SoCal officials unleash sterile mosquitoes in bid to curb disease — with promising results

Haiti has gone an entire year without any new reported cases of cholera, which is a significant accomplishment for the country that once faced 800,000 cases of the infectious disease. Although it's too soon to declare the country cholera-free, Haiti's success thus far is largely due to collective efforts to increase education and implement preventative measures such as pop-up clinics and rapid response teams.

The cholera outbreak in Haiti affected and killed thousands of people. Treating patients as quickly as possible became a top priority. Mass Design Group designed Gheskio's Cholera Treatment Center as a building that promotes recovery with water sanitation, ultimately reducing the number of cases of Cholera.

Haiti is currently battling the biggest cholera epidemic in recent history caused by lack of access to clean drinking water. Soil is an NGO which delivers dry, compost toilets to peoples’ homes - alternatives to water guzzling flushing toilets, which need infrastructure such as sewers - to help keep sewage from contaminating water sources and provide dignified, safe toilet facilities.

Westerners' fear of infection of Ebola motivated a vaccine in record time, but a preventive system put in place could ensure similar results for other viruses before they reach the same magnitude.

China’s path to officially eliminating malaria began in the 1950s when a scientist in a government-funded program discovered the ancient Chinese herb Wormwood had been used to treat symptoms for centuries and went on to make the world’s top treatment. Effective coordination across many agencies, treating stagnant water, and widespread use of insecticide nets also limited cases. Today China uses the “1-3-7” method where local agencies are told of any likely case within one day, the case is confirmed within three days, and measures are taken to treat the patient and prevent further spread within seven days.

In March when fewer than 100 coronavirus infections had been found in the U.K, researchers in Cambridge decided to begin sequencing coronavirus samples as part of an "unparalleled surveillance system for Covid" that could identify and track possible mutations or the virus. This effort – which involves labs sending leftover material from testing swabs to the researcher's genomics lab where they are stored and analyzed – has culminated in hundreds of thousands of genome sequences and "sounded an alarm for the world" about the new fast-spreading variant.

Researchers and public health experts across the world are turning to "wastewater-based-epidemiology" as a practice that could help trace and track the spread of COVID-19. This methodology has already proved successful in helping mitigate diseases such as polio in Israel and track the usage of illicit drugs in Australia. Most recently, in both France and the Netherlands, early sewage samples have revealed useful data about the coronavirus outbreak.

As coronavirus continues to spread around the world, social distancing is being implemented due to its proven success with helping to drastically slow the spread of the Spanish flu in St. Louis Missouri. In a comparison of St. Louis and Philadelphia – a city that did not institute social distancing practices – limiting the time in public spaces helped to keep per capita flu-related deaths in St. Louis "to less than half of those in Philadelphia."

Bhutan has committed to eliminating malaria from the country, as in on track to do so thanks in part to the Bhutanese government's consistent persistence to raise public awareness. Arming citizens with mosquito nets, spray and education, the small country has now outpaced India towards this public health goal.

Enrolling community members as Volunteer Community Mobilizers (VCMs) dramatically increases the effectiveness of public health campaigns. In Nigeria, the Jigawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency has made progress with regard to immunization rates through its health ambassador program. The VCMs act as links between the localities and the public health services, ensuring that each that child receives vaccinations on schedule. The state has also used VCMs to increase the frequency of home visits and outreach efforts.