Recent News

By Region: North America

UTMB awarded $4.8M to develop vaccine for Junin virus

GALVESTON — Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., have received a five-year $4.8 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to produce a new, safer vaccine candidate for Junin virus, a deadly Argentine hemorrhagic fever pathogen identified as a potential Read More »

April 20, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, and Research
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Antibiotics Cure Anthrax in Animal Model

ScienceDaily — In the absence of early antibiotic treatment, respiratory anthrax is fatal. The 2001 bioterrorism attacks in the US killed four people, out of 22 infected (10 of them with respiratory anthrax), despite massive antibiotic administration, probably because therapy did not begin until the disease had reached the fulminant stage. But a multi-agent prophylaxis Read More »

April 20, 2011
| Filed under North America and Research
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New National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Released

The National Terrorism Advisory System, or NTAS, replaces the color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS). This new system will more effectively communicate information about terrorist threats by providing timely, detailed information to the public, government agencies, first responders, airports and other transportation hubs, and the private sector. It recognizes that Americans all share responsibility for Read More »

April 20, 2011
| Filed under North America, Bioterrorism, and Policy & Initiatives
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WHO group finalizes landmark pandemic virus-sharing agreement

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) working group on influenza virus sharing capped off a week of negotiations with a final agreement that establishes a framework for sharing vaccine strains alongside a system for improving the flow of pandemic vaccine and medications to developing countries. The WHO said yesterday that the group, which Read More »

April 19, 2011
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, Countermeasures, and International
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DTRA is supporting a clinical study now underway by the USAMRIID to evaluate a vaccine against ricin toxin

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is supporting a clinical study now underway by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to evaluate a vaccine against ricin toxin. This is a critical milestone for DTRA’s Chemical/Biological Technologies Directorate Translational Medicine Science & Technology Division (CBM) to support “first in human” evaluations of Read More »