Australia in biosecurity 'hotspot'

Australia is "encased by a ring of fire" with modelling by international experts showing Asia to be the most likely source of the next global infectious disease outbreak.

The panel of biosecurity and infectious disease experts also warn that a "fortress Australia" approach is not enough to stop bio-threats entering the country.

Instead Australia must also help develop the region's capacity to deal with and prevent infectious disease outbreaks, they say.

The presentation came ahead of today's launch, by the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre, of the Biosecurity Risk Intelligence Scanning Committee.

Committee chair Professor John Edwards, Dean of the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at Murdoch University, says the group aims to predict emerging threats and inform research priorities.

"Australia has some of the best biosecurity systems in the world," Edwards says.

"But biosecurity is something you can never do well enough."

Edwards says greater attention needs to be given to animal viruses as up to 70% have zoonotic potential - can be passed to humans.

Priority assessments
He says the new committee will as a priority assess the risk of bat-borne viruses such as the Hendra-like Nipah virus, the dengue-like Chikungunya virus and Bluetongue virus. The later is spread by a biting midge and causes serious disease in livestock, particularly sheep.

Dr Peter Daszak, executive director of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, says modelling of the likely areas where new viruses will emerge shows the region to the north of Australia to be most at risk.

"Australia is surrounded by the hotspot for emerging diseases and they are areas with incredibly low surveillance effort," he says.

"To understand the risk of new viruses we have to know what viruses wildlife carry, and of course we don't.

"We need to understand what makes them emerge and deal with that before they emerge."

'Hottest of hotspots'
Daszak says more than half of all emerging disease come from wildlife, yet estimates suggest 99.8% of viral diversity is unknown.

While it is hard to predict what the next pandemic will be, Daszak says "we can get a handle on where the next one will come from".

"The countries that border Australia are becoming the hottest of the hot spots," he says, adding we are "encased" by a biosecurity "ring of fire".

"The networks of trade and travel mean we are extremely connected to areas where diseases are emerging and therefore [Australia is] at high risk," Daszak says.

His view is supported by World Health Organization deputy regional advisor for communicable disease surveillance and response Dr Julie Hall.

Hall says the Asia-Pacific region has all the "drivers that enhance or create an environment" where new disease can emerge.

This includes high population density, significant poultry populations, and natural disasters and climate change causing large migrations of population.

'One new disease a year'
Hall says 70% of new emerging diseases are expected to come from animals and globally during the past 30 years on average one new disease a year has emerged.

She says the emerging threats in the region at present come from vector-borne disease, spread by mosquitoes.

This includes Dengue fever and Chikungunya virus.

However, Hall warns the most serious threat to the nation's biosecurity is "influenza fatigue" where interest wanes in the field because the threatened pandemic does not arrive.

This would mean a cut in funding to safeguards and the erosion of systems that prevent the pandemics from occurring.

Source: ABC

World Faces Global Pandemic Of Antibiotic Resistance, Experts Warn

Sep. 18, 2008) — Vital components of modern medicine such as major surgery, organ transplantation, and cancer chemotherapy will be threatened if antibiotic resistance is not tackled urgently, warn experts on bmj.com.

A concerted global response is needed to address rising rates of bacterial resistance caused by the use and abuse of antibiotics or "we will return to the pre-antibiotic era", write Professor Otto Cars and colleagues in an editorial.

All antibiotic use "uses up" some of the effectiveness of that antibiotic, diminishing the ability to use it in the future, write the authors, and antibiotics can no longer be considered as a renewable source.

They point out that existing antibiotics are losing their effect at an alarming pace, while the development of new antibiotics is declining. More than a dozen new classes of antibiotics were developed between 1930 and 1970, but only two new classes have been developed since then.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the most important disease threat in Europe is from micro-organisms that have become resistant to antibiotics. As far back as 2000, the World Health Organisation was calling for a massive effort to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance to prevent the "health catastrophe of tomorrow".

So why has so little been done to address the problem of resistance, ask the authors?

Antibiotics are over prescribed, still illegally sold over the counter in some EU countries, and self medication with leftover medicines is commonplace.

There are alarming reports about serious consequences of antibiotic resistance from all around the world. However, there is still a dearth of data on the magnitude and burden of antibiotic resistance, or its economic impact on individuals, health care, and society. This, they suggest, may explain why there has been little response to this public health threat from politicians, public health workers, and consumers.

In addition, there are significant scientific challenges but few incentives to developing new antibiotics, state the authors.

The authors believe that priority must be given to the most urgently needed antibiotics and incentives given for developing antibacterials with new mechanisms of action. In addition, "the use of new antibiotics must be safeguarded by regulations and practices that ensure rational use, to avoid repeating the mistakes we have made by overusing the old ones", they say.

They point out that reducing consumer demand could be the strongest force to driving change—individuals must be educated to understand that their choice to use an antibiotic will affect the possibility of effectively treating bacterial infections in other people.

But, they claim, the ultimate responsibility for coordination and resources rests with national governments, WHO and other international stakeholders.

Not only is there an urgent need for up-to-date information on the level of antibiotic resistance, but also for evidence of effective interventions for the prevention and control of antibiotic resistance at national and local levels, while more focus is needed on infectious diseases, they conclude.


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Adapted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Source: ScienceDaily

QualSec's eNose Detects Emerging Global Health Threats

NanoNose Detector Turns Epidemic Intelligence into a Predictive Science
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--QualSec (OTCBB: QLSCB):

In 1918, a strain of influenza, popularly known as the Spanish flu, ravaged the globe, killing an estimated 2.5% of the world's population. Now, concerns about new pandemics have led the global public health community to seek early warning systems to identify disease "hot spots" and enable rapid responses to prevent epidemics. The technological breakthrough that epidemiologists are looking for exists with QualSec’s NanoNose.

As environmental changes worldwide bring people in greater contact with animals, zoonoses - diseases that can transfer between humans and animals – are increasingly emerging as threats, including diseases like avian influenza, hantavirus, Ebola and West Nile viruses. QualSec’s NanoNose uses patented breakthroughs in nanotechnology for rapid data collection, allowing health officials better disease surveillance and vulnerability mapping.

This electronic nose technology developed by QualSec will be able to rapidly identify "hot spots" that could become epidemic nodes. Rapid detection is crucial for effective epidemic intelligence.

QualSec’s NanoNose is highly portable and rugged, and can be easily deployed to remote areas and used by operators with minimal training to detect epidemics before they spread. Though the sensor is designed to process data individually, it can be linked into a wireless network and transmit findings of disease to a central response center, where global health organizations can react to disease outbreaks.

For further details on the company and its products please visit the company's website at www.qualsensors.com.

QualSec believes that this press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to facts that could cause results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. For further information you are encouraged to view QualSec's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10K for the period ending December 31, 2007. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information contained in this press release.