Summer 2009
Infectious Diseases
They are our daily norms - drinking water, a mosquito bite, breathing. All seemingly innocent and unavoidable, but it takes very little to become infected with an infectious disease.
The adage goes, disease respects no borders or socio-economic status. While that is true to some extent, your address and relative wealth (at least on the global scale) determines, in large part, whether or not you will succumb to one of these diseases. If it didn't, why do so many infectious diseases impact those in low-resource settings?
Let's face it. The neglected tropical diseases The Carter Center is fighting to eradicate would not continue to plague millions if they were rampant in Geneva or New York. Most New Yorkers probably can't define lymphatic filariasis, much less spell it. Indeed, many infectious diseases are mere by-products of impoverished circumstances - lack of clean water, living in refugee camps, etc. Rotavirus, discovered 35 years ago, still plagues many communities. And while recent years have seen a relative boom in funding for neglected diseases, as M Moran et al. show, these resources have, in large part, gone to the "big three" - AIDS, TB and malaria.
But relatively recent collaborative efforts, such as the partnerships fostered by sanofi pasteur, as well as the network for TB vaccine researchers in Africa, are expediting the progress being made in treating and preventing diseases. Innovative ideas are likewise being implemented in the disease surveillance side of infectious diseases. Rats indigenous to Africa are being used to detect TB. The Internet giant Google is tracking the spread of disease online.
We hope that this issue is a catalyst for discussion.
Features
Leveraging Partnerships
Collaborations are Potent Tool, says CEO of sanofi pasteur
The Allure of Eradication
Dr. Hopkins of the Carter Center on the Holy Grail of Afflictions
Tracking the Flu
Google 'Threat Detectives' Stalk Outbreaks Around World
Neglected Disease Funding Remains Off the Mark
Where is the money going?
Charting Malaria’s Demise
Modern cartology + disease surveillance = better understanding?
Pakistan’s New IDPs
Mental health and diarrhea plague SWAT Valley refugees
Poet Soldiers
Soldiers get personal about HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean
Online Exclusives
Going Viral
Dim Sum
A collection of film picks, book reviews, and other items of note
Cool Escapes
Havana, Cuba. Immerse yourself in the history and hedonism of this island nation
Field Notes
Researchers collaborate on developing first TB vaccine in 100 years
