These are just a few of the hundreds of stories of service by the members of the NIBC, leading scientific development, protecting America.

2007: NIAID develops an effective vaccine to protect adults and adolescents against illness due to Bordetella pertussis infection - or whooping cough.

2007: USAMRIID research played a key role in saving the life of an Indiana toddler with eczema vaccinatum. The child contracted the illness, which can be fatal, through accidental contact with an open skin lesion on a relative who had recently been vaccinated for smallpox using a live vaccinia virus vaccine. Under an emergency protocol facilitated by the CDC, the boy received an investigational new drug that saved his life.

2004: In April 2004, the National Bioforensics Analysis Center (NBFAC) was created by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10 within the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) to be

"...the lead Federal facility to conduct and facilitate technical forensic analysis and interpretation of materials recovered following a biological attack in support of the appropriate lead Federal agency."

To accomplish this mission, DoD and DHS collaboration established the first dedicated bioforensic containment laboratory within the United States. Commissioned in May of 2004, the NBFAC Interim "Hub" laboratory located at USAMRIID immediately began supporting the FBI and other federal government customers.

2003-present: USAMRIID continues to lead the national effort to test the efficacy of preclinical and FDA licensed antibiotics against a wide range of bacterial biothreat agents. These studies also permit rapid down-selection of potential therapeutic compounds early in the developmental stage, thus providing essential time and cost savings to U.S. government and pharmaceutical partners.

2003: During the summer of 2003, an outbreak of human monkeypox occurred in the U.S. Midwest. Fifty-two rodents suspected of being infected with monkeypox virus were submitted to USAMRIID for testing. The Institute developed multiple tests that could be completed rapidly to identify this infection in real time.

2003: NIAID discovers a hidden piece of the influenza virus that may affect the potency of the virus. This knowledge will help scientists develop effective countermeasures against the influenza.

2003: USAMRIID played a key role in developing diagnostic systems and evaluating antiviral drugs for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, during a global outbreak in several countries. In collaboration with NIAID's Preclinical Drug Discovery and Development Program, this effort resulted in the identification of one promising compound that has since gone into clinical trials.

Rapid Response to SARS Pandemic

CDC, NIAID, USAMRIID, and Intermune, Inc. worked together during the spring and summer of 2003 to develop rapid and effective responses to the SARS pandemic, a highly lethal lower respiratory disease in humans caused by a newly emergent coronavirus. The collaboration took advantage of the strengths of all the organizations, and led to development of a full array of countermeasures and research tools to support ongoing efforts and combat future outbreaks. Major achievements include:

• Diagnostics: rapid nucleic acid detection assays and antibody screening reagents were developed which should allow early detection and thus more rapid containment of subsequent outbreaks

• Animal Models: Isolates of SARS were used to develop an aerosol model for SARS in non-human primates for preclinical testing of potential SARS countermeasures

• Therapeutics: in vitro screening of several hundred thousand compounds for anti-SARS activity led to identification of several active compounds that later entered clinical trials.

2002-present: USAMRIID is collaborating with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, to immunize the black-footed ferret, one of the most endangered mammals in the U.S. This animal is an integral part of the natural grassland ecosystem, originally distributed throughout the Western and Midwestern United States, but its range and total population have been severely diminished by habitat incursion and the expansion of endemic plague carried by wild animals. The vaccination program has worked so well that expanded immunizations will soon be protecting black-footed ferret populations in other regions of the U.S. across the mountain west.

1999-present: USAMRIID continues to be an active component of the CDC Laboratory Response Network-Bio (LRN-B) and the Food Emergency Response Network (USDA FERN). The Institute has over a decade of assistance to CDC with developing the initial threat list and providing the initial training for the Epidemic Intelligence Service program of the CDC, in addition to helping to map out diagnostic capabilities for civilian response and providing the initial critical reagents to the CDC.

1999: USAMRIID played a key role in the identification and response to an outbreak of West Nile virus in New York. The event marked the first time West Nile virus had been identified in the Western hemisphere, and Institute scientists were among the first to link bird deaths (among wild crows as well as exotic birds in the Bronx Zoo) with human cases of disease. In addition to diagnostic support, USAMRIID entomologists conducted critical vector competence studies to determine which species of mosquito could transmit the virus by bite.

1998: An investigational drug developed by USAMRIID was used to treat an Ohio baby suffering from infant botulism, a serious and sometimes fatal illness. The three-day-old baby was admitted to a hospital and placed on a ventilator after showing signs of breathing difficulty. With close coordination by the CDC, FDA, and the child’s physicians, USAMRIID shipped the botulism antitoxin to Ohio overnight. Just hours after receiving the second dose, the infant began to show signs of improvement and eventually made a full recovery.

1997: NIAID develops the first vaccine for childhood Rotavirus, the most frequent cause of life-threatening diarrhea in children under age 2.

1995: USAMRIID was called upon to provide laboratory support and expertise in numerous disease outbreaks. The most publicized, the outbreak of Ebola virus in Zaire, and assisted the Colombia Government in evaluation and control of an outbreak Venezuelan equine encephalitis in humans and animals.

1993-1994: When outbreaks of hantaviral disease began in the southwestern United States, USAMRIID was called in to consult by the CDC and by various state health departments. USAMRIID performed the first molecular characterizations of the viruses and went on to perform the pivotal studies that showed how the viruses replicate.

1991: Botulinum toxin, which also has the potential to be used as a biological weapon, was part of the Iraqi arsenal during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. An antitoxin developed by USAMRIID was shipped to Saudi Arabia during the conflict to be administered to soldiers in the event of an exposure. Fortunately, those weapons were not deployed against coalition troops, so the antitoxin was not used. However, the product was used in 1991 after an outbreak of foodborne botulism in Egypt killed 21 people. Egyptian officials requested the antitoxin to treat more than 50 patients, all of whom recovered.

1989-1990: A commercial laboratory in Reston, Virginia, called on USAMRIID scientists for help with a mysterious disease that was killing primates A USAMRIID investigator isolated an Ebola-like virus, the causative agent of a particularly deadly hemorrhagic fever, and a USAMRIID team directed the decontamination preventing the spread of the virus to personnel, local residents, or the environment. The diagnostic assay developed at USAMRIID for the disease that came to be called "Ebola Reston" has been made available commercially for use in screening primates imported into the United States.