Opinion: Patient zero: why it's such a toxic term
01 April 2020Dr Richard McKay traces the history of the 'patient zero' idea through epidemics such as HIV and typhoid, and the return of this trope with COVID-19.
Opinion: How we lost our collective memory of epidemics
31 March 2020Over the past 70 years richer nations have gradually lost their sense of danger concerning epidemics and serious infections, writes Professor Gordon Dougan. We must now reacquire this instinctive memory.
Half of Ebola outbreaks go undetected, study finds
14 June 2019Half of Ebola outbreaks have gone undetected since the virus was discovered in 1976, scientists at the University of Cambridge estimate. The new findings come amid rising concern about Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and highlight the need for improved detection and rapid response to avoid future epidemics.
Target ‘best connected neighbours’ to stop spread of infection in developing countries
24 July 2017An innovative new study takes a network theory approach to targeted treatment in rural Africa, and finds that a simple algorithm may be more effective than current policies, as well as easier to deploy, when it comes to preventing disease spread – by finding those with “most connections to sick people”.
California’s sudden oak death epidemic now ‘unstoppable’ and new epidemics must be managed earlier
02 May 2016New research shows the sudden oak death epidemic in California cannot now be stopped, but that its tremendous ecological and economic impacts could have been greatly reduced if control had been started earlier. The research also identifies new strategies to enhance control of future epidemics, including identifying where and how to fell trees, as “there will be a next time”.
Uninfected or asymptomatic? Diagnostic tests key to forecasting major epidemics
05 April 2016Major epidemics such as the recent Ebola outbreak or the emerging Zika epidemic may be difficult to forecast because of our inability to determine whether individuals are uninfected or infected but not showing symptoms, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge. The finding emphasises the need to develop and deploy reliable diagnostic tests to detect infected individuals whether or not they are showing symptoms, say the researchers.
A whole host of options
09 October 2015Almost one in four of the world’s cases of tuberculosis (TB) are in India and the disease is constantly adapting itself to outwit our medicines. Could the answer lie in targeting not the bacteria but its host, the patient?
