The author interviews epidemiologists and bioterrorism experts to assess the risks of a new pandemic.
The United States and the rest of the world need to do a lot more to protect people against microbes like the one causing a mysterious and deadly form of pneumonia, as well as more traditional foes like influenza and tuberculosis, according to a panel of experts from the U.S. Institute of Medicine.
The U.S. government is joining forces with a tiny Dutch biotechnology company on Thursday to develop a vaccine against Ebola, the virus that bleeds people to death and which could be a powerful weapon in bioterrorism.
Experts from the UK are helping African countries to develop the world's first early warning system to prevent malaria epidemics.
A bonanza of federal dollars unleashed by autumn's anthrax attacks may help American medical researchers build better defenses against infectious diseases that are emerging naturally throughout the world, leading bioterrorism experts said yesterday.
Proposals made by the US government in recent years to intensify medical and public health preparedness for bioterrorism have received additional impetus from anthrax attacks following September 11, 2001. The threat has been exaggerated to support military and law enforcement agendas; resources have been diverted from essential public health priorities; ineffective or dangerous measures have been used; and public health programs have been inappropriately commingled with security programs.
Even though the United States has the most extensive disease surveillance and response system in the world, there are gaps in its ability to detect outbreaks early, as the 1999 West Nile virus outbreak illustrated.