When Dangerous Strains of Salmonella Hit, the Turkey Industry Responded Forcefully. The Chicken Industry? Not So Much.

Local agencies tasked with controlling disease-spreading organisms are releasing sterile male mosquitoes to help reduce the pest’s population and prevent the spread of dengue. This strategy has decreased the mosquito population by about 82% in parts of Southern California, marking the first time in eight years that the population has declined instead of increased.

Nigeria accounted for 31.8% of all malaria-related deaths globally in 2020. The Block Malaria Africa Initiative employs behavioral change communication to promote positive health outcomes by studying behavior and providing effective messages and materials that address each community’s needs to educate people on what malaria is and how it can be prevented.

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.

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.

Local public health infrastructure makes monitoring and responding to epidemic outbreaks possible. In Nigeria’s Kebbi state, The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) operates Public Health Emergency Operation Centers (PHEOC), which serve as local nodes in the country’s battle against infectious disease. Each PHEOC coordinates with a local committee of leaders in identifying, isolating, and treating cases of infectious disease.

During gas drilling boom in Wyoming, worker deaths were extremely high . In response occupational epidemiologists were hired to help improve worker safety.

Dutch farmers are saying no to antibiotics for livestock. The Netherlands is in the midst of a high-stakes, government-mandated experiment: Can large-scale meat production succeed without routine use of antibiotics?

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.

In order to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19, and to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks, China introduced temporary regulations banning commercial breeding of wildlife for meat consumption. These have hit farmers hard, with at least 20,000 farming operations shutting down by the end of February. With the bans on their way to fully becoming a law, local governments are trying to provide training and loans to help farmers transition to new products, but some claim the process is slow and doesn’t go far enough to prevent the breeding of the banned creatures for fur farming and traditional medicine.

In Indonesia, Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes are transmitting dengue at a much slower rate than those not infected with the bacterium according to a controlled research study that expands on existing experimentation conducted elsewhere in the world. Although the trial was cut short due to the prevalence of COVID-19, the results were substantial enough that researchers are encouraging efforts to scale the technology worldwide.