New technology may significantly reduce diagnostic time of coronavirus
(Bar-Ilan University) The time it currently takes to diagnose coronavirus poses one of the greatest challenges in treating infected patients and increases the risk of exposure. Using a new technology developed by Dr. Amos Danielli, of Bar-Ilan University, saliva tests can be analyzed within 15 minutes. The technology has already been proven to reduce the diagnostic time of Zika virus and is currently being used in the Israel Ministry of Health's central virology laboratory. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - February 14, 2020 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson Announces Collaboration with U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to Accelerate Development of a Potential Novel Coronavirus Vaccine
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., February 11, 2020 – Johnson & Johnson today announced that its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies will further expedite its investigational coronavirus vaccine program through an expanded collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The collaborative partnership with BARDA builds on Johnson & Johnson’s multipronged response to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. In addition to Janssen’s efforts to dev...
Source: Johnson and Johnson - February 11, 2020 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Innovation Source Type: news
Coronavirus: The New Pandemic?: Public Health Grand Rounds at the Aspen Institute
Source: Aspen Institute. Published: 2/11/2020.
In this one-hour, 22-minute panel discussion, experts with experience in the SARS, Ebola, and Zika outbreaks detail the emerging novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the threat it poses. They discuss how bad it may get, how dangerous is it, and if the country is prepared for it.
(Video or Multimedia) (Source: Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health)
Source: Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health - February 11, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
2019 Novel Coronavirus Recommendations for Ships
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Infectious Diseases (CDC OID). Published: 2/10/2020.
This web page provides recommendations for ships about the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in these topics: Investigation Form: Explanation of Key Fields; Ship Sanitation Certificate Information; Definitions: Signs, Symptoms, and Conditions; Federal Regulations: Reporting Illness/Death; and Questions and Answers about Disinsection and Zika for the Shipping Industry and Partners.
(Text) (Source: Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health)
Source: Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health - February 10, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Army Inches Closer To Develop Zika And Dengue Virus Vaccine
Mosquito-carried diseases such as the Zika virus and Dengue still continue to thrive in warm temperate parts of the world, but new US army research suggests we are on the cusp of figuring out a vaccine that could potentially work to fight both these infections. (Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News)
Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - February 8, 2020 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Dana Dovey, Contributor Source Type: news
The Coronavirus Outbreak Should Bring Out the Best in Humanity
Pandemics are perversely democratic. They’re nasty, lethal and sneaky, but they don’t discriminate. No matter your age, ethnicity, religion, gender, or nation, you’re a part of the pathogenic constituency.
That shared vulnerability, and the resulting human collectivism—a universal response to a universal threat—is newly and vividly evident in the face of the now-global outbreak of the novel coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV. As of writing, there have been over 30,000 diagnosed cases and over 630 related deaths. A virus that emerged in a single city, Wuhan, China—indeed, in a single crowded ...
Source: TIME: Health - February 8, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized 2019-nCoV Infectious Disease Source Type: news
How Our Modern World Creates Outbreaks Like Coronavirus
“Everyone knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world,” observes Albert Camus in his novel The Plague. “Yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet plagues and wars always take people by surprise.”
Camus was imagining a fictional outbreak of plague in 1948 in Oran, a port city in northwest Algeria. But at a time when the world is reeling from a very real microbial emergency sparked by the emergence of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan, central China, his observations are as pertinent a...
Source: TIME: Health - February 7, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Mark Honigsbaum Tags: Uncategorized 2019-nCoV health ideas Source Type: news
New details on how a viral protein puts the brakes on virus replication
(Colorado State University) Researchers used computational chemistry, biochemistry and virology to uncover new information on how viruses such as West Nile, dengue and Zika replicate. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - February 7, 2020 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Coronavirus surveillance: Regenstrief team creating unique codes for disease tracking
(Regenstrief Institute) As public health leaders work to contain the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, a team at Regenstrief Institute, an international leader in health information technology, is providing help to track cases of the illness. The team also created codes during the Zika and SARS outbreaks, among others. The codes are part of LOINC, a terminology system, created and maintained at Regenstrief, that is used in 176 countries. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - February 5, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
What's in a name? To name an outbreak, a lot
Guidelines now discourage the use of geographic locations (like Zika virus), animals (swine flu) or groups of people (Legionnaires' disease) in naming diseases. (Source: CBC | Health)
Source: CBC | Health - February 4, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: News/Health Source Type: news
Past Outbreaks Provide a Roadmap for U.S. Government Response to Coronavirus Threat
While the threat of the new coronavirus in the United States remains limited, a network of U.S. government agencies are already furiously ramping up efforts to contain the disease, should an outbreak occur.
“We are working to keep the risk low,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who is leading the federal government’s response, at a press conference Friday. So far, the overwhelming number of new cases of the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, remain in China. There are only 11 confirmed cases in the U.S.
The good news, some officials and infectious disease experts tell TIME, is t...
Source: TIME: Health - February 4, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Abigail Abrams Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
Emergency Use Authorizations
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Published: 2/4/2020.
This resource, updated on February 4, 2020, lists current and terminated Emergency Use Authorizations that make available diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices to diagnose and respond to public health emergencies. The topics covered include 2019 Novel Coronavirus Emergency Use Authorization; Zika Virus Emergency Use Authorization; 2015 Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) Emergency Use Authorization; 2014 Ebola Virus Emergency Use Authorization; 2013 Coronavirus Emergency Use Authorization (Potential Emergency); 2013 H7N9 Influenza Emergency Use Authorization ...
Source: Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health - February 4, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Army-developed Zika vaccine induces potent Zika and dengue cross-neutralizing antibodies
(Walter Reed Army Institute of Research) A new study led by WRAIR scientists has shown for the first time that a single dose of an experimental Zika vaccine in a dengue-experienced individual can boost pre-existing flavivirus immunity and elicit protective cross-neutralizing antibody responses against both Zika and dengue viruses. Findings were published today in Nature Medicine. Three Phase 1 human clinical trials have shown ZPIV to be safe and well-tolerated in healthy adults and that it induced a robust immune response. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - February 3, 2020 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
UK government pledges £20 million to help develop coronavirus vaccine
The funding will be used to support work to develop new vaccines for epidemics Related items fromOnMedica Warning on post-Brexit antibiotic use NHS review recommends making childhood vaccination more 'convenient' for parents Doctors can help overcome ‘vaccine hesitancy’ Global measles deaths reach historic low World ‘not prepared’ for Zika and Ebola (Source: OnMedica Latest News)
Source: OnMedica Latest News - February 2, 2020 Category: UK Health Source Type: news
Rapid Response Toolbox
Source: Medical Mission Institute. Published: 2/2020.
This toolbox, updated in February 2020, provides information and materials about rapid response to diseases and outbreaks, including situation reports about COVID-19 (coronavirus disease), plague, cholera, Marburg Virus, and Yellow Fever. It provide clinical guidelines, including for COVID-19,chikungunya, dengue, Ebola, and Zika; information about communication and training; and prevention and control information.
(Text) (Source: Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health)
Source: Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health - February 1, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
