Archive for the ‘Bioterrorism’ Category

CABI Global Health database now freely available

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Too busy today to do more than post this:

News release

Free access to world-renowned public health database to assist swine-flu effort

1 May 2009

CABI today has announced free access to its specialist Global Health database – the definitive database for public health information – www.cabdirect.org/globalhealth

Simultaneously CABI has developed a Swine flu ‘dashboard’ that brings together up-to-the-minute information on the virus (http://www.netvibes.com/cabialerts).The ‘dashboard’ includes resources from CABI and critical advice from key health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

“Our mission is to help people worldwide through the provision of scientific knowledge,” said Dr Trevor Nicholls, CEO of CABI. “Today we are offering our most applicable resource, over the coming weeks, to help health professionals and others working on the front line.”

In a fast changing sequence of events that has led to the rapid escalation of concern from WHO, and the reaction of national governments in considering their response to a possible influenza pandemic, release of the database is designed to give urgently needed support to those who need it most: scientists, medical professionals and health authorities investigating the causes and treatments of the disease and linkages to past outbreaks.

Influenza researchers urgently need to be able to refer back to previous scientific work in this area to understand the behaviour of previous strains of the virus and to research effective mechanisms for handling earlier outbreaks.

The Global Health database brings together global knowledge on every aspect of influenza since 1910. The knowledge it contains could provide a key weapon in health researchers’ response in understanding and controlling the virus.

Much of the data in Global Health is derived from publications that have long since vanished. They tell us a great deal about past pandemics, from rates and patterns of transmission, duration, timing of epidemiological peaks, geographical distribution of the disease, government preparedness and quarantine provisions through to effects on different age and social groups, severity in developing versus developed countries, symptoms, causes of mortality (secondary problems, especially pneumonia, were devastating in the Spanish flu) and mortality rates.

By opening the door to a wealth of historical information on past pandemics, the Global Health database has the potential to reveal vital clues in the international fight against swine flu (influenza A – H1N1).

CABI Swine Flu Dashboard – www.cabdirect.org/globalhealth

Global Health database – http://www.netvibes.com/cabialerts

Media contact: Sarah Wilson, PR and Corporate Communications Manager, tel: +44 (0) 1491 829 361, mob: +44 (0) 7516 928 845, email: s.wilson@cabi.org

Editor’s notes

About CABI

CABI is a not-for-profit science-based development and information organization. Its mission and direction are influenced by member countries that help guide the activities undertaken. These include publishing; development projects and research; and microbial services. CABI produces key scientific information, including CAB Abstracts – the world-renowned bibliographic database covering agriculture and the environment. CABI also publishes multimedia compendia, books, e-books and full text internet resources aiming to further science and its application to real life. Our expertise includes animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, environmental sciences, human health, parasitology, mycology, crop protection, rural economics, rural development and leisure and tourism. For more information go to www.cabi.org

About the Global Health database

The Global Health database is published by CABI which has recorded public health and veterinary research since 1910. Global Health is the only specialist bibliographic abstracting and indexing database dedicated to public health research and practice. With more than two million records, Global Health is the definitive international public health database for academics, researchers, NGOs, policy makers, clinicians, healthcare professionals and students. The database covers all pathogens relevant to human health, including swine flu.

Once I have a minute, I’ll do some looking and see what’s there, but it looks interesting, and potentially very useful.


Posted in Bioterrorism, Research Links, Resources | No Comments »

Hospital Evacuations

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Today’s story should be an earthquake one, given the recent events in Italy, but this story was an interesting link between the flooding in ND and the disaster unfolding in L’Aquila. The WHO marked World Health Day by focusing on the theme of “Safe Hospitals Save Lives”. More information on their “Safe Hospitals” initiative, including information on the “Hospital Safety Index,” case studies, and a photo gallery, can be found here.

This Propublica story lauds the preparedness of the Fargo and Moorehead hospitals and nursing homes. They were able to evacuate between 500 and 600 residents safely, in an orderly and timely fashion. Voice of America’s story relating to this makes the connection explicitly.

And if you happen to be interested in this topic, the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (who knew?) is offering a free class on “Disaster Medicine 201:  Post-Earthquake Medical Challenges in the New Madrid Seismic Zone”, May7-8 at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis, TN.

“This class is a big-picture overview of medical issues related to the earthquake threat in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.  It was developed through the cooperation of CUSEC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The class is presented with the invaluable assistance of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.  The primary instructors are doctors with extensive backgrounds in emergency and disaster medicine.”

Actually, the New Madrid Fault Line has a long history of causing trouble in this part of the country (although it’s been quiet of late); an excellent book on that topic is “When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes“, by Jay Feldman. Dr. Walter Green includes it in his “50 Books” for Emergency Services Management list.

(2007-08) Feldman, Jay; When The Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes; [book]; New York, New York, United States of America; Free Press; 2005.

Studies of disasters often focus on the technical issues of the disaster itself, and occasionally on the immediate political and social fallout of the event.  Feldman has written a book that takes the series of New Madrid earthquakes and puts them in two other contexts.  At the macro level he recounts the relationship of the earthquake in the much larger context of the American frontier, examining its interplay with Tecumseh’s campaign against United States expansion into Native American tribal lands.  On the micro level, he examines the relationship of the disaster to the murder of a slave by two of Thomas Jefferson’s nephews, and to the eventual downfall of their family.   The result is an interesting read that broadens your understanding of the New Madrid earthquakes and of the time in which they occurred.

Finally, this article,  “Counting Crises: US Hospital Evacuations, 1971-1999,” (available to U of R students in print or through our delivery service to distance education students), from the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, investigates:

“the relative distribution of hazards causing hospital evacuations, thereby to provide rudimentary risk information for hospital disaster planning. “

[Hat tip to Cindy Love, at the Disaster Information Management Research Center, National Library of Medicine, for the idea for this post and many of the links.]

Posted in Bioterrorism, Earthquakes, Pandemic, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Global Incidents Map

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Swinging away from the weather theme for a bit, the Global Incident Map is an interesting visual overview of the various ‘incidents’ that are happening all over the world. The term “incidents” is used broadly; items covered on the main map range from things like ‘terrorist events’ and ‘radiation/proliferation/smuggling events’ to ‘food-product tampering’ and ‘anti-war activists conferences’.

The free version of the  map gives only the visual overview, with very minor details about each incident. Sign up for a free trial, however, and you’ll see how robust the product is. Hover over the individual events, and you’re shown a pop-up box with more information and the link (where possible) to the English-language version of the news item that describes the event in greater detail. Underneath the map, a scrolling news feed can be sped up if you’re a speed reader like me. The map can be limited to events of certain types, severity/importance, and/or types of infrastructure affected. For instance, I was able to easily view all the incidents that affected transportation (airport, shipping, bus, bridge, and railways) and were of a severe or unknown nature. There’s also a search function, with the same options. For those of us who are less visually-oriented and more text-oriented, there’s a list of all the incidents, sorted by type and complete with dates, at the bottom of the page.

Additionally, there is a Forest Fires map (which also pulls through NOAA’s Day1 Fire Weather Outlook and the USFS’s Wildland Fire Assessment System maps), an Amber-Alert Map, a North American HAZMAT Situations and Deployments map (although it seems a stretch to call a meth lab bust a “HAZMAT” situation). The HAZMAT map includes a helpful (at least for us here in that region) “Zoom to National Capitol Region” button. Two more “New” maps complete the tools: Gang Activities (searchable by gang name, as well as by region) and Sri Lanka Focus. The Sri Lanka Focus maps are produced in partnership with the Community Tsunami Early-warning Centre and the Safer Sri Lanka blog, pointing out Global Incident’s relationships within the broader community.

About the Global Incident map: started as a free service, it has evolved into a fee-based subscription model which accepts advertising (but not money from ‘any foreign or domestic government entities, nor any special interest, religious, or political groups’). The map is produced (evidently) by Morgan Clements. Click here for a link to his interview on On the Media (NPR program). A free 72-hour trial is available, but the site normally costs (I think!) $99./year to subscribe.

Posted in Bioterrorism, Earthquakes, Emergency Communications, Pandemic | No Comments »

Galveston National Laboratory – new National Biocontainment Lab opens

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Having seen actual snow falling as I was on my way in to work this morning (yes, in November, and yes, I live in Richmond!), I’m tempted to just link to the VDEM’s “Get Ready Now for Winter Weather” news release. But instead, I’m going to highlight a new Galveston National Laboratory, the University of Texas Medical Branch.

The arrival of Hurricane Ike in mid-September, just after the facility was “substantially” completed, was an early test of the safety of the structure, but there was no damage, and November 11, 2008 saw the official opening ceremony. Coming on the heels of a GAO report on the lack of security in several of the other BSL-4 laboratories, this was an important, if unanticipated, test.

Within this state-of-the-art facility, an extraordinary group of scientists are engaged in efforts to translate research ideas into products aimed at controlling emerging infectious diseases and defending our society against bioterrorism. The GNL has been designed to serve as a national resource, and will complement and enhance UTMB’s decades of prominence in biomedical research – as well as provide a world renowned resource for training researchers in infectious diseases.

As one of two National Biocontainment Laboratories constructed with funding awarded in October 2003 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health (NIAID/NIH), the GNL provides much needed research space and specialized research capabilities to develop therapies, vaccines, and diagnostic tests for naturally occurring emerging diseases such as SARS, West Nile encephalitis and avian influenza – as well as for microbes that might be employed by terrorists. Products likely to emerge from research and investigations within the GNL include novel diagnostic assays, improved therapeutics and treatment models, and preventative measures such as vaccines.

Interesting content includes the Video Tour and Timeline (which proves that they are no newcomer to the field), as well as an assortment of links relating to bioterrorism, infectious disease, and other public health issues.

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Trust for America’s Health

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

I discovered this organization thanks to a  pointer from the HSDL to their October 2008 report entitled, “Germs Go Global: Why Emerging Infectious Diseases Are a Threat to America.” Having just participated in a discussion group on the ethics and biology of childhood immunizations,* this caught my eye.

“From anthrax to asthma, from chemical terrorism to cancer, America is facing a crisis of epidemics.

As a nation, we are stuck in a “disease du jour” mentality, which means we lose sight of the bigger picture: building a public health defense that is strong enough to cover us from all points of attack – whether the threats are from a bioterrorist or Mother Nature.

By focusing on PREVENTION, PROTECTION, and COMMUNITIES, TFAH is leading the fight to make disease prevention a national priority, from Capitol Hill to Main Street. We know what works. Now we need to build the resolve to get it done.”

Turns out, the non-profit, non-partisan Trust for America’s Health publishes a lot of reports and statistics that would be of interest to those interested in public health and emergency preparedness. Their reports cover topics as diverse as the obesity crisis in America (“F as in Fat“) and the safety of America’s food supply (“Fixing Food Safety“). But the real strength of this site is the statistics. I found out that the Commonwealth of Virginia scored a perfect “10″ on the “Ready or Not 2007 Emergency Preparedness Indicators”, and the state data can be viewed either by state or by topic (Pandemic Flu, Infectious Diseases, Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness among others).

The Advocacy and Initiatives pages give a good view of who the Trust is, and what they are working on. Finally, the Resource Library brings together a collection of resources, both those published by the Trust and outside resources related to the different focus topics.

*Personal opinion warning – I came away from the discussion with the realization that certain populations in America are now at high-risk for some very scary diseases due to their stand on this issue and increased globalization, and we have the luxury of being ignorant of the ravages of diseases like polio because they have essentially been eradicated – end personal opinion.

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Dangerous World: Natural Disasters, Manmade Catastrophes, and the Future of Human Survival

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

De Villiers, Marq. Dangerous world: natural disasters, manmade catastrophes, and the future of human survival. Toronto: Viking Canada, 2008.


De Villiers begins with a quote from Stephen Pacala, an ecologist from Princeton University. “All kinds of terrible things could happen, and the universe of terrible things is so large that some of them probably will.” If, from this, you determine that this is a book full of gloomy predictions and prognostications, you would be entirely wrong. In this engaging and wide-ranging treatise, de Villiers has given us a context for the dangers of the world we live in, and more than a few points to ponder about how we interact with that world. After a lengthy philosophical, metaphysical and scientific discussion of the probabilities of how and when the world will end, the author gives us his take on the matter:

“Given enough time, and enough people, individually improbable events become increasingly likely to happen. Some of them will be calamitous, but we don’t know how calamitous. Some of them might not happen for decades, or centuries, but happen they will. May people will die, though we don’t know exactly how or when. But most people, most of the time, from most of the calamities, will survive. That’s the rest of the good news.” (p. 28)

De Villiers spends Part Two describing the context of the “endemic” violence of the universe. He covers cosmology (Chapter Three: Our Perilous Neighborhood), geology (Chapter Four: This Plastic Earth), climatology (Chapter Five: Our Ever-Changing Climate) and paleontology (Chapter Six: Fragile Life). Part Three, entitled “Peril by Peril” takes a similar piece-by-piece approach, describing and analyzing the various catastrophe scenarios that might take place in the near future: comets and asteroids, earthquakes, volcanoes, poisonous emissions and noxious gases, tsunamis, floods, tropical cyclones and tornadoes and plague and pandemic. With a journalist’s touch, de Villiers documents histories, personal stories and probabilities in an exceptionally easy to read way. Part Four is called, “What is to be done?” and in the final three chapters, the author covers what we have done (Chapter Fifteen: Making Things Worse) and can do (Chapters Sixteen and Seventeen: Making Things Better(i) and (ii)) to mitigate natural calamities and undo human-made calamities. For what is, essentially, a work of journalism, the notes and bibliography are well-done, and would lead the reader to further scholarly resources on the topics discussed. An extensive index completes the work.

Posted in Bioterrorism, Pandemic, Weather Emergencies | No Comments »

RAND Report on Mass Antibiotic Dispensing

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Coming as it did right on the heels of my last post, I had to point this out:

RAND Corporation

RAND Corporation has published an impressive (133 page .pdf) Technical Report on “Recommended Infrastructure Standards for Mass Antibiotic Dispensing.”

“This document presents a set of recommended standards for mass antibiotic dispensing that focus on the “points of dispensing” (or PODs, locations where the members of the public would go to receive life-saving antibiotics or other medical countermeasures during a large-scale public health emergency). Specifically, the standards address (1) the number and location of PODs, (2) internal POD operations, (3) POD staffing, and (4) POD security. This document will be of interest to policymakers and practitioners involved in public health emergency preparedness at all levels of government.
The recommended standards are based on available empirical evidence, computer models, and the experience and consensus of expert practitioners. Given the weakness of existing evidence and tools, as well as the occasional difficulty in developing expert consensus, this report offers alternate versions of some standards. In these instances, policymakers must use their judgment in selecting among the alternatives.”

Among other tools, the report includes a sample spreadsheet for population estimates, a checklist of legal issues and a number of tables and graphs. The report itself, while not an easy read, is well-written enough to be comprehensible to a layperson (such as myself) and continues the RAND corporation’s tradition of contributing thoughtful, well-researched technical information on issues that affect citizens and government at every level.

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FBI releases Anthrax case documents

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

In case you missed the announcements (as if you could!), the FBI has released their evidence against Dr. Bruce Ivins, the government anthrax researcher who took his life last week. Dr. Ivins is suspected of perpetuating what amounts to the worst case of bioterrorism in U.S. history, killing 5 people and sickening 17 others, while essentially shutting down critical parts of the Postal System.

FBI officials lay out the case against Dr. Ivins

The FBI has an overview page, updated today, entitled “Anthrax Investigation: Closing a Chapter“. This page offers ‘press release’ type information, but it also includes a “By the Numbers” section, and links to a photo gallery of some of the tainted envelopes (and the process that it took to open suspected envelopes under safe conditions) and the actual court documents, from the Department of Justice.

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