Ten Dead, 60 Hospitalized as Fresh Cholera Outbreak Hits Nigeria ( Outbreak News Today) At least 10 people have died of cholera in a new outbreak that has affected 60 more people in the Niger State of central Nigeria. In a short statement, the Niger State government health department said the outbreak is confined to the Bida local government area. Most of the patients are admitted at two hospitals in the town. Go to article

CDC Investigates Hepatitis A Outbreak in Six States ( The Hill) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning public health officials in six states about an outbreak of Hepatitis A among drug users and the homeless. From January 2017 to April of this year, the CDC has received more than 2,500 reports of infections from California, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Utah and West Virginia. Go to article

911, What's Your Emergency? For Dispatchers, it's Locating Callers ( Emergency Management) Apps such as Uber, "Pokemon Go" and Snapchat can pinpoint where users are down to the side of a block. But 911 dispatchers have to rely on distant cell towers, sometimes-faulty GPS and the caller - who is likely in distress - to figure out where calls are coming from. Go to article

How Prepared Is the US for an Anthrax Attack? The CDC Investigates ( CNN) President Trump's recent declaration that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat, despite a lack of verifiable proof that the regime will put an end to its nuclear program, has not completely quelled national security concerns about nuclear war. But fewer people may be keeping an eye on another, potentially bigger danger: anthrax. Go to article

Many in Puerto Rico Still Under Tarps as Storm Threat Looms ( Washington Post) Hurricane Maria ripped away part of the steel roof from Carmen Lidia Torres Mercado's home in the Puerto Rican capital. Nine months later, she is still relying on a blue plastic tarp to protect her home, even with a new storm season already two weeks old. Go to article

As DRC Grapples with Ebola, Guinea Keeps up Its Guard ( VOA) Just after a morning rain, Gourma Mamadou was shopping in this capital city's crowded, open-air Kaloum market. The young man said he was well aware of the current Ebola outbreak simmering some 4,000 kilometers to the southeast in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the WHO reports it has killed 28 people since April. Go to article

Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, on New Guidance to Help Manufacturers Implement Protections Against Potential Attacks on the US Food Supply ( FDA) In the US, we enjoy one of the safest food supplies in the world. The FDA takes its responsibility to protect the US food supply very seriously. And while we work diligently to prevent accidental contaminations, it's also our duty to take measures to protect our food from those who seek to deliberately do us harm. The likelihood of an incident at a particular facility is low, but the intentional adulteration of the US food supply represents a very serious threat - one that could have devastating public health consequences. Go to article

US Congress to UN: What Are You Doing to Compensate Haiti's Cholera Victims? ( Miami Herald) More than 100 members of Congress are sounding the alarm over Haiti's deadly cholera epidemic and the victims of the waterborne disease who are still awaiting compensation from the UN. Cholera, which was non-existent in Haiti for at least a century until it was introduced to the country eight years ago by UN peacekeepers, has killed 10,000 Haitians and sickened about 800,000 since the initial outbreak after Haiti's 2010 earthquake. Go to article

Senate Approves $716 Billion National Defense Authorization Act Aiming to Bolster Readiness ( Homeland Preparedness News) The US Senate approved a national defense spending bill for fiscal year 2019 Monday that totals $716 billion, including a $550 million increase in military readiness funding to address critical shortfalls and a $450 million increase in military facilities sustainment funding. Go to article

Investment in Diplomacy, Development More Effective Than Defense, Says Senior US Military Official ( devex) One of the US' top military officials spoke out Monday about the importance of diplomacy and development alongside defense in keeping the country safe. Go to article

Nation's Health Officials Very Concerned About the Public Health Impact of Family Separations at the US-Mexico Border ( CISION PR Newswire) Michael Fraser, chief executive officer of ASTHO, issued the following statement today in response to the current federal actions to separate children from their families at the US-Mexico border. "Our nation's health officers are extremely concerned about the policy of separating children from their families at the US-Mexico border. All children should have the opportunity to thrive in safe, stable, and nurturing environments. Separating children from their parents exposes them to one of the most serious adverse events imaginable. We know this can have a lasting, long-term impact on the developing brain and the future social and emotional health and well-being of these children. Go to article

New Probiotic Cholera Vaccine Can Outrace the Infection's Rapid Spread ( Scientific American) One of the most terrifying things about cholera is its lethal speed. A victim can consume contaminated food or water, come down with diarrhea a day later and, if untreated, be dead a day after that--having inadvertently spread the microorganism to friends, neighbors and family members in the meantime. Hence cholera's reputation for tearing explosively through populations, mostly recently in Haiti beginning in 2010 and Yemen in 2016. Go to article

Deleting a Species ( Pacific Standard) In a windowless London basement, behind three sets of locked steel doors and a wall of glass, thousands of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes cling like Marvel supervillains to the sides of white mesh cubes. The room is negatively pressurized, so air is constantly sucked inward to ensure that the mosquitoes, which have been subjected to a new and astonishingly powerful kind of genetic engineering, never escape. Go to article

New Technique Could Help Scientists Create a Gene in Just 1 Day ( Science) Creating a new gene in a single day could soon be possible, thanks to a new technique that mimics the way the body copies its own DNA. Though the technology needs to clear a few more hurdles, it could one day let researchers speedily rewrite microbe genes, enabling them to synthesize new medicines and fuels on the fly. Go to article

RCRA as a Tool for Environmental Justice Communities and Others to Compel Climate Change Adaptation ( Harvard Law Review) The spate of natural disasters in 2017 palpably illustrated how ill-prepared the US is for climate change. And though all Americans have contributed to greenhouse gas emissions driving this phenomenon, they will not equitably share the effects of climate change-related disasters. Many communities - particularly low-income communities and communities of color - live in the shadow of chemical plants, oil refineries, and Superfund sites that likely leached toxic chemicals through these 2017 stormwaters. Go to article