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New strategies needed to combat malaria increase
Malaria cases have significantly increased in 13 countries, according to the World Health Organization’s 2018 World Malaria Report—and experts say that more work is needed to prevent the disease from further rebounding. The WHO report found that global…
Genome sequencing may speed diagnosis of drug-resistant TB
The global burden of tuberculosis (TB) is staggering—1.6 million people died from the disease in 2017 alone—and drug-resistant strains are a growing problem. New research, however, indicates that DNA sequencing may be an effective tool for identifying whether…
New study sheds light on source of Nigeria’s Lassa fever outbreak
Public health officials monitoring a Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria since January 2018 have been on edge for much of the year as the hemorrhagic fever spread among more than 500 people and killed 134 through the end…
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…