news digest
Anthrax-heroin alarm in Glasgow: a lesson in attribution
A spate of anthrax cases in Glasgow has illustrated the difficulties in responding to a rare, possibly bioterror-related, disease – and in discovering its origin. Fourteen people died – a high number for such a rare disease and, therefore, sounded alarm bells in the UK and beyond. The anthrax was first suspected to have emanated from a lab, or left over from the UK’s World War II anthrax experiments on Gruinard Island. The first cases presented to hospital in
Glasgow. NHS Greater Glasgow initially established an Outbreak Control Team (OCT) to determine the size and source of the outbreak. The team of microbiologists worked with Strathclyde Police, Health Protection Scotland, and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) Special Pathogens Reference Unit (SPRU) at Porton Down and others to establish the numbers affected, establish the cause and then act to control the outbreak. Because the victims were all heroin addicts, the HPA thought supplies of the drug had been tainted in Glasgow. The Chief Medical Officer alerted all general
presenting with likely symptoms. According to the OCT Chair, Dr Colin
Ramsay, interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s File on Four ‘BioSecurity’ documentary broadcast in February: “Our concern was that if it had happened in the country of origin, we had no way of telling how big this outbreak could be... There were indications that there were cases occurring at almost an identical time period in Germany… the potential for a European- wide outbreak became apparent.” The OCT was assisted by US
practitioners, hospital A & E departments, intensive care and high dependency units, microbiologists, the ambulance service, NHS 24 and drug user services to be aware of the potential for anthrax in those
microbiologist Dr Paul Keim, who worked with the Scotland HPA to help find the source. When he compared the strain against his laboratory’s database of genetic anthrax profiles, he discovered it was a natural outbreak. The police promised drug users immunity (pun not intended) to identify their dealers – and were able to establish that the heroin had been contaminated by a goat skin during transit through Turkey en route to Britain. Before this it was thought the anthrax came from Taliban-supplied opium.
liverpool uni fronts nuclear i.d. project
Smuggling radiological materials in big commercial containers and special enclosures inside them can minimise escaping telltale radiation. The European Commission has put $4.7 million into technology R & D for an experimental portable sensor technology for identifying special nuclear materials (SNM) – highly enriched uranium and plutonium – and also civilian-use radioisotopes. This is being carried out at the University
of Liverpool, where a system to deliver a prototype mobile detection system is being developed. This will rely heavily on noble gas detection modules supported by robust, lightweight electronics and intelligent analysis
algorithms, integrated in portable units that can be used by security personnel at ports of entry. Plutonium emits neutrons of high energy
Liverpool University’s mobile detection system
and detection systems work by picking up on this tell-tale ‘signature’. Neutron detection, however, has traditionally relied heavily on Helium-3, an isotope which is becoming scarce, and expensive to use. Liverpool University is developing noble (inert) gas sensors which will detect neutron emissions and sit at the heart of the new system. The detectors can be made efficient and portable in small systems and robust enough for security forces to carry in the back of a car and use where required.
06 | CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE | 2012/01
BATTELLE STATIONS FOR US ARMY
The US Army has awarded Battelle a contract to manufacture 140 Chemical Vapor Sampling Systems at Battelle’s Production and Field Support (PFS) facility in Dublin, Ohio. The equipment is to be used on board the Stryker NBC Reconnaissance Vehicle (NBCRV). The systems, of which Battelle has produced 240 since 2008, sample chemical vapour in air at designated locations and store it in canisters, which are then taken to Gold Star Laboratories for confirmatory analysis. The order also includes making
840 Training Sample Canisters and 20 Training Support Packages at Battelle’s Eastern facility at Aberdeen, Maryland, with initial deliveries due by January 2013.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84