Today's Headlines: June 19, 2019
Global Health Security
Hundreds of Thousands Flee Congo Violence, in Region Afflicted by Ebola ( NY Times) Hundreds of thousands of people have fled an explosion of ethnic violence in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the past two weeks, the United Nations said on Tuesday, creating a new humanitarian emergency in a region where international agencies are struggling to control an outbreak of Ebola. Go to article
Why Another Flu Pandemic Is Likely Just a Matter of When (PBS News Hour) Despite the availability of vaccines, the flu still kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. each year, and hundreds of thousands more worldwide. But public health officials fear that an even graver threat lies ahead: the emergence of a new, much more deadly flu virus. As William Brangham reports, the scenario has occurred before. Go to article
Ebola: 'WHO between a rock and a hard place' (DW) Declaring a global health emergency could galvanize aid to fight the Ebola epidemic in the DR Congo. It could also make the job of containing the virus much more difficult. The WHO's decision proved controversial. Go to article
Medicine & Public Health
Ebola, Community Engagement, and Saving Loved Ones (The Lancet) The importance of community engagement in the control of an Ebola epidemic is often emphasised, but how engagement occurs, and with whom, is not always straightforward. Go to article
Drone Deliveries Are Advancing in Health Care (The Economist) A few years ago Jeff Bezos made a prediction. By 2018 his e-commerce empire, Amazon, would be delivering items by drone. Prime Air has yet to launch. Go to article
The Not-Flashy, Essential Part of Outbreak Preparedness and Response (Global Health Now) When an outbreak hits, how do we immediately get a Ministry of Health representative, an animal health specialist, a communications expert and a laboratory sample transporter on the same page? Go to article
Science & Technology
Wellcome Global Monitor 2018 (Wellcome) The Wellcome Global Monitor is the world’s largest study into how people around the world think and feel about science and major health challenges. Go to article
New Technique Could Help Scientists Create a Gene in Just 1 Day (Science) Creating a new gene in a single day could soon be possible, thanks to a new technique that mimics the way the body copies its own DNA. Though the technology needs to clear a few more hurdles, it could one day let researchers speedily rewrite microbe genes, enabling them to synthesize new medicines and fuels on the fly. Go to article
Pre-Market Development Times for Biologic Versus Small-Molecule Drugs (Nature: Biotechnology) Before approval by the US Food and Drug Administration, prescription drugs must be adequately tested in preclinical studies and clinical trials for safety and efficacy. Go to article
CARB-X Awards Oxford Drug Design Funding to Develop a New Class of Antibiotics to Treat Drug-Resistant Gram-Negative Infections (CARB-X) CARB-X is awarding Oxford Drug Design Ltd. of Oxford, UK, up to $2.55 million in non-dilutive funding with the possibility of $4.24 million more if certain project milestones are met, to develop a new class of antibiotics for the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infections using an approach designed to reduce the likelihood that resistance will emerge. Go to article
CRISPR Babies: When Will the World Be Ready? (Nature) Jeff Carroll had been married for six months when he and his wife decided not to have children. Carroll, 25 years old and a former corporal in the US Army, had just found out that he had the mutation that causes Huntington’s disease, a genetic disorder that ravages the brain and nervous system and invariably ends in an early death. Go to article
Other 21 st Century Threats
Harness Microbes for Humanity’s Future (Nature) In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington DC, and more than 1,700 researchers, issued the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity. Go to article
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