Emerging Infectious Diseases
SIGA Technologies announced this month that it has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to study the post-exposure prophylactic use of TPOXX, a drug currently stockpiled by the U.S. government to treat smallpox outbreaks.
The Cooperative... Read More »
Operating on the knowledge that Ebola and malaria are both endemic to Central and West Africa, and that many people treated for Ebola have been found to be infected with malarial parasites as well, researchers from Texas Biomed and the University of Iowa are working to assess a connection between... Read More »
Even as tuberculosis (TB) becomes the most common infectious disease in the world, a new study by an international research team has determined that only around 25 percent of new cases of antibiotic-resistant strains are being detected.
Such a result marks a need for dramatic changes in... Read More »
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) officials have initiated the first Marburg vaccine in a Phase 1 adult clinical trial evaluating safety and immunogenicity.
“Given the recent deadly outbreak of Marburg virus in Uganda, there is a critical need to develop a safe and effective... Read More »
The opportunity for public health disasters is growing in the United States, fueled by falling vaccination rates reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week.
The data revealed that vaccinations are still common among children, but they are not as common as they were, or... Read More »
An international collection of scientists have developed a new vaccine with the potential to shield people from both Lassa fever and rabies, and the drug has proven successful in preclinical testing.
Known as LASSARAB, the vaccine utilizes a weakened rabies carrier injected with genetic material... Read More »
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced this week that a strategic partnership between the department and Johnson & Johnson will seek to advance efforts against chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear, disease, and antimicrobial threats in the United States.
The two... Read More »
In the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, which hit Florida’s panhandle this week, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said residents of the area need to know the public health risks and how to mitigate them.
The category 4 hurricane – which the U.S. Department of Health and... Read More »
A large-scale biological event shouldn’t mean that the nation’s thousands of state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments fend for themselves waiting for federal assets to arrive, a new bipartisan report of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense says.
“We can take steps now... Read More »
As a founding director of the nation’s first bioterrorism preparedness program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1999, Dr. Scott Lillibridge didn’t realize then what would emerge as the almost surreal scope of biothreats now challenging the United States.
But now he knows,... Read More »
One of the critical problems for getting pandemic vaccines out there is a bottleneck formed by the necessity of tests to determine their potency, but a new type of test -- VaxArray -- may bring immediacy to the system.
"With the 100th year anniversary since the 1918 influenza pandemic, there has... Read More »
The Chinese government is investing more than the United States in the use of non-human primates as laboratory models for deadly infectious disease research, according to expert testimony delivered on Tuesday during a meeting of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.
Jay Rappaport, director... Read More »
With the danger of African swine fever growing each year -- and now poised to spread into Asia -- experts at Kansas State University and the Biosecurity Research Institute are taking notice and taking action to keep it from infecting the United States as well.
African swine fever is a... Read More »
Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston recently developed a cheaper way to create vaccines without sacrificing their safety or effectiveness.
The way forward focuses on cost-cutting in both storage and production. Traditionally, many vaccines are... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions completed its acquisition of PaxVax, a company that develops specialty vaccines that protect against infectious diseases typhoid and cholera.
Emergent now has two PaxVax vaccines – Vivotif, which treats typhoid fever, and Vaxchora, which treats cholera. Emergent acquired... Read More »
The University of Montana is responsible for the creation of a new universal flu vaccine, under a five-year, $10 million contract awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The award was granted to Jay Evans, director of UM’s Center for Translational Medicine, who will be joined by... Read More »
Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands and Keio University in Japan are currently exploring infectious disease test alternatives through the use of a special glowing paper strip, a drop of blood, and a digital camera.
The study, published in the journal... Read More »
A study conducted by New York University confirmed that text messages are a rapid means of information spread amidst public health crises, representing an invaluable means of data sourcing.
"Sourcing data from individuals directly, such as through mobile phones, has the potential to provide... Read More »
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) announced this week that it would take part in an experimental treatment for the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) currently being pursued by international cooperation.
Their involvement focuses on ZMapp, a treatment that utilizes three antibodies as part of its... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Human and Human Services (DHHS) has contracted with the company Genentech in managing and sharing the cost to develop a portfolio of medical treatments designed to counter the spread of influenza and other health security threats.
DHHS, operating through its Biomedical... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is sponsoring Siga Technologies on its development of an intravenous formulation of TPOXX -- a smallpox antiviral medication of which DHHS is currently purchasing additional doses.
“We want to save as many lives as possible after a... Read More »
Two institutions are taking up the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) call for more affordable, improved and adapted antibiotic formulations for children in low and middle-income countries, with an agreement focused on enhancing generic antibiotics and access.
The participants are the... Read More »
In 2015 it was discovered that a U.S. laboratory spent more than a decade inadvertently sending the bacteria that causes anthrax to 194 laboratories worldwide.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has recently released its findings regarding how effective the U.S. Department of Defense has... Read More »
The United Nations set forth a goal of eliminating a global tuberculosis epidemic by 2030, as well as to treat 40 million people infected by the disease by 2022 and push forward infection prevention measures in the same timeframe.
A meeting held by the body’s General Assembly this week marked... Read More »
The United States announced during the United Nations General Assembly in New York Tuesday the AMR Challenge, the “most ambitious global initiative” for combating antibiotic resistance (AMR).
Led by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Centers for Disease Control and... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) unveiled a new partnership with SeLux Diagnostic, Inc. this week with the goal of developing faster tests for bacterial infection identification and matching those individual infections with appropriate antibiotics.
The Biomedical Advanced... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday advanced bipartisan legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) to bolster America’s preparedness and response to public health emergencies, including biological threats like emerging infectious diseases, as well as chemical, bio or nuclear... Read More »
In a move the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association warn could threaten public health responses, the Trump Administration has transferred funds from infectious disease prevention, care, and biomedical research programs into its unaccompanied alien children... Read More »
Fiji is subjected to a smallpox outbreak where social norms breakdown and medical experts scramble to get the outbreak under control.
This wasn’t reality, but it was the simulation exercise for participants of a workshop held last month at the University of New South Wales Sydney. The event... Read More »
During the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Sept. 25, Alex Azar, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary, will call on world leaders to address the evolving threat of antibiotic resistance.
Failure to prepare for and reverse antibiotic resistance could lead to... Read More »
Researchers from Harvard University urged government officials this week to develop new measures to detect and prevent the spread of infectious diseases, like dengue fever, in Tokyo ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics.
In a report published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the researchers --... Read More »
As part of an effort to counter multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the TB Alliance are collaborating -- with monetary support from the Medical Research Council (MRC) -- to investigate new combination TB therapies.
A £1 million ($1.3... Read More »
Researchers from Imperial College London are taking a new tack in the battle against malaria, focusing on
the compounds that could prevent malaria parasites from being able to infect mosquitoes, halting the spread of disease.
As a disease delivery system, mosquitoes are infamous, but... Read More »
A Phase 1 trial is underway for a new nasal flu vaccination designed for ages 9 to 17 years old.
Testing is taking place at Saint Louis University, with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Unlike traditional flu vaccines, which must be reformulated... Read More »
A new test, according to information presented to the European Respiratory Society International Congress, can identify viral infections in just 50 minutes -- something that could save hospitals approximately €2,500 ($2922) per patient prevented from requiring admission.
The other advantage of... Read More »
