Recent News

By Category: International

Health Experts Narrow the Hunt for Ebola

(Infection Control Today)Response efforts to outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa can benefit from a standardized sampling strategy that focuses on the carcasses of gorillas, chimpanzees and other species known to succumb to the virus, according to a consortium of wildlife health experts.

May 18, 2012
| Filed under Africa, North America, Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Egypt’s Real Crisis: The Dual Epidemics Quietely Ravaging Public Health

(The Atlantic) A combination of avian flu and foot and mouth disease risk destroying the protein supply, eroding public trust, and further destabilizing the Arab world’s most populous country. Lost in the recent political jockeying and protest violence leading up to Egypt’s May 23 presidential elections is the unfolding public health disaster there. Avian flu Read More »

May 15, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Middle East, Agriculture, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Congress, Bioterrorism and Asia

(The Diplomat) Last week, I wrote on the danger partisanship posed to U.S. policymaking, including foreign policy. But as former Sen. Bob Graham has suggested, political turf wars aren’t all about partisanship – politicians are quite happy to place their own influence in Congress’s myriad committees above the nation’s good. This likely won’t come as Read More »

May 15, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, South Asia, Bioterrorism, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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The Food and Drug Administration’s Expanding Global Reach

(The Atlantic) The FDA has just released a classy new report on Global Engagement, summarizing its efforts to deal with issues raised by the globalization of drugs, medical devices, and foods. This is a big deal. In 2009, 300,000 foreign facilities in more than 150 countries exported $2 trillion worth of FDA-regulated products to the Read More »

May 14, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South Asia, Agriculture, International, and Policy & Initiatives
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Smallpox: the facts

(OUPblog) On this day in 1496, British doctor Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination to James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy. To mark the anniversary, we speak with Martin S. Hirsch, MD, FIDSA. Dr. Hirsch is editor-in-chief of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of infectious diseases and Read More »