Media Relations Posts
Vaccinating Against TB: At Home and Abroad
Recently Burness’ hometown of Bethesda, Maryland, became home to a disease most of us don’t associate with this part of the world: tuberculosis. The extensively drug-resistant kind.
A Big Moment for the World’s Fight Against Malaria
The world’s leading malaria vaccine candidate crossed another milestone in a 30-year journey when it received a positive assessment from the European Medicines Agency for its use in protecting young children in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a tremendous scientific achievement.
Are High Drug Prices Here to Stay?
Last week the FDA approved PCSK9 inhibitors, which promise to help millions of Americans with high cholesterol. But these new drugs come with a projected price tag of about $14,600 a year. The PCSK9 inhibitors are the latest in a series of high-priced prescription drugs reaching the market.
Ebola: Getting to Zero, Staying at Zero
Dr. Philip Ireland has experienced the Ebola epidemic from two different angles: he is a Liberian physician and Ebola survivor. When he fell ill, his colleagues in Monrovia, Liberia, wrote off his symptoms as malaria, which Ireland knew wasn’t accurate. He’d had malaria many times. He and his mother took matters into their own hands. She quarantined him in his own home until he was finally admitted for treatment.
Children’s Health Care Spending Driven by Rising Costs
With child visits to the emergency room declining and the overall use of prescription drugs by children at its lowest in years, it only makes sense that spending on health care for kids would be down. Right? Not quite.
Barracuda’s Revenge
The threat from a barracuda’s ugly, sharp-toothed grimace is enough to make divers quake in their flippers. But danger lurks even after the reef fish is hooked and cooked up for a meal. Barracuda and other popular sport fish including grouper, amberjack and hogfish are a source of ciguatera poisoning—the most common form of fish-related food poisoning in the world and is sickening many more people in Florida than previously reported.
What Will Stop the Rising Trend of Obesity in America?
Imagine the challenge for the millions of parents who live without access to healthy, affordable foods or in neighborhoods where it’s not safe for their kids to play outside. Consider that U.S. food and beverage companies spend nearly $2 billion each year targeting kids with ads, apps and websites promoting junk foods, sugary drinks and other unhealthy fare. How do we turn the tide?
Online Tool Aims to Bring Bounty Harvest in Kenya
If you are a farmer living in Embu County, Kenya, how do you know which seed to plant? Maybe you decide based on what your neighbors plant or what you’ve always planted. But over the last 10 years, plant breeders in Kenya have likely developed new varieties of seeds with specific traits that could thrive on your farm and give you higher yields.
Agriculture and the Africa Rising Narrative
Africa is the next frontier of the global economy. Several African countries boast some of the fastest growth rates in the world. Four of the world’s top 10 fastest growing economies in 2015 and 2016 are forecasted to be in Africa. And yet, the sector that employs as much as 60 percent of Africa’s labor force only accounts for 25 percent of the gross domestic product. Why the disconnect?
Why Mexico’s Climate Pledge Makes the Grade
A handful of countries worldwide—from the United States to Gabon—have submitted pledges to the United Nations outlining what they’ll do to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the leading cause of global warming. So far, experts have given most of the submissions to date, which represent 36 of a total of 150 countries, lukewarm reviews, warning they won’t do enough to stave off a dangerous rise in the planet’s temperature.
