In The News

Ebola Vaccine Will Soon Be Tested In West Africa

Richard Harris January 14, 2015
Vaccines for Ebola will be tested in West Africa as early as February, the World Health Organization has announced. Two vaccines have passed preliminary safety trials but human testing is required to determine that the treatment will provide protection against the infectious disease. “Testing has been a delicate subject, because the most effective tests involve a comparison group that will not...

Too Big to Ail

December 23, 2014
The best government prevents rather than reacts to problems, and this is especially true for health challenges. But good prevention is rarely appreciated as much as leadership during crisis. For the World Health Organization, countries balk at paying fees. “Ebola exposed weaknesses in the WHO’s ability to respond to disease outbreaks,” suggests an essay in the Economist. “But it also highlighted...

Incredibly Unwell India

Nayan Chanda December 15, 2014
With bacterial diseases emerging that are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, governments should step up monitoring, develop new lines of treatment and prevent overuse. In his column for Businessworld, YaleGlobal Editor Nayan Chanda points out how a manufacturing hub for a product encourages consumer use: “The rise of the country’s $12.4 billion pharmaceutical industry, producer of nearly one-...

Cuba’s Health Diplomacy in the Age of Ebola

Eduardo J. Gomez December 3, 2014
Cuba has provided the largest number of healthcare workers of any country in the global response to West Africa’s Ebola outbreak – more than 250. The country of 11 million has sent medical aid to foreign countries experiencing public health crises since the 1960s, including recent aid to Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake, and Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. The...

Muslim Pilgrims Begin Hajj Pilgrimage

October 8, 2014
Saudi Arabia has dispatched more security personnel and health workers for this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca – 85,000 security and civil defense officers and 18 aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters have been deployed, reports Agence France Presse. This security expansion is largely in response to the alarming spread of the Islamic State on the attack in Iraq and Syria and threatening...

Health Care Gaps Increase Vulnerability to Ebola

Laurie Garrett October 6, 2014
Ebola will test the world’s diverse systems of health care. The United States is alone among advanced economies in lacking a universal health care system, and its health care costs more per capita than that of any other country. A system with unequal benefits makes the country vulnerable on two fronts: US hospitals offer state-of-the art treatment, a plane ride away, for the insured or those with...

How to Fund the Ebola Fight

Paula Kavathas September 18, 2014
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Ebola today, at the request of the United States. The disease is spreading quickly in West Africa and, with global air travel, could quickly hop new borders. The health infrastructure of West Africa is weak, with limited resources and trained personnel. Prevention is the goal for a virus with no approved vaccine or therapeutic. Funding is...