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The Careers and Policies that Can Prevent Global Catastrophic Biological Risks. The Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Dr. Tom Inglesby, was interviewed on the 80,000 Hours Podcast and discussed pandemics, biosecurity, and global catastrophic biological risks. Listen here.

Today's Headlines: April 18, 2018

Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases 

Malaria in Conflict Zones Threatens Global Progress Against the Disease ( Reuters) Global gains in the fight against malaria could be reversed unless countries control the disease in conflict zones, where deaths and infections are rising, experts said on Tuesday. Go to article

Unit 731: Japan Discloses Details of Notorious Chemical Warfare Division ( The Guardian) Japan has disclosed the names of thousands of members of Unit 731, a notorious branch of the imperial Japanese army that conducted lethal experiments on Chinese civilians in the 1930s and 40s as it sought to develop chemical and biological weapons. Go to article


Domestic Preparedness & Response

Preparedness Index Reflects Overall Gains but Some Regional Gaps ( CIDRAP) A national snapshot used to gauge the health of the nation's health security and emergency preparedness found that readiness has improved significantly over the past 5 years, but earlier identified gaps remain, with some parts of the country lagging. Go to article

How San Francisco's Next Big Quake Could Play Out ( Nature) The earthquake begins at 4:18 p.m. as a violent shudder, and rips along the Hayward Fault east of San Francisco, California. By the time the magnitude-7 event is over, buildings and roads throughout the region have collapsed, water pipes have shattered and fires rage. Eight hundred people are dead, tens of thousands have become homeless, and many who are still in their homes will go without running water for weeks to months. Go to article


Global Health Security

WHO Ruling Could Put Fate of World's First Dengue Vaccine on the Line ( STAT News+: subscription required) There's a lot on the line this week for Sanofi Pasteur's troubled dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia.On Wednesday, an expert panel that advises the World Health Organization will vote to update its recommendations outlining how and when the vaccine should be used--and, more importantly, how and when it should not be administered. Go to article

WHO Issues New Guidelines for LTBI ( JAMA) The WHO issued updated and consolidated guidelines for people with latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) that aims to expand testing and improve treatment. The WHO simultaneously released a mobile application to support systematic monitoring and evaluation of patients with LTBI that can be adapted to meet country-specific contexts, such as national surveillance systems. Go to article


Medicine & Public Health

Prognostic Models for Ebola Virus Disease Derived from Data Collected at Five Treatment Units in Sierra Leone and Liberia: Performance, External Validation, and Risk Visualization ( BioRxiv)The 2014-2016 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak highlighted the need for rigorous, rapid, and field-deployable tools to enable case management. We previously introduced an approach for EVD prognosis prediction, using models that can be implemented in the field and updated in light of new data. Here we enhance and validate our methods with the largest published EVD dataset to date.  Go to article


Science & Technology

New Group Promotes AI, Robotics, and Automation in Healthcare ( GEN) A new organization promoting the use of artificial intelligence and related technologies in healthcare wants to move patient access to quality care into the 21st century. The Partnership for Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Healthcare brings together health systems, industry, payers, and regulators to find how such technology can improve the delivery of medicine, reduce costs, and expand access to healthcare services to millions of people across the globe. Go to article


Other 21st Century Threats

Syrian Medics 'Subjected to Extreme Intimidation' After Douma Attack ( The Guardian) The head of the largest medical relief agency in Syria claims that medics who responded to the suspected gas attack in Douma have been subjected to "extreme intimidation" by Syrian officials who seized biological samples, forced them to abandon patients and demanded their silence. Go to article

Nerve Agents: What They Are, How They Work, How to Counter Them ( ACS Chemical Neuroscience) Nerve agents are organophosphorus chemical warfare agents that exert their action through the irreversible inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, with a consequent overstimulation of cholinergic transmission followed by its shutdown. Beyond warfare, they have notoriously been employed in acts of terrorism as well as high profile assassinations. After a brief historical introduction on the development and deployment of nerve agents, this review provides a survey of their chemistry, the way they affect cholinergic transmission, the available treatment options, and the current directions for their improvement. Go to article


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