In The News

To Eradicate Measles, Destroy Vaccine Myths

Paula Kavathas February 17, 2015
In a globalized world, contagious diseases like measles quickly hop borders. A measles outbreak started in December at California’s Disneyland, and the disease quickly spread to 17 states in the US. “While people do not shudder upon hearing the word ‘measles’ as they do with ‘smallpox’ or ‘Ebola,’ this does little to lessen the heartache of the thousands of parents who lose their children to...

Fewer Chinese Than Expected Apply to Have Second Child

Patti Waldmeir January 16, 2015
In September 1980, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued a letter outlining the goal of keeping the nation’s population below 1.2 billion by the end of the century and “made an appeal” to promote a policy of each couple having one child. The policy reduced poverty and infant mortality, and the population was reported at 1.25 billion in 1999. But now the elderly represent a...

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...

To Contain Ebola Outbreaks, First Train Caregivers

Manisha Juthani-Mehta November 25, 2014
Infection rates for the Ebola virus are high when patients are symptomatic and in the advanced stages of the disease. Risks are high for caregivers. As result, diagnosis, treatment and care should be left to experienced, well-trained providers, argues Manisha Juthani-Mehta, an associate professor and director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program in the Section of Infectious Diseases at...