Recent News

By Region: North America

Op-Ed – The Global Forum on Biorisks: An Idea Whose Time has Come

By Gerald L. Epstein, Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); A White House meeting convened by the Office of Science and Technology Policy in September 1997 brought together representatives from many United States government agencies that had responsibility for biological risks Read More »

April 12, 2011
| Filed under North America and Policy & Initiatives
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U.S. Provides Additional Funds for Smallpox Vaccine

A Danish biotechnology firm said on Monday it would receive an additional $54 million in U.S. funding for development of a freeze-dried form of a smallpox vaccine (see GSN, Feb. 3). The U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has boosted an existing contract with Bavarian Nordic from $40 million Read More »

April 12, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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New policy strategies needed to contain MRSA spread across hospitals

DALLAS — Better infection control strategies and policies are needed to control methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus outbreaks from occurring between hospitals, according to presenter here. “Hospitals are not isolated entities but, rather, parts of complex systems. Therefore, infectious disease control should take into account the entire system,”Sarah M. McGlone, MPH, of the Public Health Computational and Read More »

April 12, 2011
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Nasal spray vaccines more effective against flu

(Society for General Microbiology) Nasal vaccines that effectively protect against flu, pneumonia and even bioterrorism agents such as Yersinia pestis that causes the plague, could soon be a possibility, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Conference in Harrogate. Professor Dennis Metzger describes how including a natural immune chemical with standard Read More »

April 12, 2011
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Obama Signs Policy Directive on Government’s Emergency Preparedness

President Obama signed a national-security directive last week designed to put the administration’s imprint on the way the nation responds to major emergencies, including terrorism, National Journal has learned.