This whirlwind tour of social history describes how infectious diseases have shaped humanity at every stage. It suggests reducing inequality will give us our best chance of surviving future plagues.
How can nations prevent more pandemics like COVID-19? One priority is reducing the risk of diseases’ jumping from animals to humans. And that means understanding how human actions fuel that risk.
Protests against mandates and quarantines get the Founding Fathers’ ideas wrong.
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The Founding Fathers were unrelenting in their commitment to the idea that circumstances can arise that require public officials to take actions abridging individual freedoms.
The Aedes mosquito can transmit several viruses including dengue, yellow fever and Zika.
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Shüné Oliver, National Institute for Communicable Diseases et Jaishree Raman, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Mosquitoes are among the deadliest animals in the world. Half of the deaths attributed to them are associated with malaria. But they carry other parasites and viruses that threaten human health.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy president David Mabuza, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize visiting the Aspen Pharmacare sterile manufacturing facility.
Lulama Zenzile/Die Burger/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Vaccine manufacturing doesn’t come cheap. It depends heavily on support from developed countries. It also requires much more than relaxing intellectual property rights and a desire for vaccine equity.
A traveler walks past screeners testing a system of thermal imaging cameras which check body temperatures at Los Angeles International Airport on June. 24, 2020.
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Katherine E. Gallagher, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Anthony Scott, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Ifedayo Adetifa, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme; John Ojal, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Shirine Voller, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme et Wangeci Kagucia, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme
Coronavirus is a stark reminder of what a world without vaccines would look like.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, at a Senate GOP lunch meeting on March 20, 2020, to discuss the ‘phase 3’ coronavirus stimulus bill.
Getty/ Drew Angerer
Today’s coronavirus pandemic has echoes in the yellow fever pandemic of the 1790s. Then, as now, workers struggled with how to support themselves and their families. One federal agency had the answer.
Dr Joseph Sempa of SACEMA presenting at the 2019 Clinic on Meaningful Modelling of Epidemiological Data.
AIMS-South Africa
Genetically modified mosquitoes breed fear and suspicion, especially since the research happens behind closed doors, away from the public. Now scientists and architects are trying to change that model.
The Nipah virus in India is just one example of a viral outbreak in 2018.
PRAKASH ELAMAKKARA/EAP/AAP
It doesn’t just seem like the world is experiencing more viral infections than before – it’s a reality. And the way humans live today helps viruses thrive.
A female deer tick on a piece of straw.
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African leaders need to up their health allocations to help the new World Health Organisation Director-General meet his health care targets for the continent.
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases