News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Though the United States has improved its ability to respond to small-scale bioterror events, it is still unprepared to protect its citizens against large attacks, according to the latest assessment today from a bipartisan commission established to advise Congress.

(CIDRAP News) – An investigation into the origins of Minnesota's first human anthrax case in many years is focusing on where the patient might have been exposed to the deadly pathogen, Minnesota State Epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield said today.

(CIDRAP News) – A person hospitalized in Minnesota has contracted inhalational anthrax after traveling in western states, officials from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced today.

In a release, the MDH said that the agency and its partners at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating the infection, which apparently stemmed from environmental exposure.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today said Kansas State University (KSU) is its preferred site among six candidates for a facility to replace the federal Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York.

(CIDRAP News) – Cross-contamination of clinical specimens in two Idaho hospital laboratories that were conducting proficiency tests triggered brief concern about a potential anthrax attack in 2006, underscoring the value of proper lab practices, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) recently revealed conclusion that the late anthrax researcher Dr. Bruce Ivins committed the anthrax letter attacks of 2001 has been greeted with skepticism by many in the scientific community.

(CIDRAP News) – A US House of Representatives committee today explored problems at the nation's biodefense labs, including a lack of coordinated federal oversight and even a lack of knowledge of how many high-containment labs exist.

These concerns have been highlighted recently by aggressive efforts from the Sunshine Project, a watchdog group that monitors biodefense research safety, and by other media reports.