Emerging Infectious Diseases
Seqirus recently announced that its cell-based manufacturing technology at its facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina has delivered a four-fold increase in seasonal influenza vaccine output in just a period of two years.
“With a global influenza pandemic remaining a real and constant... Read More »
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis recently developed a test that uses nanotechnology to quickly detect the Zika virus in blood.
Current Zika test requires the refrigeration of a blood sample in order to shop it to a medical center or laboratory. The recently developed test’s... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has two new tools at their disposal for predicting cattle shipments and preparing for disease outbreaks among them.
With department funding, the two new web-based tools include the U.S. Animal Movement Model... Read More »
A new proof-of-concept test for Zika virus that can quickly produce results in a matter of minutes has recently been developed by researchers from the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Contemporary Zika virus tests involves... Read More »
Using highly specific nuclear-derived techniques, a H5N8 avian influenza outbreak was recently identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and quickly put under control in the country’s Lake Albert region, according to scientists involved with the response efforts.
“This is the... Read More »
Cholera vaccines provide substantial protection for adults, but provide significantly less protection for children under age five, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The study, which was published in a recent... Read More »
Since the onset of the Zika virus in 2015, experts have been researching ways to combat its spread, but now, Arizona State University may have a plant-based vaccine ready to meet the challenge.
The effort is different than existing efforts in that it appears to be more potent, safer and even... Read More »
Global vaccine creator Seqirus recently announced a major milestone in the fight against pandemic threats in the United States, consisting of a four-fold increase in seasonal influenza vaccine creation over two years.
“With a global influenza pandemic remaining a real and constant threat,... Read More »
Without an internationally standardized approval process to guide countries in conducting public health-related experiments, resurrecting an eradicated disease in the lab increases the risk it could be used as an agent of bioterrorism, says Dr. Tom Inglesby, who is recognized worldwide in the... Read More »
An outbreak of dengue fever first identified in May continues to affect multiple regions in the Ivory Coast, according to a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The first cases of the outbreak were reported to public health authorities on April 22 and were confirmed by an... Read More »
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently awarded more than $200 million to support state, city, county, and territory-based efforts to protect and respond to threats from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
Issued through the CDC’s Epidemiology and... Read More »
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently developed a mouse model to study the transmission of the Zika virus through sexual contact and vertically from mother to fetus.
The scientists from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will use the model to... Read More »
Anthrax is posing a serious threat to wildlife in the Ivory Coast’s Taï National Park and could soon even lead to the extinction of local chimpanzee populations, according to a recent study from the Robert Koch Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the University of... Read More »
In the face of continued evolution among infections and diseases, experts from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) is urging the development of plans and funding for antibiotics promotion.
The proposal, which had a lead author in Professor Céline... Read More »
University of Florida (UF) scientists recently published a paper in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, which investigates the ability of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes to transmit the emergent Asian and Indian Ocean strains of the Chikungunya Virus.
The virus was... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Arizona (UA) are seeking more users of Kidenga, a community-based participatory science mobile app created by the researchers that tracks potential instances of the Zika virus.
The app encourages users to report symptoms such as the sudden onset of fever, joint... Read More »
Emergent Biosolutions said on Wednesday it has entered into a licensing agreement with Valneva SE for the global exclusive rights to the company’s Zika vaccine technology, ZIKV.
“Emergent is focused on providing preparedness solutions to public health threats and emerging infectious... Read More »
In Seoul, South Korea, dozens of countries are gathering this week to discuss the future of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), which seeks to protect the world from infectious disease threats and has formed the backbone of biosecurity initiatives across the globe for more than three years.
... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently selected the University of California - San Diego (UCSD) to be part of a research team on a project aimed at curbing the spread of infectious diseases like Zika virus and dengue fever.
UCSD’s selection by DARPA now entitles it to a... Read More »
A new mathematical model developed at Upstate Medical University in New York will help guide researchers to make monthly predictions on when populations are at greatest risk of contracting mosquito-borne diseases, like Zika virus and dengue fever,
The model was developed by Upstate Medical... Read More »
A combination of Google search data and government-supplied clinical data can be used to accurately track mosquito-born illnesses like Dengue fever in developing countries, researchers at Harvard University recently found.
Researchers used Google Trends to track the top 10 dengue related search... Read More »
The Epidemiology Unit of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health (MoH) recently reported a total of 80,732 cases of dengue fever throughout the first six months of 2017, a figure that is 4.3 times higher than the average number of cases reported from 2010-2016 and includes 215 deaths.
According to the... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions said on Wednesday it plans to acquire GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) raxibacumab, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved monoclonal antibody used for the treatment of inhalation anthrax, in an all-cash transaction valued at up to $96 million.
Raxibacumab is approved... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) recently awarded two multi-year grants to Molly Duman Scheel, associate professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend, to assist her work in abating mosquito-borne illnesses in order to keep military... Read More »
Two Zika virus vaccine candidates were shown to protect the developing fetus of female mice from infection and associated birth defects, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).
The findings, which were published in a recent issue of... Read More »
A recent discovery made by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Schools of the Health Sciences revealed a loophole in which the influenza virus packages its genetic material to give rise to new strains of the flu.
The research, detailed in a recent issue of the journal Nucleic... Read More »
More than 135 researchers, representing 10 medical centers designated by the U.S. government as a Regional Ebola and other Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC), recently convened at the National Ebola Treatment and Education Center (NETEC) at Emory University in Atlanta for a two-day event to... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said on Friday it plans to acquire Sanofi’s ACAM2000 business, the only vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for active immunization against smallpox, in an all-cash transaction totaling up to $125 million.
ACAM2000 is the primary smallpox... Read More »
In response to the recent Senate introduction of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, which would effectively repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund in FY2018, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) came out strongly against the legislation, citing the detrimental effects... Read More »
Tulane University was recently awarded $12 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test a potential new drug treatment against the Lassa virus and to develop a vaccine candidate against the disease.
The awards were issued through NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Greg Walden (R-OR) recently sent a public letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), regarding the Blue Ribbon Panel’s review of the 2014 smallpox virus incident on the NIH campus that called into question a number of missed opportunities to discover vials... Read More »
Botulinum toxin, produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria, is the most potent biological toxin known to exist on Earth. The toxin causes botulism, a severe muscle-paralyzing, potentially fatal disease, characteristics that increase its likelihood as a potential bioweapon.
And while the U.S.... Read More »
The New Mexico Department of Health recently awarded a second contract to researchers from the New Mexico State University (NMSU) to expand a previous project map that shows the geographic distribution of mosquitoes that could potentially carry the Zika virus.
According to a release by NMSU,... Read More »
An outbreak of the acute viral hemorrhagic fever illness called Lassa fever has recently been reported by officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) in multiple West African nations including Nigeria.
As of last month, a total of 501 suspected cases have been reported, 104 of which... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the most-recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has officially concluded after
42 days.
According to WHO, the 42-day mark represents two incubation cycles of the virus after the last confirmed... Read More »
