In the News

Vaccine for Zika Virus May Be Years Away, Disease Experts Warn

January 29th, 2016

As public health officials warn that the Zika virus is swiftly spreading across the Americas, the search is on to develop a vaccine to halt the disease, which could infect as many as four million people by the end of the year and has been linked to severe birth defects.…

Ebola Returns: 2nd Case of Relapse Raises Questions

October 20th, 2015

The two cases of probable relapse “tell us that this can happen,” but not how frequently, Goodman said. “It’s likely not to be that common because it hasn’t been described in previous outbreaks,” he said. Goodman stressed that these cases of relapse should not be a reason to cast stigma on Ebola survivors because there have been no documented cases of disease transmission as a result of casual contact with Ebola survivors.…

How Ebola Vaccine Success Could Reshape Clinical Trial Policy

August 4th, 2015

Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said on 31 July that the agency is developing a “blueprint” for accelerated development of measures to counteract potential epidemics. The plan aims to reduce the time from the recognition of an outbreak to availability of countermeasures to four months or less, and would include putting trial designs and regulatory approvals in place in advance of an outbreak.…

Ebola Leaves Ongoing Health Issues for Survivors of the Viral Disease

March 9th, 2015

The long-term effects of Ebola have not been well studied, and doctors will probably learn a lot more about the disease’s aftermath from the current outbreak in West Africa, the largest in history, said Jesse Goodman, an infectious-disease expert and a professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center.…