Bioterrorism

As evidence that the nation's public health system has begun to make profound changes to deal with bioterrorism, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point to something seemingly trivial: Some physicians have called in to report...

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Since deadly anthrax-laced letters were sent through the U.S. mail in 2001, killing five people and spreading nationwide panic, the FBI has beefed up its bioterror capabilities and created a Weapons of Mass Destruction...

WASHINGTON — For two years, the nationwide BioWatch system, intended to protect Americans against a biological attack, operated with defective components that left it unable to detect lethal germs, according to scientists with direct knowledge of...

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Department and other federal officials responsible for BioWatch, the nationwide system for detecting deadly biological attacks, have withheld key documents sought by a congressional committee, according to the panel's...

It's possible that not every problem has a technological solution. That will come as a shock to U.S. policymakers, who since the 9/11 terrorist attacks have invested in multiple technologies to protect us from evildoers. Some have been a success, while...

WASHINGTON — Scientists who helped pioneer BioWatch, the government's system for detecting a biological attack on the U.S., knew from the start that it was prone to false alarms, records show. Between 2003, when the nationwide network of air...

WASHINGTON — Amid concerns about cost and reliability, the federal Department of Homeland Security has quietly postponed plans to buy technology that officials have long claimed could provide a life-saving upgrade of BioWatch, the nation's system...

DENVER — As Chris Lindley drove to work that morning in August 2008, a call set his heart pounding. The Democratic National Convention was being held in Denver, and Barack Obama was to accept his party's presidential nomination before a crowd of...

A top U.S. diplomat Monday accused Iraq, North Korea and three other countries of pursuing germ weapon programs, an unusually pointed diplomatic charge designed to put pressure on nations suspected of flouting an international ban on biological arms....

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee and a senior Republican colleague voiced grave doubts Thursday about the viability of BioWatch, the nation's system for detecting biological attacks that has been plagued by false...

"Engineered Doomsday." "Mutant Bird Flu." These may sound like the names of disaster movies, but they are headlines on recent news reports about experiments involving the H5N1 influenza virus. The H5N1 virus is known as a "bird flu" because it mainly...

A visitor would expect to see the latest weapons in the battle against heart disease or cancer at the new Rush University Medical Center. But the hospital — which will give the public a sneak preview Dec. 10 — is also stocked with an...