Prognosis
The Fight to Contain Deadly Contagion Starts in Africa
- Researchers are working in countries with fewest resources
- Climate change and urbanization are stoking risk of pandemics
A new strain of the mpox-causing monkeypox virus spreading in central Africa is the latest scourge to set off a global health emergency.
Photographer: Arlette Bashizi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
They study the planet’s deadliest diseases in remote, conflict-prone areas in countries with the lowest health spending and fewest resources, yet the world relies on them to stop the next pandemic.
Meet eight Africa-based scientists and doctors using cutting-edge genomic tools, data-sharing platforms and shoe-leather epidemiology to identify, track, and counter the spread of emerging pathogens on a continent that’s spawned some of humanity’s most devastating diseases — yellow fever, HIV, Ebola, and Lassa among them.