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Ebola claimed more than 3000 lives in 2015.Potential vaccines were fast tracked.And clinical trial is started in west Africa early in the year.
Then in July came news about a vaccine trial in Guinea,overseen by the Norwegian institute of public health.
“Based on the number of individuals and the cases we see,there is 100 percent protection in those vaccinated.”
There was also news during the year about progress in the fight against another little virus—HIV,the virus that causes AIDS.
Just before World AIDS Day,the UN said nearly 16 million people are now on HIV treatment.That new infections have fallen by 35 percent since 2000. And AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 42 percent since the peak in 2004.
“If you look at the trajectory of the epidemic, we are on a course towards ending it in the sense of ‘as we know it,’because we’ve always known it as going up. Now it’s flattening off,and now it’s going to start to go down. ”
2015 also saw a huge advance in ridding the world of polio. At one time, the polio virus circulated in 125 countries. In September, the WHO removed Nigeria from the list of polio-epdemic countries. Now there are only two—Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“That’s only place in the whole world where polio still lives.If we could knock it out there,we’re finished with wild polio virus.”
Despite the successes, there are concerns.The WHO warned that we are heading towards a post-antibiotics era,one in which common infections will once again kill because of resistance to medication.
Health officials are also concerned about drug resistance to tuberculosis and malaria.
The WHO has called for an intensified campaign in 2016 to end the global TB epidemic.
Challenges also lie ahead in getting the polio vaccine into Afghan children in areas held by Islamic militantsand to develop treatments in vaccines against newly emerging infectious diseases.
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