BIOTERRORISM: CDC opens Alaska lab

BettyRubin January 28, 2011
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Centers for Disease Control calls it a “national resource.” For Alaskans, the new Arctic Investigations Program laboratory will help to prevent the spread of infections that can make people seriously ill, infections like Influenza, Pneumonia, Hepatitis B, Strep and RSV.

The 2.3 million dollar facility officially opens its doors this afternoon with a traditional Native blessing and a ribbon cutting ceremony.
The new research center is on the Alaska Native Medical Center Campus. It includes renovation of the old lab and a new annex, which about doubles the space of the old facility.
The CDC says the extra room is needed, because the lab is part of a national and international network of facilities. It has the capability to test for agents such as anthrax and tularemia, important to protect the country against the threat of bioterrorism.
The Arctic Investigations Program also works collaboratively with other Arctic nations on controlling infectious diseases they share in common.
The new facility is of particular importance to Rural Alaskans and Alaska Natives, because it conducts research on infections like Helicobacter pylori, prevalent in communities with poor sanitation.
H. pylori is known to cause stomach cancer, and Alaska Natives have rates of stomach cancer three times higher than the general population. The program also tracks treptococcus pneumoniae, which has an infection rate among Alaska Native children that’s among the highest in the world.
The CDC says the new lab is state of the art and will be used to train public health workers in Alaska, so they can better track diseases and prevent them from spreading.
http://www.ktuu.com/news/ktuu-new-center-for-disease-control-arctic-investigations-lab-opens-20110127,0,12036.story

BIOTERRORISM: CDC: General Fact Sheets on Specific Bioterrorism Agents

This is a list of bioterrorism agents for which fact sheets are available from CDC.
Anthrax; Botulism; Brucellosis; Plague;
Smallpox; Tularemia; Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers

http://inetbrowse.appspot.com/emergency.cdc.gov/bioterrorism/factsheets.asp

BIOTERRORISM: Beware of animal diseases in Bioterrorism

Written by Dr. Sam Sewagudde
Thursday, 01 July 2010 11:05
The suspected outbreak of anthrax in hippos in Western Uganda in the past weeks has yet again reminded us of some of the ignored facts about animal diseases. I overheard someone on the streets of Kampala inform a colleague ignorantly that anthrax was a disease of those who live with or stay near animals in the villages. This totally shocked me and I felt like going over to him and giving a lecture of a lifetime. I, however, restrained myself and just thought about how they didn’t know that the same disease could be brought right at their footsteps in their so-called city. They were possibly unaware of what we call bioterrorism.It is possible for unscrupulous people to use known lethal animal disease agents as weapons of mass destruction. This is known as bioterrorism. Anthrax is indeed one of the microorganisms that can be used as biological weapons of mass destruction. The other significant animal diseases in that group include; Botulism, Plague, Tularaemia, Ebola and Marburg diseases. These diseases are of great public health importance because:The host animals or carriers that are sources of infection often show little or no sign of disease at all.The disease agents have mechanisms of propagation that allow infection to move from one individual to another.Their effects result in high mortality rates and have the potential for a major impact on the public.They can cause public panic and social disruption.They require special action when they occur and also need public health preparedness in order to limit their progress.Anthrax is clearly documented as one of the diseases whose agents have been used in the past for bioterrorism. This can be alternatively spread through spraying in the air, mailed packages and release in the ventilation systems of public buildings.In the wake of the September 11th, attacks on the USA, some people were reported to have been exposed to anthrax in powder form that had been sent to them as mail in envelopes. This incident, a classic example of how an animal disease can find you in the comfort of your office, sparked off a major public health awareness campaign on bioterrorism that got many US citizens and others around the world to be alert about such diseases.As for Ugandans, even though we are far from the USA, and that we probably have far less enemies, we should not ignore the likelihood of such events happening.
http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9109:animal-health-beware-of-animal-diseases-in-bioterrorism&catid=58:health-living&Itemid=89

BIOTERRORISM: Tularemia vaccine

Scientists have created an experimental agent found to confer some protection to mice against deadly tularemia bacteria by prompting an immune response to the potential bioterrorism agent, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced yesterday (see GSN, May 18).
Sixty percent of mice in the study lived when they were infected with tularemia three days after being administered components drawn from a weakened version of the bacteria. No mice survived exposure if not given the treatment.
In addition, similar treatments conferred protection to human immune cells against tularemia as well as fellow possible bioweapons brucellosis, melioidosis and plague.
Traditional antibiotics function through direct opposition to harmful bacteria, according to a press release.
"A therapeutic that protects against a wide array of bacterial pathogens would have enormous medical and public health implications for naturally occurring infections and potential agents of bioterrorism," NIAID head Anthony Fauci said in a statement. "This creative approach is a prime example of public-private partnerships that can facilitate progress from a basic research finding to new, desperately needed novel therapeutics" (U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases release, May 27).
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100528_1061.php

BIOTERRORISM: The threat is real

According to Dr. C.J. Peters, former chief of special pathogens for the Centers for Disease Control and former head of the U.S. Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases disease assessment division, bioterrorism is a very real threat.Peters, in an interview with WebMD, noted that, first and foremost, bioterrorism is a very complex issue and that biological attacks could come in a variety of different ways. Tularemia, plague, smallpox, anthrax, and viral hemorrhagic fevers, like Ebola, all pose potential threats.“Those bugs can all be grown in large quantities at a special state-sponsored factory or some other factory such as the Japanese terrorist cult in Tokyo,” Peters told WebMD. “They could be spread around in an airborne fashion so as to infect many people. "The only one of these that can spread from person to person is smallpox. The others only have limited ability to spread from one person to another.”There is a concern that smallpox has or could fall into terrorist hands, Peters said.“That is why the government has 7.5 million doses of smallpox vaccine stored away and why they are contracting to make 300 million more doses,” Peters told WebMD. “The other bugs can make you very sick and have a mortality rate of up to 100 percent if not treated, but they won't spread and cause an epidemic.”Peters stressed it’s a fool’s game to try to outguess terrorists because they all have different motives, capabilities and abilities. The answer, he said, lies in strengthening our public health infrastructure.“There are some things that we must guard against more specifically, and those are anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia and the viral hemorrhagic fevers,” Peters told WebMD. “These are capable of causing so many deaths and such disruption that we are obliged to make specific plans for them. That's why the U.S. is purchasing additional smallpox vaccine and has been stockpiling antibiotics.”As far as the threat posed by bioterrorist attack, Peters said the threat is real.“Three months ago you could mention the idea of bioterrorism at any level and someone would quickly give you 10 reasons why it could not possibly happen,” Peters said. “Nevertheless, government reports based on very bright and well-informed persons who had no ax to grind, said that we should be worried about terrorism in general, including explosives, nuclear devices, biological agents, and chemical agents. There warnings were unequivocal.”
http://www.bioprepwatch.com/news/213222-dr-cj-peters-warns-of-bioterror-threat