In China, the wildlife trade is thriving, driven by the increased demands for luxury goods and traditional medicine. But there is real concern about the threat of diseases that can cross over to humans.
Disturbing the habitats of horseshoe bats, like these in Borneo, increases the risk of virus spillover.
Mike Prince/Flickr
How can nations prevent more pandemics like COVID-19? One priority is reducing the risk of diseases’ jumping from animals to humans. And that means understanding how human actions fuel that risk.
The COVID-10 pandemic followed a different path in Africa than was predicted.
Nicholas Kajoba/Xinhua via Getty Images
Despite having comparatively poor health infrastructure, African public health practitioners have amassed a wealth of experience of managing epidemics.
Liberia and Sierra Leone actively sought international aid to combat Ebola in 2014, Guinea downplayed the extent of the deadly disease.
EFE-EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo
President Alpha Condé’s pursuit of mining interests during the Ebola crisis may have foreshadowed his demise as he tightened his grip over power and plundered the state’s wealth.
The World Health Organization (WHO) sign at its headquarters.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
Sexual exploitation and abuse requires an active rather than passive response.
Une photo, prise en août 2015, de gants et de bottes désinfectés dans un centre de traitement d'Ébola à Conakry, en Guinée ; des leçons sont tirées pour gérer le virus de Marburg.
Cellou Binani/AFP via Getty Images
Michelle J. Groome, National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Janusz Paweska, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
De nombreux pays africains ont acquis beaucoup d'xpériences en matière de gestion de épidémies de fièvres hémorragiques virales qu'ils peuvent appliquer à celle du virus à Marburg.
GPS devices on 20 bats in a Ugandan cave in 2018 as part of a research project to determine flight patterns and how they transmit Marburg virus to humans.
Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Data science infrastructure is sorely needed in many places. Doctors Without Borders brings medical help to nations in need, but similar efforts are relatively small for statistics.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy president David Mabuza, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize visiting the Aspen Pharmacare sterile manufacturing facility.
Lulama Zenzile/Die Burger/Gallo Images via Getty Images
Vaccine manufacturing doesn’t come cheap. It depends heavily on support from developed countries. It also requires much more than relaxing intellectual property rights and a desire for vaccine equity.
Residents and church members gather at the main gate of the Synagogue Church of All Nations headquarters in Lagos to mourn the death of pastor TB Joshua.
Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images
Nigeria’s TB Joshua wasn’t just known for his evangelism and controversies. He was also a beloved philanthropist.
Rigiatu Kamara (R), 38, who has recovered from the Ebola virus disease poses with her husband Baibai Kamara (L), 40, in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on August 26, 2014.
Photo by Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A gender perspective on public health is essential to human rights and safety in crisis situations.
A Liberian man reads a newspaper reporting on the Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Guinea at a sidewalk news stand in Monrovia, Liberia.
Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
Ebola seems to be able to lay dormant in people for many years before causing disease again.
Workers at India’s biggest syringe manufacturer ramp up production in September 2020 in race to meet COVID-19 vaccine-driven demand.
Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images
Countries in the West Africa region are in a very different position to seven years ago. They now have the experience of the past as well as new tools to tackle Ebola.
Until now the U.S. hasn’t coordinated its disaster aid and development spending.
Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images
The Trump White House questioned the value of foreign aid and neglected policies related to helping low-income countries. But US aid had already needed improvement.
To better anticipate and manage the emergence of new pandemics, a paradigm shift is needed to take into account the complex interactions between human health, animal health, the environment and the economy.
One approach to figure out what to expect is to look at the experiences of different countries after they closed schools due to previous pandemics, war or industrial action.
Part-time lecturer at the Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard University, and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Liberia
Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Professor of Neurology, University of Liverpool