Today's Headlines: March 20, 2019
Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases
Epidemiological Situation in the Provinces of North Kivu and Ituri  (Director General of Disease Control, Democratic Republic of Congo) The Epidemiological Situation of the Ebola Virus Disease Dated March 18, 2019 : Since the Beginning of the Epidemic, the Cumulative Number of Cases Is 968, 903 Confirmed and 65 Probable. in Total, There Were 606 Deaths and 315 People Cured. Go to article
African Swine Fever Reaches Central Vietnam (VnExpress International) Veterinary authorities on Monday detected African swine fever on a farm in Thua Thien-Hue Province after a few pigs were found dead there.   Go to article
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. Go to article
Domestic Preparedness & Response
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.  Go to article
Development and Performance of a Checklist for Initial Triage After an Anthrax Mass Exposure Event   (Annals of Internal Medicine) Population exposure to Bacillus anthracis spores could cause mass casualties requiring complex medical care. Rapid identification of patients needing anthrax-specific therapies will improve patient outcomes and resource use. Go to article
Global Health Security
Missing the Mark? People in Eastern DRC Need Information on Ebola in a Language they understand. A Rapid Language Needs Assessment in Goma, DRC (Reliefweb) Translators without Borders found that people in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo do not fully understand Ebola-prevention messages in French and standard Swahili. Responders should use the local form of Swahili in their Ebola-related communications in Goma to ensure people have the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe. Go to article
World Health Organization Advisers Call for Registry of Studies on Human Genome Editing (STAT) A  World Health Organization advisory committee on editing human DNA will ask the United Nations agency to establish a global registry of all such research, recommend that editors of scientific journals not publish any unregistered studies, and ask science funders to require that their grantees register their studies, committee co-chair Dr. Margaret Hamburg told reporters on Tuesday. Go to article
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 Go to article
Medicine & Public Health
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 . Go to article
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.  Go to article
US Researchers Hope Congress Will Dig NSF out of a $1 Billion Budget Holes (Science) For the second time in 3 years, President Donald Trump has recommended deep cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Alexandria, Virginia. And scientists are hoping Congress will again come to the agency’s rescue. Go to article
Science & Technology
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?  Go to article
Other 21st Century Threats
Mozambique: Cyclone Idai - 'The Situation Is Likely to Deteriorate' (H5N1) At least 202 people have died following Cyclone Idai’s landfall, according to the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, and the death toll is expected to rise in the days ahead. An estimated 260,000 children have reportedly been affected, according to UNICEF, and are in desperate conditions. Go to article
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