Global Cause
In this issue
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The future for precision medicine and clinical microbiology
By translating basic biological knowledge to medical insights, precision medicine aims to treat each patient as a single entity. Precision medicine enters into a close union with personalised medicine to identify a patient’s biological alteration. Recent evidence show that precision medicine and personalised medicine may be applied to clinical microbiology. A breakthrough advancement in molecular diagnostics...
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Concern is growing over similar trends of COVID-19 and TB
Those of us working to end tuberculosis—like COVID-19, an airborne, primarily respiratory illness—know too well how disadvantaged and vulnerable communities are more severely affected by infectious diseases. Vulnerable and disadvantages communities suffer more of the direct effects of ill-health and premature death. They’re also face more indirect effects, including catastrophic costs of receiving healthcare and...
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Building a better European response system – lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic
In our globalised society, serious infectious health threats will eventually make their way across national borders. This underlines the importance of strong international cooperation with partners at EU and global level. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has constantly assessed the evolving risk and advised EU/EEA member States...
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Antimicrobial resistance is making our response to COVID-19 even harder
As infectious diseases specialists we have seen first-hand the devasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also witnesses to the frightening by-products of this insidious virus. If nothing else the pandemic has shown the importance of investments in prevention, public health and biomedical research and plainly demonstrated the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Reducing...
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Setting HIV testing targets to eliminate new diagnosis by 2030
Effective HIV treatment means people living with HIV have a normal life expectancy and can enjoy a healthy sex life knowing there is zero risk of passing HIV on to their partners. About 6,000 people in England are unaware that they are living with HIV. Undiagnosed HIV drives onward transmission and late diagnosis, associated with...
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How do we better prepare for future pandemics?
With the world’s gaze focused on ramping up production and delivery of 11 billion safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine doses within a year, it is important that we turn an eye to the future. As we need to make provisions for adequate contact tracing and access to diagnosis and treatment all around the world, disease surveillance and health system strengthening are key....
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Priorities in a pandemic: What’s next for access to TB care?
The focus on the COVID-19 response could lead to a global setback of at least 5 to 8 years for other infectious diseases, resulting in over a million additional deaths from TB alone. The declaration of a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) set off a chain of reactions. In rapid...
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s Sponsored
Why AMR is a major threat to humanity
The growing threat of antibiotic resistance could lead to the collapse of modern medicine and worsen our abilities to fight infectious diseases unless new approaches are implemented. While pharmaceutical companies have “extraordinary knowledge” to develop antibiotics to tackle infection, imprecise use is creating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and meaning some drugs are becoming less effective, leaving...
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Sexual health & the pandemic: Capitalising on a once in a lifetime opportunity
2020 brought unprecedented challenges for all working within sexual and reproductive health; staff grappled with maintaining essential service delivery during periods of varying lockdown and restrictions, whilst also responding to the immediate predations and consequences of COVID-19 itself. The response to these challenges has been remarkable across the healthcare system. Build back better We now...
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s Sponsored
Sepsis: why new technology is needed to battle the silent killer
Sepsis, a syndromic response to infection and frequently a final common pathway to death for many infectious diseases, accounts for almost 20% of all global deaths. Only fast, targeted treatment can be sure to keep patients safe. A third of hospital deaths are due to sepsis, and rising. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that...