A more coordinated effort by scientists, stakeholders and community members will be required to stop the next deadly virus that’s already circulating in our midst.
Looking for bits of DNA at the University of Florida.
David Duffy
As ready as you are to be done with COVID-19, it’s not going anywhere soon. A historian of disease describes how once a pathogen emerges, it’s usually here to stay.
A few people in the crowd will be responsible for the bulk of a disease’s spread.
Pacific Press /LightRocket via Getty Images
Predicting how a virus will spread — and its effects — relies on mathematically sound and accurate models that account for factors like weather patterns and human behaviour.
Residents of Hong Kong wear masks as they make their commutes.
AP Photo/Kin Cheung
Misinformation spreads fast when people are afraid and a contagious and potentially fatal disease is frightening. This provides the ideal emotionally charged context for rumours to thrive.
Chinese scientists sequence coronavirus causing pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan. And it’s never been seen before.
UNICEF carers at a creche for children whose parents are being treated for Ebola. Building health infrastructure is crucial to stopping the next outbreak.
Epa/ Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
The emergency in the DRC shows that despite all these positive changes, the global response to containing Ebola outbreaks is undermined by the lack of health care and public health infrastructure.
A health worker checks people’s temperatures in Goma, DRC.
Patricia Martinez/EPA-EFE
Scientists identified the general pattern of measles infections as a country moves toward eliminating the disease. This roadmap can help public health workers most efficiently fight and end measles.
The way humans share the world with wildlife has rapidly changed – and this is having a serious impact on the spread of pathogens.
During high-stress deadly epidemics, even well-trained responders can get caught up in behaviors that are more harmful than helpful.
AP Photo/Olivier Matthys
The high stress conditions of an outbreak can spread a dysfunctional culture among those working to fight it. A survey after the 2015 Ebola epidemic quantified the issue – and suggests a better way.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, responsible for transmitting Zika.
AP Photo/Felipe Dana
In January, measles returned to the Pacific Northwest, while Ebola resurged in the Congo. It would take a lot more research for scientists to be able to stop threats like these in their tracks.
A Liberian burial team during the world’s biggest Ebola outbreak in 2014.
EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo
The response to the latest ebola outbreak in the DRC has been rapid, well coordinated and well resourced.
Tackling local diseases like rabies could help health authorities identify new outbreaks more easily.
N. Bastiaensen/World Organisation for Animal Health
By tackling local threats and controlling existing diseases, countries are able to build the capacity needed to deal with future emerging disease threats.
Africa is home to many disease outbreaks yet is ill-prepared to deal with them.
UNMEER/Martine Perret
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.