Also, a Nature editorial says the DoD's anthrax missteps highlight regulation inequalities.
The transfer of potentially live B anthracis by an Army lab involved 575 shipments in 10 years, an official said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) waited until last week to set a policy to centralize reporting of all lab mishaps within the agency despite previous high-profile lab accidents and promises of change, according to a USA Today story yesterday.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a new MERS-CoV case over the weekend and a death in a previously reported patient, both in Riyadh.
The new case involves a 30-year-old Saudi man who is hospitalized in stable condition, the MOH reported on Jul 25. He is not a healthcare worker but had contact with a MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) patient in either a community or hospital setting, the MOH said.
A report points to faulty inactivation of Bacillus anthracis spores and inadequate testing.
As the CDC orders a comprehensive review, the DoD blames a lack of scientific consensus for its release of live Bacillus anthracis.
The top 10% of healthcare workers in terms of antibiotic use prescribe the drugs for 95% or more of patients they see for colds, bronchitis, or other acute respiratory infections (ARI), according to an Annals of Internal Medicine study yesterday.
The lowest 10%, in contrast, prescribe antibiotics at 40% or less of patient visits for ARI.
The CDC proposes adding certain H5N1 viruses to HHS's select agent list; experts have varied reactions.
In 2013 and 2014, high-containment laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logged about a dozen power outages and airflow system failures that could have compromised safety, USA Today reported yesterday.
The problems were disclosed in a lab incident summary that the newspaper obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. They occurred between January 2013 and July 2014.
The Obama administration has been slow to take recommended and promised steps toward a coordinated national biosurveillance strategy, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released yesterday.
