(CIDRAP News) – Participants in a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting held in February agreed that a binding global agreement to govern potentially dangerous life-sciences research is unlikely, but global guidance on the thorny issue could help nations figure out their own policies, according to a WHO report of the meeting.
(CIDRAP News) – As labs in the United States study how the H7N9 virus behaves in humans and animals, state and local health officials should dust off their pandemic preparedness plans in case the virus becomes a bigger threat, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Atlanta yesterday to support the response to the H7N9 influenza outbreak in China, CDC officials said in an e-mailed statement today.
(CIDRAP News) – A human isolate of the novel H7N9 influenza virus from China—needed for the development of diagnostic test kits and related efforts—is expected to arrive at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within 2 days, a CDC official said today.
(CIDRAP News) – The National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) today forwarded two sets of recommendations to federal departments that oversee emergency preparedness, one focused on enhancing situational awareness in health emergencies and the other on improving the nation's Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) by 2020.