Situation Report

CLICK HERE - CDC - Public Health Response to a Nuclear Detonation - January 16, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. (ET)

cbsnews.com - by Rebecca Shabad - January 5, 2018

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scheduled a briefing for later this month to outline how the public can prepare for nuclear war.

"While a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps. Despite the fear surrounding such an event, planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness," the notice about the Jan. 16 briefing says on the CDC's website, which features a photo of a mushroom cloud.

The notice went on to say that most people don't know that sheltering in place for at least 24 hours is "crucial to saving lives and reducing exposure to radiation."

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

The New York Times - By DEBORAH ACOSTA and NATALIE RENEAU - October 3, 2017

President Trump said Puerto Ricans should be proud of the low death toll after Hurricane Maria. But a tour of the island by Times reporters showed that vast humanitarian and logistical challenges remain.

https://nyti.ms/2yHr8K3

CLICK HERE - Department of Health and Human Services Framework for Guiding Funding Decisions about Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens (HHS PC30) - (7 page .PDF document)

cnn.com - by Wayne Drash - December 19, 2017

The US government on Tuesday lifted a ban on making lethal viruses, saying the research is necessary to "develop strategies and effective countermeasures against rapidly evolving pathogens that pose a threat to public health."

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, made the announcement, in which he outlined a new framework for the controversial research. The work with three viruses can now go forward, but only if a scientific review panel determines that the benefits outweigh the risks.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

FILE PHOTO: An aedes aegypti mosquito is pictured on a leaf in San Jose, Costa Rica February 1, 2016. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate/File Photo

CLICK HERE - STUDY - CDC - EID - Postmortem Findings in Patient with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and Zika Virus Infection

reuters.com - by Julie Steenhuysen - December 13, 2017

A new study sheds light on how the mosquito-borne Zika virus causes a rare neurological condition, and the findings could have implications for companies working on Zika vaccines, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday . . .

 . . . To study the nerve disorder, Dr. Tyler Sharp of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dengue Branch in San Juan and colleagues in Puerto Rico examined the rare case of a 78-year-old man from San Juan who had been infected with Zika in 2016, developed Guillain-Barre and subsequently died.

An autopsy showed inflammation and erosion of the protective sheath known as myelin in two nerves, but no evidence of the Zika virus in nerve cells.