WHO Expects More Ebola Cases in Congo, Can't Reach No-go Areas ( Reuters) The WHO said on Friday that at least 1,500 people had been potentially exposed to the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu region, where insecurity prevents aid workers from reaching some areas. Go to article

See Also: DRC: MSF Opens Ebola Treatment Center in Response to Outbreak in North Kivu ( Medecins Sans Frontieres) The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres opened an Ebola treatment center on Tuesday, August 14 in Mangina, a small town considered to be the epicenter of the outbreak in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. A total of 37 patients are currently hospitalized in this facility, with 31 of those cases confirmed and six suspected cases. Go to article

See Also: Q&A: Anthony Fauci Describes an Experimental Ebola Treatment ( The Scientist) More than a decade after an 1995 Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers found a survivor who still harbored antibodies against the virus. One of those antibodies, mAb114, has since been developed as a drug by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, together with the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Although the drug is still in a Phase 1 clinical trial, Reuters reports that DRC officials are prepared to use it to treat patients in the current Ebola outbreak in that country. Go to article

Travel-associated Zika Cases and Threat of Local Transmission during Global Outbreak, California, USA ( Emerging Infectious Diseases) The first human cases of Zika virus infection reported from the Americas were in May 2015 from Brazil. In the span of less than a year, Zika virus spread across South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and parts of Mexico. As observed with other mosquitoborne diseases, such as dengue and chikungunya, which have spread through Central and South America and the Caribbean, travel-associated cases of Zika were reported throughout the US, and local transmission of Zika virus was eventually detected in Florida and Texas. Because California has established and expanding infestations of Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes, the main vectors of Zika virus, and is near Mexico, to which Zika virus is endemic, the risk for autochthonous transmission of Zika virus is a concern. During 2011-2015, Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes were detected in 85 cities and census-designated places in 12 counties of California. Go to article

Dramatic Increase of Tick- and Mosquito-borne Diseases ( Global Biodefense) Recent findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal a staggering threefold increase in reported cases of vector-borne diseases between 2004 and 2016 in the US. Making matters worse, nine new pathogens emerged for the first time in the US during this same period. Go to article

See Also: Vital Signs: Trends in Reported Vectorborne Disease Cases - United States and Territories, 2004-2016 ( MMWR) Vectorborne diseases are major causes of death and illness worldwide. In the US, the most common vectorborne pathogens are transmitted by ticks or mosquitoes, including those causing Lyme disease; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; and West Nile, dengue, and Zika virus diseases. This report examines trends in occurrence of nationally reportable vectorborne diseases during 2004-2016. Go to article

IARPA Gets a New Director ( Nextgov) Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on Tuesday named Stacey Dixon as the next director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity. Dixon joined IARPA as deputy director in early 2016 and now takes the helm from Jason Matheny, who stepped down from the organization's top role at the end of his three-year term. Go to article

FEMA Wants Puerto Rico to Start Paying for Part of Its Recovery ( NPR) Eleven months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has said that the island's emergency is over. And because of that, the agency has begun scaling back its financial assistance to the island. On Wednesday, FEMA denied a request from the island's governor for the federal agency to continue covering 100 percent of the cost of emergency work - including power restoration, debris cleanup and other recovery efforts. Go to article

Trump Administration Is Considering Pulling Back $3 Billion in Foreign Aid ( Washington Post) The Trump administration is considering taking back more than $3 billion in foreign aid that Congress already approved, in a move that senators from both parties are calling questionably legal and promising to resist. Go to article

Artificial Intelligence Beyond the Superpowers ( Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) Much of the debate over how artificial intelligence will affect geopolitics focuses on the emerging arms race between Washington and Beijing, as well as investments by major military powers like Russia. And to be sure, breakthroughs are happening at a rapid pace in the US and China. But while an arms race between superpowers is riveting, AI development outside of the major powers, even where advances are less pronounced, could also have a profound impact on our world. The way smaller countries choose to use and invest in AI will affect their own power and status in the international system. Go to article

CEPI Awards Contract Worth up to $36 Million to Profectus BioSciences and Emergent BioSolutions to Develop Lassa Virus Vaccine ( CEPI) CEPI today announced a new collaboration with Profectus BioSciences, Inc. and Emergent BioSolutions Inc. under which they will receive up to USD$36 million to advance the development and manufacture of a vaccine against the Lassa virus - an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 cases of Lassa virus infection occur each year. Go to article

The Local Health Department Mandate and Capacity for Community Engagement in Emergency Preparedness: A National View Over Time ( Journal of Public Health Management & Practice) Local health departments perform the highly valued, yet time- and staff-intensive work of community engagement in public health emergency preparedness when the Great Recession has had lingering effects on their organizational capacity. Go to article

Toxicology Has Advanced. The EPA Needs to Advance with It. ( Undark) The EPA failed for years to regulate the insecticide chlorpyrifos, in part because the science it relied on was dated. Today's toxicologists are finding adverse effects that their earlier counterparts could only have imagined. Go to article

This 27-Year-Old Launches Drones That Deliver Blood to Rwanda's Hospitals ( Bloomberg) Today, Nizeyimana leads a team of young people in Rwanda who launch and retrieve autonomous drones that deliver blood to remote hospitals. As such, the 27-year-old Rwandan may know more than anyone else on the planet about what it takes to run a drone delivery operation day to day. His job is the subject of the third episode of Bloomberg's mini-documentary series Next Jobs, which profiles careers of the future. Go to article

The Next Phase of Human Gene-therapy Oversight ( New England Journal of Medicine) The National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration have played key roles in the emergence of safe and effective human gene therapies. Now, we are proposing new efforts to encourage further advances in this rapidly evolving field. Go to article

Saving Lives with Tech Amid Syria's Endless Civil War ( Wired) The Bashar al-Assad regime's indiscriminate air strikes have terrorized civilians for years. Now a small band of activist-entrepreneurs is building a sensor network that listens for warplanes and warns people when and where the bombs will fall. Go to article