Vaccines’ disease-fighting super powers are clear. However, a successful rollout is not guaranteed. A lack of planning and political will can allow misinformation and scandals to destroy public confidence.
July 31, 2018
It’s a public health nightmare: 250,000 doses of substandard vaccines for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus administered to children through a government health program. While China has had scandals over tainted food or drugs before, this recent debacle threatens to…
July 31, 2018
Vaccine refusers in Brooklyn, New York catalyzed a 2013 measles outbreak that cost the city health department almost $400,000 and 10,000 man hours.
July 17, 2018
In Karachi, Pakistan—one of polio’s last strongholds—door-to-door vaccination campaigns arouse suspicion even among those who favor immunization. Rumors spread that the vaccine sterilizes children, fueled by mistrust of governments and international organizations. Their…
July 13, 2018
Anti-vaxxers in Australia are rearing up against a vaccine for Hendra, an agonizing disease as lethal as Ebola that mainly infects horses but can spread to humans. The equine vaccine is proven safe and effective against Hendra—spread by abundant fruit bats in the "Hendra…
July 5, 2018
Over the past decade, opportunities for students and trainees to travel internationally have grown substantially. Universities and non-profit organizations offer a variety of short-and long-term opportunities for global health research, practice, and cultural experience.…
June 26, 2018
A polio outbreak has been confirmed in Papua New Guinea—declared polio-free 18 years ago—after a case surfaced in a 6-year-old boy. The same virus was also isolated from stool specimens of 2 healthy children from the same community “representing an outbreak,” according to…
June 20, 2018
The DRC’s latest Ebola outbreak appears to be tapering off thanks to containment efforts that got out in front of the disease and overcame obstacles to reaching remote communities. What made this outbreak different than the 2014 epidemic, which killed 11,000 in West Africa…
June 1, 2018
It’s a tough world out there for science on TV. From 2000-2012, less than 1% of network nightly news air time went to biotechnology and basic medical research.
May 29, 2018
From quit-smoking campaigns, to safer cars, to vaccines that stamped out polio and smallpox and are now tackling HPV and the flu, public health interventions are worth the money.