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Archive February - December 2004
 Thursday, December 30, 2004
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Washington Post - A look at the myriad technical obstacles that terrorists who might try to manufacture biological weapons could face, problems that would confound even skilled scientists who tried to help them, biological warfare experts say.
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| Posted on 12/30/04; 4:42:02 AM Edit
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| Tuesday, December 28, 2004
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Washington Times - Why agroterrorism needs to be taken more seriously.
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| Posted on 12/28/04; 3:48:21 AM Edit
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| Wednesday, December 22, 2004
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Associated Press - Biological weapons experts, including the scientist who played a big role in eradicating smallpoe experts laud the increased spending government lavished on combatting biological threats in 2004, they sense momentum slowing as public attention and political will wane.
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| Posted on 12/22/04; 4:29:00 AM Edit
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| Friday, December 17, 2004
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[The Lancet] - The emergence of bioterrorism as a threat is creating new responsibilities for the medical community and, for the first time in history, is putting physicians at the forefront of managing disaster.
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| Posted on 12/17/04; 5:29:54 AM Edit
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Associated Press - The Pentagon is seeking emergency authority to resume administering the anthrax vaccine, saying troops in South Korea and the Middle East are at risk.
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| Posted on 12/17/04; 5:26:55 AM Edit
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| Thursday, December 16, 2004
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Reuters [Nature] - Rapid response with antibiotics would be a more effective way of handling an anthrax terror attack than a pre-emptive mass vaccination program, according to an article published this week in Nature.
More from the Associated Press.
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| Posted on 12/16/04; 5:37:52 AM Edit
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| Wednesday, December 15, 2004
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Associated Press - U.S. states are slowly getting better prepared to handle bioterrorism, but most still do not have statewide response plans and federal funding is declining, according to a new report.
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| Posted on 12/15/04; 5:31:52 AM Edit
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San Francisco Examiner - An interview with Dr. Larry Brilliant, who worked on the United Nations' successful campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, and is a leading expert in the study of infectious diseases that can be used as bio-weapons.
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| Posted on 12/15/04; 5:30:18 AM Edit
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| Monday, December 13, 2004
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Canadian Press - Canadian health officials have turned to IBM to help develop a computerized early-warning system to detect outbreaks of infectious disease and bioterrorist attacks.
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| Posted on 12/13/04; 5:40:42 AM Edit
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| Saturday, December 11, 2004
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Associated Press - Mindful of the threat of a biological attack by terrorists, health ministers from developed countries joined forces Friday to press for the creation of an rapid-reaction center and the stockpiling of smallpox vaccines.
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| Posted on 12/11/04; 2:30:10 PM Edit
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New York Times - In ordering a new $877 million anthrax vaccine last month, the federal government said it was a major step toward creating a "bioshield" to protect Americans from germ warfare. But delivering that protection may be difficult: the vaccine is unproven in humans, the maker has legal and accounting troubles, and health officials are not prepared to distribute the vaccine quickly if it is needed.
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| Posted on 12/11/04; 2:28:48 PM Edit
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| Friday, December 10, 2004
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UPI - BioWatch, the Bush Administration's effort to use a network of sensors to snatch early warning of a bioterror attack from the air, still lacks sufficient coordination with local officials, critics say.
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| Posted on 12/10/04; 6:06:52 AM Edit
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Associated Press - A bioterroist attack is inevitable, according to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
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| Posted on 12/10/04; 6:05:50 AM Edit
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| Thursday, December 9, 2004
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Technology Review - The U.S. continues to push the World Health Organization to open up frozen smallpox supplies for testing, which could lead to better viral vaccinations. Others fear that may put a deadly virus in the hands of terrorists.
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| Posted on 12/9/04; 2:59:41 PM Edit
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Health Central [New England Journal of Medicine] - The ability of the Internet to serve as a sentry against emerging disease outbreaks continues to make its power known.
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| Posted on 12/9/04; 2:59:08 PM Edit
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CIDRAP - Human testing of an experimental vaccine against the deadly toxin ricin will begin early next year at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
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| Posted on 12/9/04; 2:58:16 PM Edit
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| Tuesday, December 7, 2004
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Associated Press - New rules announced Monday will make it easier to investigate a bioterror attack on the U.S. food supply, though they won't change the underlying problem: the vulnerability of the nation's food.
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| Posted on 12/7/04; 5:45:06 AM Edit
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| Sunday, December 5, 2004
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News Wise - During its life cycle, Y. pestis, the infamous "Black Death" bacteria must survive the "bio" environment of a flea in order to explode in the vastly different human system. A team turned advanced robotic high-throughput technologies on Y. pestis, looking for weaknesses in this highly adaptable killer.
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| Posted on 12/5/04; 4:27:07 AM Edit
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Washington Post - A look at how tax breaks lead to BioPort's decision to locate its new anthrax vaccine factory in Maryland.
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| Posted on 12/5/04; 4:25:30 AM Edit
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| Friday, December 3, 2004
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Science Daily [Vaccine] - Vaccination with the anthrax capsule, a naturally occurring component of the bacterium that causes the disease, protected mice from lethal anthrax infection, according to scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). In addition, the capsule enhanced the effects of protective antigen (PA), the protective component of the current licensed human vaccine.
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| Posted on 12/3/04; 6:17:29 AM Edit
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ABC - Has US preparedness against a bioterrorist attack improved since 2001? According to many experts, the answer is no.
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| Posted on 12/3/04; 6:11:52 AM Edit
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| Wednesday, December 1, 2004
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Associated Press - The nation's only maker of a licensed anthrax vaccine cut the ribbon Tuesday for a new plant capable of producing 100 million doses annually for sale to federal, state, local and foreign governments.
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| Posted on 12/1/04; 6:36:17 AM Edit
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| Monday, November 29, 2004
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Chicago Tribune - Problems producing flu vaccines that raised the specter of a health crisis have highlighted the difficulties facing the U.S. government as it tries to counter terrorists who would attack America with bioweapons.
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| Posted on 11/29/04; 3:08:33 AM Edit
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Boston Globe - With state environmental officials signing off on the project earlier this month, Boston Univeristy seems to be winning the permitting battle on the construction of its biodefense lab. But it is losing the PR war to convince residents that hosting the lab in their backyard will be a good thing.
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| Posted on 11/29/04; 2:52:12 AM Edit
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| Sunday, November 28, 2004
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Why the recent articles related to terrorism, and what does this have to do with biodefense, you may ask. From time to time I will link to articles on terrorism, to provide background on the individuals most likely to use biological agents as weapons in the future.
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| Posted on 11/28/04; 3:32:50 AM Edit
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New Yorker - Were the Madrid bombings part of a new, far-reaching jihad being plotted on the Internet? An excellent look into what Al-Qaeda is morphing into...
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| Posted on 11/28/04; 3:29:03 AM Edit
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| Saturday, November 27, 2004
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Defense and the National Interest - An interesting evaluation of the current state of the war on terrorism.
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| Posted on 11/27/04; 5:20:07 AM Edit
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| Friday, November 26, 2004
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VOA - A possible new therapy for late stage anthrax infection.
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| Posted on 11/26/04; 4:37:50 AM Edit
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Washington Post - When the Army's infectious diseases center at Fort Detrick decided a decade ago that it needed more contract workers to supplement military and civilian staff in its labs, it turned to companies that specialized in such work.
Then last year, those workers were surprised when officials at the Frederick base decided to shift the management of all their contracts to an Alaska Native Corporation whose parent company was best known at home for a failing cruise ship line.
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| Posted on 11/26/04; 4:34:43 AM Edit
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BBC - US marines combing the Iraqi city of Falluja after a major offensive say they found a house which contained a laboratory and instructions on how to make anthrax and blood agents.
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| Posted on 11/26/04; 4:31:00 AM Edit
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| Thursday, November 25, 2004
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Fort Detrick Standard - A look at the Field Identification of Biological Warfare Agents course where students learn to set up, maintain, and operate a deployable laboratory under field conditions.
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| Posted on 11/25/04; 5:13:30 AM Edit
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| Wednesday, November 24, 2004
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Reuters - The CIA believes al Qaeda's biological warfare program is primarily focused on anthrax for mass casualty attacks.
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| Posted on 11/24/04; 4:53:11 AM Edit
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| Monday, November 22, 2004
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Australian Associated Press - Terrorist groups were using chemical and biological agents in their training and it was just a matter of time before they used them for war, Dr Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore's Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies, said at a conference yesterday.
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| Posted on 11/22/04; 5:11:35 AM Edit
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New York Times - Judith Miller on how New York City and the FBI have reached an agreement on how future bioterrorism events will be investigated.
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| Posted on 11/22/04; 5:07:58 AM Edit
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| Saturday, November 20, 2004
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Medical News Today [Journal of Virology] - Using bioinformatics and computer modeling, researchers from North Carolina and Oregon have identified a new class of compounds that block a key step in the lifecycle of the smallpox virus and have little toxicity to human cells.
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| Posted on 11/20/04; 3:59:06 AM Edit
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The Scientist - When the World Health Organization's (WHO) external advisory committee on smallpox recommended last week that WHO allow the two research teams still possessing the virus to insert a green fluorescent marker gene into it to test the efficacy of potential anti-smallpox drugs, the committee also made at least six other research recommendations, according to a WHO spokesman, including at least two that some researchers find controversial.
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| Posted on 11/20/04; 3:57:14 AM Edit
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| Thursday, November 18, 2004
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Associated Press - A global system designed to spot bioterrorist attacks or new disease outbreaks became even more global Wednesday - it now gathers information in six more languages.
More information from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
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| Posted on 11/18/04; 5:51:40 AM Edit
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| Wednesday, November 17, 2004
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Slate - Did the military secretly doctor its anthrax vaccine? A review and refutation of the claims made in the book "Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That's Killing Our Soldiers-and Why GI's Are Only the First Victims."
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| Posted on 11/17/04; 5:00:00 AM Edit
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| Tuesday, November 16, 2004
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Boston Business Journal - More descriptions of what is wrong with Project Bioshield.
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| Posted on 11/16/04; 5:06:51 AM Edit
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| Saturday, November 13, 2004
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Associated Press - Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. will add black box warnings linking its smallpox vaccine to heart inflammation, the government announced Friday.
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| Posted on 11/13/04; 5:56:06 AM Edit
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| Friday, November 12, 2004
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New York Times - An advisory committee to the World Health Organization has recommended that Russian and American scientists be allowed to manipulate a gene in the smallpox virus for the first time to speed up discovery of drugs effective against the virus, the agency said today.
More from Reuters.
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| Posted on 11/12/04; 5:36:44 AM Edit
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| Thursday, November 11, 2004
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Associated Press - Scientists working for the government have developed standards to measure the accuracy of anthrax detection tests, hoping to steer first responders away from tests that have delivered too many false readings.
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| Posted on 11/11/04; 5:52:49 AM Edit
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| Wednesday, November 10, 2004
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BBC - An anthrax outbreak has killed at least 180 hippos in a national park in south-western Uganda, reports say.
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| Posted on 11/10/04; 4:37:31 AM Edit
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| Tuesday, November 9, 2004
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Washington Post - The United States remains woefully unprepared to protect the public against terrorists wielding biological agents despite dramatic increases in biodefense spending by the Bush administration and considerable progress on many fronts, according to government officials and specialists in bioterrorism and public health.
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| Posted on 11/9/04; 6:11:17 AM Edit
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CIDRAP - The Department of Health and Human Service said last week that it plans to buy up to 5 million doses of the controversial anthrax vaccine currently used by the US military and put it in the national stockpile for civilian use.
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| Posted on 11/9/04; 6:09:58 AM Edit
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| Monday, November 8, 2004
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New York Times Magazine - For Keiji Fukuda and Tim Uyeki, stalking the flu bug is riveting, if disconcerting, work. But what keeps them up at night is the idea that global politics may prevent them from knowing until it's too late that a pandemic is brewing.
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| Posted on 11/8/04; 3:50:17 AM Edit
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| Friday, November 5, 2004
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Washington Post - The government awarded its first contract under the Project Bioshield program yesterday -- an $877 million deal with a small California company to make 75 million doses of a newly developed anthrax vaccine.
More information from CIDRAP.
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| Posted on 11/5/04; 5:02:37 AM Edit
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Boston Herald - A report from the National Syndromic Surveillance Conference.
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| Posted on 11/5/04; 4:58:32 AM Edit
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| Monday, November 1, 2004
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San Franciso Chronicle - In 1950, government officials believed that serratia did not cause disease. That belief was later used as a justification for a secret post-World War II Army experiment that became a notorious disaster tale about the microbe. The Army used serratia to test whether enemy agents could launch a biological warfare attack on a port city such as San Francisco from a location miles offshore.
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| Posted on 11/1/04; 3:51:20 AM Edit
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| Sunday, October 31, 2004
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Boston Globe - A federal draft environmental review of Boston University Medical Center's proposed high-security biodefense laboratory says the facility as planned will be safe and have a negligible impact on the densely populated South End neighborhood around it.
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| Posted on 10/31/04; 3:51:37 AM Edit
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| Saturday, October 30, 2004
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Health Central - A look at the Anthrax Quick ELISA test.
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| Posted on 10/30/04; 4:36:59 AM Edit
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| Friday, October 29, 2004
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The Guardian - The memories of Japanese biological attacks on China in the 1940s are still fresh. Many Chinese want an apology.
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| Posted on 10/29/04; 3:46:20 AM Edit
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| Thursday, October 28, 2004
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Washington Post - The Defense Department must immediately stop inoculating troops with anthrax vaccine, a federal judge ruled yesterday, saying that the Food and Drug Administration acted improperly when it approved the experimental injections for general use.
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| Posted on 10/28/04; 4:49:01 AM Edit
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PR Newswire - Smallpox now represents a bigger threat than ever, according to a 2002 US Intelligence Review indicating potential interest of Al Qaeda in the virus. This fear has been endorsed by reports from Russian defectors concerning illegal production of virulent strains of the virus after all strains were supposedly destroyed.
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| Posted on 10/28/04; 4:45:47 AM Edit
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Associated Press - Eight Chinese villagers have died of plague in the country's northwest, most of them infected after killing or eating wild marmots
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| Posted on 10/28/04; 4:42:25 AM Edit
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| Tuesday, October 26, 2004
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British Medical Association - More on how the British Medical Association paints a bleak picture of the global community's ability to cope with advances in biological and genetic weapons technology.
More from the BBC.
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| Posted on 10/26/04; 5:16:24 AM Edit
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| Monday, October 25, 2004
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Associated Press - A firsthand look at the quaint system of producing flu vaccine, which is based on seasonal egg-laying and has harsh implications for what would happen if new batches had to be made in a hurry to fight a super-strain pandemic.
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| Posted on 10/25/04; 1:53:33 AM Edit
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Associated Press - Efforts to distribute the government's stockpile of drugs and vaccines in the event of a biological attack would fall short in "the last mile" of distribution to state and local areas, according to a Democratic report critical of the Bush administration.
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| Posted on 10/25/04; 1:51:22 AM Edit
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| Sunday, October 24, 2004
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The Independent - The world faces a growing risk that terrorists will use new biological weapons created by genetic engineering, the British Medical Association will warn this week.
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| Posted on 10/24/04; 2:36:01 AM Edit
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Reuters - Six Indonesians died and eight were taken to hospital after eating goat meat in a suspected case of anthrax, a health official said on Saturday.
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| Posted on 10/24/04; 2:34:41 AM Edit
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| Saturday, October 23, 2004
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Thanks to all of you who have sent your comments about the site. We'd still love to hear from a few more users who use BiodefenseEducation.org; specifically we'd love to learn how you use the site to help you in your daily work. Please take a minute to fill out our Comment Form -- Thanks!
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| Posted on 10/23/04; 5:15:08 AM Edit
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| Friday, October 22, 2004
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Moscow Times - When the Black Death swept across Europe in the 14th century, it wiped out one-third of the continent's population. Today, with terrorism spreading around the globe, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to call it a plague. Especially if plague were to become its weapon of choice, as it was for scientists in the Soviet Union. A review of the book entitled "Plague : The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease."
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| Posted on 10/22/04; 2:53:49 AM Edit
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| Thursday, October 21, 2004
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San Jose Mercury News - Affymetrix is using its sophisticated gene-chip technology to develop a test that will quickly alert researchers and emergency personnel to the presence of bioterrorist threats, such as anthrax or plague.
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| Posted on 10/21/04; 5:20:32 AM Edit
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Reuters - Five people in Namibia's Caprivi strip region have been admitted to hospital with suspected anthrax, which has killed elephants, buffalo and zebras in the southwest African country.
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| Posted on 10/21/04; 5:18:56 AM Edit
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Associated Press - Fort Detrick beefs up its security.
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| Posted on 10/21/04; 5:17:28 AM Edit
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