Tag: disease outbreak

Pandora Report: 2.21.2020

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

Happy Friday Biodefense Gurus! We have a packed edition of the Pandora Report this week, but before we begin – don’t forget to register and reserve your spot for the “Coronavirus & International Security” panel event this evening in Arlington, VA. The CSPS Distinguished Speaker Series event will be at 5pm and you can find more information and register here.

GMU Biodefense Summer Workshop on Pandemics, Bioterrorism, and Global Health Security
We’re excited to announce the summer dates for the workshop: Pandemics, Bioterrorism, and Global Health Security: From Anthrax to Zika. This three and a half-day workshop will be held in Arlington, VA, from July 13-16, 2020. Registration links and speaker information will be provided in the coming weeks. We hope you’ll join us for this immersive and engaging workshop with some of the top minds in the biodefense world, where we’ll discuss everything from synthetic biology to MCM, antibiotic resistance, and the current outbreak of COVID-19.

CW Use in Syria – Atrocities and Accountability 
We’ve got the scoop on a brand new article by GMU Biodefense graduate program director and professor Dr. Gregory Koblentz in Nonproliferation Review regarding Assad regime use of chemical weapons. International efforts to hold the government of President Bashar al-Assad accountable for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war have entered a new phase. For the first time, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international organization responsible for implementing the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, has been empowered to identify the perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria. The Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), which was formed to conduct the OPCW’s new attribution mission, has announced its intention to investigate and identify the perpetrators of nine chemical attacks in Syria, including the April 7, 2018, attack in Douma. This article reviews recent efforts to attribute chemical attacks in Syria, describes what we know about the nine incidents to be investigated, discusses what to expect during the next phase of the attribution process, and offers insights into how the international community can move beyond attribution to accountability. An annex to the article summarizes what is known about the Syrian government officials, military commanders, and chemical-warfare scientists suspected of being responsible for these attacks. As Koblentz notes, “Without attribution, there can be no accountability. Without accountability, the atrocities will continue: if not by the hand of Assad, then by others emboldened by his ability to use outlawed weapons to hold onto power.” You can read the article here, which builds upon his previous research on Syria’s chain of command for the use of chemical weapons and international efforts to hold the regime accountable for these attacks.

Reaping What You Sow: The Case for Better Agroterrorism Preparedness
GMU Biodefense MS student Stevie Kiesel is pulling back the curtain on this all too forgotten aspect of biodefense – agroterrorism. “An attack on the food supply gives the perpetrating group several benefits. First, the psychological and economic effect of targeting food supplies would be substantial. Such an effect could have a powerful pull with a group such as al Qaeda, who has shown interest in biological weapons and in targeting US economic strength. Second, and related, this type of attack would be relatively low cost when compared to the economic effects it could cause. Third, similar to other forms of terrorism, agroterrorism can allow a weaker group to lessen the power imbalance between themselves and the state they are targeting. Fourth, some groups may turn to agroterrorist tactics because these attacks ‘do not harm humans directly and may therefore be more easily justified’.” Read more of Stevie’s highly engaging and relevant article here.

SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Outbreak Updates
As of Thursday evening, there have been 76,214 cases and 2,247 deaths related to COVID-19. From the realm of synthetic biology, many are rushing to recreate SARS-CoV-2 from its DNA code. Since it only took a few weeks to get the genetic sequence of the virus, many researchers are hoping to start ordering copies of genes to build it for efforts like diagnostic testing and vaccine development. On another front, one of the biggest topics has been that of cruise ships…One in particular, the MS Westerdam, finally docked and passengers/crew disembarked in Cambodia. Unfortunately, following the release of passengers, one was later found to have the disease, which has prompted concern as people have begun their travels home. The other, the Diamond Princess ship, finally saw its passengers allowed to leave the controversial ship-based quarantine. 621 (20% of the people onboard) of those on the ship tested positive for the virus. “Those passengers who have been declared free of the virus and are leaving the ship for the first time in two weeks face a confusing array of circumstances. Many will be forced to undergo a 14-day quarantine upon their return home — reflecting a lack of trust in the effectiveness of the ship’s quarantine. Others can remain in Japan under their own recognizance but are still barred from returning home for two weeks.” Here is a good timeline of the outbreak onboard and how the ship was initially placed into quarantine on February 4th after 10 people onboard tested positive. Passengers being flown back to the U.S. have been sharing their account of the experience, but as these two cruise ships provide unique examples of outbreak response, it sheds light on the limitations of quarantine and challenges of public health efforts during the COVID-19 outbreak. “Based on what is known so far, Cambodia’s approach is preferable to quarantining people aboard a ship where the virus is spreading, said Saskia V. Popescu, GMU Biodefense alum and senior infection prevention epidemiologist for HonorHealth, a hospital system in Phoenix. But that requires educating passengers about reporting symptoms and self-isolating if necessary, and having public health authorities in home countries closely monitor those who have returned. It includes quickly tracing the contacts of anyone who develops the infection. ‘I think we can say if you’re going to quarantine people, doing it on a cruise ship is not the best place,’ Popescu said.” In the face of these exhaustive efforts to respond to the disease, conspiracy theories have been a frustrating distraction – Chinese labs have noted that these often hurt efforts to curb the virus and scientists around the world have been working to condemn rumors and conspiracy theories regarding the origin of the virus. “A group of 27 prominent public health scientists from outside China is pushing back against a steady stream of stories and even a scientific paper suggesting a laboratory in Wuhan, China, may be the origin of the outbreak of COVID-19.” Senator Tom Cotton continues to push such conspiracy theories. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has a new initiative regarding the outbreak, known as the Coronavirus Project. The project focuses on debunking misinformation and providing accurate information from qualified researchers and scientists. “Since late 2019, information about the infectious Coronavirus has been trickling out from sources around the web. But not all information is created equal. Some of this information comes from science and medical professionals, who have years of experience in epidemiology. Some comes from unreliable anonymous internet accounts, bad actors, and hoaxers.” Despite these distractions, a paper in The Lancet recently emphasized the support for scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals in China combatting the disease. “We have watched as the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China, in particular, have worked diligently and effectively to rapidly identify the pathogen behind this outbreak, put in place significant measures to reduce its impact, and share their results transparently with the global health community. This effort has been remarkable.” In times like these, the global health security community truly comes together to address common vulnerabilities and enhance strengths.

The Economic Impacts of COVID-19
The ongoing outbreak of coronavirus has already infected over 75,000 people and taken over 2,000 lives. The newly dubbed COVID-19 outbreak originated and remains strongest in China, but the economic effects of the it is already rippling across the globe. As an outbreak disseminates and intensifies, the labor force shrinks (at least temporarily), supply chains fracture, international mobility of persons and products decelerates or ceases altogether, and spending and investment decline. Though the full magnitude of economic effects from the outbreak can only be speculated upon at this point, the downward economic trends have begun. The sectors most impacted and at highest risk, thus far, are technology, oil, apparel, retail, tourism, and automobiles. The losses in production from Chinese manufacturing of key inputs and final products are critical drivers of the losses we are seeing and will continue to see across the globe. These items include iron, steel, aluminum, textiles, cement, chemicals, toys, electronics, and many more. According to the latest Statista Infographics Bulletin, global shipments of various tech products are expected to fall by 4.5 to 16% in this first quarter of the year. China is the world’s primary producer and exporter of textiles, so the fall in Chinese textile production will impact the global apparel and retail markets. Global oil demand is falling for the first time in over a decade as global transit drops from diminished trade and travel. Travel bans are, of course, squelching international tourism and costing travel hot spots to lose revenue. This is compounded as major events that attract troves of visitors are cancelled in response to COVID-19 fears. For instance, projections from the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization expect Japan to lose $1.3 billion and Thailand to lose $1.2 billion in tourism revenue just in this first quarter. Due to the travel bans and the general disinclination to travel at the moment, US tourism from Chinese visitors will take a compounding hit in addition to the losses from the ongoing trade war with China. Relatedly, global airline revenues are predicted to drop by $4-5 billion in the first quarter of 2020 due to flight cancellations. Automobile makers are closing plants in China as the much-needed inputs such as steel and aluminum are shrinking the availability of parts. As ground zero, China is suffering the most so far. China’s growth rate is expected to drop from 6% to 4.5% in the first quarter of 2020. As the infection sweeps through the Chinese labor force, factories are shutting down or lowering output capacity, slowing the flow of parts and final products from China. Virtually all countries are and will be impacted by the break in the supply chain as a result of reduced output from China. The absence of a single small component may render a final product unachievable.  As supply falters across various sectors and products reliant on Chinese manufacturing, we should anticipate a rise in those prices. On the other hand, China is one of the largest markets for US products, especially Apple electronics and fashion items, so we should anticipate a significant decline in demand from that large consumer base as spending shrinks among the Chinese population. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in China in 2003 provides a rough analogue on which to base predictions of the economic impacts of COVID-19. Virulence was highest from November 2002 to July 2003, and that nine month period was all the time needed for the disease to infect almost  8,500 people and kill over 800 people globally. Lee and McKibbin estimate the total economic cost of the 2003 SARS epidemic to be around $40 billion. The geographic dissemination of COVID-19 is currently akin to that of 2003 SARS with cases concentrated in China and small clusters popping up in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. The COVID-19 mortality rate is much lower at 2% versus 10%; however, the total number of coronavirus cases after just a couple months greatly surpasses the total case count for SARS at over 75,000. Though the loss of life may, thankfully, be much less severe with COVID-19, the adverse economic impacts of this outbreak may greatly surpass that of SARS. In 2020, we are more of a global economy than in 2003 and supply chains for a cornucopia of products are spread across nations and even continents, so a kink in one place catalyzes a domino effect across borders and industries. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for COVID-19 as we approach March; therefore, the hits to the global economy will continue to spread across sectors and countries, as well as grow in severity. Only time will tell the full scale and spectrum of adverse economic effects instigated by COVID-19.

The 2021 Nuclear Weapons National Security Budget Proposal
The 2021 budget proposal exemplifies the continuing shift in the US nuclear posture toward a renewed nuclear arms race. This month, President Trump sent Congress a proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget request of $740.5 billion for national security, 95% of which is for the Department of Defense. The clear priority of the proposed budget is the expansion of investment in and capabilities of US nuclear weapons. The proposal requests almost $29 billion, a 16% increase from the previous year, for the modernization of the US nuclear weapons arsenal. In addition to the $29 billion for modernization, the proposal includes other related items that would bring the total nuclear weapons budget to about $50 billion. The bump in nuclear weapons investment comes at the cost of shrinking most other security and defense programs. This should come as no surprise given Trump’s proclivity for nuclear strength as evidence by his late 2016 tweet, “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Despite recommendations that DOD dedicate more resources on challenges from strategic rivals, namely China and Russia, the proposal outlines cuts to such programs. For example, the Navy is preparing for a significant reduction in funding for new warships. Lawrence J Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness, recommends that the administration extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with the Russians and resume negotiations. This would renew efforts toward reducing nuclear arsenals and enable the allocation of limited resources to programs that make our country and the world safer.

GAO Report – National Biodefense Strategy
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a new report – “National Biodefense Strategy: Additional Efforts Would Enhance Likelihood of Effective Information”. You can access it here, but the report notes that “There are a number of challenges, however, that could limit long-term implementation success. Among other things, there was no documented methodology or guidance for how data are to be analyzed to help the enterprise identify gaps and opportunities to leverage resources, including no guidance on how nonfederal capabilities are to be accounted for in the analysis. Many of the resources that compose national capabilities are not federal, so enterprise-wide assessment efforts should account for nonfederal capabilities.” Moreover, the report points out that agency officials struggled to identify how decisions were made and there generally lacked a clear process or series of roles for joint-decision making, “As a result, questions remain about how this first-year effort to catalogue all existing activities will result in a decision-making approach that involves jointly defining and managing risk at the enterprise level.”

Pandemics and Podcasts
There are a lot of great podcasts in the infectious disease and biodefense world, so we’ll be spotlighting a few from time to time. Our first is the Next Generation GHS episode from last week, in which GMU Biodefense MS alum Jessica Smrekar sat down to discuss COVID-19. You can listen to it here. Jessica noted that “It was great sitting down with Jono and Taylor to hash out this rapidly developing COVD-19 outbreak in light of Jono’s book, The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How To Stop It. We discussed at length the weak links in local, national, and international health structures that leave us vulnerable to disease outbreaks and how we can remedy these in the future. Jono’s book outlines 7 specific actions that, if taken, could reduce these gaps and allow us to create a safer world. We explored the problems we face in developing strong, resilient health systems and how these actions work to solve those problems. Though the COVID-19 outbreak really highlights that we are not where we should be to keep our world safe, Jono expressed ‘the NextGen Group and your leadership and the fact we have such a mobilized network worldwide makes me optimistic. I think we’re building a really powerful network, both internationally and at the national level. And it’s that network of capable, informed, engaged people, who really do care about having a safer world, I think that’s what makes me feel optimistic’.”

News of the Weird
Video games and outbreaks – apparently they go hand in hand. Virus games are growing in popularity right now, in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak, especially that of Plague, Inc. “Plague Inc. and Pandemic may have a certain morbid appeal in the time of the coronavirus. But they have more than that to offer, many experts and players agree. ‘I can certainly understand the hesitation around this — no one wants to trivialize the very real human suffering that this coronavirus has brought with it,’ said Leacock, Pandemic’s creator. ‘But the reality is that playing helps us process the world around us, and people may be turning to these games now for that reason’.”

Outbreak Dashboard 
Qatar has reported a new MERS-CoV case, marking the fourth case since December. The DRC outbreak of Ebola has now reached 3,443 cases with over 330 suspected cases under investigation.

Pandora Report: 2.10.2017

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

Have you ever wondered what some of the most deadly diseases looked like in person? Check out this video depicting some of these germs and how they’d appear if you sat next to an infected person. Fortunately, this week was full of disease-filled media like this germ history video regarding the golden age of germs and how humans cause pandemics (spillover anyone?)

The Colosseum that is CRISPR Patent Wars
It seems like the ultimate display of gladiator games – researchers from major university (UC-Berkley, Harvard, and MIT) are in the midst of a battle for patent protection. You can check out the timeline here, but it seems that despite it being over two months since proceedings started, we’re not much closer to a conclusion. “A key feature of the U.S. debate is over which research group was the true first inventor of the CRISPR/Cas9 system, especially its use in eukaryotic cells. At the time the first patent applications were filed, the U.S. had a ‘first-to-invent’ system—which means the first person to develop an invention is entitled to have the patent, even if they were not the first to file a patent application (or the first to get a patent granted) for that invention. UCal has started “interference proceedings” against the Broad Institute to determine who was the first to invent the CRISPR/Cas9 system. UCal claims that they were the first to invent the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system for gene editing, and that their earliest patent application enabled gene editing in eukaryotic cells. In contrast, The Broad Institute are arguing that UCal had not invented the use in eukaryotic cells at the time of filing its first patent application and are therefore claiming that The Broad Institute were the first to invent the use of CRISPR/Cas9 in eukaryotic cells.”

Public Health’s Greatest Threats 
We all have opinions regarding the greatest global threat- especially in terms of public health. Is it obesity? Cancer? Exposure to toxins or new emerging diseases? What about bioterrorism or bioerror? Dr. Larry Brilliant is an epidemiologist who focuses on the worst disease throughout history. He notes that the greatest threats to public health can be divided into biological and socio-political. “In the last 30 years, there have been at least 30 heretofore unknown viruses that have jumped from animals to humans, for worrying reasons Brilliant attributes to modernity and our increase in animal protein consumption. Still, the socio-political threats are the more immediately dangerous. There are centrifugal forces at play that are pushing society to two extreme camps. The domestic and global division caused President Trump’s ‘America First’ mentality and disregard for public health leaves us vulnerable to new viruses that, if they aren’t detected early enough, could be the next pandemic. ‘Right now because of the re-organization and nationalism… and dislike for the United Nations and its agencies, I think we’re in a period of grave vulnerability,’ says Brilliant.” Dr. Brilliant points to the reality that public health threats aren’t just biological, and as we saw with the 2014/2015 ebola outbreak (and Zika), the socio-political response can hinder or help public health efforts. While we’re always vulnerable to new diseases, are we becoming increasingly more susceptible from a socio-political standpoint?

ASM Biothreats 2017
From synthetic biology to national bioterror emergency response, the ASM conference was packed with biodefense goodies. We’ll be providing a detailed overview regarding certain sessions and the conference as a whole, so make sure to keep your eye out next week!

Find Out What New Viruses Are Brewing In your Backyard  screen-shot-2017-02-08-at-7-47-55-am
NPR is looking at what causes pandemics and where new diseases tend to spring up. By reviewing EcoHealth Alliance data, they note that within the past sixty years, the amount of new diseases appearing has quadrupled. Scarier yet, the number of outbreaks occurring each year has more than tripled since 1980. “We’re in a hyperinfectious disease world,” says epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minneapolis. While the tools for surveillance and detection have gotten better, it also became apparent to researchers that old diseases are returning from the grave, while emerging diseases are transgressing into new regions. “So the big question is: Why? Why is this era of new diseases happening now? ‘Well, we’ve been boiling the frog for a long time. Eventually, it’s cooked,’ says Toph Allen, a data scientist with EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that is trying to prevent pandemics by looking for diseases in wildlife. Wait. We’re boiling the frog? You mean, humans are responsible? Yes. Many scientists say we, humans, are to blame for this new disease era. That we’re responsible for turning harmless animal viruses into dangerous human viruses.” Unfortunately, it seems that humans have become especially skilled at causing spillover.

Center for Global Security Research Student Internship
Calling all GMU biodefense students! Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory’s Center for Global Security Research is looking for a student intern! The center has “openings for undergraduate and graduate students and recent bachelors or master’s level graduates within one year, to engage in practical research experience to further their educational goals.” The student may conduct “research in the fields of nuclear engineering, computational sciences, materials science and engineering, cyber security, interactive data mining, political science and international relations to support United States (US) policy and decision makers in developing strategies for national and international security. The Center for Global Security Research’s (CGSR) mission is to provide technology, analysis, and expertise to aid the US government in preventing the spread or use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and examining the policy implications of proliferation of WMD, as well as deterrence.”

Zika’s New Strategy – Spillback?
With over 5,000 cases in the U.S. alone, the Zika virus outbreak may be slowing, but it’s not gone. We’ve talked about spillover before, but what about spillback? We tend to worry about diseases spilling over from animals into humans, but what about the opposite direction? Researchers are now worried about Zika spillback into monkeys. “In areas where Zika infections are prevalent among humans and mosquitoes are abundant, the virus may be transmitted to wild primates, disease ecologist Barbara Han said February 6 at the American Society for Microbiology Biothreats meeting. If the disease gets established in monkeys or other wild primates, the animals may serve as reservoirs for future human outbreaks.” As scientists work to study this process and establish potential at-risk species, it’s a helpful reminder that infectious diseases like to keep us on our toes. Or should I say, paws?

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • Over 350 Organizations Write Trump About Vaccine Safety – More than 350 organizations have written to President Trump highlighting their “unequivocal support for the safety of vaccines”. Leading medical organizations and healthcare professionals have resorted to this measure since the January meeting Trump had with Robert F. Kennedy regarding a potential commission on autism and vaccines. “Vaccines protect the health of children and adults and save lives,” the letter opens. “Vaccines have been part of the fabric of our society for decades and are one of the most significant medical innovations of our time.” It continues: “Claims that vaccines are unsafe when administered according to expert recommendations have been disproven by a robust body of medical literature.”
  • Got C-diff? Grab Some Vancomycin! – Clostridium difficile is an infection preventionist’s worst nightmare. This spore-forming bug is tough to kill, can cause mortality, and often wreaks havoc on hospitals. A recent study looked at the treatment efficacy of vancomycin versus metronidazole, with the goal of preventing recurrence of the disease. “Analysis of the data showed that there was no difference in risk of recurrence between those treated with vancomycin or metronidazole in any of the severity groups. And in patients with mild-to-moderate disease, there was no significant difference found in the risk of all-cause 30-day mortality. But among the patients with severe infection, patients treated with vancomycin were 4% less likely to die within 30 days of any cause than those treated with metronidazole. Stevens and her colleagues calculated that to prevent one death among patients with severe C difficile infection, 25 would need to be treated with vancomycin.”
  • Fighting Cholera– Cholera has been a scourge throughout history and sadly, we’re still battling it. Researchers have finally developed an effective vaccine and stockpiled it, however efforts are still in progress to get it to the most hard-hit countries, like Bangladesh. “Merely creating that stockpile — even of a few million doses — profoundly improved the way the world fought cholera, Dr. Margaret Chan, secretary general of the W.H.O., said last year. Ready access to the vaccine has made countries less tempted to cover up outbreaks to protect tourism, she said. That has sped up emergency responses and attracted more vaccine makers, lowering costs. ‘More cholera vaccines have been deployed over the last two years than in the previous 15 years combined,’ Dr. Chan said.”

 

 

Pandora Report 11.18.2016

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

Welcome to World Antibiotic Awareness Week! We all have a part in reducing microbial resistance, including companies like McDonalds, KFC, and large chain restaurants. A recent report from Clinical Microbiology is reanalyzing the threat of bioterrorism. The EU has released their action plan for combatting antimicrobial resistance and you can read the roadmap here. Leishmaniasis infections are on the rise in the U.S. due to ecotourism and military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. CRISPR gene-editing was just tested in a person for the first time. The Chinese research group delivered modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial. The cells were modified to disable a gene that codes for protein PD-1 (this normally would restrict immune response and is frequently manipulated by cancer) and the hope is that without the PD-1, the edited cells will be able to overcome the cancer. Did you know that your birth year can help predict how likely you are to get extremely sick from an outbreak of an animal-origin influenza virus? Don’t miss the Next Generation Global Health Security Network Info Session – today at 11a EST!

ISIS Forces Fired Toxic Chemicals in Iraq
Three chemical attacks were launched by ISIS against the Iraqi town of Qayyarah in September and October. The use of chemical weapons was in retaliation after Iraqi government forces retook the town in late August. “ISIS attacks using toxic chemicals show a brutal disregard for human life and the laws of war,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director. “As ISIS fighters flee, they have been repeatedly attacking and endangering the civilians they left behind, increasing concerns for residents of Mosul and other contested areas.” Victims of the attacks experienced painful symptoms of blister agents, or “vesicants”. The use of chemical weapons is in direct violation of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. The use of these weapons would be classified, under the Rome Statue, as a war crime.

What Will Be the Next Pandemic?
Researchers at the recent International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance discussed what the next SARS or Zika-like disease will be. Kevin Olival of EcoHealth used a predictive formula and pointed to flaviviruses that we normally don’t hear about – Usutu, Ilheus, and Louping. “All three have on rare occasions infected people, but they also infect a number of other animal species, which suggests they may have what it takes to jump species. Virologists sometimes call viruses that can do this ‘promiscuous.’ That means ‘it’s more flexible in its ability to infect across hosts, including mammals,’ Olival said.” While the scarcity of human cases proves difficult for gaining funding, emerging diseases tend to hit us by surprise, pointing to the need to expand the scope of surveillance and preparedness.

PCAST Letter to the President to Protect Against Biological Attacks
In a letter to the President, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) points to the to the unique challenge of bioterrorism threats in that they could be exacerbated by the rapid pace of biological science and technology developments. PCAST emphasizes the need for a renewed effort since Federal leadership can help state and local infrastructure share data and identify patterns during such an event. “Continuing scientific, technical, and regulatory developments allow the medical community to respond to new outbreaks faster than ever before. Developing medical countermeasures to naturally occurring outbreaks today lays the groundwork for responding to potential engineered biological threats in the future. PCAST supports extending this progress into the foreseeable future, setting the ambitious ten-year goal that, for infectious organisms for which effective approaches to creating vaccines exist, the United States should have the ability to accomplish, within a six-month period, the complete development, manufacture, clinical testing, and licensure of a vaccine. ”

Comic Book Explores a World Without Antibiotics  screen-shot-2016-11-15-at-8-40-41-am
A new, dystopian comic book is transporting us to 2036 London. The world is a bleak place where antibiotics have run out. Surgeon X looks at a time where simple infections and hospitalization means certain death, while the government cracks down to maintain selective control over the few drugs that are available via  a”Productivity Contribution Index”, which determines who gets access to medication. Readers follow a surgeon, Rosa, through her work at a secret clinic and the internal dialogue that comes with a repressive government, Hippocratic oath, and constant threat of infectious disease. Sara Kenney, the author of Surgeon X, notes that her own experiences with two premature children frame much of her comments on microbial resistance. Kenney noted that “it was only when she started building for herself what she calls the ‘story world’ that she realized antibiotic resistance is such a threat to medicine that it needed to be in her narrative as the obstacle the protagonist must overcome. ‘I realized the antibiotics crisis we’re facing is probably one of the most extreme obstacles you could throw at a surgeon,’. She found the complexities of the problem—resistance is believed to kill 700,000 people around the world each year—to be staggering.”

WHO Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance cxt8sslxgaajprd-jpg-large
The WHO has just released their action plan to fight antimicrobial resistance. Countries have committed to having a national action plan by May of 2017 to better support the radical shift that is needed to combat antibiotic resistance. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the foundation of modern medicine and public health capacity. There have been little advancements in the world of antibiotics, however we continue to see a growth of AMR. The WHO global action plan has five objectives: to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education and training; to strengthen the knowledge and evidence base through surveillance and research; to reduce the incidence of infection through effective sanitation, hygiene and infection prevention measures; to optimize the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health; and to develop the economic case for sustainable investment that takes account of the needs of all countries and to increase investment in new medicines, diagnostic tools, vaccines and other interventions.

BWC RevCon 
While the 8th Review Conference is underway, there have been some reports from attendants that civil society/NGO’s were asked to leave the room, which goes against precedent for the last two RevCon’s. Some have noted that Iran was seeking to deny NGO’s access to Committee of Whole by using rules of procedure but there has not been consensus yet. While these comments have been coming in from attendants’ Twitter accounts, as of Tuesday afternoon, it appears that the issue has been resolved – as news continues to trickle in, we’ll keep you posted. You can get daily updates on RevCon here, with the most recent one covering the cross-cutting plenaries that are focusing on implementation, article III, solemn declaration and more. These daily reports are the best way to get detailed play-by-play information as to how RevCon is going.

Zika Updates
A recent study found that women are at greater risk for Zika infections due to suppressed vaginal immune response. “Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes discovered that the vaginal immune system is suppressed in response to RNA viruses, such as Zika. The delayed antiviral immune response allows the virus to remain undetected in the vagina, which can increase the risk of fetal infection during pregnancy.” The Brazilian state of Parana has banned aerial spraying of pesticides in urban areas. Florida’s Department of Healthy has their daily Zika updates here, which shows three new locally acquired cases as of 11/16. The CDC has reported 4,255 cases in the U.S. as of November 16, 2016.

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • How NY Hunts for Early Hints of an Outbreak– the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has a secret weapon in the war against infectious disease outbreaks – a computer program called SaTScan.  This program utilizes big data to help detect and model infectious diseases. It monitors, maps, and detects disease outbreaks throughout the state by utilizing the data that is reported to the health department daily. “It is just not possible to effectively monitor every communicable disease in real time with human eyes alone,” Sharon Greene said. “To be able to quickly and effectively and precisely detect an outbreak, to kick off an outbreak investigation process — the earlier that you can begin this it helps to limit sickness, it helps to limit death, and it makes it more likely that you will successfully solve the outbreak.”
  • Exposure Patterns in 2014 Ebola Transmission – Researchers are presenting new information regarding the largest Ebola outbreak in history by looking at the drivers of transmission and where control efforts could be strengthened. They reviewed data from over 19,000 cases across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. “We found a positive correlation (r = 0.35, p < 0.001) between this proportion in a given district for a given month and the within-district transmission intensity, quantified by the estimated reproduction number (R). We also found a negative correlation (r = −0.37, p < 0.001) between R and the district proportion of hospitalised cases admitted within ≤4 days of symptom onset. These two proportions were not correlated, suggesting that reduced funeral attendance and faster hospitalisation independently influenced local transmission intensity. We were able to identify 14% of potential source contacts as cases in the case line-list. Linking cases to the contacts who potentially infected them provided information on the transmission network. This revealed a high degree of heterogeneity in inferred transmissions, with only 20% of cases accounting for at least 73% of new infections, a phenomenon often called super-spreading.” Future Ebola outbreak response will need to consider super spreaders, safe funeral practices, and rapid hospitalization.
  • Rick Bright Selected as New BARDA Director – DHHS recently announced that Dr. Rick Bright will be the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and Director of BARDA. Dr. Bright has been with BARDA since 2010 and served in their Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases division.

 

Pandora Report 10.28.2016

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

A leaked report to the UN Security Council from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, states that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave the order for the use of chemical weapons in 2015. The ECDC is seeing the initial cases for the 2015/2016 flu season, so make sure to get your flu shot! Science is sharing six science lessons for the next president. A new study finds that the correct antibiotics are only given half the time for common infections. Make sure to celebrate One Health Day on November 3rd!

Spillover: Ebola & Beyond Film Screening and Discussion
Don’t miss this great event at the National Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, November 15th from 6:30-8:30pm. If you loved the PBS documentary this summer, now is your chance to listen to a panel of experts discuss how they track diseases internationally and locally. “The film extends to the new frontiers of disease detection, prevention, and containment, and travels the world with virus hunters who are tracking old enemies while vigilantly looking out for new foes.” Featured speakers will include Vanessa van der Linden, Anthony Fauci, Yvonne-Marie Linton, and LaQuandra S. Nesbitt. Make sure to register before the event if you’d like to attend.

iow-zoonoses-onpgIf you enjoyed the Spillover documentary, check out this one (from the same team at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute who brought you Spillover) on Nipah virus hunters and their use of bat populations to track the disease. It’s a great film on epidemiology, One Health, and how we can study diseases in bat populations to predict outbreaks in humans. The HHMI has all sorts of wonderful disease-tracking goodies, like this one on the patterns of zoonotic diseases or an interactive on viruses. HHMI has some great interactive and fascinating learning tools for adults and children alike. Nothing like a little zoonotic disease lesson before bedtime, right?

MetaBiota Presentation for GMU Students 14875059_1343053735705798_1059784359_n
This week GMU was fortunate to hold an informational session by MetaBiota in which Dr. Kimberly Dodd discussed the organization and what life is like working on shifting emerging infectious disease response to prevention. GMU Biodefense MS student Greg Mercer was able to  listen to her experiences that range from the front lines of virus chasing to work on PREDICT and the factors that lead to zoonotic spillover. Dr. Dodd deployed to Uganda as part of the CDC’s response to the 2012 Marburg virus outbreak and to Sierra Leone during the West African Ebola outbreak. She described the challenges of trying to set up a BSL-4 equivalent laboratory in the field and the stressed of working with dangerous pathogens and noted that even in an outbreak of a high fear-factor disease like Ebola, there is often an international outpouring of volunteers. Experts are enthusiastic to help both for humanitarian reasons and the promise of cutting edge research to be done. Her experiences responding to outbreaks in the field prompted her interest in what preventative measures can be taken to forecast, identify, and mitigate outbreaks faster. She described her work on USAID’s PREDICT project, which seeks to catalogue viruses with potential to become pandemics. In its first 5 years, PREDICT sampled 56,000 animals, ran 400,000 diagnostics, and detected 984 unique viruses, 815 of which were novel. This new data was fed into Healthmap. In later pahses, PREDICT will go on to more closely examine the human-animal dynamics of spillover events.

Fears and Misperceptions of the Ebola Response System during 2014/2015 Outbreak in Sierra Leone
We’re still learning lessons from the worst Ebola outbreak in history, but will we actually apply this knowledge or continue to make the same mistakes? Public perception of public health response systems is a vastly important aspect of any outbreak response, however researchers are pointing to the severity it had on containment in 2014/2015. This study focuses on Sierra Leone and the barriers that prevented people from trusting and utilizing the Ebola response system that was established during the height of the outbreak. Researchers found that most people feared calling the national hotline for some one they believed to have Ebola as it would result in that person’s death. People tended to self medicate if they developed a fever and assumed it was not Ebola. “Fears and misperceptions, related to lack of trust in the response system, may have delayed care-seeking during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Protocols for future outbreak responses should incorporate dynamic, qualitative research to understand and address people’s perception”

Estimating the BioTech Sector’s Contribution to the U.S. Economy screen-shot-2016-10-26-at-2-44-22-am
While the biotech sector has opened the floor for questions over dual-use, there’s no denying its growth. U.S. biotech sector revenue is estimated to have grown on average more than 10% per year over the past decade, which is faster than the rest of the economy..much faster. Data collected from various public and private sources allowed Robert Carlson to pain a much larger picture of what biotech is contributing to the U.S. economy. He found that total domestic U.S. revenue generated by biotech in 2012 reached at least $324 billion, which is the equivalent of >2% of GDP. Biotech revenue growth was >5% of annual U.S. GDP growth every year between 2007 and 2012. While the field is obviously growing, the rapid acceleration also means that there will be decreasing costs and more access to more powerful technology. “Governments around the globe are grappling with the desire to benefit from biotech-driven economic development, while simultaneously facing questions about who should have access to which technology and under what circumstances.” It’s important to not only support and monitor the technologies, but also facilitate data and reporting within the industry as these measurement deficiencies fuels biosecurity concerns. “Alongside the preexisting bioeconomy, we are building a system composed of inherently ‘dual-use’ engineering technologies that will constitute critical infrastructure for the future economy. Assuming that the revenue and growth estimates above are borne out with improved measurement and analysis, biosecurity is now clearly synonymous with economic security. The focus of biosecurity policy must shift from protecting specific targets from specific threats to securing the bioeconomy as a system that increasingly drives economic growth and employment and, ultimately, enables humans to thrive on a global scale.”

Hospitals Add Sinks to Help Fight Infections – Bad Move
Adding more easily accessible hand washing stations is one of the strategies to combating poor compliance and growing infection rates. Unfortunately, there have been some unintended consequences of upping the sink volume. Several hospitals throughout Baltimore, the Netherlands, and Shanghai have noted an increase in infections after adding more sinks (especially in patient rooms). Biofilms were a growing issue, which draws attention to the importance of facility and environmental service maintenance. I was a bit disparaged to see that the article points to the presence of non-sterile water from sinks in rooms with immunocompromised patients. Patients that are severely neutropenic are usually placed into positive pressure rooms (under protective precautions) and almost all hem-oncology units have special water filters on everything in the patient’s room (shower, sink, etc.). The concern for legionella is always an issue for those with weakened immune systems and while it’s important to cut down as much environmental exposure as possible, it’s impractical to think there should be sterile water. Another aspect of this is that patients in pre-op immune-suppression or post-op recovery will be exposed to germs – it’s a simple fact. If you’re concerned about sinks, then the patient should either be in a protective precautions room or you should not allow visitors. A sink is a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to patients that aren’t severely neutropenic. Sink design and cleaning is hugely important, which is another component to hospital infection control as anytime water is temporarily shut off, there needs to be water treatment plans in place, etc. It’s nice to see attention being brought to the environmental aspects of sinks and infection control, however one big aspect of the problem is also that people typically don’t wash their hands correctly. Yes, most people don’t spend the 15-20 seconds correctly lathering, washing all the nooks and crannies of their hands, etc. Needless to say, it takes a village to stop an infection and just one tiny moment to cause one – sinks are just one piece of the pie.

Terrorists Hamper Polio Eradication Efforts in Africa salk_headlines
Global eradication of a disease is never easy, however efforts to rid Africa of polio have encountered barriers that are allowing the disease to resurge. Nigeria has seen lingering polio as a result of “porous borders and shifting populations where travel has been blocked by terrorism.” Despite consistent work and effort to eradicate the disease from Nigeria, it was re-declared endemic in August, which leaves many concerned about it spilling over borders into neighboring countries. While Nigeria has always been a hotspot for polio, there has been increasing religious preaching that parents should not allow vaccination, specifically Muslim imams in Kano state in 2003, claiming that the vaccine had been contaminated to hurt Islamic children. Distrust compounds into lagging vaccination rates and during this time there was a spike in cases, which was coupled with terrorist activity by the Book Haram militia. “They cut off entire provinces, blocking the access needed by teams vaccinating children and epidemiologists counting cases. When the Nigerian military forced the militia out of parts of Borno state, in Nigeria’s northeast corner, the polio campaign discovered that wild polio virus had been circulating there for years.” The area around Lake Chad – Chad, Cameroon, and Niger – all pose problematic for vaccination efforts as the WHO calls the situation a “complex emergency” with more than 150,000 people fleeing across national borders. Despite these challenges, the governments of Nigeria and five nearby countries have initiated a massive emergency vaccination campaign that covers more than five million children per round, of which they’ll perform six rounds. “That may be an even more difficult task than in Afghanistan or Pakistan. In those countries, most of the areas where polio survives are remote, with little traffic in or out. Nigeria, on the other hand, is the most populous country in Africa, and a crossroads for the rest of the continent. There is no quick fix that can make the risk of onward spread go away; it requires yet more of the hard, grinding, repetitive work that eradication campaigners have been doing for almost 30 years.”

Zika Virus – What’s the Latest?
Brits are being warned not to travel to Florida after two British journalists contracted Zika during their travel to the state. The Florida state health department has released their Zika data– there are four new travel associated cases and nine non-travel associated cases. Wellcome Trust medical research charity is warning that we should expect Zika to reach India and Africa. “I think we can anticipate global spread,” said Jeremy Farrar, speaking to the Guardian alongside Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the chief executive officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “Given the [Aedes aegypti] mosquito’s availability across the world, I think the spread will next be across Asia and I think we really have to be prepared for it spreading in Africa. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t.” The WHO has released their Zika Research Agenda here, with a goal of “supporting the generation of evidence needed to strengthen essential public health guidance and actions to prevent and limit the impact of Zika virus and its complications”. Scientists are still bewildered by Zika’s path through Latin America as cases continue to grow. The CDC has reported 4,091 cases of Zika in the U.S. as of October 26th.

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • The Antibiotic Era Review – Infectious disease physician Amesh Adalja is discussing Dr. Scott Podolsky’s most recent book on antimicrobial resistance. As the realities of microbial resistance grows larger and gains more attention, it’s important to understand that this isn’t a solely modern issue. Dr. Adalja notes that the book should be required for anyone in the field as it takes great care to incorporate details that paint the larger picture of infectious diseases and antibiotics. “As Podolosky illustrates, in the post WWII era, civilization caused infectious diseases to recede in the US at the same time scores of new treatments (i.e. antibiotics) were coming to the market and experts who knew the (now rare) bug and the drugs used to treat them were valuable.” Adding it to our holiday reading list, thanks for the tip Dr. Adalja!
  • Climate & Evolutionary Drivers of Phase Shifts in Plague Epidemics of Colonial India – A recent study is looking at the climatic and evolutionary forces that impact plague epidemics. Researchers looked at the arrival of plague in colonial India through archival data and were able to identify the evolution of resistance in rats as a significant driver of the shifts within seasonal outbreaks. The findings “substantiate the rapid emergence of host heterogeneity and show how evolutionary responses can buffer host populations against environmentally forced disease dynamics.”
  • 2nd International Who’s Who in One Health Webinar – Don’t miss the One Health Commissions’ upcoming webinar on November 4th, 2016. This webinar is a great place to take part in dialogue with One Health leaders, advocates, professionals, and students The webinar is set to start at 7:45am EST and seeks to create new strategic partnerships and networks for collective, purposeful and coordinated action and educate participants about the One Health paradigm and ways of thinking towards improved health outcomes

Pandora Report 6.10.2016

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

Summer temperatures are soaring (Arizona hit 115F last week, so I guess it’s time to start baking cookies on the dashboard again- just make sure not to use General Mills flour!) and we’ve got your weekly biodefense cool down. Check out this global outbreak monitor, where you can keep an eye on all your favorite cases. The DoD is currently conducting market research to identify vaccine developers for medical countermeasure manufacturing. They’re looking for “advanced manufacturing platforms which are adaptable to incorporating known antigens for use as a prophylaxis countermeasure against weaponizable biological agents.” Before we venture down the biodefense rabbit hole, the Pandora Report will be on hiatus next week (June 17th), but don’t fear- we’ll return the week of June 24th!

Infectious Disease Threat Management
Are emerging infectious disease outbreaks an anomaly or are these events the new norm? Dr. Daniel M. Gerstein points to a 2014 study on the global rise of these outbreaks, which point to the growing threat of zoonotic disease spillover. Gerstein discusses the common trend of failure to predict such events but also the poor response in medical countermeasures and diagnostics. Between West Nile Virus, Ebola, H1N1, and now Zika, we’ve had ample time to get both preparedness and response right. “A recent commentary by Ronald A. Klain — a former White House Ebola response coordinator — should be required reading on the United States’ lack of preparedness for responding to the Zika virus. In it, Klain provided both a dire assessment of Congress’ uncertain funding support for the current response, and made longer-term recommendations for improving our rapid response to infectious disease outbreaks. Yet while these recommendations are spot on, including calls for a dedicated organization with specialized capability to respond to disease outbreaks, more must be done to ensure adequate preparedness against emerging infectious disease in the future.” U.S. preparedness measures utilize epidemiology and biosurveillance, however these are both passive methods that rely on reactive measures, rather than proactive. “This reactive approach to emerging infectious disease should be augmented with an anticipatory model that accounts for the dramatic changes occurring through globalization, greater interactions between human and zoonotic populations, and changes to the environment and climate patterns.” He points to the need for predictive analytical tools and modeling to better focus research and development efforts in order to control and prevent such events. Gerstein acknowledges the long-term and challenging realities of such efforts though, pointing to the need for private sector contributions and strategies to focus on anticipating infectious disease threats.

CDC Biosafety Failures – “Like a Disaster Movie” 
The stories of biosafety failures in U.S. labs working with select agents is enough to send chills through even the toughest of pathologists. Reporters recently gained access to records from the CDC regarding the 2009 events in which safety mechanisms in a CDC biosafety level 4 lab failed. “The gasket seal around the exit door to the changing room deflated to the point that the scientists could see light coming in. And as they held that door shut and started an emergency chemical deluge, things got even worse.” Records include emails that hoped to avoid federal lab regulatory reporting. While these reports are shocking to biosafety experts like Richard Ebright from Rutgers University, CDC officials claim there was no risk from the equipment failures. The release of these records draws further attention to the failures but also the CDC response and challenges in even getting the records released under the Freedom of Information Act. You can read more of the records released to USAToday here and here.

Back to the Future in Global Health Security? 
People frequently think back to the days of the Black Death as a reminder of the progress we’ve made in disease defense. Are we really in a better position though? Globalization, growing populations, rising global temperatures, urbanization, and easy international travel all make it possible for diseases to jump around in a matter of hours. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan noted that “For infectious diseases, you cannot trust the past when planning for the future. What we are seeing is a dramatic resurgence of the threat from emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. The world is not prepared to cope.” The lessons from Ebola, H1N1, and even Zika haven’t truly sunken in yet and there are more outbreaks on the horizon. “International mechanisms must be established to coordinate the upstream research and development (R&D) of new medical tools to respond to priority pathogens and the downstream testing, manufacturing, and delivery of those tools as part of the larger humanitarian response to an ongoing outbreak.” Researchers have suggested four lessons from our past to encourage technological innovation to better prevent and respond to health crises – ensure adequate and sustainable long-term investment, coordinate R&D around a roadmap of priority goals, engage and energize a network of geographically distributed multi-sector partners, and remember that sustainability depends on adequate systems and equitable access. Establishing an environment of coordination and sustainability will be vital to move from a reactive to a proactive practice of global health security.

DoD Biosafety Report
GMU Biodefense MS student, Stevie Kiesel discusses the report the DoD Inspector General published regarding the biosafety and biosecurity failures within DoD labs that work with biological select agents and toxins (BSAT). Stevie’s deep dive into this report addresses the systematic failures that led to such events. Inconsistent internal or external technical or scientific peer reviews and even inspection standards led to not only missing inspections, but also duplicative ones. “Some inspectors failed to review specific vulnerability assessments for their assigned labs to ensure that shortcomings identified during previous inspections had been mitigated.  In some cases, these vulnerability assessments were not reviewed because they had never been conducted, or had not been conducted annually as required.”

Immune System Education and the Realities of the Antibiotic Resistance
Autoimmune diseases and antibiotic resistance have risen in the past half-century…but what does this really mean? The human microbiome (your body’s own community of microbes that help run your immune system) is now being considered as a potential puzzle piece for the increase in autoimmune issues. Have these microbiome communities changed so largely that our entire society is being impacted? “To test this possibility, some years ago, a team of scientists began following 33 newborns who were genetically at risk of developing Type 1 diabetes, a condition in which the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. After three years, four of the children developed the condition. The scientists had periodically sampled the children’s microbes, and when they looked back at this record, they discovered that the microbiome of children who developed the disease changed in predictable ways nearly a year before the disease appeared. Diversity declined and inflammatory microbes bloomed. It was as if a gradually maturing ecosystem had been struck by a blight and overgrown by weeds.” Coupled with several other studies, there is a growing thought that toughening the immune system early in life can alter our response later in life or that the kind of microbiome you have will determine your response to viral infections. So what happens if our immune systems begin to fail us and antibiotics are a thing of the past? That’s a pretty devastating notion and it’s right before the weekend, so let’s scale it back to just consider a world without antibiotics – would you still shake hands or take an international flight? Physiologist Kevin Fong notes “If we are to avoid a return to the pre-antibiotic landscape with all its excess mortality we must be bold. To squander the advantage we have so recently gained against microorganisms in the fight for life would be unthinkable.”

The Race Against Zika Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 1.40.13 PM
The debate regarding the 2016 Rio Olympics took a turn this week as the WHO stated it will look again at the Zika risk during the games.  150 international experts penned an open letter to the WHO regarding their “irresponsible” actions and that the organization was rejecting calls to move or postpone the games due to it’s official partnership with the International Olympic Committee. What are the actual risks? Will the Rio Olympics put the rest of the world at risk for Zika? Here is an interesting infographic and article on that exact question. Bringing thousands of people from different countries together is definitely a gold medal strategy for spreading infectious disease. The ECDC has posted their epidemiological data here, as well as their risk assessment. A new study looks at sexual transmission and the persistence of Zika virus in semen, finding that RNA can persist in semen for 62 days. Researchers found a case of a woman with Zika virus presenting 44 days after the onset of symptoms in her partner, which “corresponds to a sexual transmission occurring between 34 and 41 days after the index case.” This announcement comes after there were no previously reported secondary cases more than 19 days after the onset of signs in a man. Concerns regarding congenital eye issues in babies without microcephaly were also raised after a case was identified. As of June 8th, the CDC has reported 691 travel-associated cases within the U.S.

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • CRISPR’s Gene-Editing Skills on RNA – researchers have now established a method for targeting and cutting RNA. “The new cutting tool should help researchers better understand RNA’s role in cells and diseases, and some believe it could one day be useful in treatments for illnesses from Huntington’s to heart disease.” The process involves using CRISPR to create “blades”. Given the concerns around CRISPR and dual-use technologies of concern, researchers are pointing out that there are far less ethical concerns regarding manipulation of RNA.
  • Legionnaires’ On the Rise – sadly this isn’t the name of a new historical action flick, but rather a public health concern that has the CDC looking into water system integrity. Cases of Legionnaires’ disease have quadrupled since 2000. The CDC has stated that the reason for such a stark increase is most likely due to aging building water systems, an aging population, and better surveillance/reporting systems.
  • Ebola Stability Under Hospital and Environmental Conditions – a new study looks at the role of fomites in EVD transmission, especially in healthcare settings. “To assess the potential contribution of fomites to human infections with EBOV, we tested EBOV stability in human blood spotted onto Sierra Leonean banknotes and in syringe needles under hospital and environmental conditions.” Researchers found that the virus survived more than 30 days in blood in syringes, despite hot/humid conditions, and six days on paper money under experimental conditions.

 

Pandora Report: 6.3.2016

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

Which country do you think is the biggest consumer of antibiotics? You’ll be shocked to see the results in this infographic. The organization, No More Epidemics, has also created an infographic on pathogens and poverty, depicting the “general trajectory of infectious disease outbreaks from outbreak to epidemic, showing the potential power of interventions to interrupt the course of progression.” You may want to rethink baking this weekend as the CDC is currently working to control an E. coli outbreak related to General Mills flour. Before we start our adventure down the biodefense rabbit hole, check out this experiment showing just how far sneezes really spread (brace yourself for a “violent explosion of saliva and mucus”).

The Importance of a Resilient Health System
Sure, this may seem like a pretty obvious concept but it’s something we still struggle with. The 2014 Ebola outbreak proved it and Zika virus is just adding some salt with a side of lime juice to the wound. Between climate change, spillover, and antibiotic resistance, the need for a resilient and robust public health system has never been more dire. “The point is that resilience in the health sector is not static but rather an ongoing and evolving state of affairs. Well-performing health systems provide sustained, equitable access to essential services for all without financial hardship. They are better able to bounce back when adversity strikes; are prepared to detect and respond to emerging disease threats; are able to adapt to adverse conditions; address a wide range of health challenges; and offer innovative solutions by leveraging diverse skills and views.” USAID is working to help fix holes in the existing system through their initiatives like Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development and the newer Combating Zika and Future Threats Grand Challenge. The world is moving at a rapid pace and with innovation and globalization, the potential for a pandemic is only a flight away. Now is the time to strengthen our public health system.

NSABB Select Agent & Gain of Function Progress
A few weeks back we discussed the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity’s (NSABB)’s meetings regarding Gain-of-Function (GoF) work and their risk assessment with subsequent recommendations for evaluation and oversight of proposed GoF research. Six meetings and two workshops later, NSABB approved the final proposal. The May 24th, 2016 version is similar to the earlier draft however, specific examples of “studies of concern” were provided. Seasonal flu GoF studies are not considered concerning and NSABB did modify its definition of GoF Research of Concern. “The report has new wording that is apparently aimed at critics who have argued that the HHS should not review studies it funds, because that would represent a conflict of interest. The report says the HHS review ‘should be structured to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interest,’ but doesn’t specify how that can be done.” While implementation will be challenging and require immediate initiation, it’s believed that agencies won’t have trouble adapting to the new policy. You can also check out Gryphon Scientific’s final analysis on the risks and benefits of GoF research. Enjoy Chapter 11 regarding the loss of trust in science -GMU Biodefense MS student Julia Homestead helped write it!

Ancient Plague Epidemiology F2.large
Get your Indiana Jones hat ready, we’re going back in time to look at bioarcheology and the Eyam plague outbreak of 1665-1666. Researchers used a stochastic compartmental model and Bayesian analytical models to study this outbreak that started in September 1665 in the Derbyshire village of Eyam. Updated data from parish records allowed scientists to study this specific outbreak in a more in-depth manner, leading to the discovery that both rodent-to-human and human-to-human transmission played an important role in the spread of the disease. “We also found that the force of infection was stronger for infectious individuals living in the same household compared with the rest of the village. Poverty significantly increased the risk of disease, whereas adulthood decreased the risk. These results on the Eyam outbreak contribute to the current debate on the relative importance of plague transmission routes.”

Health on the G7 Summit Agenda
Last week, international officials met for the G7 Summit and during this gathering the topic of infectious diseases and control methods came to the table. “At the G7 Ise-Shima Summit, leaders will consider issues including strengthening the response to public health emergencies, by taking into account the lessons learned from previous outbreaks, such as Ebola. In addition, they will discuss ensuring the provision of lifelong healthcare services, from maternal, newborn and child health, through to non-communicable diseases and aging, in the pursuit of universal health coverage (UHC)”. Ebola, Zika virus, and Yellow Fever are all hot topics (see what I did there…) of concern. Improving investment in pandemic response was a vital part of the G7, as well as endorsement of the Global Health Security Agenda. Hopefully, with more international awareness and investment, the practice of putting out infectious disease fires will be a thing of the past.

Zika Weekly Roundup
The WHO has released their latest global response report on the Zika virus outbreak. The report gives an overview regarding the Strategic Response Framework and Joint Operations Plan as well as current funding gaps for “critical activities until the end of June 2016, as well as the approach to setting a new strategy from July 2016 onwards.” You can also find a scoping review of the Zika literature here. 233 studies were compiled with findings that “several knowledge gaps were identified by this review with respect to ZIKV epidemiology, the importance of potential non-human primates and other hosts in the transmission cycle, the burden of disease in humans, and complications related to human infection with ZIKV.” A woman in New Jersey has given birth to a baby girl with microcephaly, making her the second Zika-related microcephaly case in the U.S. Entomologists and medical experts are participating in a Zika Symposium and you can check out some of the presentations here. President Obama commented on the need for Zika funding during his speech in Elkhart, IN, this week, noting that “we need more who are willing to work with us to lower health care costs, give us the funding we need to fight public health challenges like Zika and the opioid epidemic — Joe Donnelly is working on that diligently.” Researchers are looking at the risk factors for eye abnormalities in congenital Zika infections and scientists are now raising concern over transmission related to oral sex. Lastly, as of June 1st, 2016, the CDC has reported 618 travel-associated cases in the U.S. 

Stories You May Have Missed:–

  • First Locally-Acquired Chikungunya Case in Texas–  The Texas Department of State Health Services has confirmed the first case of local transmission. ” A Cameron County resident got sick with the illness in November 2015 and was diagnosed with a lab test in January 2016. The case, however, was not reported to the local health department until last month. The investigation performed by the Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services determined the patient had not traveled, and the case was confirmed last week by testing at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
  • Edge of the Antibiotic Abyss – There’s been a lot of talk about antibiotic resistance and the impending dangers if we don’t act soon. Here’s an overview of the concerns and recent case that is causing so much worry. While it may not get the media attention of Zika virus, this is a very real issue and recent estimates indicate that we’re teetering on the edge of the antibiotic abyss.
  • India’s HIV Blood Transfusion Transmission Reality– The National AIDS Control Organization has released their report following a petition by activist Chetan Kothari, revealing that at least 2,234 Indians have contracted HIV while receiving blood transfusions. Scarier yet, these cases occurred in the past 17 months. Kothari has pushed for investigations, citing that while it is mandatory for hospitals to screen donors, the cost of the test and limited availability of testing facilities (Mumbai has only three private hospitals with HIV testing facilities) makes this a growing threat to anyone requiring blood transfusions. India currently has around 2.09 million people living with HIV/AIDS.
  • The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – The ECDC has updated its rapid risk assessment for the current yellow fever outbreak that is impacting Angola, DRC, and Uganda. “In the EU/EEA, the risk of yellow fever virus being introduced is limited to unvaccinated viraemic travellers coming from areas with active local transmission.”

Pandora Report 5.20.2016

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

The biodefense world was pretty busy this week – between Zika funding, cloning, and debates over dual-use technologies, we’ve got a lot to recap! Check out this great infographic on mosquitoes and the diseases they spread. The “State of Innovation” report revealed a decrease in biotech patents in 2015, with many pointing to the correlation between three U.S. Supreme Court decisions that limited patentability of some biotechnologies. If you were wondering how the sale of Plum Island is going, the House has actually temporarily halted any transactions.

Congrats GMU Biodefense Graduates!IMG_3491
We’re so happy to announce the convocation of some of our phenomenal graduate students. Earning a MS in Biodefense- Julia Homstad (also awarded the Frances Harbour Award for Community Leadership), Brittany Linkous (earning the Outstanding Biodefense MS Student Award), Francisco Cruz, Mary Dougherty, Moneka Jani, Sadaf Khan, Brittany Ferris, Michael Smith, and Robert Smith. Graduating with their PhD’s – Jonathan Gines (also the recipient of the Outstanding Biodefense PhD Student award and his dissertation was: Designing Biorisk Oversight: Applying Design Science Research to Biosafety and Biosecurity, Patricia Kehn (Flu News You Can Use? An Analysis of Flu News Quality 2008-2010), and Mittie Wallace (Emergency Preparedness in Virginia, Maryland and DC: Using Exchange Theory to Identify Government-Nonprofit Incentives and Barriers to Collaboration). Congrats to all our Biodefense graduates in the hard work and dedication they’ve put forth to contribute to such a diverse and exciting field!

Evaluation of DoD Biological Safety & Security Implementation
The Inspector General of the Department of Defense (DoD) has released their report regarding the biosafety and biosecurity policies and practices within DoD laboratories working with select agents. The report also evaluated DoD oversight of these laboratories and compliance with Federal, DoD, and Service Policy, with careful consideration to recent GAO (among others) recommendations. Several findings were reported, which include: “DoD has not maintained biosafety and biosecurity program management, oversight, and inspections of its BSAT laboratories according to applicable Federal regulations. BSAT laboratories in Military Services were inspected according to different guidance, standards, and procedures, risking dangerous lapses in biosafety practices. Lack of coordinated oversight of DoD laboratories led to multiple, missing, and duplicative inspections, and, therefore, an excessive administrative burden that could interfere with scientific research performance.” The report also noted that public health and safety was put at risk due to the poor protection of these agents. Recommendations pushed for better internal and external tracking of inspections, coordination of external technical and scientific peer reviews, standardized training for inspectors, the creation of site-specific laboratory security vulnerability assessments, etc. Overall, the report addresses several key failures within select agent laboratories that have been gaining increasing attention. While these recommendations are a necessary first step, there is definitely an up-hill battle to better secure and work with select agents.

Public Health & Emerging Disease Outbreaks – The Importance of Communication 
Outbreak prevention and response isn’t a new concept…in fact it’s something we’ve been perfecting since John Snow took off the Broad Street pump handle. Sometimes, the fastest spreader isn’t the disease, but rather poor communication and fear. In every after-action report, communication tends to be the biggest failure. Not only do people fail to talk to each other enough, but information dissemination and comprehension tends to be poorly emphasized, when in fact it could save lives. “In particular, healthcare workers may benefit from knowing about newly found transmission risks or disease findings from a novel case under intensive care. Knowledge drives behavioural change that can save lives. We live in a global community. Even if the lives saved are not citizens of our country, withholding information because it is unlikely to benefit our own countrymen, or even delaying dissemination of important information until it is published in a scientific journal is a poor choice.” Dr. Ian Mackay and Katherine Arden point to communication failures regarding the zoonotic transmission of MERS-CoV and the illness of a nurse from the UK who recovered from Ebola and was later hospitalized for meningitis. Both instances involved poor communication, especially to healthcare workers. “Good communicators and reliable communications are vital. Create a dialogue with the public now to build a partnership for later, to reduce distrust when an outbreak, epidemic or pandemic occurs. In this way, communities know which voices to trust and where to turn for their information. Leaving an information void invites others to fill it and more often than not, it is those who delight in titillation, invention, make-believe and fear-mongering.”

Weekly Dose of Zika Virus
H.R. 5243 – Zika Response Appropriations Act of 2016 is the hot topic of discussion this week, as President Obama’s Administration is opposing the act. “While the Administration appreciates that the Congress is finally taking action to address the Zika virus, the funding provided in H.R. 5243 is woefully inadequate to support the response our public health experts say is needed.  Specifically, the Administration’s full request of $1.9 billion is needed to:  reduce the risk of the Zika virus, particularly in pregnant women, by better controlling the mosquitoes that spread Zika; develop new tools, including vaccines and better diagnostics to protect the Nation from the Zika virus; and conduct crucial research projects needed to better understand the impacts of the Zika virus on infants and children.” On May 17th, the Senate voted to provide $1.2 billion to fight the growing outbreak. A team from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has traveled into uncharted territory – they are the first to genetically engineer a clone of the Zika virus strain.  Their work could help speed up vaccine development and research of the virus. As the Zika outbreak rages onwards, many are pointing to the need to understand how and why it mutated from Africa to Asia and then to the Americas.  “‘Like many arboviral agents, given the appropriate environmental and human conditions, new pathogens can be easily moved around the globe,’ Ann Powers said. And that’s what Zika did. The virus began to ripple across the Pacific—and as it traveled, it seemed to change.” The Olympic Games are fast approaching and the debate about the safety of the games has been spreading (see what I did there?). Last week you read about how some are saying the games should be cancelled, while others say it poses a minimal threat. You can also find a snapshot of Zika virus here. The WHO reported that the overall risk of Zika virus moving across the WHO European region is low to moderate during late spring and early summer. Rutgers is taking the lead on an IBM-sponsored project that will utilize supercomputing resources to identify “potential drug candidates to cure the Zika virus.” The Wilson Center is hosting an event, “Zika in the U.S: Can We Manage the Risk?” on Tuesday, May 24th, at 11am. Many are also wondering why humans and not mice are susceptible to the virus. Lastly, as of May 18th, the CDC has reported 544 travel-associated cases and 10 sexually transmitted cases within the U.S.

Governance Structures for Reducing Dual-Use Technology Risks
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has published an examination of dual-use technology governance and the state of current efforts to control the spread of potentially dangerous technologies. “Governance of Dual-Use Technologies examines the similarities and differences between the strategies used for the control of nuclear technologies and those proposed for biotechnology and information technology. The publication makes clear the challenges concomitant with dual-use governance.” The report looks at the potential objectives of these measures, what they translate to in a technical format, and if these measures are even feasible.

Global Avian Influenza A H5N1 Trends
Researchers recently looked at the epidemiology of human H5N1 cases from 1997-2015. This was the first comprehensive analysis of human cases on a global scale. The number of affected countries rose between 2003 and 2008, traveling from east Asia into west Asia and Africa. “Most cases (67·2%) occurred from December to March, and the overall case-fatality risk was 483 (53·5%) of 903 cases which varied across geographical regions. Although the incidence in Egypt has increased dramatically since November, 2014, compared with the cases beforehand, there were no significant differences in the fatality risk, history of exposure to poultry, history of patient contact, and time from onset to hospital admission in the recent cases.”

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • Health Security Available – The newest volume of Health Security is now available online. The recent issue includes pieces on Zika and microcephaly, preparing for climate disruption, adapting to health impacts of climate change in the DoD, and more!
  • Secret Genome Meeting – Last week saw a meeting hosted by Harvard Medical School’s George Church, to discuss “feasibility and implementation of a project to synthesize entire large genomes in vitro.” Initially the meeting was open to the public and media however, the decision was made to keep it private (from the media) so that researchers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and government officials could speak freely without fear of being misquoted. “Our ability to understand what to build is so far behind what we can build,” said Jeremy Minshull, chief executive of DNA synthesis company DNA2.0, told The New York Times. “I just don’t think that being able to make more and more and more and cheaper and cheaper and cheaper is going to get us the understanding we need.”
  • Four Countries Fend Off Avian Influenza- Cambodia, Ghana, and Indonesia have been battling H5N1 and Italy has just reported its second H7N7 occurrence this month. Ghana and Cambodia have reported significant bird mortalities, with the virus killing 155 of 505 susceptible birds. “In Ghana, the H5N1 virus turned up in four commercial layer and breeding farms in three of the country’s regions: two in Greater Accra and one each in Eastern and Central regions.”
  • Bavarian Nordic Smallpox Vaccine Contract – the pharmaceutical company announced that BARDA has ordered a bulk supply of their new IMVAMUNE smallpox vaccine. The $100 million supply of the non-replicating vaccine requires Bavarian Nordic to manufacture and store the bulk supply. “The freeze-dried version of IMVAMUNE is expected to reduce the life cycle management costs based on a longer shelf life and will replace the liquid-frozen version that is currently stockpiled in the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).”
  • Early Detection Lyme Disease Test Successful – GMU researchers have proven that their early-detection urine test works to rapidly identify Lyme diseases. “The National Institutes of Health funded the research that led to Mason’s patented technology, which traps tell-tale clues (such as the Lyme bacteria protein) that a disease is present. The Mason technology, which is licensed to Ceres, works during the earliest stages of disease and finds the tiniest traces missed by most diagnostic tests.”

Pandora Report 2.5.2016

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report

Fear of mosquitoes continues to grow as Zika virus joins the list of burdening arbovirus infections. Perhaps the biggest surprise this week wasn’t that imported Zika cases continue to spring up across the US, but rather that the first sexually transmitted case occurred in Dallas, Texas. I’m starting to think Dallas, TX, could use a break from emerging infectious diseases… As influenza season picks up in the US, Avian influenza outbreaks are popping up in Taiwan, South Africa, and Macao. Good news- it’s safe to go back to your favorite burrito bowl! The CDC declared the Chipotle-associated E. coli outbreak over, however, their co-CEO has voiced frustration over delayed reporting. In the interview, he felt that it gave the “mistaken impression that people were still getting sick” and news was “fueled by the sort of unusual and even unorthodox way the CDC has chosen to announce cases.” Before we venture down the biodefense rabbit hole, don’t forget to stay healthy and safe this Super Bowl Sunday. Spikes in cases and flu-related deaths (in those >65 years of age) can jump by 18%  in the home regions of the two teams. Take care to avoid respiratory viruses and food-borne issues while cheering on your favorite team this weekend!

Medical Counter Measures for Children
Having worked in pediatrics, I was thrilled to see the American Academy of Pediatrics publish the updated guidelines. Throughout my work in infection prevention and collaborations with hospital emergency preparedness and local county health departments, it became increasingly evident that in many ways, this is a patient population that is easily forgotten. There is a woefully apparent gap in preparedness methodology to recognize and modify practices to meet the unique needs of children. While many may laugh at the notion that “children aren’t just little adults”, those who have worked in pediatrics can attest to these common misconceptions. Children are not only more susceptible to the devastation of disasters and CBRN attacks, the medical counter measures often do not account for pediatric dosages. The published report discussed their work over the past five years to better address and fill major gaps in preparedness efforts when it comes to medical counter measures (MCM) for children. “Moreover, until recently, there has been a relative lack of pediatric MCM development and procurement; many MCMs were initially developed for use by the military and have been evaluated and tested only in adults.” Some of the recommendations that were made from this report include: “the SNS and other federal, state, and local caches should contain MCMs appropriate for children in quantities at least in proportion to the number of children in he intended population for protection by the cache” and “federal agencies collaborating with industry, academia, and other BARDA partners, should research, develop, and procure pediatric MCMs for all public health emergency, disaster, and terrorism scenarios and report on progress made.” Perhaps one of the most interesting recommendations was that “the federal government should proactively identify anticipated uses of MCMs in children during a public health emergency and, where pediatric FDA-approved indications do not exist, establish a plan to collect sufficient data to support the issuance of a pre-event EUA that includes information such as safety and dosing information and the federal government should use existing entities with pediatric SMEs, such as the PHEMCE, PedsOB IPT, and the DHHS National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters, and continue to collaborate with private sector partners offering pediatric expertise to provide advice and consultation on pediatric MCMs and MCM distribution planning.” Overall, these recommendations and the push for data collection and clear progress reporting are definitely a step in the right direction.

GMU Open House
Interested in a master’s degree that allows you to focus on bioweapons, global health security, and WMD’s? Check out GMU’s School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs (SPGIA) Open House on Thursday, February 25th at 6:30pm, at our Arlington Campus in Founders Hall, room 126. Representatives from our Biodefense program will be there to answer all your questions. Better yet, check out our Biodefense Course Sampler on Wednesday, March 2nd, at 7pm (Arlington Campus, Founders Hall, room 502). Dr. Gregory Koblentz,  director of the Biodefense graduate program, will be presenting “Biosecurity as a Wicked Problem”. Come check out our curriculum and get a taste of the amazing topics we get to research!

From Anthrax to Zikam6502e1f
Researchers at the University of Greenwich are finding a potential cancer-fighting strategy using the anthrax toxin. Lead scientist, Dr. Simon Richardson, is working with his team to convert the anthrax toxin into a delivery tool for medications.“This is the first time a disarmed toxin has been used to deliver gene-modulating drugs directly to a specific compartment within the cell. We’ve achieved this without the use of so called helper molecules, such as large positively charged molecules like poly(L-lysine). This is important as while these positively charged molecules, known as polycations, can condense DNA and protect it from attack by enzymes before it reaches the target, they are also known to be toxic, break cell membranes and are sent quickly to the liver to be removed from the body. In this study we demonstrate that using disarmed toxins without a polycation is effective, at a cellular level.” In the world of Zika virus….On Monday, the WHO Zika virus team met and announced that the outbreak should now be considered a public health emergency of international concern. Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO director general, stated, “I am now declaring that the recent cluster of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities reported in Latin America following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014 constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.” Given the level of uncertainty regarding the disease, many feel this was a justified classification of the outbreak. The first case of sexual transmission within the US also occurred in Dallas, Texas. The patient became sick after having sexual contact with an individual who became symptomatic upon return from Venezuela. Chile and Washington DC have just confirmed their first three cases this week. Mexico’s Health Ministry is trying to downplay the Zika impact on tourism, however as the outbreak unfolds, it will be interesting to see long-term tourism repercussions within the affected countries. The state of Florida is ramping up their mosquito elimination, control, and education efforts to combat the growing epidemic, as it is one of the mosquito-heavy states within the US. Governor Rick Scott recently declared a health emergency in four Florida counties. If you’re on the lookout for educational tools, there are several helpful CDC informational posters regarding mosquito bite prevention.

US Military and the Global Health Security Agenda
In effort to protect military members and support global public health, the DoD (specifically, the Military Health System in coordination with the Defense Health Agency’s Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch) developed the 2014 Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). The GHSA established a five-year plan with specific agenda items, targets, and milestones that would incorporate its 31 partner countries. The DoD’s Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS) will also support these efforts through their biosurveillance practices in over 70 countries. The international work is as varied as the challenges one might see in global biosurveillance. The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch (AFHSB) “leveraged existing febrile and vector-borne infection control efforts in Liberia to support the recent Ebola outbreak response. The Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research served as a central hub for Ebola diagnostic testing with the help of the Naval Medical Research Unit-3 in Cairo, Egypt and two Maryland-based facilities, the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick.” Surveillance efforts will also look at antimicrobial resistance and the development of additional research laboratories to work in coordination with host-nations and certain regional networks. You can also read Cheryl Pellerin’s work on DoD Biosurveillance and the role it plays in maintaining global public health efforts. Pellerin reports on the duties of the GEIS and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) in not only global health security, but also protecting US military personnel from infections while abroad.

Norovirus Outbreak in Kansas
There are few things that will make a food-borne disease epidemiologist (or infection preventionist for that matter) as frustrated as a norovirus outbreak. It hits quickly, is highly infectious, and tends to leave you with stories from case-control interviews that will make you either laugh, cry, or need some fresh air. A Kansas City suburb is currently experiencing a 400 person outbreak of gastroenteritis associated with the New Theatre Restaurant. Initial lab reports have confirmed norovirus as the culprit. The Vice President of the restaurant said that three employees have also been confirmed as norovirus cases. To date, the almost 400 people who reported symptoms are said to have eaten at the restaurant between January 15 to present. Norovirus is a pretty unpleasant gastroenteritis (you’ve probably heard it called the “cruise ship bug”) as it has a low infectious dose (estimates put it as low as 18 viral particles, while 5 billion can be shed in each gram of feces during peak shedding). Norovirus outbreaks tend to spring up quickly and infect high volumes of people, making it difficult for public health officials to jump ahead of the outbreak. Perhaps one of the biggest components to stopping the spread of infection is good hand hygiene, environmental cleaning, and staying home when sick.

TB Transmission on Airplanes
We’ve all been there – you’re seated next to someone with a nasty cough or cold and you just know you’re going to get sick. But what happens if you’re on a plane and there’s a person a few rows away that has tuberculosis (TB)? The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reviewed evidence of TB transmission on airplanes to update their Risk Assessment Guidelines. Of all the records/studies reviewed, 7/21 showed some evidence for potential in-flight (all flights lasted more than 8 hours) TB transmission, while only one presented evidence for transmission in this environment. The interesting component is that this low transmission risk is considered only for in-flight, as they excluded transmission on the ground since the before and after flight ventilation system is not in full-function mode. The one study that did show transmission risk involved six passengers that were in the same section as the index case, of which, four were seated within two rows. After their review, they found that the risk for TB transmission on airplanes is “very low”. They noted that “the updated ECDC guidelines for TB transmission on aircraft have global implications due to inevitable need for international collaboration in contact tracing and risk assessment.”

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • Resistant HIV – A recent study published in The Lancet discusses drug resistance after virological failure with the first-line HIV medication, tenofovir-containing ART (antiretroviral  therapy). This treatment is used as both a prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Researchers found “drug resistance in a high proportion of patients after virological failure on a tenofovir-containing first-line regimen across low-income and middle-income regions”. This study highlights the growing need for surveillance of microbial drug resistance.
  • Active Monitoring of Returning Travelers – Ebola Surveillance – The CDC’s MMWR for the week of January 29, 2016, discussed NYC monitoring of returned travelers from October 2014-April 2015. Monitoring of returned travelers from Ebola-affected countries was one strategy the US employed to prevent imported cases. This report reviews the 2,407 travelers that returned from affected countries, of which no cases were detected. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)’s active monitoring system proved successful, however it was very taxing on resources and reinforces the need to minimize duplication and enhanced cooperation. Speaking of Ebola, investigators from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Vanderbilt University, the Scripps Research Institutem and Integral Molecular Inc., have performed research to establish that “antibodies in the blood of people who have survived a strain of the Ebola virus can kill various types of Ebola.” Further work will now seek to understand immune response to the virus and how we can modify treatments and potential vaccines to be more effective.
  • DoD BioChem Defense – take a glimpse into the global biosurveillance and defense efforts within the DoD Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP). Working within several joint programs and striving to get ahead of outbreaks and attacks with early warning systems, this program faces the challenges of monitoring biochem threats on an international scale.

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Pandora Report: 11.27.2015

by spopescu, posted in News, Pandora Report

We hope you’re having a lovely holiday week and recovering from a day of full of tryptophan overload! This week we’re starting off with a look at the Government Accountability Office’s review of the BioWatch program. We’re discussing another panel review of the WHO Ebola response efforts, the role of tacit knowledge in bioweapons development, and how the Beagle Brigade is fighting bioterrorism one belly-rub at a time. Fun history fact Friday: on November 26, 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt declared the government would bar strikes “at plants under government contract to provide war materials for the US military and its allies” and on November 25, 1915, Albert Einstein published his equations on the Theory of General Relativity!

Government Accountability Office Finds BioWatch Unreliable
The BioWatch program was introduced in 2003 to perform active environmental surveillance for potential bioweapon use. The struggle has been to accurately discern between organisms that are naturally occurring and those that are being intentionally released. With several false alarms, the program has been under heavy scrutiny. Timothy M. Persons, chief scientist of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), states that authorities “need to have assurance that when the system indicates a possible attack, it’s not crying wolf. You can’t claim it works”. DHS official Jim H. Crumpacker, points out that the system is used as an early warning and there is an inherent level of uncertainty and limitation. The report (published in October but not publicly released until November 23, 2015), which you can read here, states that from 2003-2014, BioWatch made 149 mistaken detections that were “false positives”. The report says that “GAO recommends DHS not pursue upgrades or enhancements for Gen-2 until it reliably establishes the system’s current capabilities.”

Expert Review of Ebola Outbreak Response
A 19 member review panel, convened by the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reviewed the Ebola outbreak response as a gateway to “public debates alongside reports on outbreak response and preparedness”. Led by Dr. Peter Piot, one of the scientists to discover Ebola in 1976, the group pointed to several issues needing attention on a global scale. Findings pushed for the WHO to reorganize their disease outbreak functions and streamline processes to “avoid political pressure, build country core capacities, and ensure adequate funding”. The ten suggested reforms heavily emphasize the importance of core capacities within countries to be able to detect and respond to outbreaks. Strengthening a country’s capacity to do surveillance, response, and prevention is crucial in reducing the risk of multi-national outbreaks that spread like wildfire. The report also suggests incentives for early outbreak reporting and more science-based justifications for economic impacts like travel restrictions, etc.

Tacit Knowledge and the Bioweapons Convention
GMU Biodefense Professor, Dr. Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley, takes on the August 2015 Biological Weapons Convention and the exciting inclusion of tacit knowledge in bioweapons development. Dr. Ben Ouagrham-Gormley has contributed heavily to the field of biodefense, specifically on the role that tacit knowledge plays as a key determinant of bioweapons development. In past nonproliferation efforts, tacit knowledge has been widely neglected. Tacit knowledge “consists of unarticulated skills, know-how, or practices that cannot be easily translated into words, but are essential in the success of scientific endeavors.” Simply put, it takes more than a manual or YouTube video to truly perform a scientific experiment, etc. Tacit knowledge is seen in scientists that have spent years not only learning, but experiencing the quirks and challenges of performing experiments. The lessons of failed endeavors, teachings of fellow scientists, and instincts built by years of experience, are all components in tacit knowledge. Dr. Ben Ouagrham-Gormley points to the role tacit knowledge has played in the history of failed bioweapons programs (state and non-state). While some analysts believe the advancing biotechnologies will “de-skill” the field and lower the bar for bioweapons development, Dr. Ben Ouagrham-Gormley highlights that tacit knowledge is a massive roadblock. Pointing towards the new focus on tacit knowledge, she notes that this will only help “advance key mandates of the bioweapons convention, naming the assessment of new technologies, the improvement of national implementation, and the strengthening of cooperation among member states.”

The New Line of Biodefense: Adorable Dogs

Courtesy of BarkPost
Courtesy of BarkPost

There are few times when I get to combine a love of rescue dogs and biodefense nerdom and fortunately, today is that day! The Beagle Brigade is a group of rescue beagles that have been specially trained “to sense for items used for bioterror which include contraband money, pests, and unlawful wildlife”. Even more, the Beagle Brigade is part of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). They work in baggage-claim areas at international airports, wearing green jackets, to help identify any meat, animal byproducts, fruit, or vegetables that could be carrying any diseases or pests that have the potential to cause a devastating outbreak in the US. They’ve been specially trained to pick up “restricted” (fruit, vegetable, etc.) versus non-restricted items and have a 90% success rate! I think we can safely say the Beagle Brigade wins the award for “most adorable biodefense strategy”.

Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Battle Malaria 
Recently published work shows how researchers used “a controversial method called ‘gene drive’ to ensure that an engineered mosquito would pass on its new resistance genes to nearly all of its offspring – not just half, as would normally be the case.” These “mutant mosquitoes” are engineered to resist the parasite that causes malaria infections. This particular work solves the issue that many were facing when it came to passing down resistant genes through a species. While this may mark the end of a long battle against malaria, many are pointing to the ethical and dual-use concerns of such work. The growing concern surrounds the high speed of such technological innovation and the lagging of regulatory and policy guidelines, especially regarding work in wild populations. The potential to alter an entire ecosystem has many concerned over the ramifications of such work. The research team is currently working to prepare mosquitoes for field tests, however they are non-native mosquitoes.

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • Stories From A Biodefense PhD Student- GMU Biodefense PhD student, Craig Wiener, discusses his journey from master’s student to PhD candidate. Craig explains what sparked his interest in not only biodefense, but GMU’s program, and how that’s translated into real-world experiences. “Mason has provided me the depth and breadth of knowledge that I needed to converse with senior policymakers, technologists, and scientists,” he says. “It bridged the gap between science and policy so I could be respected in both worlds because I knew what I was talking about.”
  • East Bronx Legionnaires’ Outbreak Traced to Psychiatric Center–  The New York City Health Department announced that the cooling tower at  the Bronx Psychiatric Centre was the likely source of the break that hit East Bronx earlier this fall. Samples from four cases matched those taken from the water tower. Remediation and disinfection is being performed on the water tower.
  • Liberia Reports Death of Boy – A boy who was part of the family cluster of Ebola cases in Liberia, has died of the disease. The 15-year-old boy was one of the three confirmed cases reported on November 20th, which marked the end of the Ebola-free period for Liberia since September 3rd. There are currently 153 contacts and 25 healthcare workers being monitored.

Pandora Report 10.16.2015

by spopescu, posted in Pandora Report, Program News

What a busy week in the world of biodefense! First, let’s give a round of applause for Global Handwashing Day (and now, go wash your hands!). This week we saw a nurse from the UK experience Ebola-associated complications months after her recovery. The CDC released a report stating that 17 states exceeded their recommendations for Ebola screening/monitoring and a recent study discussed vaccination rates and herd immunity. Let’s not forget that we’ve got another segment on 2016 Presidential candidate chatter on nonproliferation, a call for papers, and an open house on GMU’s Master’s program. Grab your morning coffee/tea and let’s explore this week’s biodefense news!

Global Handwashing Day 
Global Handwashing Day was Thursday, October 15th, but really we should be celebrating it every day! It may seem like a simple thing but the truth is that hand hygiene is one of the most important things you can do to prevent the spread of infection. Whether it’s a hospital-acquired infection or avoiding illness in the workplace, hand hygiene is the first line of defense. The WHO estimates that hand hygiene, just in healthcare, saved millions of lives in the last years. The CDC even calls it the “do-it-yourself” vaccine – five simple steps (wet, lather, scrub, rinse, dry) to help prevent the spread of infections. Many people think it’s a small or “easy” thing, but coming from an infection preventionist, it’s the small things that make the biggest difference. You’d be surprised how many organisms we carry around on our hands and on fomites, so using alcohol-based hand sanitizer or washing with soap and water is the only way to get rid of those. University of Arizona professor, Dr. Gerba, (we lovingly referred to him as Dr. Germ – funny enough, he even gave one of his children the middle name of Escherichia!) has focussed much of his research on the household and public objects we may not realize are covered in germs. Perhaps the most important take-away from Global Handwashing Day isn’t just its importance in healthcare, but its role as an important part of disease prevention everywhere. In the U.S.  we’re fortunate to have access to the resources that allow us to have phenomenal hand hygiene practices however, it’s the behavior we tend to fall short on. From today forward, I encourage you to make a personal decision to be vigilant in hand hygiene.

Last Call for Papers – Women’s Health in Global Perspective!
Papers sought for a special issue and workshop of World Medical & Health Policy on “Women’s Health in Global Perspective,” to contribute to understanding and improve policy related to women’s health and wellbeing.  Forces ranging from the economic to the climactic have human repercussions whose genesis and solutions demand consideration of their global context.  A wealth of recent research and inquiry has considered the particular plight of women, who often suffer disproportionately from lack of education, compromised nutrition, poverty, violence and lack of job opportunities and personal freedom.  The Workshop on Women’s Health in Global Perspective will consider the broad ranging social determinants of health on a global scale that importantly influence health outcomes for women everywhere, which in turn has implications for economic, political and social development.
Abstract submission deadline (250 words): October 16, 2015 Contact: Bonnie Stabile, Deputy Editor, bstabile@gmu.edu
Notification of selected abstracts: November 13, 2015

Presidential Candidates on Nonproliferation Part II
GMU’s Greg Mercer has put together a wonderful second part to his series on one of our favorite topics (nonproliferation) and what the 2016 presidential candidates are saying about it. Check out Greg’s review of these candidates’ stance so we can track how they might change over the course of the election.

west-africa-distribution-map
Source: CDC

Updates and Mapping Ebola
BBC recently published a nice overview of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Since the first case 18 months ago, it has been a whirlwind, in more ways than one, for those of us in the public health/global health security world. Cheerfully, the outbreak region has officially gone two weeks without a new case! Unfortunately, Pauline Cafferkey, the Scottish nurse who was treated and recovered from Ebola in December of 2014, is in critical condition due to a late Ebola-related complication. It was just released that her complications are neurological, including severe central nervous system (CNS) disorder and that the virus was detected in her spinal fluid. Scottish public health officials did identify 58 close contacts and offered them the SV-EBOV vaccine.

Master’s Open House
Learn more about the GMU School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs Masters’ programs on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 6:30pm at our Arlington Campus, Founders Hall, Room 126. This informational sessional will discuss our Master’s programs ranging from Public Administration, Biodefense, Political Science, Health and Medical Policy, etc.

Imported Measles and Need for Vaccination –This past week at the IDWeek 2015 meeting, scientists reported on a study reviewing measles vaccination rates in the US and susceptible children in relation to the number of measles cases that have occurred. They noted, “this analysis highlights the need for high measles vaccination coverage to support population-level immunity and prevent reestablishment of indigenous measles transmission in the United States.” The Daily Beast also incorporated this into an article on diminishing herd immunity and anti-vaxxers.

Avian Influenza Vaccine Added to National Veterinary Stockpile
APHIS (United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services) awarded contracts to two companies to ensure manufacturing of the vaccine for avian influenza. The goal is to strengthen the Agency National Veterinary Stockpile. “This action is being taken to develop the Agency’s National Veterinary Stockpile., and does not signal a decision to vaccinate for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). While APHIS has not approved the use of vaccine to respond to HPAI, the Agency is preparing to ensure that vaccine is available should the decision be made to use it during a future outbreak.”

Stories You May Have Missed:

  • International Infection Prevention Week is next week! October 18-24, 2015 will celebrate the importance of infection prevention and control in healthcare. Let’s celebrate by not just washing our hands, but also considering all the small ways we can prevent the spread of germs in our homes and workplaces!
  • Salmonella Cucumber Outbreak – The CDC has released new data on the Salmonella Poona outbreak related to imported Mexican cucumbers. As of October 14th, there have been 757 people infected across 36 states and 4 deaths related to the outbreak.
  • DHS Wants to Revive Terrorism Alert System – In wake of the attacks in Chattanooga, President Obama’s security officials are initiating a review of the nation’s terrorism alert system to support what many consider a growing threat of domestic attacks. DHS wishes to revise and restart the National Terrorism Alert System to better respond to these evolving attacks.