On July 23, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. Within weeks, cities, and, eventually, the U.S. government made similar declarations. In an interview with Think Global Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) health law expert Lindsay Wiley explains what U.S. public health emergency declarations entail, some common misconceptions about them, and, in the case of monkeypox, the potential reasons why they were delayed.
The recent discovery of polio in wastewater in New York City and London, vaccine-derived polio cases in New York State and Jerusalem, and wild poliovirus cases in Malawi and Mozambique, have renewed the urgency behind efforts to eradicate polio, our second author writes. Polio, a disease with no cure that can cause death or life-long paralysis, will persist if global efforts do not ensure every child is vaccinated.
A journalist from Zimbabwe discusses how climate change is shifting tsetse-fly patterns in the country, which could alter the distribution of sleeping sickness—caused by tiny parasites that those flies spread—to cooler habitats.
A former deputy commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) writes that a comprehensive review of the agency's food safety program could change it for the better. Closing out the week is a piece on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and why it remains important to U.S. foreign policy, especially at a time when COVID-19 has reversed the historic global health progress that had occurred in low- and middle-income countries.
As always, thank you for reading, and be well. —Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors
