One World, One Health

Send us Fan Mail Most people don’t even think twice when they get an infection. Much of the time, the best treatment is simple: fluids and rest. Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics – a quick course of pills, maybe a week or 10 days, and you’re done. But the rise of drug-resistant pathogens is changing that. These germs (viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi) have developed the a...

Send us Fan Mail Rosemary Bartel had no idea her life was going to take a turn when she went to a hospital near her home in Chilton, Wisconsin in the United States for standard knee replacement surgery – her second such operation. She was ready to work hard to recover and return to her busy job at her Roman Catholic diocese. But Rosie developed an all-too-common infection known as MRSA—methicillin...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Nour Shamas knows about antimicrobial resistance. As a clinical pharmacist , she was trained in how to dispense drugs to treat infections, and her graduate studies in global health policy made her aware of the threat of antimicrobial resistance, or AMR .  Antimicrobial resistance develops when bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites evolve the ability to shake off the effects o...

Send us Fan Mail Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common , uncomfortable, and embarrassing. They can also be deadly. These infections of the kidneys, bladder, or urethra affect about 1 in 10 men in their lifetimes and more than half of women . Untreated UTIs can cause a body-wide infection known as sepsis. An estimated 236,000 people globally die every year from UTIs.   Most UTIs are fairly eas...

Send us Fan Mail No one wants to be exposed to air pollution. No one wants to raise their kids breathing in polluted air in their own neighborhoods. But in Austin, Texas, people of color are disproportionately forced to do both. Dr. Sarah Chambliss, a research associate in the Department of Population Health at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, led a team that ran a study o...

Send us Fan Mail People don’t want to see any more pandemics, notes Nita Madhav, Senior Director of Epidemiology & Modeling at Ginkgo Biosecurity, the biosecurity and public health unit of Ginkgo Bioworks.   The world is collectively traumatized by the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic, Madhav says in this episode of One World, One Health.  But just because we don’t want to see another pandemic...

Send us Fan Mail Drug-resistant bacteria are major killers, playing a role in killing five million people a year. Antibiotics were miracle drugs when they were invented 100 years ago, but they are losing their power against always adapting and evolving bacteria.  At the same time, the market for new antimicrobial drugs has collapsed . Hardly anyone wants to make new antibiotics, and even fewer com...

Send us Fan Mail An estimated 7.7 million people die from bacterial infections a year around the world. A growing number of these deaths are caused by bacteria that have developed antibiotic resistance – the ability to thrive in the face of antibiotics. This ability of germs to defy the effects of drugs is called antimicrobial resistance, or AMR.  But why wait to treat these infections after they’...

Send us Fan Mail The problem of antimicrobial resistance – AMR for short – is clear. More and more of these germs resistant to existing treatments are emerging everywhere, and there’s little disagreement that governments, nonprofits, doctors, patients, and politicians all need to help tackle the problem. But people need to agree on what to do, and they need to agree on how to measure progress. Tha...

Send us Fan Mail What kills more people than HIV or malaria ? What threatens anybody on the planet – and not just people, but animals, too? It’s antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the formal name for drug-resistant superbugs. These include bacteria that defy the effects of antibiotics, viruses that thrive in the face of antiviral drugs, and fungi that are immune to antifungal treatments. Each year, a...

Send us Fan Mail The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was especially bad in India. Patients filled hospitals as the Delta variant swept the country in April of 2021. As many as 2,000 people died every day. Many died literally gasping for air. Although India is a major producer of medical oxygen, supplies ran out amid the unprecedented demand. And while some areas of the vast country had access...

Send us Fan Mail Vaccines save lives. There’s no doubt about this: childhood vaccination saves four million lives every year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Children worldwide get a long list of vaccines, but what about adults? A study by the Office of Health Economics (OHE), an independent research organization, took a look at the cost-effectiveness of four commonly given...

Send us Fan Mail Bird flu – aka avian influenza – is doing what it does best yet again – surprising scientists, public health officials, farmers, and wildlife experts. It’s been spreading among dairy cattle in the United States, something that startles even long-term observers of the virus. The H5N1 strain of avian influenza was first noticed in the late 1990s and it immediately worried experts, w...

Send us Fan Mail Coral reefs are literally the foundation for much of the life on Earth. These living cities are made up of animals –coral – which exist in symbiosis with algae. They are home to thousands of species of fish , as well as important to the lives of as many as a billion people who rely on their production of food, their protection of coastal areas, and their attraction for tourists. T...

Send us Fan Mail From the moment people discovered how to use penicillin, the first antibiotic, resistance has been a problem. Bacteria may be small, but they are not simple organisms and they have been fighting for survival for billions of years. Many bacteria have developed the tools they need to evade the effects of antibiotic treatments, and they can trade these weapons with other bacteria as...

Send us Fan Mail It’s hotter and wetter than usual in Brazil, and climate conditions are driving an early blast of a killer virus – dengue. The mosquito-borne virus is spreading earlier than ever before and affecting far more parts of the country than usual – and all at once. Dengue’s a nasty virus. It causes pain so severe that it’s sometimes called breakbone fever. Patients often feel nauseated,...

Send us Fan Mail Peggy Lillis wasn’t expecting trouble when her dentist prescribed antibiotics after she had a root canal in 2010. It was a standard, just-in-case treatment to prevent infections after the procedure. She also wasn’t worried when she developed diarrhea soon afterward. The kindergarten teacher assumed she’d caught a bug from one of her young students. But within just a few days, the...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a virus that infects just about every adult. It’s passed by skin-to-skin contact – most often during sexual intercourse.  It’s the human papillomavirus (HPV for short). It often doesn't show any symptoms, and at times the infection resolves on its own.  It can cause warts, but more ominously, HPV is the single biggest cause of cervical cancer. It's also a factor...

Send us Fan Mail The world acted as if the COVID-19 pandemic was a big surprise. However, just months before, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) had warned that the world was vulnerable to a pandemic of respiratory illness and needed to act quickly.  Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the former president of Croatia, says she felt frustrated and helpless when the pandemic took hold in early 20...

Send us Fan Mail Drug-resistant infections are a problem for everyone, but especially for newborns. They don’t have fully developed immune systems, and their bodies are less equipped to fight infections. The risk is highest for infants born sick or prematurely.  Bloodborne infections – sepsis – are one major threat to newborns. Sepsis can move quickly, overpowering the body and causing severe illn...

Send us Fan Mail Air pollution is a big killer, a culprit in 6.7 million deaths a year. It’s also depressing to live in a polluted area, and not simply for aesthetic reasons. Many people don't even know they are being exposed to some types of invisible air pollution. A team of researchers in California recently linked air pollution to depression during and after pregnancy. That’s dangerous to...

Send us Fan Mail While innovative and effective ideas to help solve major global health problems are hard to come by, finding and attaining funding to put them into action can be even more difficult. The research grant review process takes time and can be bogged down in red tape. Decisions on who and what kind of research gets funded can pass over novel ideas in favor of familiar project plans. Th...

Send us Fan Mail In Gaza, thousands have been killed, tens of thousands injured, and hundreds of thousands more are without shelter, clean water, or medical care. “You have these horrible, horrible scenes playing out in many places,” says Avril Benoit , executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres-USA, also known as MSF or Doctors Without Borders in English. Humanitarian groups such as Doctors W...

Send us Fan Mail It’s heartbreaking when a drought or flood causes crops in a region to fail, and children to go hungry. Kids can starve to death or endure social, economic, and health problems well into adulthood due to malnutrition.  But what if there was a way to predict when these weather disasters are likely to happen, so governments, aid organizations, and residents could prepare ?   A team...

Send us Fan Mail Who reminds an HIV-positive pregnant woman to take her vitamins and the drugs that will protect her baby from infection?  Who explains to fearful parents that COVID-19 vaccines will protect them and their children from the disease?   Who shows people how to wash their hands properly so they don’t spread germs to themselves and others?   In many countries across the globe it’s comm...