Clinicians' Biosecurity News Archive: 2007
               

• 12-19-2007: Evidence for a Heritable Predisposition to Fatal Influenza A recent study supports the hypothesis that there exists an inherited predisposition to developing and dying from severe influenza.
• 12-07-2007: Estimate of the Financial Effect of a Flu Pandemic on U.S. Hospitals In an article just published, this author and colleagues from the Center examine the potential financial impact of a flu pandemic on U.S. hospital.
• 11-30-2007: National Academies Report on Boston BSL-4 Laboratory Yesterday, a NRC committee deemed an NIH risk analysis for a proposed biocontainment laboratory at Boston University to be “not sound and credible."
• 11-15-2007: Oseltamivir Reduces Mortality in Patients Hospitalized with Influenza In a prospective, cohort study conducted, oseltamivir therapy administered to adult patients hospitalized with influenza decreased mortality by almost 80%.
• 11-01-2007: Drug-Resistant H5N1 Influenza Viruses May Retain Fitness Should widespread resistance to antiviral drugs occur in a pandemic influenza strain, the chance of limiting the disease outbreak would be greatly diminished.
• 10-19-2007: White House Releases HSPD 21: National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness On October 18, 2007, the White House released HSPD 21 establishing a “National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness.”
• 10-15-2007: Recent H5N1 Developments Articles published recently help shed light on the virulence of H5N1 virus, the pathogenesis of severe H5N1 disease in people, and a possible new treatment.
• 10-04-2007: IOM Releases Pandemic PPE Report On September 18, 2007, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies announced the publication of a report.
• 09-28-2007: HHS Award Multiple Contracts for Anthrax Countermeasures Elusys Therapeutics, Inc., issued a press release announcing the award of a $12 million contract from the HHS’ BARDA/NIAID for advanced development of Anthim™.
• 09-14-2007: Symptoms of Anthrax in Children May be More Varied than Previously Thought A review of data suggests that the clinical presentation of anthrax among pediatric patients may be more varied that previously recognized.
• 09-07-2007: New Smallpox Vaccine Licensed On September 1, 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of ACAM2000TM, a cell based smallpox vaccine.
• 07-30-2007: Cytokines and H5N1: Still No Clear Answers It has been speculated that the severity of illness and the high fatality rate associated with H5N1 may be attributed to a dysregulation of the immune system.
• 07-17-2007: Duration of Influenza A Virus Shedding Longer than Expected Adults infected with influenza A are generally considered infectious from the day before the onset of symptoms until about 5 days after onset.
• 06-21-2007: Highly Lethal MRSA Pneumonia Associated with Influenza In a recent issue of MMWR the CDC reported an outbreak of severe community acquired pneumonia (CAP) due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
• 06-07-2007: Learning from the XDR-TB Experience: Policy Priorities Going Forward Careful examination of government and public responses to the recent case of Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is critical.
• 05-30-2007: Passive Immunization with Human Monoclonal Antibodies in H5N1 Simmons et al. show that passive immunotherapy with neutralizing H5N1 human mAbs is effective in preventing and treating H5N1 infection in a murine model.
• 05-24-2007: OSHA Releases Pandemic Guidance for Healthcare Personnel This 104-page document provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of the occupational health issues related to hospital pandemic preparedness.
• 05-11-2007: CDC Issues Interim Guidance for the Use of Facemasks and Respirators in Non-Occupational Settings during an Influenza Pandemic. Surgical masks and N 95 respirators have been recommended for use by healthcare workers during an influenza pandemic.
• 05-03-2007: New System Promises Access to Prescription Information in a Disaster In the event of a disaster that causes an overwhelming number of patients to suffer respiratory failure, clinicians could face two difficult problems.
• 04-26-2007: New System Promises Access to Prescription Information in a Disaster Emergency RxHistory, a new service that will provide clinicians and pharmacists across the country with ready access to medication histories of patients.
• 04-20-2007: WHO Releases Summary of Second Consult on Human H5N1 Infection On April 19, 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) posted a summary of its second expert meeting on clinical aspects of H5N1 infection in humans.
• 04-13-2007: Prevalence of Drug Resistant Influenza B Viruses: New Findings and Implications Hatakeyama and colleagues report on the emergence of influenza B viruses that are partially resistant to neuraminidase inhibitors.
• 03-27-2007: Contact Vaccinia Reuters reported that a 28 mo. old child developed eczema vaccinatum after contact with his father, a soldier who had been vaccinated with the smallpox vaccine.
• 03-14-2007: HHS Launches New Website to Guide Medical Care during a Mass Casualty Radiation Incident HHS announced the launch of a website for health care professionals who may have to provide medical care during a radiation mass casualty incident.
• 03-01-2007: Dilution of Smallpox Vaccine, Revisited There are currently three types of smallpox vaccine available for use in the U.S. in the event of a bioterrorism attack.
• 02-21-2007: Seasonal Flu Vaccination May Offer Partial Immunity to H5N1 Matthew Sandbulte and colleagues report results of their study of cross protection between the N1 antigen in seasonal influenza vaccines and H5N1.
• 02-15-2007: Surgical Masks May Provide Significant Aerosol Protection The relative protection afforded by surgical and N-95 masks is an important issue that is prompting much debate in the process of planning for outbreaks.
• 02-07-2007: CDC Releases Interim Planning Guidance for Mitigation of Pandemic Influenza On February 1, 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its long-awaited disease containment strategy for pandemic influenza.
• 01-26-2007: Partial Anthrax Vaccination Stimulates Significant Antibody Response Report on their study of serum anti-protective antigen (PA) concentrations in marines who had been previously vaccinated with the FDA-licensed AVA.
• 01-18-2007: Immunological Responses after Exposure to Anthrax Spores in the U.S. Capitol, 2001 Doolan and colleagues analyze the humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to B. anthracis among persons exposed and possibly exposed to spores.
• 01-02-2007: FDA Approves Hydroxycobalamin for Cyanide Poisoning On December 15, 2006 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved intravenous hydroxocobalamin for the treatment of known or suspected cyanide poisoning.