As the world awaits the imminent arrival of one — or several — COVID-19 vaccines, many people may wonder how important vaccines actually are to safeguarding public health. In this feature, we answer that question by...
Vaccine-preventable diseases among adults cost the U.S. economy $8.95 billion in 2015, and unvaccinated individuals are responsible for 80 percent, or $7.1 billion, of the tab, according to the most comprehensive...
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, agreed with health officials during an emergency committee meeting on May 19 that an outbreak of yellow fever that began in Angola is of great concern and warrants national and...
Influenza is still a significant threat to public health and ways to minimize its impact are constantly being investigated. The results of a study carried out at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, implies...
Vaccination is considered one of the top 10 medical achievements of the 20th century. Vaccines now protect us from such vaccine preventable diseases as the flu, measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, polio, and certain...
Crises of infectious diseases are becoming more common. The world should be better prepared. One of the sobering lessons of the Ebola crisis was how ill-prepared the world was for such a deadly disease. It is terrifying...
A recent study of the world’s biggest Ebola outbreak shows the majority of the 82 survivors have experienced brain symptoms over six months after they contracted their Ebola infections. Under the umbrella of the larger...
Until recently, border security and immigration control were seen as two of the best frontline defenses against not just terrorism, but also threats to global health security such as infectious disease. But in today’s...
New year, new threat. A virus suspected of triggering fetal brain damage is likely to spread further in 2016. Zika virus was discovered in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947. For the next 50 years, the virus, which is...
Climate change poses the most significant threat to human health in the small low-lying, densely populated Pacific island nations, which have the least ability to adapt to such risks. According to two recent studies by...