Following Hurricane Harvey, colleagues from the United States and Canada deployed to Rockport, Texas, through an unusual disaster relief organization – Field Innovation Team (FIT), a nonprofit organization that creates cutting-edge disaster solutions. They developed a Public Health Digital Brochure (telephone/Short Message Service hotline) and a donation management system that can be adapted to any community after a disaster.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will sponsor the next stages of development of an antibiotic that not only holds potential as a treatment for infections from certain types of drug-resistant bacteria but also may be able to combat infections caused by bacteria used in biowarfare.
Rapid deployment of effective diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines may stop major disease outbreaks from potentially exploding into a pandemic. A new article by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), examines three approaches to pandemic preparedness: pathogen-specific work, platform-based technologies, and prototype-pathogen efforts.
A potential antidote to treat the life-threatening effects of inhaled chlorine gas, a national security threat, will receive drug development support under a contract between the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a component of the Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Transportation have released a new human trafficking training for aviation industry personnel through the Blue Lightning Initiative. Developed by survivor advocates, law enforcement, and aviation experts, the interactive, online module outlines common indicators of human trafficking that aviation personnel may specifically encounter.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a potential new tactic for rapidly determining whether an antibiotic combats a given infection, thus hastening effective medical treatment and limiting the development of drug-resistant bacteria. Their method can quickly sense mechanical fluctuations of bacterial cells and any changes induced by an antibiotic.
Advanced decontamination and neutralization guidance for over 10,000 materials and tradenames, an expanded ordnance database and additional home made explosives precursors (HME) are just some of the new capabilities found in version 21 of Alluviam’s HazMasterG3 CBRNE/HME decision support system.
Natural disasters and severe weather – like the recent Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria – can result in the need for disaster evacuation centers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has assembled pertinent resources in one place.
Volunteers representing dozens of local, state, and national organizations are working alongside federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local responders to address the immediate needs of survivors affected by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is advising people who want to help to do so through affiliation with the voluntary organizations that are active in the ongoing disaster operations.
The first intranasal (nose spray) treatment for the life-threatening effects of cyanide poisoning will be developed under an agreement between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and Emergent BioSolutions of Gaithersburg, Maryland. Cyanide could be used as a chemical weapon against the United States.
