Category: infectious disease
Wipe out polio in Africa for good
This blog was originally posted on CNN.com on August 21, 2015 This week, we detailed in a report with cautious optimism that polio will be gone not only in Nigeria but in all of Africa. Only a few years ago, Nigeria was Africa’s last outpost of polio and seemed to be losing the battle against Read More >
Posted on byMabinty Tarawally — 1-1-7 Hotline Responder
Mabinty Tarawally has worked as a 1-1-7 Call Center responder for almost a year. When she began, the national call center consisted of seven people who handled 100 calls a day in a small room at the World Health Organization’s Sierra Leone country office. Tarawally joined the 1-1-7 Call Center in September 2014, and has Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentHard But Fulfilling Work in the Fight Against Ebola
The fruit bat dropped silently from the delivery room ceiling and quickly crawled away as the nurse explained how she mixed the 0.5% chlorine solution used to sterilize the medical instruments. It was a normal day of assessing the infection prevention and control (IPC) procedures of peripheral health units (PHUs) in the rural areas of Read More >
Posted on byWorking collaboratively to support Ebola response efforts in Sierra Leone
CDC’s FETP partnerships with African nations continue to be leveraged beyond their national borders and for new and unexpected health threats. Dr. Bao-Ping’s blog posted originally on March 31 is being highlighted again as a reminder of how FETPs support global as well as individual nation’s health security. In late November 2014, during the peak Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentWorld Malaria Day 2015
World Malaria Day falls on Saturday this year, so I’ll spend some part of the day catching up on household chores. I can sometimes find moments of inspiration in the mental space created by simple tasks like running the vacuum cleaner. This year, malaria endemic countries and their global partners are reflecting on the remarkable Read More >
Posted on byWhat I Saw as a Child Led Me to Champion Vaccines Today
This post is part of the #ProtectingKids blog series. Read the whole series here. Living as a child in Kabul, Afghanistan in the 1970’s meant going to the bazaar on the weekends with my parents. My two sisters and I would climb in the back of our Volkswagen Kombi and my father would drive us Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentStopping Ebola by Land, Water and Air
This blog was originally posted on Huffington Post on February 18, 2015. Speed is paramount in our response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa as we continue to be vigilant in the fight to extinguish Ebola. The faster we get to communities with suspected cases, the faster we protect the people there. That gets us Read More >
Posted on byWorking collaboratively to support Ebola response efforts in Sierra Leone
In late November 2014, during the peak of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, I was deployed to Sierra Leone to support CDC’s Ebola response efforts. Like many of my colleagues, I wasn’t sure what to expect or where to begin, but I knew that we faced immense challenges, and my skills and expertise in Read More >
Posted on byWorking Towards an Achievable Goal: A World without CRS
When I started focusing on rubella in 1994, it was mainly recognized as a significant public health problem in high-income countries. When the public health community realized that rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) were actually significant public health issues in the entire region of the Americas, things took a turn and an elimination goal Read More >
Posted on byA Life Dedicated to Public Health Service
In January 2010, Diane Caves was on a 3-week assignment from CDC to improve HIV/AIDS programs in Haiti when the massive 7.0 earthquake struck, killing her and 230,000 others on the island. She was 31 years old and the only CDC employee to die in the tragedy. Diane’s reasons for going to Haiti were typical Read More >
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