NewsRx Launches Bio-Terrorism.Info Database And Weekly Report In February, 2002

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NewsRx Launches Bio-Terrorism.Info Database And Weekly Report In February, 2002

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Jan. 18 -/E-Wire/-- NewsRx has leveraged its technology platform to create Bio-Terrorism.Info, a new database and weekly report. NewsRx is the leading provider of life science databases and daily and weekly health news.

Recently, the U.S. Congress appropriated almost $1 billion to help the public health system deal with potential bio-terrorism. Yesterday, Jeffrey P. Koplan, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a Washington, D.C. conference, that improving capacity for bioterror events, "is something that can be used on a day-in and day-out basis."

Bio-Terrorism.Info weekly report will begin publishing next month. The database has been in beta testing since December, 2001.

Currently, more than five years of NewsRx reporting on chemical and bioterrorism with hundreds of records are available in the Bio-Terrorism.Info database at www.Bio-Terrorism.Info and www.NewsRx.com.

With content designed for professionals, passwords and subscriptions are required for Bio-Terrorism.Info. Information on weekly report subscriptions and database access can be obtained from [REDACTED-EMAIL] or by telephoning NewsRx in Atlanta at (770) 507-7777. Subscription rates are based on levels of access, and discounts based on numbers of current NewsRx print subscriptions.

NewsRx, founded in 1984, has provided extensive reports on anthrax and chemical and bioterrorism since 1996. The company has always been headquartered in the Atlanta area near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and NewsRx is the publisher of Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA.

"We will make a difference in the war on terrorism," said NewsRx CEO C.W. Henderson.

Henderson does know how to make a difference. He was selected by USA Today as one of six who make a difference in the battle against AIDS, largely due to his 1985 creation of the AIDS Weekly database and reports from NewsRx.

Also available soon is an access-protected site with bioterrorism information for authorized users. NewsRx is well-known for its medical news network and speed in bringing quality, privately-circulated content for authorized professional users, include those in academic, government, research, healthcare, and pharmaceutical organizations.

Ominously, on September 11, 2001, NewsRx published a report on a North Dakota case of cutaneous anthrax, the first in the U.S. since 1992. Almost exactly a year earlier, on September 19, 2000, NewsRx reported that six members of a Minnesota family were treated for anthrax after two developed symptoms of gastrointestinal anthrax.

Six years ago, NewsRx began reporting extensively on bioterrorism, such as 1996 incidents involving an Arkansas man allegedly possessing 100 grams of ricin, a potential terror agent. Another NewsRx report that year disclosed an alleged domestic terrorism plan involving an Ohio man with bubonic plague pathogens obtained via FedEx from a Rockville, Maryland, biotech company.

In 1997, NewsRx reported on a joint U.S.-Russian five-year initiative costing the U.S. almost $40 million in which the two countries would study anthrax, melioidosis/glanders, plague, orthopoxviruses, and viral hemorrhagic fevers. These pathogens historically have been linked with biological weapons.

NewsRx reported on human anthrax outbreaks in Ghana in 1997 and Kenya in 1998, which killed hundreds.

NewsRx has been issuing warnings about bio-terrorism frequently, including:

- A 1998 report, "Prepare Now for Bioterrorism...," which began with these three brief sentences written by a NewsRx Senior Editor: "Stockpile vaccines. Stockpile drugs. Train and organize health-care personnel at all levels." The article reported on a Japanese group with anthrax, which also traveled to Zaire in 1992 to obtain Ebola virus for weapons development, and on a poorly-secured half-empty Russian facility where smallpox virus is kept.

- In 1999, NewsRx published a report titled "Bioterrorism: Call to Replenish Smallpox Vaccine Stock."

- Another ominous warning of bioterror threat came from a NewsRx Senior Editor in the November 8, 1999, issue of its weekly Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, which began with one brief sentence: "It's time to start thinking about the unthinkable."

Last year, NewsRx continued to repeat the warning with articles in the same weekly publication, with titles including:

- Researcher Says U.S. Not Prepared for Medical Impact of Attack

- Is the U.S. Prepared to Respond in Case of Chemical or Biological Threat?

- CDC's Attention Turns to Preparing for Threats to Nation's Food Supply

This year, NewsRx continued with warnings including:

- A report titled "Biological Warfare a Continuing Threat," in which NewsRx explains that anthrax spores can remain viable for more than 100 years if kept dry and out of direct sunlight. Another report warns that botulinum toxin is a major biological weapons threat.

- As recently as June, 2001, NewsRx reported that hospitals are unprepared for biological and chemical terrorism. "Fewer than 20 percent of U.S. hospitals have plans to treat victims of chemical or biological weapons incidents," the report begins in a weekly issue of Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA.

- In July, 2001, NewsRx reported that the highly infectious disease tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, could pose serious consequences if used as a biological weapon.

NewsRx Microbiologist Sonia Nichols will serve as Senior Medical Writer for Bio-Terrorism.Info. Extensively published, Nichols has written for several NewsRx titles including Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, Virus Weekly, Vaccine Weekly, and TB & Outbreaks Week. Before joining NewsRx, for almost a decade Nichols was supervisory microbiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she was the recipient of numerous CDC awards. Her memberships have included the American Society for Microbiology, Association of Professional Women at CDC, and others.

Nichols will be supported by NewsRx publisher Susan Hasty, who also will serve as Senior Medical Writer at Bio-Terrorism.Info. Formerly she was executive editor at Thomson Healthcare's American Health Consultants.

Carol Kohn, ELS(D), one of only fourteen individuals worldwide who is a Board Certified Diplomate Editor in the Life Sciences, will serve as editor-in-chief at Bio-Terrorism.Info. Kohn is councilor and co-founder of the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences.

Nancy Saltmarsh will serve as NewsRx Staff Medical Writer for Bio-Terrorism.Info. Before joining NewsRx, Saltmarsh was writer and editor at Thomson Healthcare's American Health Consultants where she created disease management manuals and worked for titles including Hospital Infection Control.

Bio-Terrorism.Info capacity is driven by NewsRx propriety artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems: Component Aggregation Technology (CAT) and Journalist Assisted Technology (JAT).

Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer to perform activities normally thought to require intelligence. CAT and JAT assist human journalists in performing vast publishing and news reporting tasks.

NewsRx currently produces 300 articles weekly in its numerous titles, including Cancer Weekly, Stem Cell Week, Drug Week, Biotech Week, and Health & Medicine Week.

The innovation at NewsRx.net, one of the company's two current Internet sites, is user output of a timely, organized, printable report on a specific topic of interest to them. No other Internet site has the capability of providing 12,000 database reports monthly, quarterly, or annually on almost any niche health or science subject.

The company's other Internet site, NewsRx.com, is a news database library of 120,000 health and science related articles.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: www.NewsRx.com, www.Bio-Terrorism.Info, and at www.NewsRx.net. Subscription information available at [REDACTED-EMAIL]

http://http://www.NewsRx.com

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