Emerging Infectious Diseases
A report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) this week analyzed a dengue fever epidemic that caused them to declare an outbreak in Burkina Faso in September and urged countries to consider dengue vaccines.
Notably, this case has differed from past outbreaks in that several serotypes... Read More »
As Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands continue to recover from the devastating effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, a group of Democratic U.S. Senators recently sent a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Brenda Fitzgerald requesting information on the... Read More »
A two-day workshop was recently held in Washington, D.C. that addressed methods of building up the U.S. ability to monitor and analyze its medical countermeasures for use in public health emergencies.
Hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the workshop focused... Read More »
Researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group published two systematic reviews about the use of mefloquine to prevent malaria in travelers.
The reports drew together more than 50 studies that involved more than 1,000,000 participants, in order... Read More »
While efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB) have made progress, more action is needed to reach global targets and close gaps in TB care and prevention, a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found.
The report found that since 2000, global efforts have decreased the TB mortality... Read More »
A new study by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, along with colleagues from Rio de Janeiro, Uruguay, and the United Kingdom, found that populations of Malaria in the Americas are more diverse than was previously thought.
Because the most prevalent species of malaria... Read More »
The malaria-causing Plasmodium falciparum parasite needs two proteins to infect red blood cells and exit the cells after it multiplies, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The researchers... Read More »
An outbreak of pneumonic plague in Madagascar and Seychelles carries a moderate risk of spread to neighboring Indian Ocean islands, which is mitigated by the naturally short incubation period of the virus and the institution of exit screening measures at ports of entry, according to a recent update... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) provided an update on Wednesday regarding the recently confirmed outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) emanating from Uganda’s Kween District.
As of Oct. 24, five cases of MVD have been reported. One case has been confirmed through laboratory testing,... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced it is working to contain an outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) that has appeared near the Kenyan border in east Uganda.
First detected on Oct. 17 by Uganda’s Ministry of Health, WHO estimated that several hundred individuals may have... Read More »
The Alliance for Biosecurity formally recognized the sustained efforts of U.S. Rep. Charles Albert “Dutch” Ruppersberger, D-Md., to improve how the United States prevents and combats biosecurity threats with its Congressional Biosecurity Champion Award.
Congressman Ruppersberger on Oct. 19... Read More »
A World Health Organization (WHO) partner laboratory in Paris, France, tested this week samples from patients from Seychelles suspected to be ill with pneumonic plague and returned negative results.
The Seychelles Ministry of Health and WHO shipped the 10 samples to the collaborating centre for... Read More »
Biologists from the University of California San Diego have made headway in new flu and anthrax treatments through two separate studies focused on bodily defense.
Experiments in both cases unveiled new mechanisms the body uses to defend itself, working their way up from fruit flies. The results... Read More »
The Government of Nigeria recently announced the launch of a 10-day campaign aimed at immunizing 873,837 people against yellow fever in the states of Kwara and Kogi.
Beginning on Oct. 13, the effort mobilized more than 200 health workers and volunteers to immunize individuals between the ages of... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) recently wrote a letter to the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), following the first case of locally transmitted Zika in 2017, asking the organization to prioritize Zika prevention efforts.
"The Zika outbreak isn't over and continues... Read More »
The Seychellois Ministry of Health recently notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of a probable case of pneumonic plague emanating from a man who visited Madagascar, which has been experiencing an outbreak of plague in its major cities and other non-endemic areas since August of this... Read More »
Two Ebola vaccine candidates pose no major safety concerns and can elicit immune responses by one month after initial vaccination, according to a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted in Liberia
The clinical trial was coordinated by researchers with the Partnership for... Read More »
A research team at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) was recently awarded more than $2 million from Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. to begin a Zika virus vaccine trial in Brazil.
Led by David Diemert and Jeffrey Bethony, both professors of... Read More »
In response to reports that more than 230 cases of plague have appeared in Madagascar since August, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently sent a shipment of 1,190,000 doses of antibiotics and released $1.5 million in emergency funds in order to mitigate the spread of the disease.
The... Read More »
Sanofi’s ACAM2000 and associated contracts are now in the possession of Emergent BioSolutions Inc, following payment of a $117.5 million acquisition.
In all, Emergent has gained control of the only smallpox vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a cGMP live viral... Read More »
A joint project between private, academic and military interests has the potential to make screening and treating populations for infectious diseases easier and safer.
The $11.7 million multi-year project, to create a new universal surveillance platform for infectious disease outbreaks, will be... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is urging the importance of preparedness when it comes to biomedical research in the face of major disease outbreaks and pandemics.
In an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association by Anthony Fauci,... Read More »
A next-generation Zika virus vaccine candidate was the first to safely elicit an immune response in humans, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Wistar Institute, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and GeneOne Life... Read More »
After evaluating 36 women and fetuses exposed to Zika from January 2016 to May, researchers at Children’s National Health System found that 89 percent of those infected were exposed through a mosquito bite and 48 percent of were also exposed through an infected sexual partner.
Roberta... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced plans this week to join Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in a partnership focused on the development of infectious disease treating products.
Specifically, it will be the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)... Read More »
The Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC), an initiative of more than 50 United Nations’ agencies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental organizations, recently announced the launch of a new strategy that aims to reduce deaths from cholera by 90 percent by 2030.
The effort, called... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) is stepping up its presence in Madagascar to contain an outbreak of plague that has infected more than 100 people and led to the death of a foreign national in recent weeks.
According to WHO, the plague has struck both port towns and the capital alike. Thus... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) recently announced it would provide funding through Project BioShield for manufacturing process validation, regulatory approval, and stockpile purchases for four Ebola vaccines and drugs.
The vaccines and drugs are the first for... Read More »
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced it deactivated its emergency response for Zika virus on Sept. 29 in order to transition its efforts to normal program operations.
Beginning on Jan. 22, 2016, the CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as a... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced it will purchase a lyophilized, or freeze-dried, smallpox vaccine for use by women who are pregnant or nursing and for people of any age who have HIV or atopic dermatitis.
The vaccine, developed by Denmark-based... Read More »
The Ebola virus uses the body’s natural defenses to speed the rate of infection and cause its lethal effects, according to a recent study conducted by researchers with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).
The study was in collaboration with the University of Washington... Read More »
Antibodies taken from patients infected with dengue fever are effective in treating Zika virus infection in rodents, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from Imperial College London and the Washington University in St. Louis.
Found in multiple regions throughout the world,... Read More »
Soligenix Inc. announced this week it is the recipient of $700,000 in funding to support a research project grant for the University of Hawai’i at Manoa aimed at developing a thermostabilized Ebola vaccine.
Soligenix, a biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes products which... Read More »
Three-quarters of mainland U.S. counties are now environmentally suitable for disease-transmitting mosquitoes, according to an update of models by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Two mosquito species--aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus--can survive for at least part of the... Read More »
A recent study by a Northeastern University associate research scientist found that increased time spent outdoors correlated to a higher risk for Zika infection.
The researcher, Marco Ajelli, surveyed residents of the Miami-Dade area and found that while the majority of people spent less than... Read More »
