Take as Directed

Tuberculosis (TB) is the number one infectious disease killer. Yet, pediatric TB is often overlooked as an urgent public health threat, especially in lower- and middle-income countries. In this episode of Take as Directed, we hear from Dr. Farhana Amanullah, a seasoned clinician and expert in pediatric tuberculosis who runs the largest, private-sector TB program for children in Pakistan at the Ind...

Since committing to support polio eradication on its 100 anniversary, Rotary International has contributed $1.8 billion to the cause, along with thousands of volunteers, advocacy work, and political leadership. Serving as Rotary’s PolioPlus Committee Chair, Mike McGovern leverages the organization’s unique position as an expansive service network to complement the technical expertise of its partne...

Last month, top policymakers, scientists, and activists gathered in Amsterdam for the 22nd International AIDS Conference to examine the current state of global HIV/AIDS response, and how that response should be shaped by the global health community in the years to come. In this episode of Take as Directed, we are joined by Owen Ryan, Executive Director of the International AIDS Society (IAS), whic...

In this episode, a former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff joins us to discuss the story of his son Jonathan, who died from a fentanyl overdose last year. Admiral James "Sandy" Winnefeld is a retired four-star Navy admiral, and has become a vocal advocate for opioid death prevention. He heads Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic, or S.A.F.E. Project U.S., a national nonprofit organizatio...

Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim is one of the world’s leading AIDS researchers and has made pioneering contributions to understanding the HIV epidemic in young people, especially among young women. She joined us for a two-part series to explain her latest research into epidemic hot spots in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, focusing on both the structural and biological risk factors that facilitate...

Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim is one of the world’s leading AIDS researchers and has made pioneering contributions to understanding the HIV epidemic in young people, especially among young women. She joined us for a two-part series to explain her latest research into epidemic hot spots in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, focusing on both the structural and biological risk factors that facilitate...

In this episode, Elhadj As Sy, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), joins us to discuss the different roles that IFRC plays across the vast array of populations they serve, their current work on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the lessons they learned from the previous outbreak. Mr. Sy has also been named co-c...

In 2016, the World Health Organization announced that a single full dose of yellow fever vaccine would provide lifelong protection from the virus. However, due to global shortages and complicated production requirements, there has not been sufficient supply to meet the demands of recent outbreaks. Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016 and now Brazil in 2018 have turned to using fract...

Dr. Christos Stylianides serves as the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management and is the European Union Ebola Coordinator. Christos joins us for this episode to discuss how the current Ebola response has differed from the response in 2014 and the leading role that Europe is playing in that response. He also discusses his current work to expand resources for education serv...

Providing services equitably requires global health practitioners to have detailed data on the populations they are trying to reach. This episode of Take as Directed, hosted by Senior Fellow Nellie Bristol, highlights new initiatives to collect and analyze sub-national data to give a clearer picture of children being missed. Nellie is joined by guests Laurie Werner, Global Director for the Better...

The world of global health security has been amassed in headlines over the past few weeks—from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the elimination of the Global Health Security Directorate within the White House National Security Council staff. For this episode of Take as Directed, we feature three leading health security experts with substantial frontline experience who dis...

Amidst a time of potentially historic talks between the U.S. and North Korea, we take an inside look at the health challenges that North Korea faces and the opportunities for progress that can be made through key diplomatic steps. For this discussion, we turn to Dr. Kee B. Park, Paul Farmer Global Surgery Scholar at Harvard Medical School and Director of North Korea Programs for the Korean America...

Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), is a pioneer in the world of global burden of disease measurement. In April, IHME released their annual report on global health financing and two accompanying articles in The Lancet. Chris joins us for today’s episode to discuss the future of financing the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and the efforts to move toward...

Despite substantial progress made in expanding access to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention options, a vaccine for HIV—even an imperfect one—is likely needed to put a durable end to the epidemic. In this episode of Take as Directed, Dr. Mark Feinberg, President and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) discusses the landscape of HIV vaccine development and why he thinks a vaccine...