AIDS, Avian Flu, SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika... What Next? (
Vaccine) Ever since the emergence of the human species from the animal world, complex interactions between humans and animals have resulted in human-animal interfaces that promoted cross-species transmission, emergence and evolution of an ever increasing number of human pathogens, originating from animals.
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Government Affairs & National Security
Senate Steers Toward Showdown Vote Next Week on Health Bill (
Associated Press) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he expected to have a draft of the bill ready Thursday. The measure would peel away much of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and leave government with a more limited role in providing coverage and helping people afford it.
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Global Health Security
Medicine & Public Health
Science & Technology
Survival of H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus in Tissues Derived from Experimentally Infected Chickens (
Applied and Environmental Microbiology) Eurasian lineage H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus has been a severe threat to the poultry industry since its emergence in 1996. The carcass or tissues derived from infected birds may have the risk of the virus spreading to humans, animals, and the surrounding environment. In this study, we investigated the survival of the virus in feather, muscle, and liver tissues collected from six chickens (
Gallus gallus) experimentally infected with H5N1 HPAI virus.
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Other 21st Century Threats
Australia Warned It Has Radically Underestimated Climate Change Security Threat (
The Guardian) Disaster Alley, written by the Breakthrough Centre for Climate Restoration, forecasts climate change could potentially displace tens of millions from swamped cities, drive fragile states to failure, cause intractable political instability, and spark military conflict. Report co-author Ian Dunlop argues Australia's political and corporate leaders, by refusing to accept the need for urgent climate action now, are "putting the Australian community in extreme danger".
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5 Surprising Facts About the Refugee Crisis (
NPR: Goats and Soda) The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes is the highest since World War II. According to a new report from the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, 65.6 million people are currently living as refugees or as displaced persons inside their own countries. This includes 10.3 million people who were uprooted from their homes in 2016.
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The North Korea Instability Project: A New Approach to Eliminating North Korean Weapons of Mass Destruction Is Needed (
38 North) Preventing the use of weapons of mass destruction against the US and its allies has long been a paramount security objective for Washington with increased urgency since 9/11. When it comes to mitigating the threats posed by North Korean WMD, the US has long followed a multi-pronged approach that has incorporated, among other elements, increasing resiliency and capacity among our allies in Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea); multilateral diplomacy in the form of the Six Party Talks; various types of active and passive defense measures; deterrence; and planning for the use of special technical teams to secure adversary programs in semi-permissive or non-permissive environments.
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