Pandora Report 3.31.2017

Welcome to your weekly dose of all things biodefense! If you take heartburn medication, you may want to check out the latest research that ties it to a higher risk of recurrent Clostridium difficile infections.

Inferno
Dr. Steve Hatch is taking readers through the harrowing journey of Ebola via the eyes of an ETU physician. He traces the origins of the outbreak, the complexities of the disease, and what it was like working as a physician during this deadly outbreak in Liberia. “There, he served as a physician (and at times a nurse’s aide, a surrogate parent and even a masseur) to the droves of patients arriving in makeshift ambulances. Inferno is Hatch’s exploration of Ebola’s origins and spread throughout Africa and beyond, coupled with his personal experience caring for those infected.”

The Real Threat to National Security: Deadly Disease
As more attention is focused on Trump’s proposed budget and the impact to public health (i.e. massive drops to NIH and CDC funding, a 28% drop in the United States Agency for International Development, etc.), the glaring reality of disease vulnerability is following suit. “Those cuts will not protect American citizens. They will diminish research and vaccine development and our ability to respond to the growing threats of antibiotic resistance and new infectious diseases. Those agencies are already falling short, as we saw last year, when they couldn’t effectively respond to the Zika threat. What will they do when we face a real pandemic? With 7.4 billion people, 20 billion chickens and 400 million pigs now sharing the earth, we have created the ideal scenario for creating and spreading dangerous microbes.” Disease is a mixed bag of tricks – antibiotic resistance, vector diseases like yellow-fever, emerging infectious diseases, zoonotic bugs like Nipah, and those that we can’t even begin to imagine. That’s just touching on the natural kind, lest we forget the threat of bioweapons or potential for biosecurity/biosafety failures in labs performing dangerous or dual-use research. The truth is that public health efforts are already strained as it is. Despite the untold benefits of prevention, it’s never been as flashy to invest in public health as in military. Unfortunately, in this day and age of globalization and interconnectedness, the poor investment we make in public health is coming back to bite us. Ebola preparedness cost U.S. hospitals $360 million…mostly because they weren’t prepared to handle these kinds of things from the beginning. Imagine if we had the funds to train healthcare workers how to handle more challenging diseases from the beginning. Regrettably, these kinds of things can’t happen if we continue to cut funds to necessary public health agencies and decide that prevention isn’t worth the investment. The stark realities of global health security aren’t things that will go away, but rather will continue to grow if we ignore prevention efforts and decide that public health isn’t worth the expenditure. Ex-CDC director, Tom Frieden, recently wrote an article for TIME magazine about the historical dangers of underfunded health programs.  If you still aren’t convinced, check out the Center for Health Security’s Infectious Disease Cost Calculator here or this article on the economic disruption of infectious disease.

Antibiotic Resistance Crisis
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) established a new initiative to support existing efforts against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and research developments. “This new ASM initiative is a multi-stakeholder mechanism that shares information on the current state of AMR, and identifies relevant opportunities to address AMR challenges across the microbial sciences. The initiative’s subject matter experts have identified potential approaches to maximize the impact on public, animal, and environmental health, expand surveillance, promote rapid diagnostics, and implement stewardship across settings. ‘The Steering Committee is well positioned to advise the Society on interdisciplinary One Health approaches and opportunities to address critical data gaps and human resource needs to confront this multifaceted, urgent domestic and global challenge,’ said Steering Committee co-chair James Tiedje, University Distinguished Professor and director of the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University.” ASM is not new to the AMR game and has been organizing and participating in working groups since the 1990’s. The hopes for this new initiative is to really hone in on the clinical and environmental issues that facilitate AMR growth. They are also looking at surveillance and how to expand these efforts to ensure we’re getting the full scope of the issue and can truly address it with the most accurate information.

Safety First with Gene Editing
The technology and developments are quickly outpacing regulatory and oversight efforts in the world of genome editing, so the question is now becoming “should we restrict their use in the face of uncertain threats, or embrace the potential they offer and hope that appropriate responses can be rallied if experiments bring serious risks to the fore?” Many would have hoped that safety mechanisms would’ve been built into the editing systems or that we weren’t racing to catch up in terms of safety. DARPA’s Safe Genes program is one such effort that anticipates starting this summer. “Safe Genes aims to accelerate the collection of data currently missing from the debate on how to apply genome editors. The initiative also aims to strengthen the scientific foundation upon which formal safety standards for genome editing applications may someday be developed and adopted.” DARPA’s new program focuses on genome editing for many reasons – the real national security implications, the rapid pace of development and DIY potential, the dramatically declining costs for genome editing toolkits, etc. Aside from the dangers of mishandled or nefarious usage, it’s important to remember there is the potential of using genome editing for a host of beneficial things like fighting diseases, etc.

Lassa Fever Outbreak in West Africa 
Lassa fever has now seared through five West African countries in the latest outbreak. Nigeria and Sierra Leone were the first countries to see cases in December 2016. Nigeria has a total of 283 cases and 56 deaths while Sierra Leone has seen 24 cases. Of the twenty-four cases in Sierra Leone, only four were laboratory confirmed, all of whom died. While the disease is endemic in West Africa and yearly peaks occur between December and February, public health officials are working to slow the spread of the disease. Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso are also affected by the outbreak.

GHSA Roundtable With FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Juan Lubroth
Don’t miss this event on April 4th, from 10:30-11:30am (EDT)! The FAO Liaison Office for North America cordially invites members of the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium, Private Sector Roundtable, and Next Generation Network to an informal roundtable discussion with FAO Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Juan Lubroth on Tuesday, April 4, from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. Dr. Lubroth has played an important role in shaping FAO’s involvement in the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) since its inception in February 2014 and remains a forceful and effective advocate for the GHSA’s multisectoral and One Health approach to global capacity-building to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. Dr. Lubroth looks forward to sharing his thoughts on the GHSA from an international organization perspective and learning more about the role of non-governmental stakeholders in this important initiative. Please confirm your attendance to Mr. Gabriel Laizer, at FAOLOW-RSVP@fao.org

Meeting On The Trump Administration, Congress, and The Future of Global Health
Don’t miss this roundtable discussion on April 6th, from 5-6:30pm, hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Global Health Policy Center. This discussion will feature Jennifer Yates (Vice President and Director of Global Health & HIV Policy Kaiser Family Foundation), Liz Schrayer (President & CEO U.S. Global Leadership Coalition), and Chris Beyrer (Director of Center for Public Health and Human Rights John Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health).

Fostering an International Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in the Life Sciences
Second-year, GMU biodefense PhD candidate, and intern for the Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response within the Office of Policy and Planning, Elise Rowe, is taking on the international role of biosafety! As part of the student internship program, all interns are required to work on an independent project and present to ASPR staff upon its completion. Elise will be presenting her project, titled “Fostering an International Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in the Life Sciences,” on Wednesday, April 5^th at the Thomas P. O’Neil Jr. Federal Building from 2-3:30 pm. You can read the abstract here.

Stories You May Have Missed:

• Beth Cameron Joins NTI To Lead Global Biological Policy and Programs– Dr. Beth Cameron is now the senior director for global biological policy and programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). “Among other duties, Dr. Cameron will oversee the development of a Global Health Security Index, as well as work related to national security risks associated with emerging biotechnologies. This initiative was announced by NTI earlier this month in partnership with the Open Philanthropy Project, the Robertson Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Dr. Cameron most recently served as the Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense on the White House National Security Council staff, where she was instrumental in developing, launching, and implementing the Global Health Security Agenda.”
• Georgia Reports Low-Pathogenic H7 in Commercial Breeding Flock – Agriculture officials in Georgia (GDA) reported the low-path H7 presence in a breeding operation in Chattooga Country, Georgia. “The GDA said as a precaution, the affected flock has been depopulated and officials are testing and monitoring other flocks within the surveillance area. So far no poultry at other facilities have tested positive and none has shown any clinical symptoms. Gary Black, Georgia’s agriculture commissioner, said in the statement that poultry is the top sector in agriculture, the state’s number one industry, and officials are committed to protecting the livelihoods of farm families. ‘In order to successfully do that, it is imperative that we continue our efforts of extensive biosecurity’.”
• Hazardous Materials Research Center Live-Agent Test – Battelle will be hosting this workshop on April 17-21st for manufacturers and developers of PPE against CBRNE threats to test their PPE against live chemical agents. “Permeation test data will help accelerate research and development to enable developers to meet critical government test and evaluation requirements or be prepared for certification, ensuring materials can provide chemical agent protection against mission specific scenarios.” Have some PPE you want tested against a chemical threat? Check it out!