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By Region: North America

Syria’s neighbours fear biological weapons attack

(Telegraph) While the world has focused on Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, Middle Eastern intelligence agencies have growing concerns about the country’s biological arsenal, according to the Washington Post. Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar, initiated the country’s research into biological weapons while president in the 1980s and the current regime is thought to have Read More »

September 10, 2013
| Filed under Europe, Middle East, North America, Bioterrorism, and International
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Are Syria’s cluster bombs and bioweapons worse than its chemical weapons?

(TheWeek) Secretary of State John Kerry swears that U.S. intelligence is confident that the Syrian government used sarin gas to kill 1,429 people in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta. And Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has plenty more where that came from. The Syrian government runs the most advanced chemical weapons program in the developing world, Read More »

September 6, 2013
| Filed under Europe, Middle East, North America, and Bioterrorism
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Two new versions of the flu vaccine arriving soon

(ScienceDaily) For the first time, there will be a vaccine which protects against four strains of the flu virus. Until now, flu vaccines have only protected against three forms of the virus. Each year, scientists choose what they believe will be the three most common forms of the flu to spread during the winter months, Read More »

September 4, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, and Countermeasures
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Science Can Never Rest in the War Against Emerging Pathogens

(FoodSafetyNews) The war on emerging pathogens isn’t like any others. The war on drugs might well end with a new approach. The war on terrorism might eventually wind down. But the war on emerging pathogens is different. It will never end. This conclusion is showing up fairly often in the scientific literature this year, from Read More »

September 3, 2013
| Filed under North America, South America, Biosafety, and Research
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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update

(WHO) WHO has been informed of an additional four laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in Saudi Arabia. The first patient is a 55-year-old man with an underlying medical condition from Medina who became ill on 17 August 2013 and is currently hospitalised. The second patient is a 38-year-old man with Read More »