Recent News

By Region: North America

Powder Mailings Sent to Israeli Embassies

(Global Security Newswire) Israeli embassies and consulates at six U.S. and European locations have received mailings marked “anthrax” that carried a nontoxic white powder, Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday. The envelopes arrived at Israeli embassies in London,The Hague, Netherlands, and Brussels, Belgium, AFP quoted Israeli news reports as saying. Consulates in New York, Houston and Read More »

January 25, 2012
| Filed under Europe, Middle East, North America, Agents & Toxins, Bioterrorism, and International
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Barriers to Integrating Crisis Standards of Care Principles into International Disaster Response Plans – Workshop Summary

(IOM) When a nation or region prepares for public health emergencies such as a pandemic influenza, a large-scale earthquake, or any major disaster scenario in which the health system may be destroyed or stressed to its limits, it is important to describe how standards of care would change due to shortages of critical resources. At Read More »

January 24, 2012
| Filed under North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Pentagon Seeking Ideas on Biothreat Detectors

(Global Security Newswire) The U.S. Defense Department is seeking suggestions from the private sector for potential creation of a compact device that could be carried by combat troops to pinpoint and classify biological warfare materials or other dangerous disease threats, Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine reported on Thursday. The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency emphasized it Read More »

January 24, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, and Countermeasures
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Experts debate aspects of H5N1 transmission studies

(CIDRAP) In a description of the safety level and conditions at the lab, they wrote that the facility is regularly inspected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using US “select agent” rules for overseas labs. The most recent inspection in …

January 24, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Georgetown professor applauds decision of researchers to temporarily halt research on H5N1

(Georgetown University Medical Center) A Georgetown University Medical Center professor says the voluntary action taken by two research teams to temporarily halt work involving the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is “laudable.”