This is How Many Lives Would Be Saved By An HIV Vaccine Alanna Shaikh, MPH March 24, 2017A study published this week in a key scientific journal shows the extent to which developing even a moderately effective vaccine would be a total game changer in humanity's 35 year fight against HIV.There i...
Biofilms and flesh-eating bacteria: Meet the World’s 12 Scariest Superbugs Alanna Shaikh, MPH March 2, 2017We know now exactly which drug-resistant "superbugs" are most likely to kill us.This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a “global priority list,” of bacteria intended to guide research and d...
What We Know About Ebola’s “Superspreaders:” The tiny fraction of infected people who caused the most infections Alanna Shaikh, MPH February 17, 2017New research on the 2014 ebola outbreak reveals important new details about how ebola spread so quickly across Western Africa--and what can be done to stop the next outbreak before it becomes a full blown pande...
What You Need to know about the Global Fight Against Malaria Alanna Shaikh, MPH December 13, 2016Malaria is a quiet problem, killing children and pregnant women in 97 countries; children under five make up 70% of malaria deaths. Malaria’s mosquito vector makes it difficult to eradicate, and pregnant women ...
Air Pollution is Probably Much More Dangerous Than You Think. Especially for Kids Alanna Shaikh, MPH November 2, 2016Air pollution is deadly. It doesn’t generally cause deaths directly. Instead, it’s an exacerbating factor, contributing to lung diseases like asthma, respiratory infections, and even cancer. In 2012, air pollut...
This survey shows shows that endemic sexism harms both expectant mothers and the women who care for them Alanna Shaikh, MPH October 20, 2016Motherhood is still deadly for far too many women. In 2015, an estimated 303,000 women died in childbirth. Many more suffered injury, disease, or infection as a result of pregnancy. Most of these deaths could h...
We’re in the middle of a dangerous Tuberculosis pandemic and we’re not doing enough to stop it. Alanna Shaikh, MPH October 14, 2016This is bad.Tuberculosis (TB) has been a global pandemic for over a decade now; we already knew it was a serious global health problem. It’s worse, though, than we knew. The new World Health Organization (W...
With Hurricane Bearing Down on Haiti, Another Reminder that Climate Change is a Global Injustice Alanna Shaikh, MPH October 4, 2016Ed note. The worst Hurricane in a decade has just touched land in Haiti. Of course, any single weather event cannot be traced to climate change. But the fact is storms are getting stronger and coming with great...
Antibiotic Resistance on Pace to Cause Global Economic Damage Akin to the 2008 Financial Crisis Alanna Shaikh, MPH September 21, 2016Ed note. This is a special edition of The Takeaway, a regular feature in which global health and development expert Alanna Shaikh breaks down key reports from the global development community. In this post, Ala...
