Conquering Epidemics

We can never stop fighting

Humans and pathogens are locked in a bitter arms race—and the pathogens are winning. They are evolving to resist our best medicines, and humanity’s pipeline of effective antibiotic weapons is empty. Meanwhile, in a world of packed cities, constant travel, and a warming planet, the danger of a massive outbreak is more acute than ever.

We’re fighting on many fronts to make sure humanity is ready when the next big outbreak happens. Whether it’s a virulent new virus or a persistent killer like AIDS, TB, or Malaria, we’re determined to outsmart our infectious disease foes. We’re mining mountains of data to reveal clues about how these diseases spread. We’re cracking the pathogens’ biological codes. And we’re helping teams around the world build better systems for surveillance and response.

We’re stopping patient 0 from leading to patient 6.7 billion.

Recent Stories

Response to coronavirus could shape legacy of WHO and its director-general

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, must navigate myriad political and economic factors as the agency responds to coronavirus outbreak, according to news reports. A February 10, 2020, Science article explored the challenges Ghebreyesus faces, and discussed how he’s…

Cancer symposium looks at new diagnostics for early detection

February 12, 2020 – Timothy Rebbeck kicked off the second annual Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention symposium on an optimistic note. “U.S. cancer rates have dropped dramatically. In 2016-2017, we saw the largest single-year decline in cancer deaths ever,” he…

Instagram remains a hotbed of vaccine misinformation

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Off the cuff—Lipids and Aging: Mapping the Next Frontier

If you look at the big noncommunicable diseases of aging that the Harvard Chan School is concerned about, lipid metabolism is critical in every case.

U.S. life expectancy slightly increases for first time in four years

Life expectancy in the U.S. inched up for the first time in four years, according to two reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. The primary contributor to the uptick was a decrease in cancer…