Biosecurity News in Brief

March 9, 2010
  

Note: All links accessed and active on day of Biosecurity News in Brief publication.
        

2009 H1N1 Influenza
Biggest Swine Flu Regret for U.S.: Vaccine Chaos (Reuters) First, people were clamoring for H1N1 vaccines, but there were not enough to go around. By the time vaccines were available in any quantity, most of the public had lost interest.

H1N1dsight Is a Wonderful Thing (Nature Biotechnology) Criticisms of the response of governments and of the pharmaceutical industry to the threat of the H1N1 epidemic are wide of the mark. The pandemic of influenza strain H1N1 has not yet manifested itself as the pestilence of biblical proportions that many had anticipated.

H1N1 Seen Lying Low, then Rising Again in Europe (Reuters) Europe is unlikely to see another wave of pandemic H1N1 flu soon but local epidemics are likely as winter returns to the Northern hemisphere, health officials said on Monday.

Biological Agents and Epidemic Diseases
Rift Valley Fever Outbreak (SAPA/News24.com) There were seven confirmed cases of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the Free State and Northern Cape and one death reported, the deputy minister of health said on Monday.

Africa Polio Eradication Scheme Launched (BBC News) A campaign has been launched to eradicate polio in west and central Africa, targeting 85 million children. Some 400,000 health workers and volunteers will go from door-to-door in 19 countries, giving oral polio vaccine to children under the age of five.

Livestock-associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Sequence Type 398 in Humans, Canada (Emerging Infectious Diseases) Rates of colonization with livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sequence type 398 have been high for pigs and pig farmers in Canada, but prevalence rates for the general human population are unknown. In this study, 5 LA-MRSA isolates, 4 of which were obtained from skin and soft tissue infections, were identified from 3,687 tested MRSA isolates from persons in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Modeling the Potential Distribution of Bacillus anthracis under Multiple Climate Change Scenarios for Kazakhstan (PLoS One) Anthrax, caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, is a zoonotic disease that persists throughout much of the world in livestock, wildlife, and secondarily infects humans.

Countermeasures
U.S. Biodefense Contracts Continue to Lure Biotechs (Nature Biotechnology) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has signed a contract worth up to $143 million with Elusys Therapeutics to develop and manufacture the Pine Brook, New Jersey–based biotech's anti-anthrax toxin monoclonal antibody (mAb), Anthim.

Ambient Stable Quantitative PCR Reagents for the Detection of Yersinia pestis (PLoS One) Although assays for detecting Yersinia pestis using TaqMan probe-based real-time PCR have been developed for years, little is reported on room-temperature-stable PCR reagents, which will be invaluable for field epidemic surveillance, immediate response to public health emergencies, counter-bioterrorism investigation, etc.

Court Will Hear Case about Vaccine Side Effects (AP/Google News) The Supreme Court will decide whether drug makers can be sued by parents who claim their children suffered serious health problems from vaccines.