While identifying a new disease by its place of origin seems intuitive, history shows that doing so can have serious consequences for the people that live there.
A woman walks through the shattered streets of Port-au-Prince a few weeks after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake slammed the country, which has still not recovered despite billions of dollars being spent.
Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo, File
Jean-François Savard, École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP); Emmanuel Sael, École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP) e Joseph Jr Clormeus, École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP)
Ten years after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, the country is still struggling to recover and remains vulnerable to natural disasters.
Ella Balasa, who has antibiotic-resistant bacteria lodged inside her damaged lungs, prepares to inhale bacteria-killing viruses.
AP Photo/Richard Drew
The CDC just released a list of bacteria and fungi that pose, or have the potential to pose, a serious health threat. Here are four strategies for curbing the rise of these superbugs.
Hospital workers wearing biohazard suits scrub down a man in a decontamination drill.
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
Talk of bioterrorism might provoke fears of smallpox and anthrax, but mundane threats like salmonella may pose greater danger. And experts say that the U.S. is not prepared for an attack.
Training is necessary to equip health workers to deal with climate change risks.
EPA
Cholera kills fast, and outbreaks are common in war-torn regions and after natural disasters where clean water is scarce. A new strategy to prevent cholera infections is a ‘cocktail’ of live virus.
A woman receiving an oral cholera vaccine in Beira, Mozambique.
Celeste Mac-Arthur
In the fight against cholera, new research in the DRC suggests that the rehabilitation of water networks would be more sustainable than other interventions whose effectiveness is debatable.
World War I soldiers in a trench. Trenches led to monotony, malnutrition and shellshock.
Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com
Yemen’s civil war is a stew of local and foreign interests, from Washington, Saudi Arabia to Iran. And the latest battle may cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, if not millions.
The statistics point remorselessly towards obesity being a symptom with an underlying social cause. That should completely change the approach to dealing with it.
Why are some animals resistant to waterborne disease? A reader wants to know.
A woman takes an oral cholera vaccine in a hospital. But cholera vaccines are not always effective and never long lasting.
REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares
Many states in Nigeria are reeling from cholera outbreaks. They need better health and sanitation infrastructure to disrupt transmission of the bacteria which cause the disease.
Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes viewed through a microscope in Broward County, Florida, in June 2016.
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Vast amounts of standing water in Houston and other hurricane-flooded areas are dangerous not only because of toxins. The water is a dangerous breeding ground for mosquitoes that transmit Zika.
A woman with symptoms of cholera walks into a cholera treatment center at Immaculate Conception Hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti in November 2016 in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
Reuters/Andres Martinez Casares