The Pandora Report

First things first, big congratulations to President Obama! Irrespective of where you stand politically, I think no political ads for another two years is a blessing for which we can all be grateful.

Now, to the face-palming. In the wake of Sandy, this FAQ on NOAA’s website has been receiving some attention:

Subject: C5c) Why don’t we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking them?

Now, I am a firm believer that there are no stupid questions. What’s depressing about this question is therefore the general, persistent lack of education on WMD  behind it. This unfortunately holds true not only for nuclear, but for chemical, radiological, and biological weapons as well. Ask the average person how many people a standard “dirty bomb” would kill, and I’ll wager their answer would be too high by an order of magnitude –  (don’t believe me? good for you, always check sources).

“Who cares?” you may ask.  As long as security sector professionals and academics understand the threat, what does it matter if the average American, who undoubtedly has much more pressing things to worry about, doesn’t?

It matters tremendously. We all fear what we don’t understand, and in some cases that fear can be as debilitating as the threat itself. For instance, in 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released the chemical agent sarin on the Tokyo subway. Of the 5,510 people attended to at local hospitals, nearly 85 percent were “worried well” – those patients who were completely healthy, with  no symptoms and no exposure, but self-reported anyway. A similar phenomenon occurred after the 2001 Anthrax Letters attack. Demand for the drug Cipro (the antimicrobial used to treat anthrax) soared, even in places completely removed from the attacks (nearly a third of clinicians in Wisconsin and Minnesota were asked by patients for Cipro). According to some estimates, the number of these “worried well” patients in a given disaster can outnumber legitimate patients by 20:1. Now clearly, even experts on WMD can succumb to fear, but a better informed populace – one which knows sarin has a clear checklist of symptoms, or  that anthrax isn’t contagious – is less likely to panic.

Education on WMD is critical for preventive reasons too.  Understanding the absolute basics of how nuclear weapons are made is critical to really understanding the Iranian threat. Understanding the potential impact of chemical weapons is critical to understanding our concerns over the Syrian stockpile. Understanding the threat of biological weapons is critical to recognizing the importance of  strengthening international norms against their use.

Moral of the story? Education is important. Maybe we should designate a “National Educate-a-Friend on CBRN” day. It should be sooner rather than later though – the East Coast has another Nor’easter coming in, and there are already murmurs we should heat it out of existence with mists of plutonium-239.

For those of you curious about NOAA’s response to the hurricane-nuke scenario, see here.

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Highlights include: microbiologists and the ER – a match made in heaven, the CDC testing RIDTs,  Malaysia and BW (not what you think), bacterial voyeurism, more drug contamination at the infamous NECC, and vaccinia – now in technicolor!

How Investigating Bacteria Will Change Health Care In Hospitals

How I see this playing out: ‘Excuse me, pardon me – ooh that looks bad – don’t mind me, just need to collect samples of the ER floor here.’

“Jack Gilbert, a microbiologist from the University of Chicago…and a group of microbiologists will take over a brand new hospital in an experiment called the ‘Hospital Microbiome’. The goal of ‘Hospital Microbiome’ is to try to see what microbes and viruses will move in to the hospital and how patients and hospital staff impact the variety of microbes that live in the hospital. Gilbert and his team will track the bacteria in the hospital before it opens and as it starts accepting staff and patients. This data will help hospital administration, doctors, nurses, and researchers get a better understanding of how these bacteria and viruses make their way around a hospital, sometimes causing dangerous infections in the patients.”

For a link to the Hospital Mircobiome study itself, click here.

CDC Evaluation of 11 Commercially Available Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests (RIDT)

To absolutely no one’s surprise, tests were better at detecting influenza when given higher concentrations of virus.

CDC in MMWR – “The findings in this report further emphasize the importance of collecting respiratory specimens when the amount of influenza virus is at its peak (within 24–72 hours of symptom onset). The high virus concentrations at which the evaluated FDA-cleared RIDTs detected recent circulating viruses might exceed levels expected in clinical specimens, even those collected at the peak of virus load in the specimen (2–4). Although all RIDTs were able to detect virus at the highest virus concentrations, some were unable to detect certain viruses at any subsequent dilution.”

This is What Your Cells Look Like on Vaccinia

Researchers at two Australian universities have captured in trippy fluorescent detail the progression of vaccinia virus through cells (extra point if you know what vaccinia is used for – yes just one point, you should know!)   The giant cloud of pink is the virus, with the halo of healthy host cells surrounding in green.

For other equally impressive photographs, check out the full gallery. Who knew viruses could be so pretty?

Malaysia to Prepare Law on Biological Warfare

Everyone give it up for Malaysia.

NTI – “Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Tuesday the nation would prepare legislation aiming to address the threat of conflict involving biological agents, Bernama reported. ‘Biological warfare is a new war which can happen not only in Malaysia but also in the ASEAN region,’ Zahid said, referring to the territory covered by the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.”

Researchers “Watch” Antibiotics Attack Tuberculosis Bacteria Inside Cells

What about the rights of microbes? Don’t they get any privacy? Occupy petri dishes! Just kidding, tuberculosis is awful.

Infection Control Today – “Weill Cornell Medical College researchers report that mass spectrometry, a tool currently used to detect and measure proteins and lipids, can also now allow biologists to ‘see’ for the first time exactly how drugs work inside living cells to kill infectious microbes. As a result, scientists may be able to improve existing antibiotics and design new, smarter ones to fight deadly infections, such as tuberculosis. The new study was published in an early online edition of Science.”

Further Drug Contamination by Pharmacy at Center of Fungal Meningitis Outbreak

Things are going from bad to worse for the New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy at the center of the multi-state fungal meningitis outbreak. According to the FDA, two additional products from the pharmacy have tested positive for bacterial contamination. Three batches of  injectable betamethasone and one batch of cardioplegia solution tested positive for a combined eight bacterial species, including the (rarely) pathogenic Bacillus idriensis and Bacillus circulans.

The total number of cases of fungal meningitis associated with the pharmacy’s Exserohilum rostratum contaminated drugs has reached 386, with 28 fatalities in 19 states (CDC).

In case you missed it:

– US increases funding to combat influenza and emerging disease threats (FAO)
– Cranking Up Biosecurity (The Scientist)

Highlights this week include crowd-sourcing biological warfare (um…), West Nile (is anyone else freaked out that the mozzies still haven’t died off?) Biowatch’s now-very-public flaws, bonds and bioterrorism, wishing Mr. Salk Happy Birthday, and, for good measure, marburg. Keep an eye on Hurricane Sandy, have a plan handy (see what I did there?) – Happy Friday!

Hacking the President’s DNA: When Synthetic Biology Meets National Security

One of the many perks of studying biodefense are those moments when you have to take a break from a given article, textbook, or powerpoint slide because it’s starting to legitimately scare you.  So, in time for Halloween (and the election – don’t forget to vote!), voila:

Forbes – “While no use of an advanced, genetically targeted bio-weapon has been reported, the authors of this piece—including an expert in genetics and microbiology (Andrew Hessel) and one in global security and law enforcement (Marc Goodman)—are convinced we are drawing close to this possibility. Most of the enabling technologies are in place, already serving the needs of academic R&D groups and commercial biotech organizations. And these technologies are becoming exponentially more powerful, particularly those that allow for the easy manipulation of DNA.”

West Nile Cases Pass 4,700 Mark Nationwide: CDC

You would imagine with the behemoth storm they’re predicting this weekend (“snow to the left! rain to the right!”) (which is in no way a belittlement of preparedness – at the very least have an emergency kit ready) and the cold front coming in, the mosquitoes all be gone. No such luck.

HealthDay/the CDC – “The number of West Nile virus cases this year has surpassed 4,700, U.S. health officials reported Thursday, and the number of deaths has reached 219, up from 183 last week. The 4,725 cases mark the highest number reported through the fourth week of October since 2003. The best way to avoid the virus is to wear insect repellent and support local programs to eradicate mosquitoes. Typically, 80 percent of people infected with the virus develop no or few symptoms, while 20 percent develop mild symptoms such as headache, joint pain, fever, skin rash and swollen lymph glands, according to the CDC.”

BioWatch technology couldn’t detect lethal germs, tests found

No editorial needed here – the title pretty much says it all. Good grief.

Los Angeles Times – “For two years, the nationwide BioWatch system, intended to protect Americans against a biological attack, operated with defective components that left it unable to detect lethal germs, according to scientists with direct knowledge of the matter. The federal official who oversaw installation of the components was quietly shifted to a position with no responsibility for BioWatch, and the entire episode was kept out of public view. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees BioWatch, opened an internal investigation, whose status remains confidential.”

U.S. agency rejects using bonds to develop drugs for bioterrorism threats

In other news, the US government remains unsure how best to fund bioterrorism research and prevention (it’s all the PhDs – no one ever knows what to do with a PhD). Prodigal child, anyone?

Washington Post – “A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services office has rejected an industry proposal to use government bonds to fund the development of drugs countering bioterrorism threats. Small biotechnology companies, including Annapolis-based PharmAthene, asked the federal government last year to switch to bond financing from contracts, which are seen in the industry as costly and a sometimes unreliable revenue source when used for drug development… Using bonds to pay for drug development would allow scientific research to continue uninterrupted without being subject to the costs and delays associated with competing for federal contracts, Eric Richman, Pharm­­Athene’s president and chief executive, said in interviews last year.”

Marburg Reaches Kampala

The marburg outbreak continues in Uganda, reaching its capital of Kampala. However, according to the WHO and the Ugandan health minister, the epidemic “is under control” and the city remains safe for travel. So far, marburg has been confirmed in  four of the six suspected cases. More here.

October 24th: World Polio day

Let’s all take a moment to silently thank Jonas Salk (born October 24), the talented virologist who developed the polio vaccine in 1955. Before Salk’s vaccine, polio crippled thousands annually – in the 1952 epidemic, nearly 60,000 cases were reported in the US alone. Using Salk’s vaccine polio was completely eradicated from the US by 1979, and from the entire Western Hemisphere by 1994. Why hasn’t polio been eradicated globally? Why indeed.

UN News – ” ‘We have all the necessary tools to eradicate this disease, so now there is the question of political and societal will to make sure that the emergency plans are fully implemented and that they are fully financed,’ said the spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Oliver Rosenbauer…’We have seen time and time again that this is a virus which spreads to polio free areas and causes devastating outbreaks. If we don’t finish the job now we could see within the next decade 200,000 new cases every single year all over the world. Given that we are under two hundred cases now we consider this a true humanitarian catastrophe that has to be averted at all costs.’ ”

For an interactive timeline of the emergence and eradication of polio, see here.

 

By Marice Richter

DALLAS | Wed Oct 24, 2012 1:44pm EDT

(Reuters) – The U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus has killed 219 people this year, after another 36 deaths from the mosquito-borne disease were reported last week, government figures showed Wednesday.

In what is the second-worst year on record for the disease, the total number of cases of West Nile virus across the United States grew to 4,725, with 194 new cases reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although the pace of new cases has slowed since the outbreak’s peak in the late summer, new cases continue to be reported, particularly in states where warm temperatures persist. This year’s outbreak has trailed only 2003 in total cases.

Just over half of the cases reported to the CDC this year have been of the severe neuroinvasive form of the disease, which can cause meningitis and encephalitis.

Read more here.