Via The Scientist
Image of the Week: Ebola in Neon
Fighting Anthrax with the Ocean
Phys.org has a new piece out discussing the hitherto unknown capacity of one species of Streptomyces to effective counter infections caused by Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria which produces anthrax spores. The molecule, appropriately named anthracimycin, is equally effective in fighting other Gram-positive bacteria. Read more here.
Excerpt: “By using a variety of methods of analysis, the researchers were able to determine the structure of this molecule, which they named anthracimycin. Anthracimycin contains an unusual system of rings, one with fourteen carbon atoms and two with six each. This is a macrolide whose biosynthesis very likely occurs by the polyketide pathway. X-ray crystallographic studies allowed the researchers to determine the absolute configurations of the seven asymmetric carbon centers in this compound, identifying the complete 3-dimensional structure.”
This Week in DC: Events
This week is unsurprisingly very sparse in terms of events. Enjoy the Fourth everyone!
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013
The American Economic Recovery and the Defense Industry
Brookings Institution
10:00AM – 12:00PM
On July 2, Brookings will host a discussion on defense spending, military strategy and sequestration in the context of the broader American economic recovery. With many parts of the U.S. defense industry located in major urban centers, the fate of America’s metropolitan economies is tightly linked to the defense spending debate. While the economic health of those urban centers helps guide business strategy, the domestic discretionary accounts that help metropolitan regions build infrastructure, educate workforces, form public-private partnerships, and otherwise catalyze growth face similar indiscriminate cuts to those of defense.
Occupational Health and Safety Training
George Mason University
8:00AM – 2:00PM
For those of you working in Occupational Health and Safety who need to renew your training, George Mason University is offering a series of training workshops on Tuesday, including Safety Refresher, Hazard Communication, Bloodbourne Pathogens, and others. For more information and to register, visit their website here.
Monday July 8th, 2013
Sagebrush Rebel: Reagans Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today
Heritage Foundation
12:00PM – 1:00PM
Author William Perry Pendley, a former member of the Reagan Administration and author of some of Reagan’s most sensible energy and environmental policies, provides an insiders view of how Reagan fought the new wave of anti-human environmentalists and managed to enact laws that protected nature while promoting the prosperity and freedom of man saving the American economy in the process.
Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
U.S.-Russia Plutonium Disposition: Adventures With MOX
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
2:00PM – 3:30PM
The Carnegie Endowment’s Nuclear Policy Program will convene a special briefing and discussion on this controversial effort to reduce plutonium stockpiles. Panelists will discuss the program’s objectives and its difficulties, as well as options for minimizing plutonium that are now being explored. Speakers include Douglas Birch and R. Jeffrey Smith from the Center for Public Integrity, who have recently published four articles on this topic, and Frank von Hippel of Princeton University.
10th Anniversary of the Proliferation Security Initiative
Center for Strategic and International Studies
3:30PM – 5:00PM
The Bush administration created the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) ten years ago to improve global efforts to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their dual-use components. This voluntary arrangement has primarily relied on bilateral shipboarding agreements and exercises to help improve responses to suspect shipments. Beginning with 11 ‘core’ states, PSI now has 102 member states. Despite this, there are still gaps in the system. Recently, the Obama administration has declared its intention to turn PSI into a ‘durable international effort.’ Please join our distinguished panel of speakers as we discuss how PSI has developed, and how it might move forward into the future.
LA Times Piece on Battling MERS
The LA Times piece on the Middle Eastern Respiratory Virus gives a good behind-the-scenes look at how the CDC prepares for potential pandemics.
Excerpt: “In a war room of sorts in a neatly appointed government building, U.S. officers dressed in crisp uniforms arranged themselves around a U-shaped table and kept their eyes trained on a giant screen. PowerPoint slides ticked through the latest movements of an enemy that recently emerged in Saudi Arabia — a mysterious virus that has killed more than half of the people known to have been infected.Here at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, experts from the U.S. Public Health Service and their civilian counterparts have been meeting twice a week since the beginning of June to keep tabs on the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. MERS-CoV, as the pathogen is known, attacks the lungs and causes fevers, severe coughs and rapid renal failure.”
Read the full piece here.
The Pandora Report
Highlights include: patenting viruses pt. II, BioWatch Gen 3 or the lack thereof, West Nile, Dengue detection, and US live hog imports restricted as PEDV rages. Happy Friday!
Why a Saudi Virus Is Spreading Alarm
A less discussed aspect of studying novel microorganisms is the corporate red tape often involved. We talked about this a couple weeks ago, but the most recent case of this is the patenting (or at least, creating of a Material Transfer Agreement) of the MERS virus by Ron Fouchier’s Dutch laboratory. Under the MTA, all labs who request samples of the virus are contractually bound not to develop vaccines or products without first asking for permission from the Dutch lab. As you can imagine, this creates extra hurdles for Saudi scientists trying to stem the virus’ spread across Saudi Arabia. Lest one believe this is simply “the way things are done” in virology, China released samples of its H7N9 virus to open source sites within a month of the first case being identified.
Council on Foreign Relations – “But impeding an effective response is a dispute over rights to develop a treatment for the virus. The case brings to the fore a growing debate over International Health Regulations, interpretations of patent rights, and the free exchange of scientific samples and information. Meanwhile, the epidemic has already caused forty-nine cases in seven countries, killing twenty-seven of them…’The virus was sent out of the country and it was patented, contracts were signed with vaccine companies and anti-viral drug companies, and that’s why they have a MTA [Material Transfer Agreement] to be signed by anybody who can utilize that virus, and that should not happen,’ [Saudi Arabia’s deputy health minister] Memish said.”
Autonomous Detection Sought For BioWatch Surveillance Systems
BioWatch Gen 3 is currently on the back burner, as officials explore alternative options (analysis of alternatives, or AoA). Everyone agrees that some form of detection is necessary, everyone agrees that 24 hours is too long of a lag time, and everyone definitely agrees that local and state health officials need to be involved, but not everyone agrees that the current funding proposals for BioWatch are feasible. Does anyone else feel like this is a disaster waiting to happen?
Homeland Security Newswire – “Options for upgrading the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) BioWatch biosurveillance program monitoring systems for biological agents to autonomous detectors is continuing to be explored — and the department plans eventually to do so in collaboration with state and local officials. But DHS currently has no formal program to produce the next generation of BioWatch monitoring technology, said BioWatch Program Manager Michael Walter in remarks at the National Academies of Science (NAS) Tuesday.”
West Nile Virus Logs Deadliest Year After Hotter Summer
Last year was a bad year for West Nile, with 286 deaths and 5,674 cases. The CDC is closely monitoring the number of cases as we enter the peak season (July through September), as reasons for last year’s large case number remains unclear. However, a warmer, wetter summer is thought to be a big part of it.
Bloomberg – “While there are only six reported cases of the virus this year through June, according to the CDC’s website, more than 90 percent of infections from last year occurred between July and September.’West Nile virus is going to be a factor in the U.S. every year now,’ Marc Fischer, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC’s arboviral diseases branch, said in a telephone interview. ‘People need to take precautions and protect themselves.'”
The ‘Gold’ Standard: A Rapid, Cheap Method of Detecting Dengue Virus
Scientists are using gold nanoparticles to develop cheap, quick diagnostics for detecting dengue. While we understand this is very important in terms of helping reduce the spread of a globally present (50-100 million cases annually) and deadly virus, we also are a little pleased by the “gold” standard pun.
Science Daily – “The development of an easy to use, low cost method of detecting dengue virus in mosquitoes based on gold nanoparticles is reported in BioMed Central’s open access journal Virology Journal. The assay is able to detect lower levels of the virus than current tests, and is easy to transport and use in remote regions…Researchers from the University of Notre Dame, USA, used a DNAzyme linked to gold nanoparticles which recognises a short sequence of the viral RNA genome common to all four types of Dengue. Once bound, adding magnesium and heating to 37C causes the DNAZyme to cut the RNA leaving the gold nanoparticles free to clump together. This aggregation can be easily seen as a red to clear/colourless colour change.”
USDA working for removal of Mexican restrictions on live hog imports
The USDA is scrambling to get restrictions on US live pigs lifted by Mexico, following an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). The outbreak of PEDV has spread to 13 states in couple weeks since the virus’ first emergence.
Reuters – “A spokeswoman for the department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said on Thursday the agency has sent Mexico information requested in connection with the outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, a swine virus deadly to young pigs never before seen in North America. She did not state what information had been requested.”
A virus by any other name?
Naming new viruses is a surprisingly tricky, often hotly-contested process, and choosing a name for emergent viruses often has significant ramifications. For instance, the original misnomer of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic – swine flu – resulted in millions of dollars of losses for the American pork industry. Other, equally unhelpful names for the virus included “Mexican flu”.
Read more in this interesting piece in Pacific Standard Magazine on the long and often circuitous process of virus naming.
Excerpt: “Human disease is littered with examples of fractious, sometimes furious rows over what emerging pathogens are called. Some 30 years ago, when the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, was discovered, it was named “GRID,” or “gay-related immune deficiency,” helping to spread the slur ‘the gay plague’. It was not until it became clear the sexually transmitted virus was also infecting heterosexuals and haemophiliacs, that GRID was replaced with the more accurate HIV. More recently, the scientific ‘H1N1’ was the name that stuck for the pandemic flu strain that swept the world in 2009/2010 after earlier suggestions proved too sensitive. An Israeli health minister objected to ‘swine flu’ on religious grounds and ‘Mexican flu’ caused offense to a nation.”
Image of the Week
These posters date to WWI, where chemical weapons were first introduced and widely used. The posters were developed to educate soldiers to detect certain smells, giving them a few (often unhelpful) seconds warning in which they could put their gas masks on. Click the images for larger pictures.
Ricin: The Very Poor Man’s Toxic Terror Weapon
GMU Biodefense is pleased to announce the launch of its Backgrounder series. The Backgrounder, produced by GMU Biodefense faculty and affiliate research scientists, aims to concisely present fundamental knowledge on critical CBRN issues. Our first Backgrounder, produced by Dr. Alexander Garza, aims to put the true nature of the ricin threat into perspective, while also providing a general overview of US programs of detection and response.
Excerpt:
“Within the past three months at least five letters containing the toxin ricin have been mailed to local and Federal government officials and a non-profit gun control organization. To date no one has become ill from the effects of the toxin in the letters and yet the media tends to conflate the threat posed by these primitive ricin preparations with highly lethal ricin weapons developed by state actors. There is no debate that ricin is a formidable toxin. To truly appreciate the risk to individuals and the public at large, however, the threat posed by “ricin letters” must be placed in context with attention to the amount of toxin, its purity, the means of delivery and how it stacks up to other chemical and biological threats. With this sudden spike in the use of ricin as a weapon of terror, this is an opportune time to review its history, capacity as a terrorist weapon, its toxic properties and countermeasures developed by the United States. This review will put the threat and risk of ricin into perspective as well as give a broad look at US programs towards combating ricin as a terrorist weapon.”
Read the full brief here.
The Pandora Report
Highlights include BioWatch’s murky future, MERS in hospitals, norovirus at Yellowstone, the WHO simplifying its alert mechanisms, and ricin in Spokane. Happy Friday!
BioWatch Gen-3 may be too costly, CDC official says
The beleaguered BioWatch program faced congressional hearings this week. Congress has refused to authorize the $40 million President Obama requested for the program, citing ongoing concerns over rising costs and program efficacy. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations chairman Murphy expressed skepticism on the program’s ability to detect pathogens, claiming that the United States is less prepared to handle a bioterrorist attack today than it was five years ago (we disagree, but to each their own we suppose). We do agree, however, that cutting funding for public heath departments is definitely not helping preparedness.
Fierce Markets – “Once the technology is rolled out, it’s unclear what the burden would be on public health agencies at all levels of government, Merlin said during the hearing, held by the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), the subcommittee chairman, said he was concerned about the cost of BioWatch, especially considering the cuts to public health agencies in recent years. At the state and local level, more than 46,000 health department jobs have been lost since 2008.”
Investigation Follows Trail of a Virus in Hospitals
The mechanism of infection with the Middle Eastern Respiratory Virus is being carefully examined, with useful and interesting results. According to a recent study by the New England Journal of Medicine, it takes approximately 5.2 days for prodromal symptoms to appear in the average person following infection with MERS. The study also revealed that one person was able to infect seven others. While some scientists believe the virus may be less pathogenic than originally believed, public health officials continue to monitor it closely.
New York Times – “A detailed investigation of the viral illness first detected last year in Saudi Arabia has revealed the chilling ease with which the virus can spread to ill patients in the hospital — and its ability to infect some close contacts like hospital staff and family members who were in good health…The apparently high death rate from the disease has worried health experts. More than half of the confirmed cases have been fatal. However, it is possible that milder cases have gone undetected and that the disease is not as deadly as it may initially appear, said Dr. Trish M. Perl, an author of the new report, and a senior hospital epidemiologist and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, who traveled to Saudi Arabia to investigate the outbreak.”
Virus sickens 200 at Yellowstone, Grand Teton parks
Summer is finally here (almost) which naturally means norovirus is busy ruining all sorts of vacation plans. This time it’s campers at Yosemite and Grand Teton parks, with almost 200 campers and park employees. Norovirus is notoriously contagious, and is able to remain infectious as a fomite for months on door handles and common spaces.
Reuters – “The rare health advisory, tied to a suspected outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus, comes in the early weeks of a season that drew about 6 million people to the parks last year. A tour group visiting Yellowstone, home to the Old Faithful geyser, first complained June 7 of symptoms linked to norovirus, the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
WHO simplifies pandemic alert system
After receiving severe criticism for its management of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the World Health Organization has revised its pandemic alert system. Within the new systems, the focus of the alert has shifted from raw numbers to potential risk. The new system uses just four phases, ranging from interpandemic to transition (post pandemic) to describe pandemic progression in place of the prior seven.
Courier Mail – The WHO announced H1N1 swine flu had reached pandemic proportions on June 11, 2009, first sparking panic-buying of vaccines and then anger when it turned out the virus was not nearly as dangerous as first thought. Swine flu killed more than 18,449 people and affected some 214 countries and territories, but the world had been bracing for far worse, and governments stuck with millions of unused vaccine doses were especially upset. In March 2011, a WHO evaluation committee called on the organisation to simplify its description of a pandemic to make it more precise and consistent and to assess the risks and severity of a pandemic.
Spokane man charged with sending ricin-laced letters
Matthew Ryan Buquet of Spokane, Washington has been charged with “developing and sending poison-laced letters” (ricin is a toxin, but moving along) to President Obama, the CIA and others. Rather than have us wax lyrical about the nature of the ricin threat, check out Charles Blair of FAS and GMU excellent piece on the subject here.
The Spokesman Review – “Federal prosecutors Wednesday charged a 38-year-old Spokane man with developing and sending poison-laced letters to President Barack Obama and a federal judge in Spokane.The court documents say Matthew Ryan Buquet produced ricin, an illegal biological toxin, and mailed the substance in threatening letters between April 29 and May 14. He was arrested May 22 after agents raided his Browne’s Addition apartment. He is jailed without bond on the charges as the case unfolds.”
Blair on Recent Radiological Plot
FAS Senior Fellow on State and Non-State Threats and GMU Adjunct Faculty member Charles Blair published a piece yesterday on the recent plot by suspected white supremacists to construct and use a radiological device. Discussing the seriousness of the threat, Blair states,
“However, much like this year’s troika of ricin-laced letters addressed to government facilities (including one to the CIA) and public officials (all three incidents targeted President Obama at his White House address), this most recent plot reveals the historical rarity and non-lethality of non-state actors and their behaviors with radiological weapons and agents. While the potential for catastrophe posed by terrorist use of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons deserves ongoing and serious attention, recent events remind us how public apprehension is sometimes founded more in fear than reality; indeed, reactions based on fear are capable of far more disruption than the physical reality of the event itself. The role of science-based organizations such as the Federation of American Scientists is to educate the public about the real risks.”
Read the full piece, “Radiological Ray Gun: More Buck Rogers Fantasy than Risk to Real People”, here.
The Pandora Report 