Federal Emergency Management Agency
Happy Independence Day! Over the last week, I have attempted to increase my understanding of how the American incident management system works and the organizational structure that is in place in case of an emergency. In order to do this, I took two courses provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Continue Reading
A free chart from www.gapminder.org
Gapminder is a Swedish foundation created by Hans Rosling, his son Ola Rosling, and Anna Roslin Rönnlund. It was founded on February 25th, 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden and often collaborates with universities, the United Nations, and both public and non-governmental organizations. Gapminder strives to educate the world’s population on the ignorance of global facts, reduce misconceptions of people’s worldview, and promote global data and research that is easy to understand. Continue Reading
Bacteria Francisella tularensis, a potential biothreat agent. Picture by Shutterstock/ Kateryna Kon
Over the summer, I met with Dr. Tomoya Saito in Tokyo to learn about outbreak and bioterror preparedness in Japan.
This is Part II of my conversation in which we discuss the risks of dual-use technologies for biosecurity. Part I focused on the structure of the Japanese preparedness system and was posted in March. Continue Reading
As of yesterday, New York City has declared a public health emergency in response to a widespread measles outbreak in Brooklyn. Measles is a viral infection that can be very dangerous for small children, but has been preventable with a vaccine since the 1960s. Common measles symptoms include a cough, runny nose, fever, and a red skin rash. Measles symptoms do not appear until 10 to 14 days after the initial exposure, which allows for easy transmission of the virus during the initial days of infection. Continue Reading
Dr. Tomoya Saito
Last summer, I met with Dr. Tomoya Saito in Tokyo to learn about outbreak and bioterror preparedness in Japan.
Our conversation will be posted in two parts. Part I (below) is about the role that different Japanese institutions play to prevent and respond to biological threats. In Part II (to be posted soon) we will discuss how dual-use technologies change the risk of biothreats.
Dr. Saito is Chief Senior Researcher at the Department of Health Crisis Management of the National Institute of Public Health of Japan (NIPH). His current area of research is biosecurity, public health emergency preparedness and response, and simulation epidemiology. He is based in Saitama, Japan.
Virus cells and DNA strand. Picture by Shutterstock/ Kjpargeter
I recently spoke with Dr. Suneil Malik about genomics and outbreak preparedness.
This is the second part of our conversation, in which we were discussing the benefits and potential downsides of the so-called “omics”-revolution, which consists of new technologies such as transcriptomics and proteomics that are changing the field of medicine.
Suneil Malik, PhD. Photo courtesy of McGill University, Canada
I recently spoke with Dr. Suneil Malik about genomics and outbreak preparedness.
Dr. Malik is a Manager and Team Leader for Toxicology at Health Canada, a government agency directed by the Canadian Minister of Health. He is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Happy New Year, everyone! From January 29th to January 31st 2019 there will be a conference held by the American Society for Microbiology in Arlington, Virginia. Discussions and exhibitions on the latest developments in biosecurity and bioterrorism will be held by leading experts in academia, government, and the public health industry from around the world.
Professor Hans Rosling. Picture by ted.com
When I first started out learning about global public health, the course that got me hooked was “An Introduction to Global Health”, taught by Professor Hans Rosling from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. After taking this course, I was inspired to further explore the field of public health and later biodefense. Continue Reading
Professor Benjamin J. Cowling. Photo courtesy of School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong
This is the second part of my conversation with Professor Benjamin J. Cowling about influenza pandemic prevention and preparedness. The first part was about pandemic preparedness and genomics. In this part, Prof. Cowling focuses on national and global responses.