Challenges to global surveillance and response to infectious disease outbreaks of international importance.

This article presents a notional scheme of global surveillance and response to infectious disease outbreaks and reviews 14 international surveillance and response programs. In combination, the scheme and the programs illustrate how, in an ideal world and in the real world, infectious disease outbreaks of public health significance could be detected and contained. Notable practices and achievements of the programs are cited; these may be useful when instituting new programs or redesigning existing ones.

The complete genome sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis Al Hakam.

Bacillus thuringiensis is an insect pathogen that is widely used as a biopesticide (E. Schnepf, N. Crickmore, J.

Pathogenomic sequence analysis of Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis isolates closely related to Bacillus anthracis.

Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus thuringiensis are closely related gram-positive, spore-forming bacteria of the B. cereus sensu lato group. While independently derived strains of B.

Improving performance of HVAC systems to reduce exposure to aerosolized infectious agents in buildings; recommendations to reduce risks posed by biological attacks.

The prospect of biological attacks is a growing strategic threat. Covert aerosol attacks inside a building are of particular concern. In the summer of 2005, the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center convened a Working Group to determine what steps could be taken to reduce the risk of exposure of building occupants after an aerosol release of a biological weapon.