After a 42-day period without any new cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo over.…
Contagion
Man against microbe—the struggle is as ancient as we are, and yet it never gets old. Humans handily won the last century, leaving us healthier than ever before. But the magic of modern medicine is now fading as other forces of development reshape ecosystems. Ebola-style animal-borne epidemics, the return of measles, antibiotic resistance—these are just a few of the epic challenges that our global, urbanized ambitions are unleashing.
WORTH A SHOT
DR Congo is tackling a new Ebola outbreak with an experimental vaccine
In its battle to stop the spread of the Ebola after a recent outbreak, a new WHO-backed vaccine is the Democratic Republic of Congo’s weapon…
BUDGET TRAVEL
World Health Organization spent more on plane tickets and hotels than AIDS and malaria
The World Health Organization reportedly spent more money last year on traveling around the globe, than they did on actually combating the world’s illnesses. The…
UNDER THE LENS
The lead candidate for the world’s top health job is being accused of covering up deadly epidemics
On May 22, member states of the World Health Organization will converge in Geneva to elect a new director-general to lead the 8,000-person global health…
DISEASES WITHOUT BORDERS
Don’t panic: the Ebola virus is back
Lubumbashi, DR Congo The Ebola virus has returned. The World Health Organization declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo on May 12…
FLIGHT AND FIGHT
There’s a behavioral phenomenon that explains the outbreak of plane rage
Consider this series of events which took place in the month after a video of a man being dragged off of a United Airlines flight…
SANITIZE
Let’s all be grateful our cosmetic brushes don’t give us anthrax anymore
It’s easy to take the conveniences of modern life for granted—like the fact that the vast majority of us will never develop anthrax infections in…
GLOBAL FIRST
It took decades of research, but the world’s first malaria vaccine is finally ready for showtime
Malaria has been a problem for humans for over 2,000 years, and still kills in high numbers; 429,000 people—most of them children—died from the mosquito-borne…
PLAGUE
A deadly meningitis outbreak is taking hold in one of Nigeria’s poorest regions
Since late last year, northern Nigeria has been subject to an outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis, with nearly 3,000 cases recorded—including 366 deaths. Zamfara, the worst-hit…
SUPERBUG?
China is about to change the way it uses a last-resort antibiotic for the better—but it’s too late
China is about to make a major change to how it uses a last-resort antibiotic called colistin. As part of its efforts against antibiotic overuse,…
NEW AND IMPROVED
Scientists just changed the way we build genomes to make them 270,000 times cheaper
In 2003, the US Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health announced that—13 years and $2.7 billion later—they had finally finished mapping the…
GOOD BOY
A hospital in Canada is using a dog to sniff out deadly infections
What have we done to deserve dogs? In addition to being our best four-legged friends, dogs can be trained to do all sorts of things…
