The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has replaced its longtime head of national lab regulation after a series of key lab safety breaches involving bioterror pathogens like Bacillus anthracis—which causes anthrax—and H5N1 avian flu viruses, USA Today reported yesterday.
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) today recommended in a report that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) BioWatch program not pursue any upgrades to its second-generation (Gen-2) technology for monitoring the country for potential bioterror attacks until it can provide better efficacy data.
Recommendations include executive-level management that spells out a national plan, pulls together a policy council, and unifies the biodefense budget.
The NSABB plans to release final recommendations in spring 2016.
The National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) is falling short in its mission in several ways, such as lack of timely information to its partners, poor partner participation, and difficulty prioritizing some activities, and might even need to be discontinued, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report yesterday.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported two new MERS-CoV cases in Riyadh today that don't appear to be linked to a large hospital outbreak, and it confirmed a death in a previously reported patient.
The Pentagon today announced a moratorium on work with dangerous pathogens such as the bacterium that causes anthrax at its nine biodefense labs, USA Today reported. The action comes in the wake of the discovery of live anthrax spores outside of containment at a military lab in Utah and an ongoing investigation by USA Today into problems at the nation's high-containment labs.
Federal regulators have privately threatened to revoke permits to study select agents (potential bioterror pathogens) from at least six labs for safety and security violations, including at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, the University of Hawaii-Manoa (UHM), and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), USA Today reported late last week in its continuing probe of US lab biosecurity
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday reported 19 new cyclosporiasis cases in the past week, bringing the 2015 outbreak total to 476 infections in 29 states.
Those who refuse or delay vaccines constitute a growing, urgent challenge around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement today.
