Today's Headlines: March 20, 2019
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Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases
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Influenza Update - 337
(WHO)
Information in this report is categorized by influenza transmission zones, which are geographical groups of countries, areas or territories with similar influenza transmission patterns.
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Domestic Preparedness & Response
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Science During Crisis: Best Practices, Research Needs, and Policy Priorities
(American Academy of Arts & Sciences)
A rich literature on preparing for crises exists, but strategic deployment of scientific expertise and application of scientific information during crisis events is understudied. There is a critical need to develop best practices to collect relevant data; work together with affected communities; establish interdisciplinary teams; coordinate scientists, engineers, crisis managers, and decision-makers when disaster strikes; and ensure their collaboration through the crisis, response, and recovery.
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What Needs to Be Done to End Congo's Ebola Crisis
(npr)
Now there's growing concern that the very steps the government and the World Health Organization are taking to curb the rising violence from organized groups — for instance, bringing in military, police and U.N. peacekeepers to provide protection — could sow further mistrust and fuel additional resistance from ordinary people
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A Single Dose of Modified Vaccinia Ankara Expressing Ebola Virus like Particles Protects Nonhuman Primates from Lethal Ebola Virus Challenge
(
Scientific Reports)
Ebola virus, isolate Makona, was the causative agent of the West African epidemic devastating predominantly Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2013-2016. While several experimental vaccine and treatment approaches have been accelerated through human clinical trials, there is still no approved countermeasure available against this disease. Here, we report the construction and preclinical efficacy testing of a novel recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA)-based vaccine expressing the EBOV-Makona glycoprotein GP and matrix protein VP40. GP and VP40 form EBOV-like particles and elicit protective immune responses
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Emergent Biosolutions Launches Phase 3 Trial of Anthrax Vaccine
(HPN)
Emergent BioSolutions said on Tuesday it will begin a Phase 3 trial of a new anthrax vaccine it is developing. The Phase 3 trial will evaluate the lot consistency, immunogenicity, and safety of the vaccine, called AV7909. AV7909 is designed to elicit a faster immune response than other anthrax vaccines that are currently available.
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How Deadly Pathogens Have Escaped the Lab — over and over Again
(Vox) In 1977, the last case of smallpox was diagnosed in the wild. The victim was Ali Maow Maalin of Somalia. The World Health Organization tracked down every person he’d been in face-to-face contact with to vaccinate everyone at risk and find anyone who might have caught the virus already. Thankfully, they found no one had. Maalin recovered, and smallpox appeared to be over forever. That moment came at the end of a decades-long campaign to eradicate smallpox — a deadly infectious disease that killed about 30 percent of those who contracted it — from the face of the earth. Around 500 million people died of smallpox in the century before it was annihilated. But in 1978, the disease cropped back up — in Birmingham, in the United Kingdom. Janet Parker was a photographer at Birmingham Medical School. When she developed a horrifying rash, doctors initially brushed it off as chicken pox. After all, everyone knew that smallpox had been chased out of the world — right?
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Other 21st Century Threats
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Published by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
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