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Best time for a flu shot? Before Halloween.
Although flu season lasts for months, experts say it’s best to get a flu vaccine by the end of October. An October 8, 2018 article in FiveThirtyEight discussed how long immunity protection lasts after a flu shot and…
Scientists seek strategies to fight malaria resistance
Although malaria deaths worldwide dropped from more than 800,000 in 2000 to fewer than 500,000 in 2015, disease rates have started to rise again, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Experts are looking at a multipronged approach to fight the…
Ongoing Ebola outbreak could take months to contain
A “perfect storm” of factors, including political violence and a misinformation campaign, could cause an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to spin out of control, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned at a September…
Experimental TB vaccine shows promise
A new study found that an experimental vaccine for tuberculosis (TB), an airborne infectious disease that killed 1.7 million people in 2016, provided 54% protection against active TB disease in adults. A September 26, 2018 Healio article described…
Spate of sick airline passengers a ‘warning shot’ about future disease outbreaks
Dozens of passengers on three recent international flights to the U.S. arrived with flu-like symptoms in New York and Philadelphia. Public health experts say it’s a lucky break that the incidents didn’t lead to an outbreak of a…
The war against mosquito-borne diseases goes high tech
The fight against disease-carrying mosquitoes has gone high-tech, with researchers recently using drones to deploy sterile male mosquitoes into regions of Brazil where diseases such as Zika and West Nile virus are rampant, according to an August 20,…
Harvard Chan researchers present new findings at AIDS conference
The 22nd International AIDS Conference drew HIV/AIDS experts from around the world, including researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who presented new findings on topics including the risks of a new AIDS drug, “test-and-treat” campaigns…
New drug approved for malaria treatment
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug aimed at a particular type of malaria that accounts for about 8.5 million infections per year—roughly 15-20% of all malaria cases around the world. The new drug,…
Cuts to HIV funding are slowing down prevention efforts
A new Lancet Commission led by the International AIDS Society raised concerns that a decline in funding has slowed down global efforts to prevent the spread of HIV and warned that the epidemic could flare up once again…
Preparation key to minimize economic losses from epidemics
Nobody knows which pathogen will trigger the next major epidemic, but governments and international organizations should take meaningful steps now to prepare for it in order to mitigate economic losses, according to a trio of researchers from Harvard…