When a man with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is told not to board a plane and then does so anyway, you have to expect the public health bloggers to come out in force. Tara C. Smith at Aetiology has been on top of this from the start, first laying out the story, then explaining its implications, and […]
U.S. environmental regulations were on several bloggersâ minds this week. Frank OâDonnell at Blog for Clean Air explains that EPAâs new rule on particle soot is terrible, while Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority warns that Bush administration is about to release a set of administrative rules changes that would completely eviscerate the Endangered Species […]
by Revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure While finishing drafting a series of posts on how Tamiflu resistant virus might spread as a result of intense use for influenza control, Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway posted this to remind us that drug resistant organisms spread for reasons much less useful than trying to […]
By Liz Borkowski Last week, Revere at Effect Measure used extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) as an example of why the world needs a resilient and robust public health infrastructure (and just a few days later, an article on an XDR outbreak in South Africa made it to the New York Timesâ list of the […]
By David Michaels It came as no surprise to some observers that VaxGen (a biotech company in Brisbane, California) failed to meet the specifications of its contract to provide the US government with 75 million doses of a new anthrax vaccine. VaxGen has been playing fast and loose for quite some time â most notably […]
by Revere, cross-posted on Effect Measure On December 11, The Institute of Medicine, one of the four constituent parts of the National Academies of Science, released a “letter report” reviewing the scant information on effects from non-drug measures to slow or contain spread of an influenza pandemic (available as a free download here). The report […]
By Laura H. Kahn The medical community is devoting a lot of effort to researching bioterrorism agents and diseases that could become human pandemics. But in many cases, theyâre overlooking a potentially critical resource: veterinarians. Zoonoses are diseases of animals that can be transmitted to humans. These diseases include: SARS, West Nile virus, HIV/AIDS, and […]