A team of researchers may have taken the first steps towards creating a treatment for Zika infections.

Hengli Tang, a biological science professor at the Florida State University College of Arts and Science, worked with scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute of Health on repositioning drugs already approved or undergoing clinical trials.

The team identified nine compounds or medicinal mixtures, that appear to stop the Zika virus from killing fetal brain cells and from reproducing.

The findings were published Monday in Nature Medicine.

In cases of natural or engineered disasters, such as a terrorist attack, influenza pandemic, or earthquake, state or local authorities can request that the U.S. federal government provide assets from the Strategic National Stockpile to augment the state and local jurisdictions’ resources.

The Chicago Fire Department on Friday rolled out its first ambulance outfitted to transport patients suffering from an infectious disease.

The new equipment is a direct result of the city's reaction to the worldwide Ebola scare of 2014.

The ambulance features a pressurized plastic tent and an air filtration system powered by a battery with a three-hour charge, according to Assistant Deputy Chief Paul Roszkowski.

A study of a cluster of Ebola cases that appeared in Liberia last year, months after the country was declared Ebola-free, has found that the virus re-emerged after lying dormant in a female survivor.

The results suggest Liberia and the other African countries at the center of the outbreak should maintain high levels of vigilance for longer than thought to contain any future flare-ups of the deadly haemorrhagic fever.

An attack against the agricultural industry is a multidimensional threat that would have impacts that far exceed the death or destruction of plants and animals. The agricultural industry is very broad and diverse and can encompass the production of animals, plants, fish, forestry products, fertilizer production and a host of other activities. An attack against the industry would impact the economy of the United States and the rest of the world.