ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
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Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Thu Aug 12, 2010 9:49 am
British doctors warn new superbug gene from India could spread widely
LONDON - People travelling to India for medical procedures have brought back to Britain a new gene that allows any bacteria to become a superbug, and scientists are warning this type of drug resistance could soon appear worldwide.
Though already widespread in India, the new superbug gene is being increasingly spotted in Britain and elsewhere. Experts warn the booming medical tourism industries in India and Pakistan could fuel a surge in antibiotic resistance, as patients import dangerous bugs to their home countries.
The superbug gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to Britain after surgery in India or Pakistan.
The resistant gene has also been detected in Canada, Australia, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden. The researchers say since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide.
In an article published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, doctors reported finding a new gene, called NDM-1. The gene alters bacteria, making them resistant to nearly all known antibiotics. It has been seen largely in E. coli bacteria, the most common cause of urinary tract infections, and on DNA structures that can be easily copied and passed onto other types of bacteria.
The researchers said the superbug gene appeared to be already circulating widely in India, where the health system is much less likely to identify its presence or have adequate antibiotics to treat patients.
"The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great, and co-ordinated international surveillance is needed," the authors wrote.
Still, the numbers of people who have been identified with the superbug gene remains very small.
"We are potentially at the beginning of another wave of antibiotic resistance, though we still have the power to stop it," said Christopher Thomas, a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Birmingham who was not linked to the study. Thomas said better surveillance and infection control procedures might halt the gene's spread.
Thomas said while people checking into British hospitals were unlikely to encounter the superbug gene, they should remain vigilant about standard hygiene measures like properly washing their hands.
"The spread of these multi-resistant bacteria merits very close monitoring," wrote Johann Pitout of the division of microbiology at the University of Calgary in an accompanying Lancet commentary.
Pitout called for international surveillance of the bacteria, particularly in countries that actively promote medical tourism.
"The consequences will be serious if family doctors have to treat infections caused by these multi-resistant bacteria on a daily basis," he wrote.
LONDON - People travelling to India for medical procedures have brought back to Britain a new gene that allows any bacteria to become a superbug, and scientists are warning this type of drug resistance could soon appear worldwide.
Though already widespread in India, the new superbug gene is being increasingly spotted in Britain and elsewhere. Experts warn the booming medical tourism industries in India and Pakistan could fuel a surge in antibiotic resistance, as patients import dangerous bugs to their home countries.
The superbug gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to Britain after surgery in India or Pakistan.
The resistant gene has also been detected in Canada, Australia, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden. The researchers say since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide.
In an article published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, doctors reported finding a new gene, called NDM-1. The gene alters bacteria, making them resistant to nearly all known antibiotics. It has been seen largely in E. coli bacteria, the most common cause of urinary tract infections, and on DNA structures that can be easily copied and passed onto other types of bacteria.
The researchers said the superbug gene appeared to be already circulating widely in India, where the health system is much less likely to identify its presence or have adequate antibiotics to treat patients.
"The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great, and co-ordinated international surveillance is needed," the authors wrote.
Still, the numbers of people who have been identified with the superbug gene remains very small.
"We are potentially at the beginning of another wave of antibiotic resistance, though we still have the power to stop it," said Christopher Thomas, a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Birmingham who was not linked to the study. Thomas said better surveillance and infection control procedures might halt the gene's spread.
Thomas said while people checking into British hospitals were unlikely to encounter the superbug gene, they should remain vigilant about standard hygiene measures like properly washing their hands.
"The spread of these multi-resistant bacteria merits very close monitoring," wrote Johann Pitout of the division of microbiology at the University of Calgary in an accompanying Lancet commentary.
Pitout called for international surveillance of the bacteria, particularly in countries that actively promote medical tourism.
"The consequences will be serious if family doctors have to treat infections caused by these multi-resistant bacteria on a daily basis," he wrote.
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:29 pm
Taiwan Reports New Death from A/H1N1 Influenza
Web Editor: Zhang Xu
A 56-year-old man in southern Taiwan's Tainan city died of the A/H1N1 influenza virus on Aug. 8, just two days before the World Health Organization said the pandemic was over, local media reported Wednesday.
The man, whose name was not given, was hospitalized for a month after he contracted the disease and developed complications due to bacterial infections, the United Daily News reported.
His 24-year-old son had died from serious pneumonia and multiple organ failure caused by A/H1N1 flu on July 19, a day after he was hospitalized.
The father and son were, respectively, the island's 45th and 47th deaths from A/H1N1 influenza, which had killed more than 18,000 people around the world as of last week.
On Tuesday, World Health Organization director-general Margaret Chan said the H1N1 pandemic was over and the global outbreak had been much less severe than it was feared one year ago.
But she warned the virus would continue to circulate with seasonal influenza for years to come, and she urged health authorities to stay vigilant.
According to Taiwan's disease prevention authorities, about 10,000 people in the island are diagnosed with A/H1N1 flu every month.
Most of deaths caused by the virus in Taiwan were young people, the authorities said, urging the public to keep maintain precautions.
Web Editor: Zhang Xu
A 56-year-old man in southern Taiwan's Tainan city died of the A/H1N1 influenza virus on Aug. 8, just two days before the World Health Organization said the pandemic was over, local media reported Wednesday.
The man, whose name was not given, was hospitalized for a month after he contracted the disease and developed complications due to bacterial infections, the United Daily News reported.
His 24-year-old son had died from serious pneumonia and multiple organ failure caused by A/H1N1 flu on July 19, a day after he was hospitalized.
The father and son were, respectively, the island's 45th and 47th deaths from A/H1N1 influenza, which had killed more than 18,000 people around the world as of last week.
On Tuesday, World Health Organization director-general Margaret Chan said the H1N1 pandemic was over and the global outbreak had been much less severe than it was feared one year ago.
But she warned the virus would continue to circulate with seasonal influenza for years to come, and she urged health authorities to stay vigilant.
According to Taiwan's disease prevention authorities, about 10,000 people in the island are diagnosed with A/H1N1 flu every month.
Most of deaths caused by the virus in Taiwan were young people, the authorities said, urging the public to keep maintain precautions.
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:32 am
Report Warns of Potential State Bioweapons Programs
The U.S. State Department last month warned of potential biological weapons programs in Iran, North Korea and Syria while asserting that major powers China and Russia have not provided full disclosures on their previous efforts on such armaments.
Information in the public version of the State Department's 2010 compliance report on arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament treaties indicates that state-sponsored germ warfare is still considered a threat. The Biological Weapons Convention is intended to deter such dangers but has no verification or enforcement mechanism.
However, there have been positive developments in this sphere, including Libya's 2003 renunciation of its biological weapons program and other WMD production efforts, Foreign Policy magazine reported
In this year's report, Foggy Bottom took a stronger stance on Syria's potential biological weapons efforts than in reports issued during the Bush administration, noting that President Bashar Assad "stated that Syria was entitled to defend itself by acquiring, inter alia, its own biological deterrent.
"Available information does not indicate that the Syrian government subsequently modified or rescinded this statement, or that Syria has abandoned all intent to acquire biological weapons," according to the State Department. "The United States notes that, if Syria were a state party to the [Biological Weapons Convention], BW-related activities in which it has engaged would have been prohibited by the convention."
Damascus has signed the pact but has yet to become a state party through ratification.
On Iran, which is a BWC member state, the State Department said: "Available information indicates Iran has remained engaged in dual-use BW-related activities. The United States notes that Iran may not have ended activities prohibited by the BWC, although available information does not conclusively indicate that Iran is currently conducting activities prohibited by the convention."
A 2001 State Department report found that "based on available evidence, Iran has an offensive biological weapons program" and that the nation was "capable of producing at least rudimentary biological warheads for a variety of delivery systems, including missiles." The department's 2005 document bolstered that conclusion.
This year's report stated that North Korea could continue to judge "the use of biological weapons as a military option."
Pyongyang, which acceded to the convention in 1987, has maintained its focus on obtaining technology, know-how and materials that might be used for germ warfare production activities, the report said. "North Korea has yet to declare any of its biological research and development activities as part of the BWC confidence-building measures."
Relative to compliance reports issued during the Bush administration, the 2010 report struck a less forceful tone on China's pathogen research efforts: "Available information indicates China engaged during the reporting period in dual-use biological activities. Available information did not indicate these involved activities prohibited by the BWC."
However, "the United States continues to note that the voluntary BWC [confidence-building measure] declarations China has submitted have neither documented the offensive BW program it possessed prior to its accession to the BWC in 1984, nor documented that China has eliminated the program or any remaining biological munitions in accordance with the BWC."
Foggy Bottom concluded that Russia has continued to conduct some dual-use biological research work, "identifying factors that enhance virulence, toxicity, or antibiotic resistance of pathogens; and examining biological aerosols."
Still, "there were no indications that these activities were conducted for purposes inconsistent" with the Biological Weapons Convention, officials concluded, while also noting that Moscow has been reluctant to reveal the full extent of the Soviet Union's germ warfare work in its yearly reports to the convention, which "since 1992 have not satisfactorily documented whether this program was terminated" (David Hoffman, Foreign Policy, July 29).
The U.S. State Department last month warned of potential biological weapons programs in Iran, North Korea and Syria while asserting that major powers China and Russia have not provided full disclosures on their previous efforts on such armaments.
Information in the public version of the State Department's 2010 compliance report on arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament treaties indicates that state-sponsored germ warfare is still considered a threat. The Biological Weapons Convention is intended to deter such dangers but has no verification or enforcement mechanism.
However, there have been positive developments in this sphere, including Libya's 2003 renunciation of its biological weapons program and other WMD production efforts, Foreign Policy magazine reported
In this year's report, Foggy Bottom took a stronger stance on Syria's potential biological weapons efforts than in reports issued during the Bush administration, noting that President Bashar Assad "stated that Syria was entitled to defend itself by acquiring, inter alia, its own biological deterrent.
"Available information does not indicate that the Syrian government subsequently modified or rescinded this statement, or that Syria has abandoned all intent to acquire biological weapons," according to the State Department. "The United States notes that, if Syria were a state party to the [Biological Weapons Convention], BW-related activities in which it has engaged would have been prohibited by the convention."
Damascus has signed the pact but has yet to become a state party through ratification.
On Iran, which is a BWC member state, the State Department said: "Available information indicates Iran has remained engaged in dual-use BW-related activities. The United States notes that Iran may not have ended activities prohibited by the BWC, although available information does not conclusively indicate that Iran is currently conducting activities prohibited by the convention."
A 2001 State Department report found that "based on available evidence, Iran has an offensive biological weapons program" and that the nation was "capable of producing at least rudimentary biological warheads for a variety of delivery systems, including missiles." The department's 2005 document bolstered that conclusion.
This year's report stated that North Korea could continue to judge "the use of biological weapons as a military option."
Pyongyang, which acceded to the convention in 1987, has maintained its focus on obtaining technology, know-how and materials that might be used for germ warfare production activities, the report said. "North Korea has yet to declare any of its biological research and development activities as part of the BWC confidence-building measures."
Relative to compliance reports issued during the Bush administration, the 2010 report struck a less forceful tone on China's pathogen research efforts: "Available information indicates China engaged during the reporting period in dual-use biological activities. Available information did not indicate these involved activities prohibited by the BWC."
However, "the United States continues to note that the voluntary BWC [confidence-building measure] declarations China has submitted have neither documented the offensive BW program it possessed prior to its accession to the BWC in 1984, nor documented that China has eliminated the program or any remaining biological munitions in accordance with the BWC."
Foggy Bottom concluded that Russia has continued to conduct some dual-use biological research work, "identifying factors that enhance virulence, toxicity, or antibiotic resistance of pathogens; and examining biological aerosols."
Still, "there were no indications that these activities were conducted for purposes inconsistent" with the Biological Weapons Convention, officials concluded, while also noting that Moscow has been reluctant to reveal the full extent of the Soviet Union's germ warfare work in its yearly reports to the convention, which "since 1992 have not satisfactorily documented whether this program was terminated" (David Hoffman, Foreign Policy, July 29).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:37 am
Contract Extended for New Anthrax Treatment
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department indicated it would fund work for a second year on a treatment intended to prevent and counteract inhalation anthrax infections, United Press International reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 5).
Elusys Therapeutics Inc. would receive $40.6 million for its second-year work on the treatment Anthim, up from the $16.8 million the New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical firm received in the first year of its half-decade contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
"Anthim has the potential to deliver considerable therapeutic benefit to Americans infected with anthrax in a bioterrorism emergency," Elusys head Elizabeth Posillico said in a prepared statement (United Press International, Aug. 4).
The latest funding is expected to cover additional human and animal testing, production costs and other expenses, according to a press release. Elusys has conducted two successful safety trials of Anthim in humans and a number of tests of the drug's efficacy in animals. Between 70 percent and 100 percent of animals that received one dose of the drug have survived anthrax exposure.
The Defense Department recently paid for additional work on a version of Anthim that could be delivered by injection into the muscle, possibly enabling fast distribution of the medicine following an anthrax attack (Elusys Therapeutics Inc. release, Aug. 4).
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department indicated it would fund work for a second year on a treatment intended to prevent and counteract inhalation anthrax infections, United Press International reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 5).
Elusys Therapeutics Inc. would receive $40.6 million for its second-year work on the treatment Anthim, up from the $16.8 million the New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical firm received in the first year of its half-decade contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
"Anthim has the potential to deliver considerable therapeutic benefit to Americans infected with anthrax in a bioterrorism emergency," Elusys head Elizabeth Posillico said in a prepared statement (United Press International, Aug. 4).
The latest funding is expected to cover additional human and animal testing, production costs and other expenses, according to a press release. Elusys has conducted two successful safety trials of Anthim in humans and a number of tests of the drug's efficacy in animals. Between 70 percent and 100 percent of animals that received one dose of the drug have survived anthrax exposure.
The Defense Department recently paid for additional work on a version of Anthim that could be delivered by injection into the muscle, possibly enabling fast distribution of the medicine following an anthrax attack (Elusys Therapeutics Inc. release, Aug. 4).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:39 am
Scientific Advances Could Lower Bar for Biological Attack
Scientific and technological advances that allow more biological research experiments to be conducted outside of institutional settings are raising fears that terrorists could also find it easier to produce and weaponize disease materials, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, May 21).
Authorities over the last 10 years have not discovered a terrorist plot that involved biological weapons, though groups such as al-Qaeda are known to have sought such means of attack. Lack of expertise and access to the advanced technology required for pathogen development have been seen as key barriers to extremists' ability to develop and use a biological weapon.
However, as amateur scientists conduct formerly rarefied experiments like DNA duplication, concerns are rising about the implications of the spread of advanced scientific technology.
"Certain areas of biotechnology are getting more accessible to people with malign intent," said biological weapons expert Jonathan Tucker of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
"If students can order any (genetic sequence) online, somebody could try to make the Ebola virus," Craig Venter, who produced one of the world's first synthetic organisms, said in July.
"We are limited more by our imagination now than any technological limitations," Venter said.
Just 10 years ago, only a small number of facilities had the technology and knowledge to conduct sophisticated biological research. Now, however, amateur collaborative biology efforts have emerged that allow hobby scientists to exchange insights on activities such as isolation of genetic substances and constructing efficient centrifuges. This movement has been supported by relatively inexpensive equipment that can be used at home.
Technology proliferation concerns have led the FBI to contact some of these hobby scientists in order to educate them on appropriate security protocols and to request that they be on the look out for unethical biologists.
"The risks we're seeing now is that these procedures are becoming easier to do," said Edward You, who leads the FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate outreach effort.
Still, many specialists argue that it continues to be very difficult for extremists to create or collect deadly pathogens let alone produce them in large quantities for an attack. A large-scale Soviet Union program operating over decades had uneven results in its attempts to develop biological weapons.
"I don't think the threat is growing, but quite the opposite," University of Maryland biological weapons expert Milton Leitenberg said.
"The idea that four guys are going to create bioweapons from scratch -- that will be never, ever, ever," Leitenberg said (Keith Johnson, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 11).
Scientific and technological advances that allow more biological research experiments to be conducted outside of institutional settings are raising fears that terrorists could also find it easier to produce and weaponize disease materials, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, May 21).
Authorities over the last 10 years have not discovered a terrorist plot that involved biological weapons, though groups such as al-Qaeda are known to have sought such means of attack. Lack of expertise and access to the advanced technology required for pathogen development have been seen as key barriers to extremists' ability to develop and use a biological weapon.
However, as amateur scientists conduct formerly rarefied experiments like DNA duplication, concerns are rising about the implications of the spread of advanced scientific technology.
"Certain areas of biotechnology are getting more accessible to people with malign intent," said biological weapons expert Jonathan Tucker of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
"If students can order any (genetic sequence) online, somebody could try to make the Ebola virus," Craig Venter, who produced one of the world's first synthetic organisms, said in July.
"We are limited more by our imagination now than any technological limitations," Venter said.
Just 10 years ago, only a small number of facilities had the technology and knowledge to conduct sophisticated biological research. Now, however, amateur collaborative biology efforts have emerged that allow hobby scientists to exchange insights on activities such as isolation of genetic substances and constructing efficient centrifuges. This movement has been supported by relatively inexpensive equipment that can be used at home.
Technology proliferation concerns have led the FBI to contact some of these hobby scientists in order to educate them on appropriate security protocols and to request that they be on the look out for unethical biologists.
"The risks we're seeing now is that these procedures are becoming easier to do," said Edward You, who leads the FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate outreach effort.
Still, many specialists argue that it continues to be very difficult for extremists to create or collect deadly pathogens let alone produce them in large quantities for an attack. A large-scale Soviet Union program operating over decades had uneven results in its attempts to develop biological weapons.
"I don't think the threat is growing, but quite the opposite," University of Maryland biological weapons expert Milton Leitenberg said.
"The idea that four guys are going to create bioweapons from scratch -- that will be never, ever, ever," Leitenberg said (Keith Johnson, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 11).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:12 am
Drug Testing Lab Planned at Fort Detrick
The United States is moving to build a $584 million facility at Fort Detrick, Md., for assessing vaccines and other disease countermeasures, the Frederick News-Post reported Saturday (see GSN, June 10).
The federal government is expected to prepare an environmental impact report for the Medical Countermeasure Test and Evaluation Facility, a 460,000-square-foot complex planned for the northern grounds of the Fort Detrick biodefense campus. The site is expected to be ready in 2018.
Military and civilian authorities would oversee the site, where a staff comprised primarily of private contractors would test vaccines and post-exposure treatments for Food and Drug Administration approval. The tests would involve nonhuman primates as well as rodents or another secondary animal species.
The site would support "the development process for medical countermeasures," Fort Detrick civilian Deputy Principal Assistant George Ludwig said.
"Most of the work that's currently being done on post right now is the early stage development -- understanding the basic biology of the threat agents, understanding what types of countermeasures might be available, and developing prototypes of those countermeasures," he said. "The next step in that process is actually the FDA approval process, so once you have a product that's ready for approval, then you have to prove it's effective."
Scientists are initially expected to test new anthrax vaccines along with vaccines for the Ebola and Marburg viruses. "A lot is going to depend on what's available when the facility opens in 2018," Ludwig said.
The site would be intended to carry out studies and development relevant to both the Defense and Health and Human Services departments, he said, noting that the needs of the branches often overlap.
The site would incorporate equipment capable of generating disease airborne agents in order to closely portray a biological strike, Ludwig added (Brian Englar, Frederick News-Post, Aug. 14).
The United States is moving to build a $584 million facility at Fort Detrick, Md., for assessing vaccines and other disease countermeasures, the Frederick News-Post reported Saturday (see GSN, June 10).
The federal government is expected to prepare an environmental impact report for the Medical Countermeasure Test and Evaluation Facility, a 460,000-square-foot complex planned for the northern grounds of the Fort Detrick biodefense campus. The site is expected to be ready in 2018.
Military and civilian authorities would oversee the site, where a staff comprised primarily of private contractors would test vaccines and post-exposure treatments for Food and Drug Administration approval. The tests would involve nonhuman primates as well as rodents or another secondary animal species.
The site would support "the development process for medical countermeasures," Fort Detrick civilian Deputy Principal Assistant George Ludwig said.
"Most of the work that's currently being done on post right now is the early stage development -- understanding the basic biology of the threat agents, understanding what types of countermeasures might be available, and developing prototypes of those countermeasures," he said. "The next step in that process is actually the FDA approval process, so once you have a product that's ready for approval, then you have to prove it's effective."
Scientists are initially expected to test new anthrax vaccines along with vaccines for the Ebola and Marburg viruses. "A lot is going to depend on what's available when the facility opens in 2018," Ludwig said.
The site would be intended to carry out studies and development relevant to both the Defense and Health and Human Services departments, he said, noting that the needs of the branches often overlap.
The site would incorporate equipment capable of generating disease airborne agents in order to closely portray a biological strike, Ludwig added (Brian Englar, Frederick News-Post, Aug. 14).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:14 am
Powder Mailer Strikes Again
An unidentified individual or group of people this month has sent 30 powder-filled letters to businesses and other sites in three states, part of an apparent campaign that has involved hundreds of mailings and reached eight U.S. embassies, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2008).
All but five of the most recent letters were dispersed in the Dallas area, while the others went to Chicago, the Texas cities of Austin and Lubbock and Waltham, Mass., the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service stated. All the letters appeared to have been sent from north Texas.
"The letters all have the same postmarks, the same content and similar return addresses that lead us to believe they are coming from the same person or persons," said FBI Special Agent Mark White. The targets included churches, mosques and aeronautics or technical firms.
The envelopes had been received from Aug. 5 to Friday, each filled with an apparently harmless powder and a one-sentence message that cites the terrorist group al-Qaeda but is otherwise confusing, White said.
"Nobody understands what they're trying to say," he said. "The message itself is unclear. But by taking that extra step and putting that white powdery substance in there, yes it's considered a threat."
The FBI suspects that this recent wave of letters is the work of the person or persons who have mailed more than 250 powder-filled envelopes since 2008. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information that enables authorities to charge and prosecute the perpetrators (Diana Hedgerd, Associated Press/Time, Aug. 13).
An unidentified individual or group of people this month has sent 30 powder-filled letters to businesses and other sites in three states, part of an apparent campaign that has involved hundreds of mailings and reached eight U.S. embassies, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2008).
All but five of the most recent letters were dispersed in the Dallas area, while the others went to Chicago, the Texas cities of Austin and Lubbock and Waltham, Mass., the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service stated. All the letters appeared to have been sent from north Texas.
"The letters all have the same postmarks, the same content and similar return addresses that lead us to believe they are coming from the same person or persons," said FBI Special Agent Mark White. The targets included churches, mosques and aeronautics or technical firms.
The envelopes had been received from Aug. 5 to Friday, each filled with an apparently harmless powder and a one-sentence message that cites the terrorist group al-Qaeda but is otherwise confusing, White said.
"Nobody understands what they're trying to say," he said. "The message itself is unclear. But by taking that extra step and putting that white powdery substance in there, yes it's considered a threat."
The FBI suspects that this recent wave of letters is the work of the person or persons who have mailed more than 250 powder-filled envelopes since 2008. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information that enables authorities to charge and prosecute the perpetrators (Diana Hedgerd, Associated Press/Time, Aug. 13).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
hacksecret Fri Aug 20, 2010 12:32 am
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/11/microbiologist-kidnapped-by-fbi-warning-vaccine-is-bioweapon.html
November 17, 2009
Microbiologist nabbed by FBI after warning us that vaccine is a bioweapon deployment
Joseph Moshe whistle-blower on Baxter releasing outbreak (mutated H1N1?) in Ukraine
Joseph Moshe Silenced Trying To Expose Obama & Baxter For Releasing Bioweapon!!
http://www.unfictional.com/joseph-moshe-mossad-bioweapon-swine-flu-vaccine-westwood
Joseph Moshe (Microbiologist): “Swine flu vaccine is bio-weapon”
Friday, August 21, 2009
Joseph Moshe, MOSSAD
Joseph Moshe, MOSSAD
Today, the MSM are not talking about this case any more. Yesterday, they wanted us
to believe that Joseph Moshe was a nutcase and a terrorist, arrested for threatening
to bomb the White House. Interesting detail about his arrest (the “Westwood standoff”)
was that he seemed to be immune to the 5 cans of tear gas and 5 gallons of
law-enforcement grade pepper spray they pumped into his face. He very calmly remained
in his car, as the video footage of his arrest shows.
Professor Moshe had called into a live radio show by Dr. A. True Ott, (explanation of
Joseph Moshe’s call at 06:00) broadcast on Republic Broadcasting claiming to be
a microbiologist who wanted to supply evidence to a States Attorney regarding tainted
H1N1 Swine flu vaccines being produced by Baxter BioPharma Solutions.
He said that Baxter’s Ukrainian lab was in fact producing a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine.
He claimed that the vaccine contained an adjuvant (additive) designed to weaken
the immune system, and replicated RNA from the virus responsible for the 1918
pandemic Spanish flu, causing global sickness and mass death.
Sources tell us that Bar-Joseph Moshe made no threat against the President or
the White House. He did not mention any bomb or attack. He then proceeded to inform
the White House he intended to go public with this information. When he noticed men
in suits in front of his house and feared that the FBI was about to detain him,
he packed some belongings into his car and, him being a dual Israeli citizen, tried to reach
the Israeli consulate located in close proximity to the federal building where the standoff
took place. The FBI and the bomb squad prevented him from reaching it. Who is this man?
His profile on biomed experts.com says he is a plant disease expert with many publications
on his name involving the genetic manipulation of virii. Photographic evidence that Moshe
is who he says he is can be found here.
Joseph Moshe was soon after his arrest sent or let go to Israel. Nothing has been heard
from him since. The Secret Service was not the agency involved in the surveillance of
Moshe at his home in California. This was done by the FBI, who had orders to detain or
arrest him. Mounted on top of a large black vehicle used in his arrest was a microwave weapon
that possibly damaged the electronics in Moshe’s car as well as any communication devices
he had which might have been used to contact the media or others who could help him.
Moshe did not suffer the same effects of the gas and pepper spray that others would have
because he had built up an immunity to such weapons as a by-product of his Mossad training.
Moshe was not handcuffed because he was not placed under arrest.
Does this sound like an insane conspiracy theory? Sure it does. Due to the scarcity and
anonymity of the sources we would dismiss it as exactly that, if it weren’t for some
uncomfortable facts: Baxter Pharmaceutical has been caught, red-handed, in spreading a live,
genetically engineered H5N1 Bird flu vaccine as a lethal biological weapon all over the world,
destined to be used for human vaccinations. This happened just a few months ago.
And only luck prevented a global catastrophe of epic proportions.
Baxter International Inc. had mixed live, genetically engineered avian flue viruses in vaccine
material shipped to 18 countries. Only by sheer luck, a Czech laboratory decided to test
the vaccine on a dozen ferrets, which all died in days. The World Health Organization
was notified and catastrophe was averted. This was clearly a deliberate act on Baxter’s part,
because they adhere to BS3, bio-safety level three. Baxter admitted a “mistake”.
Such monumental screw-up are totally impossible at that level. Many safety systems
would have needed to be sabotaged, many key personnel would have needed to be bribed.
It simply can’t be done without direction from the inside. They did not send out the wrong vial –
they produced dozens of gallons of biological-weapon agent (genetically engineered live
H5N1 / Bird flu virus), then sent it out as a “vaccine”.
Baxter knew full well that their vaccine was lethal, because the year before they had
tested it on a few hundred homeless Polish people – dozens died as a result.
Where’s the meat? Well – Baxter is now being sued for the deliberate, repeated contamination
of vaccines with biological weapons designed – by them – to mass-murder people.
Here is the complaint (PDF). By some kook nutcase? Not likely – Jane Burgermeister is
an experienced, respected journalist. She is not the only one suing Baxter for planning
and executing a plan for global genocide: Others are filing complaints as well.
Read a well-researched complaint here (PDF).
Qui bono? We think it may be profit-motivated or even sheer incompetence,
but for the conspiracy-minded: The latter complaint alludes to intentional “culling of the herd”.
Have you heard of the Georgia Guidestones? An enormous monument loaded with
Masonic symbolism costing millions of dollars, it has been erected by unknown,
powerful elites (multimillionaires with the clout to erect monuments wherever they please,
obviously) around 30 years ago. It gives an “alternative ten commandments”, of which the first
is the extermination of six and a half billion people from the face of the Earth.
Half a billion will remain. This is the number of people the planet can sustain indefinitely,
so that the descendents of the Rothschilds and Rockefellers can live in peace and
affluence indefinitely. Slaves are needed to produce that luxury, but 500 million will do
just fine. But how does one go about killing off most of the world?
“Vaccinating” the planet with a bioweapon with near-100% mortality would do the trick.
Baxter would provide both the bioweapon as well as the vaccine against it to “civilized”
Western peoples. Result: We can plunder Africa, we have no more competition from SE Asia,
the oil is for our taking and only Western and perhaps Chinese sheeple remain.
Rockefeller said this in 1994 at a U.N. dinner: “We are on the verge of a global transformation.
All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order.”
PNAC said something similar right before 9/11.
A Spanish Doctor in Internal Medicine largely agrees with the above article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/man-suspected-of-making-t_n_259330.html
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/103966
Joseph Moshe whistle-blower on Baxter releasing outbreak (mutated H1N1?) in Ukraine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzQBiiwo09g
RED ALERT: Baxter's Ukraine Genocide Agenda Exposed by
Mossad Microbiologist Joseph Moshe in AUGUST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su4Sl_3ceXs
Mass Media Deceptions Ukraine Bioweapon? 'mutated H1N1' Swineflu No Cure, NO Vaccine, Pneumonic
ในอนาคตไข้หวัดใหญ่สายพันธุ์ใหม่ 2009 จะเป็นโรคระบาดที่อันตรายที่สุดเท่าที่โลกเคยเผชิญ
ผมมีวีดีโอครับเป็นของ ผู้รู้ แพทย์ พยาบาล องค์กรและเจ้าหน้าที่ผู้มีหน้าที่รับผิดชอบโดยตรง
มาพูดเรื่องหวัด 2009อย่างละเอียดทั้งป้องกัน แก้ไขและแนวทางการรักษา วิตามินดี (D3)
ที่จะเป็นพระเอกของเรื่องนี้ อาหารการกิน คำถามคำตอบอย่างละเอียดครับผมจะโพสต์วีดีโอ
และลิ๊งค์ไว้ให้มากที่สุดครับ
DavidIke ลึกๆ ว่ากันว่าเค้าเป็นอีลูมินาติที่กลับใจ และเป็นผู้ที่ติดตามเรื่องNWO หรือ New World Order
และรู้เบื้องลึกเบื้องหลังมากคนนึงได้ออกมาพูดเรื่องไข้หวัด 2009 เค้าเน้นตลอดครับว่า
"Don't have the vaccine"
DEADLY VACCINES(MASS GENOCIDE)-MUST SEE!!
November 17, 2009
Microbiologist nabbed by FBI after warning us that vaccine is a bioweapon deployment
Joseph Moshe whistle-blower on Baxter releasing outbreak (mutated H1N1?) in Ukraine
Joseph Moshe Silenced Trying To Expose Obama & Baxter For Releasing Bioweapon!!
http://www.unfictional.com/joseph-moshe-mossad-bioweapon-swine-flu-vaccine-westwood
Joseph Moshe (Microbiologist): “Swine flu vaccine is bio-weapon”
Friday, August 21, 2009
Joseph Moshe, MOSSAD
Joseph Moshe, MOSSAD
Today, the MSM are not talking about this case any more. Yesterday, they wanted us
to believe that Joseph Moshe was a nutcase and a terrorist, arrested for threatening
to bomb the White House. Interesting detail about his arrest (the “Westwood standoff”)
was that he seemed to be immune to the 5 cans of tear gas and 5 gallons of
law-enforcement grade pepper spray they pumped into his face. He very calmly remained
in his car, as the video footage of his arrest shows.
Professor Moshe had called into a live radio show by Dr. A. True Ott, (explanation of
Joseph Moshe’s call at 06:00) broadcast on Republic Broadcasting claiming to be
a microbiologist who wanted to supply evidence to a States Attorney regarding tainted
H1N1 Swine flu vaccines being produced by Baxter BioPharma Solutions.
He said that Baxter’s Ukrainian lab was in fact producing a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine.
He claimed that the vaccine contained an adjuvant (additive) designed to weaken
the immune system, and replicated RNA from the virus responsible for the 1918
pandemic Spanish flu, causing global sickness and mass death.
Sources tell us that Bar-Joseph Moshe made no threat against the President or
the White House. He did not mention any bomb or attack. He then proceeded to inform
the White House he intended to go public with this information. When he noticed men
in suits in front of his house and feared that the FBI was about to detain him,
he packed some belongings into his car and, him being a dual Israeli citizen, tried to reach
the Israeli consulate located in close proximity to the federal building where the standoff
took place. The FBI and the bomb squad prevented him from reaching it. Who is this man?
His profile on biomed experts.com says he is a plant disease expert with many publications
on his name involving the genetic manipulation of virii. Photographic evidence that Moshe
is who he says he is can be found here.
Joseph Moshe was soon after his arrest sent or let go to Israel. Nothing has been heard
from him since. The Secret Service was not the agency involved in the surveillance of
Moshe at his home in California. This was done by the FBI, who had orders to detain or
arrest him. Mounted on top of a large black vehicle used in his arrest was a microwave weapon
that possibly damaged the electronics in Moshe’s car as well as any communication devices
he had which might have been used to contact the media or others who could help him.
Moshe did not suffer the same effects of the gas and pepper spray that others would have
because he had built up an immunity to such weapons as a by-product of his Mossad training.
Moshe was not handcuffed because he was not placed under arrest.
Does this sound like an insane conspiracy theory? Sure it does. Due to the scarcity and
anonymity of the sources we would dismiss it as exactly that, if it weren’t for some
uncomfortable facts: Baxter Pharmaceutical has been caught, red-handed, in spreading a live,
genetically engineered H5N1 Bird flu vaccine as a lethal biological weapon all over the world,
destined to be used for human vaccinations. This happened just a few months ago.
And only luck prevented a global catastrophe of epic proportions.
Baxter International Inc. had mixed live, genetically engineered avian flue viruses in vaccine
material shipped to 18 countries. Only by sheer luck, a Czech laboratory decided to test
the vaccine on a dozen ferrets, which all died in days. The World Health Organization
was notified and catastrophe was averted. This was clearly a deliberate act on Baxter’s part,
because they adhere to BS3, bio-safety level three. Baxter admitted a “mistake”.
Such monumental screw-up are totally impossible at that level. Many safety systems
would have needed to be sabotaged, many key personnel would have needed to be bribed.
It simply can’t be done without direction from the inside. They did not send out the wrong vial –
they produced dozens of gallons of biological-weapon agent (genetically engineered live
H5N1 / Bird flu virus), then sent it out as a “vaccine”.
Baxter knew full well that their vaccine was lethal, because the year before they had
tested it on a few hundred homeless Polish people – dozens died as a result.
Where’s the meat? Well – Baxter is now being sued for the deliberate, repeated contamination
of vaccines with biological weapons designed – by them – to mass-murder people.
Here is the complaint (PDF). By some kook nutcase? Not likely – Jane Burgermeister is
an experienced, respected journalist. She is not the only one suing Baxter for planning
and executing a plan for global genocide: Others are filing complaints as well.
Read a well-researched complaint here (PDF).
Qui bono? We think it may be profit-motivated or even sheer incompetence,
but for the conspiracy-minded: The latter complaint alludes to intentional “culling of the herd”.
Have you heard of the Georgia Guidestones? An enormous monument loaded with
Masonic symbolism costing millions of dollars, it has been erected by unknown,
powerful elites (multimillionaires with the clout to erect monuments wherever they please,
obviously) around 30 years ago. It gives an “alternative ten commandments”, of which the first
is the extermination of six and a half billion people from the face of the Earth.
Half a billion will remain. This is the number of people the planet can sustain indefinitely,
so that the descendents of the Rothschilds and Rockefellers can live in peace and
affluence indefinitely. Slaves are needed to produce that luxury, but 500 million will do
just fine. But how does one go about killing off most of the world?
“Vaccinating” the planet with a bioweapon with near-100% mortality would do the trick.
Baxter would provide both the bioweapon as well as the vaccine against it to “civilized”
Western peoples. Result: We can plunder Africa, we have no more competition from SE Asia,
the oil is for our taking and only Western and perhaps Chinese sheeple remain.
Rockefeller said this in 1994 at a U.N. dinner: “We are on the verge of a global transformation.
All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order.”
PNAC said something similar right before 9/11.
A Spanish Doctor in Internal Medicine largely agrees with the above article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/man-suspected-of-making-t_n_259330.html
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/103966
Joseph Moshe whistle-blower on Baxter releasing outbreak (mutated H1N1?) in Ukraine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzQBiiwo09g
RED ALERT: Baxter's Ukraine Genocide Agenda Exposed by
Mossad Microbiologist Joseph Moshe in AUGUST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su4Sl_3ceXs
Mass Media Deceptions Ukraine Bioweapon? 'mutated H1N1' Swineflu No Cure, NO Vaccine, Pneumonic
ในอนาคตไข้หวัดใหญ่สายพันธุ์ใหม่ 2009 จะเป็นโรคระบาดที่อันตรายที่สุดเท่าที่โลกเคยเผชิญ
ผมมีวีดีโอครับเป็นของ ผู้รู้ แพทย์ พยาบาล องค์กรและเจ้าหน้าที่ผู้มีหน้าที่รับผิดชอบโดยตรง
มาพูดเรื่องหวัด 2009อย่างละเอียดทั้งป้องกัน แก้ไขและแนวทางการรักษา วิตามินดี (D3)
ที่จะเป็นพระเอกของเรื่องนี้ อาหารการกิน คำถามคำตอบอย่างละเอียดครับผมจะโพสต์วีดีโอ
และลิ๊งค์ไว้ให้มากที่สุดครับ
DavidIke ลึกๆ ว่ากันว่าเค้าเป็นอีลูมินาติที่กลับใจ และเป็นผู้ที่ติดตามเรื่องNWO หรือ New World Order
และรู้เบื้องลึกเบื้องหลังมากคนนึงได้ออกมาพูดเรื่องไข้หวัด 2009 เค้าเน้นตลอดครับว่า
"Don't have the vaccine"
DEADLY VACCINES(MASS GENOCIDE)-MUST SEE!!
แก้ไขล่าสุดโดย hacksecret เมื่อ Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:39 pm, ทั้งหมด 1 ครั้ง
hacksecret- จำนวนข้อความ : 1111
Registration date : 02/03/2010
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:19 am
Scientists to Seek Method for Identifying Lab-Grown Pathogens
Scientists at Rice University in Houston have received a three-year U.S. Defense Department grant to produce a test able to distinguish laboratory-grown disease agents from those that spread without human intervention, the university announced Monday.
The project, funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, would seek to provide authorities a means of testing whether pathogens in a potential epidemic were grown deliberately for use in a terrorist attack. That knowledge would help them prepare their response to a natural or intentional disease situation.
"In a natural outbreak, there are classic rules of epidemiology that describe how particular types of diseases will spread," principal investigator Yousif Shamoo said in a press release. "In a man-made outbreak, you may be faced with an actor who is continuously spreading the disease, or you might have a person who's engineered strains knowing public health strategy."
Shamoo's team is expected to cultivate natural strains of Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli bacteria in a laboratory and track changes to the organisms' genomes (Rice University release, Aug. 16).
Scientists at Rice University in Houston have received a three-year U.S. Defense Department grant to produce a test able to distinguish laboratory-grown disease agents from those that spread without human intervention, the university announced Monday.
The project, funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, would seek to provide authorities a means of testing whether pathogens in a potential epidemic were grown deliberately for use in a terrorist attack. That knowledge would help them prepare their response to a natural or intentional disease situation.
"In a natural outbreak, there are classic rules of epidemiology that describe how particular types of diseases will spread," principal investigator Yousif Shamoo said in a press release. "In a man-made outbreak, you may be faced with an actor who is continuously spreading the disease, or you might have a person who's engineered strains knowing public health strategy."
Shamoo's team is expected to cultivate natural strains of Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli bacteria in a laboratory and track changes to the organisms' genomes (Rice University release, Aug. 16).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:28 am
U.S. Biodefense Effort to be Revamped
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department yesterday declared that a major program intended to prepare the country for a biological weapons attack would be overhauled with a focus toward decreasing the length of time it takes to produce new medical countermeasures, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"We aren't generating enough new products," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. She attributed the lengthy time it takes for medical discoveries to be turned into commercially available vaccines and treatments on "leaks, choke points and dead ends."
The $1.9 billion program revamp is to include improvements to the countermeasure production process that could reduce by weeks the time required to manufacture flu vaccines as well as several changes to the process for identifying encouraging research and moving candidate drugs quickly through the medical development pipeline.
As part of the overhaul, $678 million would be allocated to establish one or more private institutions that would collaborate with small firms on the production of new treatments, establishment of new production systems and manufacturing of vaccines during times of extreme demand. Another $822 million would go toward efforts to decrease the amount of time required to produce pandemic flu vaccines.
The planned reforms appear to be a tacit admission by federal authorities that the $5.6 billion Project Bioshield has failed to adequately meet the goals of speeding along the development of treatments, vaccines and medical processes to be used in a potential bioterrorism or other WMD attack, according to the Times.
House legislation introduced this year could have slashed the Bioshield fund by $2 billion in order to address unrelated budget issues. White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said Bioshield and the agency that oversees the program, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, are still key parts of the nation's biodefense efforts but that "we are now finally creating conditions that will enable their success" (Andrew Zajac, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 20).
The planned changes were addressed in a report issued yesterday, "The Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Review: Transforming the Enterprise to Meet Long-Range National Needs."
Sebelius said the Health and Human Services Department is "working toward a nimble, flexible capacity to produce countermeasures rapidly in the face of any attack or threat, known or unknown, including novel naturally occurring infectious diseases," the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported.
"Too many of our facilities are filled with big equipment that's designed to produce just one product over and over," Sebelius said at a press conference. "That works for seasonal flu vaccine, but it's not good for something we don't use regularly or haven't invented yet."
Roughly $170 million is to go toward improving Food and Drug Administration regulatory efforts, said HHS Assistant Secretary Nicole Lurie. Officials at that agency are today using "science that's decades old" to assess highly advanced treatments, Sebelius said.
Margaret Hamburg, FDA commissioner, said the HHS branch would take steps to eliminate obstacles that could slow the pace of the countermeasure review process.
Another $33 million has been allocated for initiatives at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to turn scientific breakthroughs into medical countermeasures, Lurie said.
BARDA officials have been assigned to oversee the establishment of new flexible manufacturing facilities as well as the refurbishment of old centers to meet the development and production needs of small-scale bioresearch firms, agency Director Robin Robinson said (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy release, Aug. 19).
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday announced the allocation of $698.2 million in fiscal 2010 HHS funding to 62 public health departments located in each of the 50 states, eight territories as well as New York City, Los Angeles County, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The funds are to be boost the emergency preparedness efforts of local and statewide agencies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release, Aug. 19).
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department yesterday declared that a major program intended to prepare the country for a biological weapons attack would be overhauled with a focus toward decreasing the length of time it takes to produce new medical countermeasures, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"We aren't generating enough new products," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. She attributed the lengthy time it takes for medical discoveries to be turned into commercially available vaccines and treatments on "leaks, choke points and dead ends."
The $1.9 billion program revamp is to include improvements to the countermeasure production process that could reduce by weeks the time required to manufacture flu vaccines as well as several changes to the process for identifying encouraging research and moving candidate drugs quickly through the medical development pipeline.
As part of the overhaul, $678 million would be allocated to establish one or more private institutions that would collaborate with small firms on the production of new treatments, establishment of new production systems and manufacturing of vaccines during times of extreme demand. Another $822 million would go toward efforts to decrease the amount of time required to produce pandemic flu vaccines.
The planned reforms appear to be a tacit admission by federal authorities that the $5.6 billion Project Bioshield has failed to adequately meet the goals of speeding along the development of treatments, vaccines and medical processes to be used in a potential bioterrorism or other WMD attack, according to the Times.
House legislation introduced this year could have slashed the Bioshield fund by $2 billion in order to address unrelated budget issues. White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said Bioshield and the agency that oversees the program, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, are still key parts of the nation's biodefense efforts but that "we are now finally creating conditions that will enable their success" (Andrew Zajac, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 20).
The planned changes were addressed in a report issued yesterday, "The Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Review: Transforming the Enterprise to Meet Long-Range National Needs."
Sebelius said the Health and Human Services Department is "working toward a nimble, flexible capacity to produce countermeasures rapidly in the face of any attack or threat, known or unknown, including novel naturally occurring infectious diseases," the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported.
"Too many of our facilities are filled with big equipment that's designed to produce just one product over and over," Sebelius said at a press conference. "That works for seasonal flu vaccine, but it's not good for something we don't use regularly or haven't invented yet."
Roughly $170 million is to go toward improving Food and Drug Administration regulatory efforts, said HHS Assistant Secretary Nicole Lurie. Officials at that agency are today using "science that's decades old" to assess highly advanced treatments, Sebelius said.
Margaret Hamburg, FDA commissioner, said the HHS branch would take steps to eliminate obstacles that could slow the pace of the countermeasure review process.
Another $33 million has been allocated for initiatives at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to turn scientific breakthroughs into medical countermeasures, Lurie said.
BARDA officials have been assigned to oversee the establishment of new flexible manufacturing facilities as well as the refurbishment of old centers to meet the development and production needs of small-scale bioresearch firms, agency Director Robin Robinson said (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy release, Aug. 19).
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday announced the allocation of $698.2 million in fiscal 2010 HHS funding to 62 public health departments located in each of the 50 states, eight territories as well as New York City, Los Angeles County, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The funds are to be boost the emergency preparedness efforts of local and statewide agencies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release, Aug. 19).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:32 am
International Experts to Discuss Biological Weapons Use, Preparedness
By Martin Matishak
WASHINGTON -- Law enforcement and public health experts from around the globe will gather next week in Switzerland to discuss the potential use of biological weapons and how nations can improve their preparedness to respond to intentional or natural disease outbreaks.
Specialists from roughly 100 of the Biological Weapons Convention's member states are expected in Geneva for a four-day meeting beginning Monday.
The meeting is part of the "intersessional process" conducted between the convention's review conferences held every five years. This year's discussion is "perhaps the most lively" in years because "it combines both the peaceful side -- developing public health capacity, disease surveillance and so on -- with the very hard-edged security side that is responding to actual use of a biological weapon," Richard Lennane, head of the treaty's Implementation Support Unit, said last week in a telephone interview.
Those two parts of the 1975 pact have often appeared at odds with one another, Lennane said. Developing nations want more emphasis placed on peaceful uses of disease materials for research activities that can increase preparedness against natural epidemics, as well as gird their response capacity in the eventuality of a biological attack.
Meanwhile, Western countries believe the focus should be on the convention's security objectives, intended to prevent the spread of biowarfare agents and technology, he told Global Security Newswire.
This year's topics "will bring people together," Lennane predicted, because countries have begun to realize that peaceful capacity building for disease surveillance and research can also be used to protect against biological weapons.
"If a biological weapon is used, the first line of defense is being able to detect it and assess the situation quickly. At the same time, having that capacity has applications for ordinary public health and completely peaceful reasons," said Lennane, whose unit is composed of three people and housed within the U.N. Disarmament Affairs Office in Geneva.
The Biological Weapons Convention prohibits the development, production and stockpiling of weaponized disease agents such as anthrax, smallpox and plague.
Since 2007, the United Nations in Geneva has hosted two convention meetings every year, focusing annually on different topics. This year is the fourth and final installment of the process.
During each summer session, experts meet to present and hear presentations related to the chosen topic. During the winter conference, delegates from member nations evaluate the conclusions of the summer meeting and pass along recommendations, or "common understandings," to the convention's review conference.
The BWC review conferences, scheduled every five years, examine the implementation of the pact during the intervening period and can also recommend improvements to the nonproliferation regime. The 2011 summit will be the seventh such meeting.
Experts split on how participants would react to this year's topics.
The upcoming experts meeting could enable law enforcement and forensics experts to interact with public health officials on topics such as dealing with biological samples and coordinating responses to a suspicious event, Kavita Berger, associate program director at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy, said in a telephone interview this week
Lennane, though, is "overoptimistic when he suggests that discussing international assistance in response to biological weapons use will resolve any Article X issues," said Jonathan Tucker, a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, referring to the section of the convention that deals with technology transfers and international cooperation in the peaceful uses of biotechnology. "It is unlikely that the more radical members of the Nonaligned Movement will view such assistance as adequate."
Countries such as China, India and Pakistan, seeking additional avenues of economic development, have consistently pressed BWC members to be more forthcoming in sharing their biotechnology, he said.
"Since biotechnology is inherently dual-use, there are some dilemmas associated with transferring it, particularly to countries suspected of pursuing illicit biowarfare programs," Tucker told GSN. "Article 3 of the BWC prohibits assisting other countries to acquire biological weapons and transferring dual-use technology would be a form of assistance."
By Martin Matishak
WASHINGTON -- Law enforcement and public health experts from around the globe will gather next week in Switzerland to discuss the potential use of biological weapons and how nations can improve their preparedness to respond to intentional or natural disease outbreaks.
Specialists from roughly 100 of the Biological Weapons Convention's member states are expected in Geneva for a four-day meeting beginning Monday.
The meeting is part of the "intersessional process" conducted between the convention's review conferences held every five years. This year's discussion is "perhaps the most lively" in years because "it combines both the peaceful side -- developing public health capacity, disease surveillance and so on -- with the very hard-edged security side that is responding to actual use of a biological weapon," Richard Lennane, head of the treaty's Implementation Support Unit, said last week in a telephone interview.
Those two parts of the 1975 pact have often appeared at odds with one another, Lennane said. Developing nations want more emphasis placed on peaceful uses of disease materials for research activities that can increase preparedness against natural epidemics, as well as gird their response capacity in the eventuality of a biological attack.
Meanwhile, Western countries believe the focus should be on the convention's security objectives, intended to prevent the spread of biowarfare agents and technology, he told Global Security Newswire.
This year's topics "will bring people together," Lennane predicted, because countries have begun to realize that peaceful capacity building for disease surveillance and research can also be used to protect against biological weapons.
"If a biological weapon is used, the first line of defense is being able to detect it and assess the situation quickly. At the same time, having that capacity has applications for ordinary public health and completely peaceful reasons," said Lennane, whose unit is composed of three people and housed within the U.N. Disarmament Affairs Office in Geneva.
The Biological Weapons Convention prohibits the development, production and stockpiling of weaponized disease agents such as anthrax, smallpox and plague.
Since 2007, the United Nations in Geneva has hosted two convention meetings every year, focusing annually on different topics. This year is the fourth and final installment of the process.
During each summer session, experts meet to present and hear presentations related to the chosen topic. During the winter conference, delegates from member nations evaluate the conclusions of the summer meeting and pass along recommendations, or "common understandings," to the convention's review conference.
The BWC review conferences, scheduled every five years, examine the implementation of the pact during the intervening period and can also recommend improvements to the nonproliferation regime. The 2011 summit will be the seventh such meeting.
Experts split on how participants would react to this year's topics.
The upcoming experts meeting could enable law enforcement and forensics experts to interact with public health officials on topics such as dealing with biological samples and coordinating responses to a suspicious event, Kavita Berger, associate program director at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy, said in a telephone interview this week
Lennane, though, is "overoptimistic when he suggests that discussing international assistance in response to biological weapons use will resolve any Article X issues," said Jonathan Tucker, a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, referring to the section of the convention that deals with technology transfers and international cooperation in the peaceful uses of biotechnology. "It is unlikely that the more radical members of the Nonaligned Movement will view such assistance as adequate."
Countries such as China, India and Pakistan, seeking additional avenues of economic development, have consistently pressed BWC members to be more forthcoming in sharing their biotechnology, he said.
"Since biotechnology is inherently dual-use, there are some dilemmas associated with transferring it, particularly to countries suspected of pursuing illicit biowarfare programs," Tucker told GSN. "Article 3 of the BWC prohibits assisting other countries to acquire biological weapons and transferring dual-use technology would be a form of assistance."
แก้ไขล่าสุดโดย sunny เมื่อ Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:13 am, ทั้งหมด 2 ครั้ง
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:33 am
Impact of the New U.S. Strategy
Next week's meeting would be the first BWC session since the Obama administration unveiled its approach to the treaty during a states parties conference last December (see GSN, Dec. 9, 2009).
The strategy focused on increasing preparedness to reduce the impact of outbreaks of infectious disease, whether natural or man-made.
It also reaffirmed the Bush administration's opposition to an international verification regimen for the convention. White House officials in 2001 abruptly withdrew from almost seven years of negotiations aimed at creating an inspections protocol, concluding such measures would prove ineffective at increasing confidence in the international agreement and burdensome to U.S. biodefense efforts and the biotechnology industry.
"It's really too early to say" what impact the new approach would have on the convention going forward, according to Lennane. "It's not something that people are going to react to very specifically now but this is something everyone's going to be looking at in the lead up to the review conference," he said.
The ISU chief said some countries were "somewhat disappointed but at the same time not very surprised" that the Obama administration chose not to revive the verification protocol debate.
"Overall, it's helpful to have it spelled out so clearly at this stage of the process preparing for the review conference," Lennane said. "Whatever you think of the U.S. policy, you can't accuse them of ... obscuring their position or holding their cards close to the chest."
Tucker said last year's announcement of a new U.S. strategy to counter biological threats would "slightly improve the atmospherics, but there still may be countries that wish to return to the negotiation of a BWC compliance protocol."
European countries in particular are eager to move forward on practical measures to strengthen treaty compliance and the new U.S. approach might not be enough to satisfy them, he added.
"Everyone knows that verification is extraordinarily difficult in the biological context because there are tens of thousands of dual-use facilities around the world, far too many to subject to routine inspection," Tucker said.
Instead, he said, countries might make greater use of Article 5 of the pact, which allows for bilateral or multilateral consultations between member states to address compliance concerns and clarify ambiguities. The multilateral cooperative mechanism calls for convening a formal consultative meeting of all interested states parties to discuss an alleged BWC violation.
The only such meeting to date was held in 1997 to discuss an allegation by Cuba that a U.S. aircraft overflying the island had released an insect pest in a deliberate effort to harm Cuban agriculture. While the findings of the consultative meeting were inconclusive, it was widely viewed as a useful and constructive fact-finding process that could be developed further.
Barry Kellman, president of the International Security and Biopolicy Institute, predicted the U.S. strategy is likely to have a bigger impact when member nations gather in December.
"The strategy's been well-received but nobody really knows what it means operationally," he said during a telephone interview this week.
For next week's meeting, the administration "plans to continue the dialogue we initiated during the 2009 session as to the relevance of public health activities to implementation of the BWC by emphasizing the critical needs for law enforcement to work hand-in-glove with the public health community -- before, during and after a suspicious event," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said last week by e-mail.
One of the U.S. delegation's goals will be to share experiences and capabilities, discuss with other states parties their activities and needs and look for opportunities for partnerships, he said. The other is to complete the four-year intersessional process in a "positive manner that demonstrates the value of this approach to the BWC and sets the stage for a productive states parties meeting in December."
Next week's meeting would be the first BWC session since the Obama administration unveiled its approach to the treaty during a states parties conference last December (see GSN, Dec. 9, 2009).
The strategy focused on increasing preparedness to reduce the impact of outbreaks of infectious disease, whether natural or man-made.
It also reaffirmed the Bush administration's opposition to an international verification regimen for the convention. White House officials in 2001 abruptly withdrew from almost seven years of negotiations aimed at creating an inspections protocol, concluding such measures would prove ineffective at increasing confidence in the international agreement and burdensome to U.S. biodefense efforts and the biotechnology industry.
"It's really too early to say" what impact the new approach would have on the convention going forward, according to Lennane. "It's not something that people are going to react to very specifically now but this is something everyone's going to be looking at in the lead up to the review conference," he said.
The ISU chief said some countries were "somewhat disappointed but at the same time not very surprised" that the Obama administration chose not to revive the verification protocol debate.
"Overall, it's helpful to have it spelled out so clearly at this stage of the process preparing for the review conference," Lennane said. "Whatever you think of the U.S. policy, you can't accuse them of ... obscuring their position or holding their cards close to the chest."
Tucker said last year's announcement of a new U.S. strategy to counter biological threats would "slightly improve the atmospherics, but there still may be countries that wish to return to the negotiation of a BWC compliance protocol."
European countries in particular are eager to move forward on practical measures to strengthen treaty compliance and the new U.S. approach might not be enough to satisfy them, he added.
"Everyone knows that verification is extraordinarily difficult in the biological context because there are tens of thousands of dual-use facilities around the world, far too many to subject to routine inspection," Tucker said.
Instead, he said, countries might make greater use of Article 5 of the pact, which allows for bilateral or multilateral consultations between member states to address compliance concerns and clarify ambiguities. The multilateral cooperative mechanism calls for convening a formal consultative meeting of all interested states parties to discuss an alleged BWC violation.
The only such meeting to date was held in 1997 to discuss an allegation by Cuba that a U.S. aircraft overflying the island had released an insect pest in a deliberate effort to harm Cuban agriculture. While the findings of the consultative meeting were inconclusive, it was widely viewed as a useful and constructive fact-finding process that could be developed further.
Barry Kellman, president of the International Security and Biopolicy Institute, predicted the U.S. strategy is likely to have a bigger impact when member nations gather in December.
"The strategy's been well-received but nobody really knows what it means operationally," he said during a telephone interview this week.
For next week's meeting, the administration "plans to continue the dialogue we initiated during the 2009 session as to the relevance of public health activities to implementation of the BWC by emphasizing the critical needs for law enforcement to work hand-in-glove with the public health community -- before, during and after a suspicious event," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said last week by e-mail.
One of the U.S. delegation's goals will be to share experiences and capabilities, discuss with other states parties their activities and needs and look for opportunities for partnerships, he said. The other is to complete the four-year intersessional process in a "positive manner that demonstrates the value of this approach to the BWC and sets the stage for a productive states parties meeting in December."
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:37 am
Eye on the 2011 Review Conference
Mixed in with the "workman-like" approach to this year's sessions is a sense of anticipation about next year's review conference, according to Lennane. That summit takes place in Geneva in December.
"People are certainly thinking about it," he told GSN, adding there are workshops and seminars being organized for the months between the experts meeting and the states parties conference specifically to discuss the review conference.
Next year's summit is "potentially a big event but if nobody realizes it's a big event it won't be a big event" in terms of promoting the goals of the treaty, according to Kellman. "The general attitude is that this is a year in spring training, that the real season starts at the review conference."
Foggy Bottom has already begun preparing for the summit by holding a series of meetings with nongovernmental organizations around Washington, the experts said.
The first meeting was held last month at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Biosecurity in Baltimore; the second happened last Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and the third and final will be held Sept. 13 at the National Academy of Sciences, Tucker said.
"We and others have been involved in talks with some NGOs about various topics related to the review conference that would essentially help inform some of the talks leading up" to the summit, according to Berger.
The conversations, which have included public health officials and representatives from the biotechnology industry and human sciences, have been "pretty free form and no policies have come out of them," she said.
Tucker said that once the State Department has developed a set of proposals it wants to raise at the BWC review conference it must first receive the OK from other interested U.S. government agencies, such as Defense and Commerce, and then consult with close allies and other countries before introducing the plan on the world stage.
"It takes a while for the U.S. government to get its ducks in a row," he said.
Kellman, who will attend next week's gathering and hold a "side program" presentation on the 2011 meeting, is not hopeful that the next five-year summit will boost the convention's goals of preventing the development and production of deadly pathogens.
"My prediction is everyone's going to go home from the seventh review conference and say 'Wow, they did great. They worked the whole two weeks and nobody fought, everybody got along and they had a great final declaration and that's marvelous,'" he said.
"The point is not how well the process works for the participants of the process, that's not the measure," he added. "The point is what are they doing to improve international peace and security and by that measure, I really think the seventh review conference will be a nonevent."
The agenda for the seventh review conference will be developed during the convention's preparatory meeting next April, according to Lennane.
Mixed in with the "workman-like" approach to this year's sessions is a sense of anticipation about next year's review conference, according to Lennane. That summit takes place in Geneva in December.
"People are certainly thinking about it," he told GSN, adding there are workshops and seminars being organized for the months between the experts meeting and the states parties conference specifically to discuss the review conference.
Next year's summit is "potentially a big event but if nobody realizes it's a big event it won't be a big event" in terms of promoting the goals of the treaty, according to Kellman. "The general attitude is that this is a year in spring training, that the real season starts at the review conference."
Foggy Bottom has already begun preparing for the summit by holding a series of meetings with nongovernmental organizations around Washington, the experts said.
The first meeting was held last month at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Biosecurity in Baltimore; the second happened last Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and the third and final will be held Sept. 13 at the National Academy of Sciences, Tucker said.
"We and others have been involved in talks with some NGOs about various topics related to the review conference that would essentially help inform some of the talks leading up" to the summit, according to Berger.
The conversations, which have included public health officials and representatives from the biotechnology industry and human sciences, have been "pretty free form and no policies have come out of them," she said.
Tucker said that once the State Department has developed a set of proposals it wants to raise at the BWC review conference it must first receive the OK from other interested U.S. government agencies, such as Defense and Commerce, and then consult with close allies and other countries before introducing the plan on the world stage.
"It takes a while for the U.S. government to get its ducks in a row," he said.
Kellman, who will attend next week's gathering and hold a "side program" presentation on the 2011 meeting, is not hopeful that the next five-year summit will boost the convention's goals of preventing the development and production of deadly pathogens.
"My prediction is everyone's going to go home from the seventh review conference and say 'Wow, they did great. They worked the whole two weeks and nobody fought, everybody got along and they had a great final declaration and that's marvelous,'" he said.
"The point is not how well the process works for the participants of the process, that's not the measure," he added. "The point is what are they doing to improve international peace and security and by that measure, I really think the seventh review conference will be a nonevent."
The agenda for the seventh review conference will be developed during the convention's preparatory meeting next April, according to Lennane.
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:40 am
Fate of the Intersessional Process
That meeting, which is mostly organizational, could also decide whether the present intersessional process is renewed, modified or scrapped, the ISU chief said.
"We don't know what will happen but one of the major questions for the review conference is what to do with the intersessional process," Lennane said. "Has it served its purpose? Do we need something new? Is it worth maintaining in its current form? All those questions will be decided then."
Kellman predicted the annual process would be renewed with different topics that likely would be similar to those discussed over the past four years.
"The intersessional process is designed to highlight issues for states to progress on their own," he said. "There's been progress in that way no question about it, but there's been nothing at the international level that you can say is progress."
Tucker and Berger said the intersessional process has been successful at exchanging information and brining new interest groups, such as scientific and medical societies, into discussions about the Biological Weapons Convention.
Still, "there's a general feeling that the intersessional process, as currently designed, has played itself out," according to Tucker. The process has been "constructive and useful but it really hasn't moved the ball forward with respect to ensuring member states are complying with their obligations under the BWC."
That meeting, which is mostly organizational, could also decide whether the present intersessional process is renewed, modified or scrapped, the ISU chief said.
"We don't know what will happen but one of the major questions for the review conference is what to do with the intersessional process," Lennane said. "Has it served its purpose? Do we need something new? Is it worth maintaining in its current form? All those questions will be decided then."
Kellman predicted the annual process would be renewed with different topics that likely would be similar to those discussed over the past four years.
"The intersessional process is designed to highlight issues for states to progress on their own," he said. "There's been progress in that way no question about it, but there's been nothing at the international level that you can say is progress."
Tucker and Berger said the intersessional process has been successful at exchanging information and brining new interest groups, such as scientific and medical societies, into discussions about the Biological Weapons Convention.
Still, "there's a general feeling that the intersessional process, as currently designed, has played itself out," according to Tucker. The process has been "constructive and useful but it really hasn't moved the ball forward with respect to ensuring member states are complying with their obligations under the BWC."
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:21 am
Law enforcement and public health experts from around the globe
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One World Government = New World Order
http://nonlaw.forumotion.com/forum-f1/topic-t1178.htm
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One World Government = New World Order
http://nonlaw.forumotion.com/forum-f1/topic-t1178.htm
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:39 pm
Ebola, Marburg Treatments Advance to Clinical Trials
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the go-ahead for primate clinical trials on two experimental treatments for the Ebola and Marburg viruses -- the farthest any research effort against the potential bioterrorism agents has reached to date, the Los Angeles Times reported today.
Scientists said man-made morpholino oligomers administered to infected monkeys demonstrated they can impede the filoviruses' ability to duplicate. While the primates used in test-trials became seriously ill, the majority survived.
There is now no FDA-licensed treatment for the highly lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses, which cause hemorrhagic fever in humans and are classified as high-risk agents that could be used in a biological weapons attack.
Testing demonstrates "a potentially important proof of concept but still a long way from a product that can be used with confidence against human infections," said University of Maryland virologist Alan Schmaljohn, who was not involved with the trials.
He noted that the monkeys received the synthetic nucleotides less than one hour after being infected with the filoviruses and that the drugs might not work as well if administered more than an hour after infection or if more potent strains of the viruses were involved.
Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland treated Ebola-carrying rhesus monkeys with the experimental drug AVI-6002. Results showed that 60 percent of the primates given an adequate amount of the drug lived.
The scientists also achieved a 100-percent survival rate when they administered another compound, called AVI-6003, to 13 cynomologus monkeys that had been infected with Marburg.
However, AVI-6002 did not protect monkeys against Marburg, while the other treatment proved similarly ineffective against Ebola.
Human clinical trials are not allowed for the drug treatments. If the primate trials meet with success, the compounds would next be used should an epidemic of the filoviruses emerge in Africa (Thomas Maugh, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 23).
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the go-ahead for primate clinical trials on two experimental treatments for the Ebola and Marburg viruses -- the farthest any research effort against the potential bioterrorism agents has reached to date, the Los Angeles Times reported today.
Scientists said man-made morpholino oligomers administered to infected monkeys demonstrated they can impede the filoviruses' ability to duplicate. While the primates used in test-trials became seriously ill, the majority survived.
There is now no FDA-licensed treatment for the highly lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses, which cause hemorrhagic fever in humans and are classified as high-risk agents that could be used in a biological weapons attack.
Testing demonstrates "a potentially important proof of concept but still a long way from a product that can be used with confidence against human infections," said University of Maryland virologist Alan Schmaljohn, who was not involved with the trials.
He noted that the monkeys received the synthetic nucleotides less than one hour after being infected with the filoviruses and that the drugs might not work as well if administered more than an hour after infection or if more potent strains of the viruses were involved.
Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland treated Ebola-carrying rhesus monkeys with the experimental drug AVI-6002. Results showed that 60 percent of the primates given an adequate amount of the drug lived.
The scientists also achieved a 100-percent survival rate when they administered another compound, called AVI-6003, to 13 cynomologus monkeys that had been infected with Marburg.
However, AVI-6002 did not protect monkeys against Marburg, while the other treatment proved similarly ineffective against Ebola.
Human clinical trials are not allowed for the drug treatments. If the primate trials meet with success, the compounds would next be used should an epidemic of the filoviruses emerge in Africa (Thomas Maugh, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 23).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:22 pm
(Aug. 23) - Health workers in full-body protective gear prepare to collect a man suffering from Marburg virus infection during a 2005 outbreak in Angola. U.S. researchers announced yesterday the had received authorization to conduct primate clinical trials on potential treatments for the Marburg and Ebola viruses (Florence Panoussian/Getty Images).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:55 pm
Health Ministry: Cholera epidemic in Nigeria, which has killed 352, threatens entire country
By: Bashir Adigun
ABUJA, Nigeria - All of Nigeria is at risk in a cholera epidemic that has killed 352 people in only three-months time, health officials warned Wednesday, as the country's rainy season continues to spread the water-born infection.
The nation's Health Ministry issued a statement saying Nigeria has had more than 6,400 cases of the disease since June. Doctors now have detected it in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states.
"Epidemiological evidence indicates that the entire country is at risk," the statement read.
Cholera is a fast-moving infection that causes diarrhea in victims, leading to severe dehydration and possible death. The infection is highly contagious yet easily preventable with clean water and sanitation.
The health ministry blamed the recent outbreak on heavy seasonal rains spreading the infection across rural communities without access to proper toilet facilities. In many areas, wells remain uncovered, allowing tainted water to flow into the communities' drinking water supplies.
The Nigerian cases comes as an outbreak in neighbouring Cameroon has killed 155 people out of 2,000 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, the health ministry says a measles outbreak in four states has killed 83 and sickened more than 5,000 so far this year. Measles is usually characterized by coughing, rash and high fever, and is fatal in rare instances, though a vaccine exists to prevent the disease.
The outbreak comes after the World Health Organization warned in May that measles is making a rapid comeback in the world, as funding cuts for vaccination campaigns have allowed the disease to spread.
By: Bashir Adigun
ABUJA, Nigeria - All of Nigeria is at risk in a cholera epidemic that has killed 352 people in only three-months time, health officials warned Wednesday, as the country's rainy season continues to spread the water-born infection.
The nation's Health Ministry issued a statement saying Nigeria has had more than 6,400 cases of the disease since June. Doctors now have detected it in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states.
"Epidemiological evidence indicates that the entire country is at risk," the statement read.
Cholera is a fast-moving infection that causes diarrhea in victims, leading to severe dehydration and possible death. The infection is highly contagious yet easily preventable with clean water and sanitation.
The health ministry blamed the recent outbreak on heavy seasonal rains spreading the infection across rural communities without access to proper toilet facilities. In many areas, wells remain uncovered, allowing tainted water to flow into the communities' drinking water supplies.
The Nigerian cases comes as an outbreak in neighbouring Cameroon has killed 155 people out of 2,000 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, the health ministry says a measles outbreak in four states has killed 83 and sickened more than 5,000 so far this year. Measles is usually characterized by coughing, rash and high fever, and is fatal in rare instances, though a vaccine exists to prevent the disease.
The outbreak comes after the World Health Organization warned in May that measles is making a rapid comeback in the world, as funding cuts for vaccination campaigns have allowed the disease to spread.
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Fri Aug 27, 2010 1:53 pm
ฉีดพ่นฆ่าเชื้อห้องประชุมสภาฯ หลังส.ส.ติดหวัด 09
เวลา 12.30 น. เจ้าหน้าที่จากสำนักอนามัยกรมควบคุมโรค กรุงเทพมหานคร ได้นำน้ำยาฆ่าเชื้อมาทำการฉีดพ่น ภายในห้องประชุมสภาผู้แทนราษฎร หลังจากนาง อรุณลักษณ์ กิจเลิศไพโรจน์ ส.ส.สมุทรปราการ พรรคเพื่อไทย ติดเชื้อไข้หวัด 2009 ในช่วงการพิจารณาร่างพ.ร.บ.งบประมาณรายจ่ายประจำปีงบประมาณ 2554 เมื่อช่วงสัปดาห์ที่ผ่านมา โดยมีการฉีดน้ำยาฆ่าเชื้อใน 2 จุดที่สำคัญ คือบริเวณห้องประชุมสภาผู้แทนราษฎร และภายในห้องอาหารชั้นสอง เนื่องจากเจ้าหน้าที่ได้ตรวจสอบว่าระหว่างที่มีการอภิปรายงบประมาณฯ นางอรุณลักษณ์ จะนั่งอยู่ในบริเวณห้องอาหารและพื้นที่ด้านหลังห้องประชุมตลอด ซึ่งเป็นที่นั่งของพรรคเพื่อไทย และหลังจากฉีดพ่นยาฆ่าเชื้อเรียบร้อยแล้ว นอกจากนี้ในการประชุมสภาฯในสัปดาห์หน้าก็จะมีการให้เจ้าหน้าที่มาทำความสะอาดภายในห้องประชุมที่เก้าอี้ และโต๊ที่นั่งทั้งหมดอีกครั้ง
เวลา 12.30 น. เจ้าหน้าที่จากสำนักอนามัยกรมควบคุมโรค กรุงเทพมหานคร ได้นำน้ำยาฆ่าเชื้อมาทำการฉีดพ่น ภายในห้องประชุมสภาผู้แทนราษฎร หลังจากนาง อรุณลักษณ์ กิจเลิศไพโรจน์ ส.ส.สมุทรปราการ พรรคเพื่อไทย ติดเชื้อไข้หวัด 2009 ในช่วงการพิจารณาร่างพ.ร.บ.งบประมาณรายจ่ายประจำปีงบประมาณ 2554 เมื่อช่วงสัปดาห์ที่ผ่านมา โดยมีการฉีดน้ำยาฆ่าเชื้อใน 2 จุดที่สำคัญ คือบริเวณห้องประชุมสภาผู้แทนราษฎร และภายในห้องอาหารชั้นสอง เนื่องจากเจ้าหน้าที่ได้ตรวจสอบว่าระหว่างที่มีการอภิปรายงบประมาณฯ นางอรุณลักษณ์ จะนั่งอยู่ในบริเวณห้องอาหารและพื้นที่ด้านหลังห้องประชุมตลอด ซึ่งเป็นที่นั่งของพรรคเพื่อไทย และหลังจากฉีดพ่นยาฆ่าเชื้อเรียบร้อยแล้ว นอกจากนี้ในการประชุมสภาฯในสัปดาห์หน้าก็จะมีการให้เจ้าหน้าที่มาทำความสะอาดภายในห้องประชุมที่เก้าอี้ และโต๊ที่นั่งทั้งหมดอีกครั้ง
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sat Aug 28, 2010 4:01 pm
WHO Prepares to Consider Smallpox Eradication Again
The World Health Organization is gearing up for a decision next year on the possible destruction of the remaining known smallpox stocks, the Medill News Service reported Tuesday.
Smallpox was eliminated from nature three decades ago; however, Russia and the United States continue to hold samples for research purposes.
The World Health Assembly in 1996 directed that smallpox virus samples at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Russian State Center for Research on Virology and Biotechnology be eliminated within three years. That date has been pushed back repeatedly, and the assembly three years ago determined that a new schedule would be established in 2011.
For other countries, it's a case of "Big Brother Russia and Big Brother United States telling us what to do," said Donald A. Henderson, who led the WHO smallpox eradication program from 1966-1977. However, he argued against that view.
"We were the ones who really suffered for this disease and worked to get rid of it," Henderson said.
U.S. officials have argued that more research is necessary on smallpox, particularly given its potential use as an agent of bioterrorism.
The assembly, in its 2007 declaration on the matter, mandated a major review this year on past, present and potential future smallpox research to help inform the 2011 decision.
The World Health Assembly in 2007 said it still supported eradication of the U.S. and Russian samples, a stand supported by at least some observers.
Other nations might believe they need to acquire and store the smallpox virus if they see Moscow and Washington unwilling to give up their stocks, Edward Hammond, then-director of the Sunshine Project, wrote in 2007.
"The decades-old eradication job of WHO will be completed and the world will be safer, when the U.S. and Russian smallpox virus stocks are finally destroyed," he stated (United Press International, Aug. 24).
The World Health Organization is gearing up for a decision next year on the possible destruction of the remaining known smallpox stocks, the Medill News Service reported Tuesday.
Smallpox was eliminated from nature three decades ago; however, Russia and the United States continue to hold samples for research purposes.
The World Health Assembly in 1996 directed that smallpox virus samples at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Russian State Center for Research on Virology and Biotechnology be eliminated within three years. That date has been pushed back repeatedly, and the assembly three years ago determined that a new schedule would be established in 2011.
For other countries, it's a case of "Big Brother Russia and Big Brother United States telling us what to do," said Donald A. Henderson, who led the WHO smallpox eradication program from 1966-1977. However, he argued against that view.
"We were the ones who really suffered for this disease and worked to get rid of it," Henderson said.
U.S. officials have argued that more research is necessary on smallpox, particularly given its potential use as an agent of bioterrorism.
The assembly, in its 2007 declaration on the matter, mandated a major review this year on past, present and potential future smallpox research to help inform the 2011 decision.
The World Health Assembly in 2007 said it still supported eradication of the U.S. and Russian samples, a stand supported by at least some observers.
Other nations might believe they need to acquire and store the smallpox virus if they see Moscow and Washington unwilling to give up their stocks, Edward Hammond, then-director of the Sunshine Project, wrote in 2007.
"The decades-old eradication job of WHO will be completed and the world will be safer, when the U.S. and Russian smallpox virus stocks are finally destroyed," he stated (United Press International, Aug. 24).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sat Aug 28, 2010 4:03 pm
Man Admits Mailing Fake Anthrax Hoax Letters to Obama, Lawmakers
A Colorado man yesterday admitted he had mailed letters filled with white powder to U.S. President Barack Obama, lawmakers from Alabama and Colorado and Argentine consulates in Los Angeles and New York, the Associated Press reported.
Denver-area resident Jay DeVaughn, 41, was charged in federal court with 13 counts of mailing threatening communications. He could receive a maximum term of nearly five years in prison. Sentencing is set for November.
The letters to the president and the Colorado and Alabama politicians had a Denver doctor listed as the return address and criticized U.S. health care reforms.
A letter caught before reaching Obama contained a bag of white powder and made mention of anthrax. The powder in each of the letters was judged to pose no health threat, though first responders were often alerted when the letters arrived at the offices (Associated Press/CBS4 News, Aug. 26).
A Colorado man yesterday admitted he had mailed letters filled with white powder to U.S. President Barack Obama, lawmakers from Alabama and Colorado and Argentine consulates in Los Angeles and New York, the Associated Press reported.
Denver-area resident Jay DeVaughn, 41, was charged in federal court with 13 counts of mailing threatening communications. He could receive a maximum term of nearly five years in prison. Sentencing is set for November.
The letters to the president and the Colorado and Alabama politicians had a Denver doctor listed as the return address and criticized U.S. health care reforms.
A letter caught before reaching Obama contained a bag of white powder and made mention of anthrax. The powder in each of the letters was judged to pose no health threat, though first responders were often alerted when the letters arrived at the offices (Associated Press/CBS4 News, Aug. 26).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sat Aug 28, 2010 4:05 pm
(Aug. 27) - Two U.S. Army soldiers in WMD response gear during a 2002 demonstration at the Pentagon. The Defense Department has shifted more than $1 billion from WMD defense projects to help fund a new federal vaccine development and production program (Paul Richards/Getty Images).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sat Aug 28, 2010 4:09 pm
Pentagon Pulls $1B from WMD-Defense Efforts to Fund Vaccine Initiative
By Elaine M. Grossman
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Defense Department has shifted more than $1 billion out of its nuclear, biological and chemical defense programs to underwrite a new White House priority on vaccine development and production to combat disease pandemics, according to government and industry officials.
The planned funding reduction "terminates essential CBRN [chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear] defense programs ... required to meet high priority service needs, prevent casualties and protect against CBRN incidents," according to a Pentagon budget document drafted in early August.
Internal deliberations over the budget have been ongoing for months as the government prepares to submit its fiscal 2012 spending request to Congress next February.
"To implement the DOD response to the president's new [vaccine] initiative requires $1.07 billion" between fiscal 2012 and 2016, states the defense memo, obtained by Global Security Newswire.
The money was taken out of a wide variety of programs deemed "essential" for combating weapons of mass destruction, the document states. An additional $442 million was trimmed through efficiency reductions mandated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for a total of $1.5 billion cut from the counter-WMD account over the five-year period, according to the draft memo.
U.S. nuclear, biological and chemical preparedness efforts "cannot absorb the entire reduction without delaying both current and future force readiness by approximately six to nine years," states the memo.
Defense Department projects under the budget-cutting ax include the development and acquisition of biological and chemical detection systems; gear to decontaminate skin and equipment after exposure; systems to coordinate military operations in a chem-bio environment; and protective clothing for military personnel entering toxic areas, the document indicates.
Drafted by Andrew Weber, the Defense Department's senior official responsible for WMD defenses, the early-August appeal was aimed at securing funds from the Pentagon comptroller to replenish the affected programs. A Pentagon spokeswoman said neither Weber nor anyone from his office was available this week for interview.
"By diverting $1 billion from nonmedical [chem-bio] defense programs to this medical vaccine facility on top of the OSD efficiency cuts, Mr. Weber threatens to return the military forces to a state of unpreparedness that we haven't seen since 1996," said one longtime defense analyst, referring to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Lacking permission to discuss internal government debates over budget plans, the source asked not to be named.
The memo reportedly has since been superseded by another, more limited plea, which instead seeks restoration of less than one-third of the eliminated WMD-defense funds.
The subsequent document also omits mention of the high-priority White House vaccine project, sidestepping what might be regarded as implicit internal criticism of the Obama funding priority on the Medical Countermeasures Initiative, the defense expert said. Led by the Health and Human Services Department, the new program aims to expand the U.S. capability to make lifesaving vaccines.
President Barack Obama noted the initiative in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, saying it would "give us the capacity to respond faster and more effectively to bioterrorism or an infectious disease -- a plan that will counter threats at home and strengthen public health abroad."
The latest budget memo constituted "an attempt to pretend that [there] wasn't a [funding] trade between [the vaccine initiative] and the nonmedical projects," the defense analyst said. "No matter what [budget] memo gets up to the comptroller ... there still is a $1 billion reduction in nonmedical R&D and a $1 billion increase in [the Medical Countermeasures Initiative]."
Weber's latest budget-request memo left little chance the Pentagon will restore funding for WMD defense efforts outside of the vaccine project, the defense analyst speculated. Amid the myriad competing priorities in the Defense Department budget, "99 percent of the [appeal] memos don't make the cut," the veteran military-watcher said.
The issue could become politically contentious, though, when the Obama budget request moves up to Capitol Hill early next year and industry advocates begin lobbying on the matter.
"At this point, we don't know enough, but we are concerned about the impact on the industrial base," Amoretta Hoeber, a defense consultant and chair emeritus of the NBC Industry Group, said in an interview this week.
The August draft budget document suggests that production capabilities might indeed be affected, saying the reduction "creates gaps in the U.S. industrial base which will prevent timely response to future warfighter needs." Reconstitution of WMD defense production capacity "would require significant cost" and could affect "both schedule and performance," the memo states.
One project at risk of being affected, for example, is a program to procure protective suits for Army troops.
"Failure to fund this [more fully] will result in incomplete personal protective equipment ensembles, resulting in [chem-bio] exposure routes to service men and women," the August defense document states. "The over-garment is [funded]; however, this [sought-after restitution] buys out the remaining boots, gloves, socks and masks to complete the ensemble."
The Defense Department spokeswoman, who declined to be named in this article, said fiscal 2012 budget details were unavailable and "may not be provided until the president's budget is approved and released." The budget year begins Oct. 1, 2011.
Hoeber said that if the funding reductions result in shutting down production lines for any highly specialized WMD defense items, it is unclear how quickly the industry could reconstitute its manufacturing capability in the event that a new threat emerged.
"You don't want the system to willy-nilly impact the industrial base without a thoughtful assessment of whether that's the right thing to do," she said.
Meanwhile, the expansion of medical countermeasures against disease outbreak -- either naturally occurring or the result of a bioterror attack -- is a growing White House priority and apparent beneficiary of the slashed WMD-defense program funds.
Obama administration leaders launched the effort to expand vaccine capacity after last year's H1N1 flu virus scare, when the pharmaceutical industry was producing vaccine at record rates but nonetheless was outpaced by early demand. The flu pandemic ultimately petered out but if a more serious event occurred, casualties could be devastating as the industry struggled to produce sufficient vaccine stocks in short order, U.S. officials worried.
The H1N1 flu "vaccines were not broadly available before the virus had spread widely among the U.S. population," according to an HHS report released last week. It cites the continued use of "old technologies" for producing vaccines that "need to be enhanced or replaced."
The new initiative includes both HHS and Pentagon plans for constructing "Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing," to help small biotechnology companies innovate new vaccines and field them more rapidly.
The modern facilities would also be capable of large-scale production of vaccine stocks during a public health emergency involving "emerging infectious diseases or unknown threats, including pandemic influenza," the HHS report states.
"New approaches to vaccine manufacturing, including the use of recombinant and molecular techniques and the use of new flexible, disposable manufacturing components and multiuse facilities, offer promising ways to meet the demands for efficient, expandable vaccine production capacity while simultaneously meeting needs related to other public health emergency threats," the report reads.
Plans call for Health and Human Services to open "several" vaccine development and manufacturing centers and for the Defense Department to open a single facility, either through new construction or refurbishment of existing buildings, according to Robin Robinson, director of the HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
Health and Human Services will spend $478 million on building multiple facilities while the Defense Department will allocate $200 million to construct its lone site, Robinson said in a Wednesday phone interview. Both agencies are likely to release industry solicitations by the end of the year for long-term contracts to build and operate the facilities, he said.
By the end of 2011, 10-year-or-longer contracts should be signed for the HHS and defense facilities, Robinson said. Each center will be owned and operated by its respective contractor -- perhaps a university consortium with a pharmaceutical firm -- and will be located in the United States, he said.
Health and Human Services and the Defense Department have slightly different responsibilities when it comes to protecting the nation from disease outbreaks. The health agency is responsible for vaccines and treatments for the U.S. public, while the Pentagon oversees inoculations and countermeasures for the military.
There is an amount of overlap in the types of vaccines that the two organizations help develop and procure, but some items are of interest just to one agency or the other, Robinson said.
Both of the departments are concerned with protection from either naturally occurring disease or intentional bioterrorism acts, with the Pentagon particularly focused on safeguarding troops deploying to overseas locations where disease is endemic or the threat of attack with anthrax or other agents is heightened.
Though each facility might specialize in certain types of products, Robinson said he anticipated there would be HHS and defense work done at each location, regardless of which agency sponsored the site.
Over the next year, Health and Human Services and Pentagon leaders will sort out how they will split the operating costs for work performed at each of the centers, the health agency official said.
"Both HHS and DOD will share in funding the operating cost ... of all the facilities," Robinson told GSN. "We will be using these facilities for both DOD- and HHS-sponsored products."
He said the two agencies "haven't decided whether it's going to be a 60-40 or 30-70 split. That'll have to be worked out as we go forward."
Some observers think the Obama administration move to have the Pentagon build one of the vaccine centers is misplaced. Once the centers begin operating, pressure could grow on the Pentagon -- with an annual budget reaching $700 billion, by far the biggest spender of federal discretionary dollars -- to help bankroll flu vaccine for the general public, critics say.
"Ideally, the current proposed HHS facilities ought to be more than enough to address the national demands for pandemic flu vaccine," the defense analyst said.
Robinson acknowledged that each of the facilities must be capable of manufacturing flu vaccine, regardless of other countermeasure specialties it might have.
"These facilities needed to be able to produce, for the civilian population, pandemic influenza vaccine to augment our capacity that we had already invested in -- and had already become a reality here in the U.S. -- as a lesson learned from our H1N1 pandemic experience," he said.
Hoeber noted that the industry group she represents includes member companies not only reliant on WMD-defense dollars for a wide array of programs, but also firms involved specifically in the medical countermeasures sector. For that reason, the NBC Industry Group is taking no formal position on how the Defense Department funds should be spent, she said.
"Obviously, the role of government is to make these sorts of choices, but we want them made thoughtfully," said Hoeber, a former Reagan administration defense official.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is left with deep budget cuts in a number of its WMD-defense efforts, and it remains unclear whether funds to backfill those project accounts will be identified, even after the fiscal 2012 budget request is delivered to Congress.
"No one is against a DOD facility to make military [biowarfare] vaccines," said the defense analyst who requested anonymity. "We all see the need, given the reluctance of pharmaceutical firms to invest in this area. However, such a requirement needs to be funded as a new initiative -- not taken at the expense of critically reducing research and development of new suits, masks, detectors, decontamination systems, collective protection shelters and information systems."
The Pentagon spokeswoman declined comment on any shifts in funds or priorities, but did say that the Defense Department "plays a key role in addressing this continuing challenge of bioterrorism and/or infectious disease."
Under the White House initiative, "DOD intends to develop a dedicated reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective capability, based on strategic partnerships with industry, to establish a facility for the advanced development and manufacturing of biological [medical countermeasures] to address national security needs," she said.
The Pentagon-sponsored center would also "provide surge capacity in the event of a national emergency or pandemic," she said.
By Elaine M. Grossman
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Defense Department has shifted more than $1 billion out of its nuclear, biological and chemical defense programs to underwrite a new White House priority on vaccine development and production to combat disease pandemics, according to government and industry officials.
The planned funding reduction "terminates essential CBRN [chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear] defense programs ... required to meet high priority service needs, prevent casualties and protect against CBRN incidents," according to a Pentagon budget document drafted in early August.
Internal deliberations over the budget have been ongoing for months as the government prepares to submit its fiscal 2012 spending request to Congress next February.
"To implement the DOD response to the president's new [vaccine] initiative requires $1.07 billion" between fiscal 2012 and 2016, states the defense memo, obtained by Global Security Newswire.
The money was taken out of a wide variety of programs deemed "essential" for combating weapons of mass destruction, the document states. An additional $442 million was trimmed through efficiency reductions mandated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for a total of $1.5 billion cut from the counter-WMD account over the five-year period, according to the draft memo.
U.S. nuclear, biological and chemical preparedness efforts "cannot absorb the entire reduction without delaying both current and future force readiness by approximately six to nine years," states the memo.
Defense Department projects under the budget-cutting ax include the development and acquisition of biological and chemical detection systems; gear to decontaminate skin and equipment after exposure; systems to coordinate military operations in a chem-bio environment; and protective clothing for military personnel entering toxic areas, the document indicates.
Drafted by Andrew Weber, the Defense Department's senior official responsible for WMD defenses, the early-August appeal was aimed at securing funds from the Pentagon comptroller to replenish the affected programs. A Pentagon spokeswoman said neither Weber nor anyone from his office was available this week for interview.
"By diverting $1 billion from nonmedical [chem-bio] defense programs to this medical vaccine facility on top of the OSD efficiency cuts, Mr. Weber threatens to return the military forces to a state of unpreparedness that we haven't seen since 1996," said one longtime defense analyst, referring to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Lacking permission to discuss internal government debates over budget plans, the source asked not to be named.
The memo reportedly has since been superseded by another, more limited plea, which instead seeks restoration of less than one-third of the eliminated WMD-defense funds.
The subsequent document also omits mention of the high-priority White House vaccine project, sidestepping what might be regarded as implicit internal criticism of the Obama funding priority on the Medical Countermeasures Initiative, the defense expert said. Led by the Health and Human Services Department, the new program aims to expand the U.S. capability to make lifesaving vaccines.
President Barack Obama noted the initiative in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, saying it would "give us the capacity to respond faster and more effectively to bioterrorism or an infectious disease -- a plan that will counter threats at home and strengthen public health abroad."
The latest budget memo constituted "an attempt to pretend that [there] wasn't a [funding] trade between [the vaccine initiative] and the nonmedical projects," the defense analyst said. "No matter what [budget] memo gets up to the comptroller ... there still is a $1 billion reduction in nonmedical R&D and a $1 billion increase in [the Medical Countermeasures Initiative]."
Weber's latest budget-request memo left little chance the Pentagon will restore funding for WMD defense efforts outside of the vaccine project, the defense analyst speculated. Amid the myriad competing priorities in the Defense Department budget, "99 percent of the [appeal] memos don't make the cut," the veteran military-watcher said.
The issue could become politically contentious, though, when the Obama budget request moves up to Capitol Hill early next year and industry advocates begin lobbying on the matter.
"At this point, we don't know enough, but we are concerned about the impact on the industrial base," Amoretta Hoeber, a defense consultant and chair emeritus of the NBC Industry Group, said in an interview this week.
The August draft budget document suggests that production capabilities might indeed be affected, saying the reduction "creates gaps in the U.S. industrial base which will prevent timely response to future warfighter needs." Reconstitution of WMD defense production capacity "would require significant cost" and could affect "both schedule and performance," the memo states.
One project at risk of being affected, for example, is a program to procure protective suits for Army troops.
"Failure to fund this [more fully] will result in incomplete personal protective equipment ensembles, resulting in [chem-bio] exposure routes to service men and women," the August defense document states. "The over-garment is [funded]; however, this [sought-after restitution] buys out the remaining boots, gloves, socks and masks to complete the ensemble."
The Defense Department spokeswoman, who declined to be named in this article, said fiscal 2012 budget details were unavailable and "may not be provided until the president's budget is approved and released." The budget year begins Oct. 1, 2011.
Hoeber said that if the funding reductions result in shutting down production lines for any highly specialized WMD defense items, it is unclear how quickly the industry could reconstitute its manufacturing capability in the event that a new threat emerged.
"You don't want the system to willy-nilly impact the industrial base without a thoughtful assessment of whether that's the right thing to do," she said.
Meanwhile, the expansion of medical countermeasures against disease outbreak -- either naturally occurring or the result of a bioterror attack -- is a growing White House priority and apparent beneficiary of the slashed WMD-defense program funds.
Obama administration leaders launched the effort to expand vaccine capacity after last year's H1N1 flu virus scare, when the pharmaceutical industry was producing vaccine at record rates but nonetheless was outpaced by early demand. The flu pandemic ultimately petered out but if a more serious event occurred, casualties could be devastating as the industry struggled to produce sufficient vaccine stocks in short order, U.S. officials worried.
The H1N1 flu "vaccines were not broadly available before the virus had spread widely among the U.S. population," according to an HHS report released last week. It cites the continued use of "old technologies" for producing vaccines that "need to be enhanced or replaced."
The new initiative includes both HHS and Pentagon plans for constructing "Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing," to help small biotechnology companies innovate new vaccines and field them more rapidly.
The modern facilities would also be capable of large-scale production of vaccine stocks during a public health emergency involving "emerging infectious diseases or unknown threats, including pandemic influenza," the HHS report states.
"New approaches to vaccine manufacturing, including the use of recombinant and molecular techniques and the use of new flexible, disposable manufacturing components and multiuse facilities, offer promising ways to meet the demands for efficient, expandable vaccine production capacity while simultaneously meeting needs related to other public health emergency threats," the report reads.
Plans call for Health and Human Services to open "several" vaccine development and manufacturing centers and for the Defense Department to open a single facility, either through new construction or refurbishment of existing buildings, according to Robin Robinson, director of the HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
Health and Human Services will spend $478 million on building multiple facilities while the Defense Department will allocate $200 million to construct its lone site, Robinson said in a Wednesday phone interview. Both agencies are likely to release industry solicitations by the end of the year for long-term contracts to build and operate the facilities, he said.
By the end of 2011, 10-year-or-longer contracts should be signed for the HHS and defense facilities, Robinson said. Each center will be owned and operated by its respective contractor -- perhaps a university consortium with a pharmaceutical firm -- and will be located in the United States, he said.
Health and Human Services and the Defense Department have slightly different responsibilities when it comes to protecting the nation from disease outbreaks. The health agency is responsible for vaccines and treatments for the U.S. public, while the Pentagon oversees inoculations and countermeasures for the military.
There is an amount of overlap in the types of vaccines that the two organizations help develop and procure, but some items are of interest just to one agency or the other, Robinson said.
Both of the departments are concerned with protection from either naturally occurring disease or intentional bioterrorism acts, with the Pentagon particularly focused on safeguarding troops deploying to overseas locations where disease is endemic or the threat of attack with anthrax or other agents is heightened.
Though each facility might specialize in certain types of products, Robinson said he anticipated there would be HHS and defense work done at each location, regardless of which agency sponsored the site.
Over the next year, Health and Human Services and Pentagon leaders will sort out how they will split the operating costs for work performed at each of the centers, the health agency official said.
"Both HHS and DOD will share in funding the operating cost ... of all the facilities," Robinson told GSN. "We will be using these facilities for both DOD- and HHS-sponsored products."
He said the two agencies "haven't decided whether it's going to be a 60-40 or 30-70 split. That'll have to be worked out as we go forward."
Some observers think the Obama administration move to have the Pentagon build one of the vaccine centers is misplaced. Once the centers begin operating, pressure could grow on the Pentagon -- with an annual budget reaching $700 billion, by far the biggest spender of federal discretionary dollars -- to help bankroll flu vaccine for the general public, critics say.
"Ideally, the current proposed HHS facilities ought to be more than enough to address the national demands for pandemic flu vaccine," the defense analyst said.
Robinson acknowledged that each of the facilities must be capable of manufacturing flu vaccine, regardless of other countermeasure specialties it might have.
"These facilities needed to be able to produce, for the civilian population, pandemic influenza vaccine to augment our capacity that we had already invested in -- and had already become a reality here in the U.S. -- as a lesson learned from our H1N1 pandemic experience," he said.
Hoeber noted that the industry group she represents includes member companies not only reliant on WMD-defense dollars for a wide array of programs, but also firms involved specifically in the medical countermeasures sector. For that reason, the NBC Industry Group is taking no formal position on how the Defense Department funds should be spent, she said.
"Obviously, the role of government is to make these sorts of choices, but we want them made thoughtfully," said Hoeber, a former Reagan administration defense official.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is left with deep budget cuts in a number of its WMD-defense efforts, and it remains unclear whether funds to backfill those project accounts will be identified, even after the fiscal 2012 budget request is delivered to Congress.
"No one is against a DOD facility to make military [biowarfare] vaccines," said the defense analyst who requested anonymity. "We all see the need, given the reluctance of pharmaceutical firms to invest in this area. However, such a requirement needs to be funded as a new initiative -- not taken at the expense of critically reducing research and development of new suits, masks, detectors, decontamination systems, collective protection shelters and information systems."
The Pentagon spokeswoman declined comment on any shifts in funds or priorities, but did say that the Defense Department "plays a key role in addressing this continuing challenge of bioterrorism and/or infectious disease."
Under the White House initiative, "DOD intends to develop a dedicated reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective capability, based on strategic partnerships with industry, to establish a facility for the advanced development and manufacturing of biological [medical countermeasures] to address national security needs," she said.
The Pentagon-sponsored center would also "provide surge capacity in the event of a national emergency or pandemic," she said.
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
Re: ระวัง...อาวุธชีวภาพ
sunny Sat Sep 11, 2010 12:03 pm
Miami Airport Closed for Hours Amid Bioterrorism Fears
Authorities closed much of Miami International Airport and nearby hotels for hours last week when a man attempting to carry a suspicious container through customs was linked to a 2003 investigation over his handling of plague samples, the Associated press reported.
Former Texas Tech University professor Thomas Butler, 70, caught the attention of a Transportation Security Administration officer at 9 p.m. Thursday at a customs checkpoint. The inspector checked a database and found that Butler had been charged previously with plague-related crimes.
The airport was evacuated and Butler was taken into custody for a short period. He provided full cooperation and faces no charges in the incident, according to a law enforcement source. An analysis of the container determined it contained no dangerous material, a high-level police official said.
Butler in January 2003 reported vials of plague bacteria stolen from his laboratory. Federal agents were called in to search, but stopped looking when Butler submitted a written statement in which he acknowledged making a “misjudgment” by not telling his supervisor the vials were “accidentally destroyed.”
Butler was convicted of fraudulently sending plague samples to Tanzania in an inaccurately marked package, although charges he had smuggled and illegally transferred the samples were dropped. He also received a two-year prison sentence for fraud and theft relating to contracts with pharmaceutical firms (Kay/Andersen, Associated Press/North Jersey Record, Sept. 4).
Authorities closed much of Miami International Airport and nearby hotels for hours last week when a man attempting to carry a suspicious container through customs was linked to a 2003 investigation over his handling of plague samples, the Associated press reported.
Former Texas Tech University professor Thomas Butler, 70, caught the attention of a Transportation Security Administration officer at 9 p.m. Thursday at a customs checkpoint. The inspector checked a database and found that Butler had been charged previously with plague-related crimes.
The airport was evacuated and Butler was taken into custody for a short period. He provided full cooperation and faces no charges in the incident, according to a law enforcement source. An analysis of the container determined it contained no dangerous material, a high-level police official said.
Butler in January 2003 reported vials of plague bacteria stolen from his laboratory. Federal agents were called in to search, but stopped looking when Butler submitted a written statement in which he acknowledged making a “misjudgment” by not telling his supervisor the vials were “accidentally destroyed.”
Butler was convicted of fraudulently sending plague samples to Tanzania in an inaccurately marked package, although charges he had smuggled and illegally transferred the samples were dropped. He also received a two-year prison sentence for fraud and theft relating to contracts with pharmaceutical firms (Kay/Andersen, Associated Press/North Jersey Record, Sept. 4).
sunny- จำนวนข้อความ : 3511
Registration date : 28/06/2008
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