ‘preliminary’

(Maryland Community News Online) Fort Detrick has been expanding due to BRAC changes that began in 2005, building an Interagency Biodefense Campus representing several different federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Homeland Security.