H5N6 Avian Flu Reassortment Confirmed in Dutch Outbreak (
CIDRAP) A reassortant H5N6 avian flu virus detected in 3 Asian nations over the past few weeks has been confirmed in an outbreak in the Netherlands. In other developments, South Korea--one of the countries that has already reported outbreaks from the H5N6 reassortant this season--reported another at a duck farm. And Cambodia reported an H5N1 avian flu outbreak in poultry, its 1st in nearly a year.
Go to article
Government Affairs & National Security
How ISIS Produced Its Cruel Arsenal on an Industrial Scale (
New York Times) Late this spring, Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State in Mosul discovered 3 unfired rocket-propelled grenades with an unusual feature--a heavy liquid sloshing inside their warheads. Tests later found that the warheads contained a crude blister agent resembling sulfur mustard, a banned chemical weapon intended to burn a victim's skin and respiratory tract.
Go to article
Global Health Security
Investigation of Pneumonic Plague, Madagascar (
Emerging Infectious Diseases) In an investigation of a pneumonic plague outbreak in Madagascar, Ramasindrazana et al. reported isolation of
Yersinia pestis from 2 patients and seroconversion in 2 additional patients; these data indicated 4 (28.7%) of 14 diagnosed cases among described cases. The risk for overestimation of pneumonic plague contagion was illustrated by an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that included cases of leptospirosis.
Go to article
Low Cost, Low Tech SNP Genotyping Tools for Resource-Limited Areas: Plague in Madagascar as a Model (
PLOS: Neglected Tropical Diseases) Genetic analysis of pathogenic organisms is a useful tool for linking human cases together and/or to potential environmental sources. The resulting data can also provide information on evolutionary patterns within a targeted species and phenotypic traits. However, the instruments often used to generate genotyping data, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, can be expensive and sometimes require advanced technologies to implement.
Go to article
Medicine & Public Health
Critical Dynamics in Population Vaccinating Behavior (
PNAS) Complex adaptive systems exhibit characteristic dynamics near tipping points such as critical slowing down (declining resilience to perturbations). We studied Twitter and Google search data about measles from California and the US before and after the 2014-2015 Disneyland, California measles outbreak.
Go to article
Deploy Vaccines to Fight Superbugs (
Nature) Bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi that are resistant to drugs cause 700,000 deaths each year. By 2050, such 'superbugs', inured to treatments, could cause up to 10 million deaths annually and cost the global economy US $100 trillion. If this happens, antimicrobial resistance will be a bigger killer than cancer is now.
Go to article
Science & Technology
