Domestic Preparedness & Response
One Week After Irma, Floridians Pick Up the Pieces (
npr) It's been one week since Hurricane Irma hit Southwestern Florida. Residents in Collier County, where the storm made landfall after the Florida keys, are in the early stages of the recovery process still cleaning up debris, wading through floodwaters, struggling to get gas, and trying to get by without electricity.
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Miami Hurricane Shelter Still Packed--With People and Pets (
npr) Miami's largest hurricane shelter, run by the Red Cross, still houses nearly 1,000 people. Some have been there since before the storm but many are recent arrivals--people who tried to ride out the storm but are now dealing with an ongoing lack of power and mold infesting their homes.
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Government Affairs & National Security
Houston's Anything-Goes Business Model Under Siege After Harvey (
Emergency Management) As post-hurricane Houston dries out, cracks are appearing. Harvey's floods exposed the clash between 2 visions: Business leaders say the sprawling, economically vibrant metropolis shouldn't change its hands-off approach to planning. Environmentalists and disaster experts warn that Houston is courting a repeat catastrophe.
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Global Health Security
Medicine & Public Health
Antibiotic Resistance: It's Bad, But Why Isn't It Worse? (
BMC Biology) Antibiotic natural products are ancient and so is resistance. Consequently, environmental bacteria harbor numerous and varied antibiotic resistance elements. Nevertheless, despite long histories of antibiotic production and exposure, environmental bacteria are not resistant to all known antibiotics.
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Science & Technology
Is There a Future for a Zika Vaccine? (
STAT News) When a leading vaccine manufacturer announced earlier this month that it was pulling out of the race to develop a vaccine against the Zika virus, it effectively shelved what was widely considered to be one of front-running candidates. Along with the dramatic drop in the number of new cases of Zika in recent months, does this signal that the threat has now passed, or does it mean we are now no closer to a vaccine should a resurgence of the disease eventually occur?
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The Future of Healthcare (
The Economist) Like many other sectors, healthcare is about to enter a period of rapid change. Longevity and the advance of new technologies and discoveries--as well as innovative combinations of existing ones--are among the many factors propelling patient empowerment, which is fundamentally changing how we prevent, diagnose, and cure diseases.
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Satellites Help Predict Malaria Outbreaks Month in Advance (
Engadget) Malaria is one of the greatest health threats in tropical regions like the Amazon, but predicting its spread is difficult. While it's no secret that mosquitoes prefer warm air and standing pools of water, how do you translate that awareness to a large scale? By getting a little help from orbit, apparently. Researchers are using data from NASA satellites (such as the Landsat series) to predict malaria outbreaks by identifying areas where the soil moisture creates prime breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that transmit malaria.
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One Vaccine Injection Could Carry Many Doses (
Massachusetts Institute of Technology) A new 3-D fabrication method has been developed that can create a new type of drug-carrying particle that could allow several doses of a drug or vaccine to be delivered over an extended time period with just 1 injection.
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