• Flu shots not effective enough in global outbreak, report finds

    A new study reveals that seasonal flu shots are not effective enough to protect people in the event of a pandemic; “Today’s flu shot is like an iPhone 1.0,” said the study’s author, Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance at the University of Minnesota; “What we need is an iPhone 10.0”

  • Mysterious incident leaves more than 20 high-schoolers sick

    Public health authorities in Texas are investigating a mysterious incident that left more than twenty people sick during a high school football game in Houston last Friday; the stadium was immediately evacuated and a Hazmat team dispatched, while a total of twenty-two students were taken to several local hospitals for treatment

  • Quickly and accurately tracing food-borne outbreaks

    Researchers have developed a new technique that could pinpoint the exact nature and origin of food-borne bacteria with unprecedented accuracy

  • "Printing" food with plant DNA to prevent counterfeiting

    Branded foods from the waters off Japan are becoming popular in Asia; the growing popularity has lured counterfeiters into the market, where they sell common foods as the high-value brand, in the process destroying markets and reputation of the real item

  • "Vampire" bacteria may serve as living antibiotic

    A vampire-like bacteria that leeches onto specific other bacteria — including certain human pathogens — has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates

  • Source of St. Louis E.coli outbreak still uncertain

    Public health officials in Missouri are scrambling to locate the source of an E.coli outbreak that has infected twenty-six people in one week; health authorities believe that Schnucks, a chain of salad bars, may be the culprit, but so far tests for the bacteria have all come back negative

  • New testing capabilities for bioterror threats

    Research presented at the 13th Medical Biodefense Conference in Munich says that Abbott’s PLEX-ID system provides reliable and rapid results for key microbial biothreat agents and should be considered as a first line analytical tool for biodefense, biosecurity, and microbial forensics programs

  • Natural killer cells may be the best defense against anthrax

    One of the things that makes inhalational anthrax so difficult for biodefense experts to deal with is the speed with which a relatively small number of inhaled anthrax spores can turn into a lethal infection; by the time an anthrax victim realizes he or she has something worse than the flu, it is often too late

  • U.S. is not ready for bioterror attacks

    Since 9/11, the U.S. government has spent more than $60 billion of bolstering U.S. defenses against a terrorist attack using biological agents. The money paid for air sensors in major cities, intensified efforts to develop vaccines and treatments for anthrax and other potential biotrerror weapons, educating doctors about bioterror attack symptoms, distributing equipment to hospitals around the country, and more. Still, even within the biodefense community, there is a wide-spread belief that these measures have not made the United States meaningfully less vulnerable to a bioterror attack.

  • Government considers testing anthrax vaccine on children

    The U.S. government is considering testing its anthrax vaccine on children to determine if it has any potential side effects; so far the government’s anthrax vaccine has only been tested on adults and members of the National Biodefense Science Board argued that there had been no tests to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine on children; opponents of the suggestion have sharply criticized it on the grounds that it is unethical to test a vaccine on children especially if there is no immediate threat; proponents of testing the vaccine acknowledged the criticism, but maintained that it was critical to ensure the safety of the vaccine on children in the event that it had to be administered; the board is set to meet again on Friday to vote on its controversial recommendation

  • New virus could be the first filovirus to cause disease in bats

    A team of international researchers has discovered a new Ebola-like virus — Lloviu virus — in bats from northern Spain; filoviruses, which include well-known viruses like Ebola and Marburg, are among the deadliest pathogens in humans and non-human primates, and are generally found in East Africa and the Philippines

  • Laser keeps an eye for spoiled food

    Minced meat, bread, fruit juice, and many other foods are packaged in a protective gas which extends their shelf life; there is currently no good method to check whether the packaging has the correct gas content — and thus, whether the content is spoiled or not; researchers have developed a new laser instrument which could solve the problem

  • DHS funds Ricin detection

    Positive ID announces the company’s immunodetection assay for the identification of Ricin toxin to meet DHS specifications; Ricin, a chemical warfare agent, is derived from the seeds of the castor oil plant Ricinus communis and has become a tool of terrorist groups across the world due to its easy production and high toxicity

  • A new pest threatens U.S. agriculture -- iPhone owners can help

    A new meandering pest — the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) — is feasting on many of North America’s most important crops, posing an unprecedented threat to U.S. agriculture; the value of susceptible crops in the thirty-three states where BMSB has been established or sighted exceeds $21 billion

  • Google Earth typhoid maps traces disease outbreaks

    Recent advances in DNA sequencing have allowed scientists accurately to track the spread of some diseases by measuring mutations in the pathogen’s DNA when the DNA replicates; tracing the spread of typhoid, however, has proved challenging because these mutations are small in number and not detectable by most techniques in use