Authorities in Saudi Arabia are deploying a new health surveillance system to help keep people protected from communicable diseases during the annual hajj pilgrimage. For the first time, the Global Centre for Mass Gatherings Medicines of the Saudi Ministry of Health is using the Health Early Warning System (HEWS), which ensures the early detection of and timely response to health threats and emergencies related to mass gatherings.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is awarding more than $6.6 million to fund research into improving disaster resilience. Eleven organizations will receive grants to conduct research into how earthquakes, wind, and fire affect the built environment to inform building designs, codes, and standards to help those structures better withstand such hazards.
As directed in the National Biodefense Strategy, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) continues to enhance preparedness to ensure health security and save lives – by expanding the nation’s portfolio of medical countermeasures to address the remaining threats and to counter new and unknown threats. The United States is better prepared today because of sound investments in biodefense made using Project BioShield, strong partnerships, and a shared commitment to cutting-edge innovation.
FLIR commemorates the last delivery of Dismounted Reconnaissance Sets, Kits, and Outfits (DR-SKO) Systems to the U.S. Army’s Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense. The CBRN DR-SKO system is a set of mission-specific kits that characterize and provide full spectrum CBRN dismounted reconnaissance capability utilized by the U.S. military Joint Services.
As part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) ongoing efforts to support state, local, tribal, and territorial partners, Acting Secretary Kevin K. McAleenan announced final allocations of $350 million for six Fiscal Year 2019 DHS competitive preparedness grant programs.
Over the last 15 years, BARDA has leveraged unique partnerships, funding, strong technical expertise, and interagency coordination to strengthen the medical countermeasure pipeline so products reach late-stage development support and, ultimately, become available to protect Americans and save lives during a national disaster.
A suite of tools used by the United States Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as the ADCIRC Prediction System (APS), played an integral role in accurately predicting the storm surges, flooding, wind and wave interactions, and speed of tides and currents associated with both Hurricane Florence and Michael.
The U.S. government reached a milestone in its long-standing efforts to defend the country against potential use of chemical weapons: the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance of a product to manage certain blister injuries caused by sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas.
The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing more than $38 million in additional assistance to help end the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including $15 million in new funding to the World Health Organization.
Saving lives in a public health emergency requires cutting-edge medical countermeasures: medications, vaccines, diagnostics, and more. In some types of emergencies, like an act of bioterrorism, some of those medical products have no commercial market. In 2004, Congress passed the Project BioShield Act to create a market for products necessary for disaster response but with limited or no commercial market.
