Bioterrorism Watch Archives – April 1, 2008
April 1, 2008
View Archives Issues
-
Biodefense 'gold rush' raising concerns as labs rapidly increase
A rapid, ongoing expansion in the number of high-containment biodefense laboratories throughout the nation is raising serious questions about the safety of lab workers, the risk to the public, and the lack of government oversight to prevent accidents and security breaches. -
Is it safe? Lab design and maintenance key
As the number of high-containment labs undergoes an unprecedented expansion in the United States, the question of relative risk is coming to the forefront. -
Bioterror drill goes awry, lab workers exposed
An exercise designed to test laboratory readiness for a bioterrorism incident turned into a real-life disaster of another sort when specimen mislabeling and flagrant breaches in infection control resulted in numerous exposures to an attenuated vaccine strain of Brucella abortus RB51, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. -
CDC distributing new smallpox vaccine
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is distributing a new-generation smallpox vaccine, ACAM2000 (Acambis, Inc.; Cambridge, MA), to civilian laboratory personnel, the military, and state public health preparedness programs. -
Preliminary results confirm ricin in Las Vegas case
As this issue of Bioterrorism Watch went to press, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was investigating a case of ricin exposure in Las Vegas. The CDC said "preliminary results of environmental testing at laboratories in Nevada have tested positive for ricin."