Recent News

By Region: North America

Should Scientific Journals Describe How Researchers Made a Killer Flu?

(TIME) H5N1 avian flu rarely infects humans, but it is deadly when it does. Since the virus first emerged in humans in Hong Kong in 1997, nearly 600 people have been infected worldwide and almost 60% have died. The virus isn’t very transmissible, but scientists have long worried that it might mutate, perhaps through reassortment Read More »

December 22, 2011
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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U.S. Army Supplies Upgraded WMD Protection Suits to Forces in South Korea

(Global Security Newswire) The U.S. Army on Monday said it has provided a South Korea-based unit with new chemical- and biological-weapon protection suits incorporating updated technology. The Army’s 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade was selected to receive the new Joint Protective Aircrew Ensemble system in October “from a priority list … that considers the magnitude of Read More »

December 21, 2011
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Countermeasures, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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US asks journals not to publish details of controversial bird flu studies

(Winnipeg Free Press) The US government has accepted advice from biosecurity advisers and is asking two scientific journals not to publish details of two controversial studies on the bird flu virus. The studies, by research teams from the Netherlands and the United States, …

December 21, 2011
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Fears grow over lab-bred flu

(Nature.com) Some researchers argue that work on a new strain of avian flu should be conducted only in labs with the highest biosafety precautions. It is a nightmare scenario: a human pandemic caused by the accidental release of a man-made form of the lethal avian …

December 21, 2011
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Bioterror security at risk

(CNN blog) Recent and proposed budget cuts at all levels of government are threatening to reverse the significant post-9/11 improvements in the nation’s ability to respond to natural diseases and bioterror attacks, according to a report released …