Public Health

Penicillin WWII Advertisement. (Credit: Schenley Laboratories, Inc., Lawrenceburg, Indiana)

During 1940s, penicillin, the first commercially available antibiotic, was hailed as a “wonder drug.”  Penicillin helped make WWII the first American war where infection was not the major cause of death.  But by the 1950s, antibiotic resistance became widespread.  Scientists were engaged in a veritable arms race, constantly modifying and developing new classes of antibiotics to beat resistance while bacteria, literally generations ahead, continued to defeat their advances.  The same story is true for antivirals, such as Tamiflu (oseltamivir).  Multidrug-resistant bacteria and viruses are an increasing problem, especially in hospital settings.  Scientists are now looking to develop new methods, beyond standard antibiotics and antivirals, to combat bacterial and viral diseases.  Within the past month, many new treatments have been discussed, including the use of small interfering RNA (siRNA).

Cassava Roots (Credit: Wikimedia)

The New York Times reported today on the emergence of Cassava Brown Streak Virus in regions of Africa where the tuber is a key food crop.  Emphasizing the food’s importance, the Times notes:

“After rice and wheat, cassava is the world’s third-largest source of calories. Under many names, including manioc, tapioca and yuca, it is eaten by 800 million people in Africa, South America and Asia.”

The new virus, a recently characterized emerging variant in East Africa, renders the crop inedible.  The estimated $50 million in research funding aimed at deterring the disease is a small fraction of the amounts spent on diseases that infect humans in the developing world.  Though there are some resistant Cassava plants, researchers have begun work on developing transgenic cassava plants that improve resistance to the virus while remaining desirable as crops.  Unfortunately, this work could take years.  In the interim, famine and disorder could result.

Representatives from industry, NGO’s and the government gathered to discuss ways to manage biological threats at the second day of the 2010 Biosecurity convention.  The session focused on the coordination that would be required to respond to biological incidents. 

The final biosecurity panel of the day was an extended Q&A session with a panel of seven participants from the US government and industry.  The panel discussed countermeasures to biological threats, and offered an interesting contrast between where the two sides agreed and differed on the issues.

The third session of the BIO biosecurity conference focused on agricultural biosecurity. If it sometimes seems difficult to defend major population centers against attack, that challenge is only magnified when considering the geographic scale, and economic importance, of the food supply.