Health spent a lot of time in the spotlight in 2016. Medicare was a major issue in Australia’s federal election and numerous government reviews into health were announced and reported.
A baby girl with microcephaly, in Lagoa do Carro, Pernambuco, Brazil.
EPA
Our immune system protects us but when it comes to some mosquito-borne disease, it can work against us. What are the implications for the development of a Zika virus vaccine?
Upscaling the success of emerging mosquito control technologies relies on automating the rearing and release of millions of mosquitoes. Australia is to become the testing ground for a novel strategy.
Pregnant women in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia were faced with the double fear of dying from Ebola as well during childbirth.
UNMEER/Flickr
We found that less than 1% of published research papers around the time of both outbreaks, that related to the outbreaks, actually explored their gendered impact.
A vial of the Zika Virus Investigational DNA Vaccine from the NIH.
NIH Image Gallery/Flickr
New research shows common local mosquitoes aren’t able to spread Zika. This means Australia is unlikely to see a major outbreak of the disease. But a risk remains in northern Queensland.
County officials gear up to hand-spray mosquitoes in San Diego.
REUTERS/Earnie Grafton
A computer model suggests that while more cases of Zika can be expected in the continental U.S. outbreaks will probably be small and are not projected to spread.
A woman looks at a CDC health advisory sign about Zika at Miami International Airport
Carlo Allegri/Reuters
Politics, not epidemiology or medicine, drives government responses to disease. Politicians are the ultimate decision-makers in public health, and they must respond to political forces.
With more birth abnormalities linked to Zika, effects of the virus may be more sinister than we thought.
BMJ 2016
Physicians like me are learning about Zika along with our patients. This takes a dose of humility on our part and an understanding from our patients that we learn something new every single day.
A display used to educate the public on rubella vaccination and the mother-to-fetus transmission of this virus.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Public Health Image Library
Though separated by time and place, there are surprising similarities in the the social issues raised by the rubella outbreak of 1964-65 and the recent Zika outbreak in South America.
An aerial view of the Christ the Redeemer statue and Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
Thousands of people acquire infections while hospitalized. Many are caused by urinary catheters, a routine part of a hospital stay. But cutting back on their usage can lower infection rates.
Is a Zika vaccine being tested ahead of vaccines for other flaviviruses because Zika’s occurring in the context of an international sporting competition?
Christian Bruna/AAP
Recently two events concerning the Zika epidemic coincided: two potential vaccines against the virus were declared a success when used in mice, and Jason Day withdrew from the Olympic Games.