News of the Day

Biolab:Killer viruses reportedly secured before hurricane hit

September 16, 2008
The Galveston area of Texas that took a direct hit from Hurricane Ike is home to a top-level biodefense laboratory that studies highly contagious and deadly diseases including bird flu, but lab officials are assuring the public that the pathogens were secured before the storm made landfall. (Snip) All labs were decontaminated and secured prior to the storm, with all infectious agents stored in proper containers, according to UTMB.

However, UTMB’s statement contradicts claims by state and federal officials that the lab’s pathogens were destroyed before Ike hit. For example, Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s spokesperson told CNN that the lab’s pathogens were purposely destroyed before the staff evacuated the facility. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security also told the network dangerous materials were destroyed.

CNN reported on questions about the pathogen destruction claims raised by an unnamed former UTMB student who worked at the lab. She said she would be surprised if all of the pathogens had been destroyed, since some of them are rare and very valuable.

rest of article

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/09/ike-coverage-galveston-biolab.asp



comment-this would make a good movie!

March 3, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Science/Scientists-modify-smallpox-vaccine-to-fight-H5N1-bird-flu/rssarticleshow/4210902.cms
HONG KONG: A team of scientists from the University of Hong Kong and the US National Institutes of Health have developed a new vaccine strategy against the H5N1 bird flu virus by genetically modifying a smallpox vaccine. The new vaccine is potentially a sound solution in case of an H5N1 bird flu pandemic, which many scientists have been worried about, the study co-authored by scientists from the two sides said.

China' Xinhua news agency reported that the new vaccine has proved safer in experiments on mice and that "a single vaccine dose will provide rapid protective immune responses."

It is also expected to enable fast mass production by using cell-culture methods, which could help avoid potential production bottlenecks, as eggs are used in the production of vaccines currently on offer. And the existing facilities used for the production of smallpox vaccines can be used to produce the bird flu vaccines without much trouble, which can help reduce the costs, the study said, adding that alternative strategies available involving genetic engineering methods have been typically expensive.

The highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus has infected hundreds of people around the globe over the past decade, with the death rate standing at round 60 percent.

Vaccine offers cheaper option in bird flu fight
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=78903&sid=22935114&con_type=1&d_str=20090302&sear_year=2009
Adele Wong, Monday, March 02, 2009
A smallpox vaccine has been altered to become a cheaper and more effective way to fight avian flu. Hong Kong University, working with the US National Institutes of Health, developed a new type of vaccine that can potentially be used to combat an avian flu pandemic and can cost less than other vaccines, Department of Microbiology chair professor Malik Peiris said.

"The vaccine for smallpox is extremely cheap," Peiris said. "And the vaccine we are developing, which is a modified version of a licensed smallpox vaccine, will not be much more expensive." The vaccine has been successfully tested on mice but Peiris said they will need to test it on ferrets and possibly primates before conducting clinical trials on humans.

"The vaccine induced good and rapid immune responses even with a single dose, and was fit for cross-protection," he said. The infrastructure to produce the vaccine already exists as it is based on the smallpox vaccine that has been introduced across the world since the 1970s, Peiris said. He believed all these factors make the new vaccine strategy a good choice for a pandemic situation.

"We have also examined the effect of including the IL-15 cytokine, which is a type of immunological messenger, in the vaccine, and found that side effects are reduced while efficacy is increased," he said. He said that according to the study's US collaborator, Professor Liyanage Perera, "if everything goes smoothly, clinical testing on humans can happen in one to two years' time."

Current avian flu vaccines depend on embryonated hen eggs, Peiris said, but supply can be an issue in production, as multiple doses are needed with limited efficacy. Peiris said preliminary data suggest the smallpox-based vaccine has an effective protection period of at least 14 months.