Health Bird flu remains dangerous as it continues to mutate China reports bird flu outbreak in Tibet, human death When the flu vaccine just doesn’t work Security AAAS/APS Report – “Nuclear Forensics: Role, State of the Art, Program Needs” Trade, security goals collide U.S. urged to stop using “dirty bomb” ingredien Federal Agency Events U.S. seen better prepared for health disaster Indonesia resumes sharing of bird flu sample International News ‘Mysterious’ bird flu baffles Indonesian scientists Bush orders clampdown on flights to U.S. Academic Meetings/ Conferences Next plague likeliest to emerge from poor tropical countries Analyst warns of third Islamic terrorist wave, enabled by Internet Risk Symposium 2008 Geospatial Dimensions of Emergency Response Symposium Grant Opportunities Cooperative Research Partnerships for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (U01) Grant.

Health

Bird flu remains dangerous as it continues to mutate
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/28215.html

As bird flu continues to spread across Asia, Africa, and Europe scientists say that it remains a serious threat to human and animal health. The lethal H5N1 version of the virus is mutating rapidly and rampaging through bird flocks throughout those parts of the world, infecting and often killing people who come in contact with these birds. The fear is that the virus will change into a form that makes human-to-human transmission quick and easy. At least seven slightly different subtypes already have been identified. Although H5N1 has not reached the Western Hemisphere, the chief veterinary officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, warned last month that it “could still trigger a human influenza pandemic.” In the last year, the WHO confirmed 98 new human cases, including 69 deaths, a 70 percent death rate. It was the second worst year for bird flu, topped only by 2006, when 115 cases and 79 deaths (69 percent) were reported.

China reports bird flu outbreak in Tibet, human death
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/02/19/afx4668281.html

Chinese authorities have reported a fresh bird flu outbreak among poultry in Tibet, a day after confirming a 22-year-old man in Hunan, in central China, had died of the deadly virus. He was the country’s 18th confirmed human bird flu fatality. The agriculture ministry said 132 poultry had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a village outside the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa and about 7,700 birds had been slaughtered to bring the outbreak under control. It was the second outbreak of bird flu in the Himalayan region this year. In January, about 1,000 birds died and 13,000 were slaughtered during an earlier outbreak in Gongga County, about 50 kilometers south of Lhasa.

When the flu vaccine just doesn’t work
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4326711&page=1

Federal health officials who met in Maryland were already preparing for the next flu season, which starts in the fall. They said they hoped the three viruses they will target in a new vaccine will be more effective than this year’s batch. In just five weeks, this year’s government “influenza map” has exploded with widespread flu activity now reported in almost every state. In Raleigh, North Carolina, almost half the students at one school are out sick. So many teachers had the flu, officials considered canceling classes. In Placenta, California, influenza is spreading through whole neighborhoods and families. “It’s a little bit unusual for so many states to be involved with influenza, seriously, simultaneously,” said a doctor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center said. “It usually moves across the country in stages.” The widespread activity is due to the fact that this year’s flu shot is only effective against about 40 percent of the flu strains now in the U.S. Each year, health officials try to predict months in advance which of the thousands of strains circling the globe will be coming to America. They use a web of more than 80 labs to identify which strains pose the biggest threat and then target them in a vaccine. This is the first time they have completely reformulated the flu vaccine in more than 20 years.

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Security

AAAS and APS release report on tracing nuclear materials
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2008/0216nuke_report.shtml

The world faces a shortage of “atomic detectives” that can trace smuggled nuclear materials and advise decision makers on the critical steps to take after a nuclear explosion, according to a new report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. Filling the nearly-empty pipeline of nuclear forensic researchers should be a priority for the U.S., said the head of the panel that wrote the report. “Presently available trained personnel are highly skilled, but there are not enough of them to deal with an emergency and they are not being replaced,” he said. The report – “Nuclear Forensics: Role, State of the Art, Program Needs” – also calls for increased international cooperation in sharing data, upgrading instruments and procedures to identify the source and age of nuclear materials, and stepping up exercises to practice procedures in the event of a nuclear detonation.

Trade, security goals collide
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120338464182275887.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The U.S. Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement say industrial espionage is a big threat to U.S. security, especially given worries about nuclear proliferation. In the year ended September 30, the number of people charged with violations of export-control laws was up 50 percent from a year earlier, the department says. At the same time, the Commerce Department is relaxing restrictions on some sensitive exports to help revive the White House’s flagging free-trade agenda. In the struggle between industry and administration trade officials on one hand and national-security hawks on the other, “it feels like industry is coming out on top, making things easy to export,” says a researcher at a Washington think tank that works on proliferation issues. “Unchecked export of sensitive technology that could be used for military and weapons of mass destruction applications can have a serious negative impact on our national security,” says the assistant attorney general for national security. Commerce Department officials say their moves would allow regulators to spend more time scrutinizing export applications from less well-known companies.

U.S. urged to stop using “dirty bomb” ingredients
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13360-us-urged-to-stop-using-dirty-bomb-ingredients.html

Radioactive caesium chloride used in medical and research equipment can be used as a deadly ingredient in a “dirty bomb,” and U.S. leaders should try to curb its use, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) said in a report commissioned by Congress. About 1,300 machines at U.S. hospitals and universities used for irradiating blood for transplant patients and other purposes contain caesium-137 in the form of caesium chloride stored in stainless steel capsules. “The presence of these sizable sources in areas that are potentially attractive targets [for attack] is a major factor making radioactive caesium chloride such a concern to the committee,” according to the report. The fear is that individuals or groups eager to detonate a dirty bomb in a U.S. city could steal this caesium chloride and combine it with conventional explosives such as dynamite to produce a “dirty bomb” or radiological dispersal device. The number of caesium chloride irradiating devices appears to be rising in the U.S., says the report. And according to a member of the panel that produced the report, there is no disposal facility for them. The report proposes that the U.S. government stop licensing new caesium chloride irradiators and discontinue their import and export. It also urges the government to create incentives for owners to decommission devices that rely on radioactive caesium chloride.

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Federal Agency Events

U.S. seen better prepared for health disaster
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080220/us_nm/disasters_usa_dc;_....

U.S. states are better prepared than in 2001 for a pandemic or biological attack, but still lack trained staff and specialized facilities, according to a federal report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released. All the state health departments are now ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week to examine urgent health threat reports – compared to just 12 states in 1999, the study found. While there are also many more labs that can detect and process chemical and biological agents, not a single state can look at a sample from patients and quickly determine if they have been poisoned by various radiological agents. Only CDC headquarters can do this, the report found. The report found problems in certain areas. “Public health departments report difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified epidemiologists,” the report reads. Also, a national system for distributing drugs and vaccines is not up to speed. In December, the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health reported that many states still lack a stockpile of drugs, masks, gloves, and other equipment and noted that federal funding for state and local preparedness was declining.

Indonesia resumes sharing of bird flu samples
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-22-voa16.cfm

Indonesia sent a dozen bird flu samples to a World Health Organization laboratory this week, the first time it has done so it more than a year. Health Ministry officials say they shipped the samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Indonesia stopped sending its virus samples to the WHO because it wanted assurances that poor and developing nations would be allowed access to affordable vaccines developed from their samples. The government has been in talks with the WHO to create a new virus-sharing system. Health Ministry officials say the samples sent to the CDC laboratory are for diagnostic purposes only.

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International News

US/UK fight against nuclear threats
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=304647

The British energy minister has announced a new collaboration between Britain and the U.S. that will address nuclear and radiological security threats. As part of the program, an initial £2 million will be invested in initiatives designed to secure high-risk nuclear and other radioactive materials and combat their illegal trafficking. “Our first joint initiative will be a new project to enhance long-term security of highly active spent radioactive sources in Ukraine,” he said. The collaboration builds on the progress made by the UK’s existing Global Threat Reduction program, which includes the management of the 30 tons of spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned submarines in northwest Russia and the closure of weapons grade plutonium production reactors in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Federal and provincial agencies conduct huge counter-terror exercise in B.C.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJjqGI4BV9flQDERnwGzfy9hDSTg

A huge counter-terrorism exercise is being held in British Columbia, Canada. Called Exercise Initial Thunder, it involves more than 250 people from several federal and provincial agencies to focus on the threat of terrorists using explosives or chemical, biological, and radioactive weapons. The exercise will practice a coordinated response to major emergencies and show emergency personnel what help they can get in facing such threats. It will include mock scenarios, such as an illegal shipment of radioactive material through the Port of Vancouver and the treatment of people with radioactive burns. Another exercise takes place at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt and will demonstrate how to detect and handle radioactive, chemical, biological, and explosive materials. Agencies involved include the armed forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada Border Services, the Vancouver police and fire departments, the Provincial Emergency Program, the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, and 12 federal departments, including Atomic Energy of Canada, Environment Canada, and Health Canada.

New manual on terrorism prevention
http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=132&storyCode=2048805

Interpol, Europol, the World Customs Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency have produced a reference manual that details how to prevent, detect, and respond to nuclear terrorism. Combating Illicit Trafficking in Nuclear and Other Radioactive Material has been written for law enforcement, intelligence, emergency workers, and the nuclear industry. It advises on existing national and international anti-nuclear terror laws, policies, and actions; the existing threat posed by illicit use of nuclear materials; information on radiation health risks and nuclear transports; and advice on the detection of potential nuclear terror threats. It also calls for better coordination and harmonization of procedures between agencies and government departments which deal with possible nuclear terror threats.

Manual: Combating Illicit Trafficking in Nuclear and other Radioactive Material
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/pub1309_web.pdf

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Academic Studies / Conferences

Next plague likeliest to emerge from poor tropical countries http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080220/hl_afp/healthdiseaseinfectious

Scores of infectious diseases have emerged to threaten humans in the past decades as viruses leap the species barrier from wild animals and bacteria mutate into antibiotic-resistant strains, scientists reported. Presenting the first-ever map of “hotspots” of new infectious diseases, they predict that the next pandemic is likeliest to come out of poor tropical countries, where burgeoning human populations come into contact with wildlife. A three-year investigation led by four major institutions tracked 335 incidents since 1940 when a new infectious disease emerged. The category includes HIV/AIDS, which has slain or infected more than 65 million people around the world, and outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and H5N1 bird flu, which have cost tens of billions of dollars to contain. The emergence of new diseases have roughly quadrupled over the past 50 years, says the study, appearing in the British journal Nature. Sixty percent of these diseases are so-called “zoonoses,” or diseases that have been transmitted from animals to humans. 20 percent derive from a growing resistance to drugs, such as extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Analyst warns of third Islamic terrorist wave, enabled by Internet
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39361&dcn=e_gvet

Al Qaeda is not the central planning, recruiting and organizing force for global terrorism it once was, but has become more of a brand name that leaderless terrorist groups around the world assume to gain recognition and notoriety, according to a leading terrorist expert. The third wave of terrorists comprises mostly "terrorist wannabes," said Marc Sageman, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, who was a CIA case officer in Afghanistan in the 1980s. They are a post-Iraq terrorist generation made up predominately of Muslims in Europe who feel shut out of the labor market, said Sageman, speaking in Washington on Feb. 20 at an event sponsored by the New America Foundation. They become increasingly radicalized by shared group discontent and join the terrorist jihad in a quest for glory and heroism, he added. These dissidents typically don't associate face to face, rather their interaction has shifted to Internet chat rooms and online forums, which act as "echo chambers" where anger intensifies and participants become more radicalized, Sageman said. The virtual world enables the natural dynamic of "in-group love and out-group hate," in which jihadists become more withdrawn from society and associate only with radical and like-minded thinkers.

Risk Symposium 2008
March 11-13, 2008.
http://risk.lanl.gov/

Los Alamos National Laboratory is pleased to host Risk Symposium 2008, Effective Risk Communication: Tools, Theory and Application, March 11-13, 2008.  The Symposium will be held in the historic city of Santa Fe, NM at the landmark La Fonda On the Plaza hotel. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together theoreticians, modelers, data analysts, domain experts, and decision makers to share their knowledge and ideas on contemporary and novel aspects of risk based decision making. The symposium will provide a platform to share your work and discuss the latest advances and key challenges in risk analysis.

Geospatial Dimensions of Emergency Response Symposium announced
March 9-12, 2008
http://www.insidegnss.com/node/387

A symposium addressing the application of GIS, GPS, remote sensing and other mapping technologies to emergency and disaster response will be held between March 9 and March 12 in Seattle, Washington. “Sponsored by the Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA), this symposium will take place in conjunction with the Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference (formerly GITA Annual Conference). The two events will share registration, an exhibit floor, and social events.” For more information on the event, see: http://gita.org/events/annual/31/ers.asp.

Grant Opportunities

Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health Cooperative Research Partnerships for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (U01)

Grant: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=true&oppId=16914

Purpose: To support development of vaccines, vaccine technologies, therapeutics, immunotherapeutics, adjuvants and medical diagnostics for NIAID Category A, B, and C priority pathogens and toxins, with $26 million available to support 15-20 awards.

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