Countermeasures
The nation’s supply of U.S.-licensed YF-VAX yellow fever vaccine is expected to be depleted by mid-2017 due to delays in the manufacturing process at Sanofi Pasteur, according to a recent report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
YF-VAX is the only yellow... Read More »
A delegation of Namibian representatives recently visited the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to discuss various initiatives related to the full implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
The delegation included members of the... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents stationed at the Dennis DeConcini crossing at the Port of Nogales in Arizona recently stopped attempted fentanyl smuggling by a single individual.
The incident began as officers stopped a 28-year old Mexican national driving a Chevrolet SUV for a... Read More »
The United States National Guard (USNG) recently conducted Exercise Cyber Shield 2017 at Camp Williams in Utah, which trained more than 800 Army personnel in various aspects of cyber protection, network defense, forensic analysis, cyber tactics, and defense procedures against hackers and... Read More »
According to a recent report by researchers from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, daily platelet counts in children experiencing the early stages of dengue virus infection can help predict those at risk of dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
The study followed 2,301 children... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate recently entered into a partnership with Asymmetric Technologies worth $199,814.31 to enhance small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) within Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
CBP said its use of sUAS... Read More »
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) introduced this week the Community Counterterrorism Preparedness Act, which aims to direct grant funding towards first responders so they may receive counterterrorism training in the event of a coordinated terrorist attack.... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents assigned to the Tucson Sector recently interdicted a human smuggling attempt at the State Route 86 immigration checkpoint near Three Points, Arizona.
The incident began as agents stopped a Chevrolet Impala sedan with two visible occupants for a... Read More »
Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of the U.S. European Command, recently hosted a discussion with dozens of senior NATO Leaders and European chiefs of defense on how to counter the threat of violent extremism.
“This fight against terror and violent extremists will not be easy, nor... Read More »
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) weapon modernization programs, which stated that the agency needed to address affordability concerns in future budget estimates.
GAO was tasked with publishing... Read More »
Fourteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives reintroduced this week the First Responders Passport Act, which allows the Secretary of State to waive passport fees for American first responders when making trips abroad to assist in natural disaster response efforts.
The bipartisan group... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed this week the Aviation Employee Screening and Security Enhancement Act, authored by U.S. Rep. John Katko (R-NY), which aims to strengthen security at the nation’s airports by providing enhanced screening procedures for airport and aviation... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives passed this week the Homeland Security for Children Act, which requires future disaster preparedness planning initiatives to include the needs of children as well.
The bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr.
(D-NJ).
“Children are not tiny... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced this week the Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act, which aims to strengthen national security by coordinating with foreign partners to identify international airport vulnerabilities that could allow a potential terrorist to... Read More »
A new global coalition is laying the groundwork to achieve an ambitious goal of speeding up the development of vaccines to combat the spread of deadly emerging infectious diseases that pose great risk to public health.
Launched in January, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations... Read More »
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division recently completed a four-day immigration operation, the result of which led to the arrest of 95 undocumented migrants with criminal histories throughout the southeast Texas area.
The agency... Read More »
A companion bill to U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe’s (R-TX) Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act of 2017 was recently introduced in the Senate by U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Grassley currently serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,... Read More »
Rockwell Collins was recently selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to apply its mathematics-based development processes to protect DARPA defense platforms against potential cyberattacks.
Rockwell Collins’ methods were developed in conjunction with DARPA’s High... Read More »
Roman Valeryevich Seleznev, a 32-year old Russian cybercriminal, was sentenced to 27 years in prison last week for defrauding various small businesses and financial institutions, causing more than $169 million in damages.
Seleznev, known by the pseudonym Track2, was convicted in August of 38... Read More »
According to a report recently published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most-reported bacteria causing foodborne illnesses in America last year were Campylobacter and Salmonella.
Data was gathered through the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance... Read More »
In continuing its ongoing efforts into malaria research, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently announced $9 million in first-year funding for seven malaria research centers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The seven-year awards are a continuance of... Read More »
With the nation’s signature preparedness law due for reauthorization in 2018, leaders now are readying public health stakeholders across local, state and federal levels for battle on Capitol Hill.
Not only should those in the public health sector be battle-ready to support renewal of the... Read More »
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in collaboration with the University of Wuppertal in Germany, recently held two courses that focused on loss prevention and safety promotion in the chemical industry, giving students important information on modern technical safety... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently recognized Sandia National Laboratories for its efforts in combating the 2014-2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic in West Africa.
To address issues facing West African patients during the epidemic, Sandia researchers examined Liberia’s blood... Read More »
SIGA Technologies, Inc. recently completed its enrollment and dosing of healthy individuals in a Phase 1 clinical study of TPOXX, an intravenous formulation intended for the treatment of smallpox and related orthopoxvirus infections.
SIGA said the treatment is intended for patients who cannot... Read More »
Researchers specializing in anthrax bacterium Bacillus anthracis and its two related bacillus species, B. cereus and B. thurigiensis, will convene in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada for the International Conference on Bacillus ACT in October to present their work with more than 200 global... Read More »
The nation’s biodefense response to emerging diseases and outbreaks is on an endless loop that, without a proper foundation, is not allowing for progressive countermeasure operations, according to Merck Pharmaceuticals Executive Director Julie Gerberding, former director of the Centers for... Read More »
Soligenix, Inc. will be presenting results from its ricin toxin vaccine (RiVax) development program at the 20th Annual Conference on Vaccine Research next week
RiVax is a proprietary vaccine candidate used for the prevention of ricin toxin exposure that utilizes an antigen devoid of ricin... Read More »
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) Executive Council recently reconvened to further discuss allegations that the Syrian regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad, used chemical weapons on its own people in southern Idlib, Syria.
On April 4, a chemical weapons... Read More »
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai recently used the dengue virus as a model to identify the signaling pathway used to initiate an immune response in the body and how the virus counteracts that mechanism to evade immune detection.
"Previous studies have shown that human... Read More »
Researchers from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently developed a capsule that may help prevent malaria infections and protect patients for up to two weeks.
The capsule was recently tested in swine... Read More »
Harlem Suarez, a 23-year old man from Monroe County in Florida, was recently sentenced to life in prison for attempting to use an explosive device classified as a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to the extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).... Read More »
A team of researchers from the United States and Uganda recently identified a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)-like coronavirus, called PDF-2180, in a bat in Uganda which the researchers said gives evidence that similar coronaviruses originate in bats.
In laboratory testing, the... Read More »
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) was recently named champion of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC), defeating nine other universities in a simulated cyber attack scenario.
Participants were tasked with securing a multi-site retail corporation with 160... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) agents stationed at the International Falls Port of Entry in Minnesota recently apprehended an individual wanted as a material witness in a homicide case.
The incident occurred on April 16 as 38-year old Abraham Roberts... Read More »
