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Opgal technology helps identify flu patients
Israeli company says its heat sensors can help stem the spread of swine flu and other diseases which cause elevated body tempreture
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Flu vaccine contracts worth $46.7 million awarded
Two companies awarded $46.7 million to supply influenza vaccine to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies
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New security measures on passenger planes may hurt cherries growers
About a quarter of the cherries grown in Washington state — some 1.3 million 20-pound boxes — are flown in the cargo hull of passenger planes to Pacific Rim countries like Japan and Korea; growers of highly perishable crops like cherries worry that a new requirement that all cargo on U.S. passenger flights undergo a security scan could create lengthy delays, leaving crops to rot in hangars as they await inspection
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DHS develops medical scanner-at-a-distance device
The first task of first responders arriving on a scene of a disaster is quickly and accurately to sort the living casualties by priority order for medical care; new device assesses — from a distance — the medical condition of those injured in the disaster; it does so by using laser doppler vibrometry and a camera to measure pulse, body temperature, and muscle movements such as breathing
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Food poisoning outbreaks prompt oversight efforts, II
President Obama had an organic vegetable garden planted at the White House, and his nominees to the FDA are pushing a more aggressive approach to food safety; many are are pinning their hopes on the Food Safety Modernization Act, which would essentially split the FDA, creating a separate agency to focus on food safety
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Food poisoning outbreaks prompt oversight efforts, I
In 1973, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employed 35,000 inspectors; in 2007, the FDA employed 6,700 inspectors; at the same time, food imports into the U.S. increased exponentially
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Researchers find ways to reduce cattle flatulence
University of Alberta researchers developed a formula to reduce methane gas in cattle
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Schneier: no need to worry about terrorists poisoning food
Security maven Bruce Schneier says that fears of food-based bioterrorism are exaggerated: The quantities involved for mass poisonings are too great, the nature of the food supply too vast, and the details of any plot too complicated and unpredictable to be a real threat
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Swine flu vaccine is not going to be ready for a while yet
Even if the World Health Organization declares the current swine flu to be a pandemic, vaccine will arrive too late for many
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World's swine flu cases top 6,000
There are now 33 countries reporting an estimated total of 6,080 confirmed swine flu cases, including 3,009 in 45 U.S. states, 2,446 in Mexico, and 358 in Canada; the death total is relatively low — 65, of which 60 were in Mexico, three in the United States, one in Canada, and one in Costa Rica
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UCI awarded $45 million for infectious disease research
Research facility receives finds to improve detection, treatment, and vaccine development
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Swine flu spread justifies treating it as a pandemic
The spread of the swine flu justifies treating it as an epidemic; researchers calculate that, in Mexico, on average, each person who contracts flu passes it on to between 1.4 and 1.6 other people; whenever this number — called the reproductive number — is more than 1, it means that a disease is transmissible
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Personal air-purification system to fight epidemics
London-based Tri-Air develops a personal air-purification system — it may be attached to one’s belt — which simulates the natural purification properties of fresh air; it creates airborne cascades of hydroxyl radicals, which naturally occur outdoors, to destroy microbes that could include viruses
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New DHS S&T leader: U.S. should brace for "bio-Katrina"
Dr. Tara O’Toole, new leader at DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate: “There is a possibility, a real possibility, that there could be the equivalent of a bio-Katrina on [Obama’s] watch”
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Start-up offers technology to stop spread of communicable diseases
Israeli start-up CartaSense has a monitoring technology — a tag that integrates a sensor, battery, micro controller, non-volatile memory, and a radio frequency circuit that transmits to a control unit — that allows farmers to know each animal’s vital statistics
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More headlines
The long view
Hydroxychloroquine: COVID “Cure” Linked to 17,000 Deaths
Amidst the panic of the first wave of COVID-19, existing drugs were repurposed as a treatment. Some ideas were fatal, including one — hydroxychloroquine — briefly praised by then-President Donald Trump. Researchers have linked hydroxychloroquine to an increased mortality rate of up to 11 percent.