Health Security Headlines
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Today's Headlines: August 16, 2018

Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases

41 Deaths from Ebola in Congo; Health Officials 'Worried' ( CNN) An ongoing Ebola outbreak is spreading across the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, and it has health officials gravely concerned due to conflict in the area along with other factors. The country's Ministry of Health announced Monday that 57 cases of hemorrhagic fever have been reported in the region: 30 confirmed and 27 probable. Go to article

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'This is a Very Dangerous Outbreak': WHO Chief 'Worried' Over Ebola in DRC, as Experimental Treatment Begins ( The Telegraph) The head of the WHO says he is increasingly concerned about the current outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Go to article

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Ebola Outbreak Shaping up as Most Dangerous Test of World's Ability to Respond Since Global Crisis ( STAT) The latest Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is shaping up to be the most dangerous and difficult test of the world's ability to contain the disease since the catastrophic West African outbreak in 2014 and 2015. Go to article

The Spectre of Smallpox Lingers ( Nature) Forty years ago, the UK city of Birmingham was in a panic. A medical photographer called Janet Parker was admitted to hospital on 11 August 1978, her body riddled with lesion and scars. She passed away a month later, the last known person to die from one of the world's deadliest diseases: smallpox. Go to article


Global Health & Security

Q&A: How Gates' Strategic Investment Fund Gets Companies to Take on Global Health ( Devex) When Andrew Farnum used to speak about work with his wife, a program officer focused on global health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he would ask himself how he might use his background in finance to have an impact on global health issues. Go to article

WHO Supports Government to Protect over 150,000 Population at Risk of Yellow Fever in Katsina State ( ReliefWeb) The Federal Government with the support of WHO has launched a reactive vaccination campaign in Danja local government area (LGA) of Katsina state in response to a recently identified outbreak of Yellow Fever. Go to article

On-Demand Medical Drone Delivery ( Stanford Social Innovation Review) Delivery by drone is not a novelty for Silicon Valley-based startup Zipline -- it's a matter of life and death in the regions that the drone-delivery system serves. In October 2016, the company launched an on-demand service in contract with the government of Rwanda to deliver more than 50 different types of blood products (blood, plasma, and platelets) for immediate medical treatment. Go to article

Number of Faulty Children's Vaccines in China Surges to over 900,000 ( CNN) Hundreds of thousands of additional vaccines intended for children have been found to be faulty, the Chinese government announced Wednesday, raising the number of known defective vaccines in the country to almost one million. Go to article


Government Affairs & National Security

NIH Begins Clinical Trial of Live, Attenuated Zika Vaccine ( NIH) Vaccinations have begun in a first-in-human trial of an experimental live, attenuated Zika virus vaccine developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The trial will enroll a total of 28 healthy, non-pregnant adults ages 18 to 50 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Immunization Research in Baltimore, Maryland, and at the Vaccine Testing Center at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Go to article

Pentagon's Artificial Intelligence Programs Get Huge Boost in Defense Budget ( Fast Company) On Monday, President Trump signed the $717 billion annual National Defense Authorization Act, which was easily passed by Congress in weeks prior. Much attention has understandably been placed on big-ticket items like $7.6 billion for acquiring 77 F-35 fighters, $21.9 billion for the nuclear weapons program, and $1.56 billion for three littoral combat ships -- despite the fact that the Navy requested only one in the budget. Go to article

What's in the New NDAA ( Lawfare) President Donald Trump signed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2019 into law on Monday afternoon, at an event at Fort Drum military base in upstate New York. Amidst banter with the audience and references to his administration's purported policy successes, Trump then proceeded to highlight some of the authorizations that the NDAA provides, including a pay raise for US service-members and up to $716 billion in funding for new military hardware and activities. Go to article

FirstNet Board Approves $84 Million Budget ( Homeland Preparedness News) The First Responder Network Authority's board of directors, an independent authority within the US Department of Commerce, recently approved an $81 million budget for operations in fiscal year 2019. The budget will be used for the focus on the deployment of the nationwide public safety broadband network and public safety engagement. Go to article


Medicine & Public Health

With Scarce Access to Interpreters, Immigrants Struggle to Understand Doctors' Orders ( NPR) Long before he began studying for a career in health care, Marlon Munoz performed one of the most sensitive roles in the field: delivering diagnoses to patients. As an informal interpreter between English-speaking doctors and his Spanish-speaking family and friends, Munoz knew well the burden that comes with the job. Go to article

FDA: Modeling, Simulation Offer Opportunity to Advance Public Health ( Healio) Modeling and simulation are valuable research and product development tools that are helping to advance regulatory science, according to the FDA. The FDA is using modeling and simulation to help achieve its objectives of improving health care, broadening access and advancing public health goals, Tina Morrison, PhD, chair of FDA's agency-wide modeling and simulation working group and regulatory advisor of computational modeling for FDA's Office of Device Evaluation, said at an FDA Grand Rounds meeting. Go to article


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