Health authorities in several African nations are scrambling to control an Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, conscious of the failures of 2014 when the disease killed eleven thousand people before it was brought under control. In the latest outbreak there are just thirty-five confirmed cases, of whom twelve have died.

Despite warnings about a Zika virus epidemic, Congress has refused to break into its summer recess and appropriate $33 million needed by the end of this month. Money is running out for developing a possible vaccine, as a disease that causes birth defects is beginning to spread.

Listen to the episode HERE.

Saying the Zika Virus is now "spreading explosively," the World Health Organization has scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday. On the agenda is the possible declaration of a public health emergency. Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, has more.

Listen to the episode HERE.

Global health care efforts rely heavily on U.S. funding, but U.S. attitudes toward spending in this area are increasingly hostile.

Listen to the episode HERE.

As preventable diseases like measles make a comeback across the western world, vaccination rates are on the decline in Australia, Europe and North America.

Modern medicine is a marvel. But one of its most marvelous creations — antibiotic drugs — may prove to be as big a risk as it has been an aid to human survival. Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist, has been chronicling the dangers that antibiotic overuse, especially within the livestock industry, poses to global health. Here, she explains why everyone should be afraid of a coming medical Dark Ages, and how they might arrive without any explosive pandemics.

Listen HERE. 

Laurie Garrett and others appear on KCRW's "To the Point" to discuss that despite warnings about a Zika virus epidemic, Congress has refused to break into its summer recess and appropriate $33 million needed by the end of this month. Money is running out for developing a possible vaccine, as a disease that causes birth defects is beginning to spread.

Listen to the full episode on KCRW. August 2016. 

Laurie Garrett appeared on NPR's "Science Friday" to discuss antibiotic resistance, Ebola, and our reaction-based way of approaching infectious disease. 

Listen to the full episode here. February 2016. 

 In December of 1994, two public health experts took to SciFri’s airwaves to address some disturbing trends in global public health: rising antibiotic resistance, overlooked and underfunded public health infrastructure, and a frightening resurgence of old diseases we thought we’d beat. The guests were Laurie Garrett, then a health and science writer for Newsday and author of the book The Coming Plague(and now senior fellow for health at the Council on Foreign Relations), and Stephen Ostroff, then the associate director of epidemiological sciences at the CDC (and now former acting commissioner of the FDA).

Listen to the episode HERE.

Laurie Garrett was interviewed by Warren Olney on NPR's "To the Point" to discuss the potential implications of WHO declaring a public health emergency for the Zika Virus. 

Listen to the full recording here. January 2016. 

Laurie Garrett appeared on NPR's "To The Point" with Warren Olney on January 25, 2016 to discuss the spread of Zika Virus throughout the Americas and the brain damage it is causing in thousands of babies.   

Listen to the full audio here.  

Laurie Garrett appeared on NPR's Morning Edition to discuss the case of a man who died in New Jersey of a hemorrhagic fever this week on May 29, 2015.

In a segment on PRI's The World, Laurie Garrett welcomes the White House's pledge to stop using fake vaccination campaigns in CIA tactics. She also gives historical background and analysis behind this decision, and on why some residents of Pakistan are still hesitant to let their children get vaccinated against diseases like polio.

A new study has detected a resistant strain of malaria in Myanmar near the Indian border, raising concerns that resistance could soon extend its hold to sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 90 percent of malaria deaths occur. Laurie Garrett appeared on The Diane Rehm Show on February 23, 2015 to discuss new concerns about combating malaria worldwide.

Full audio available here.

Laurie Garrett appears on WBEZ Worldview on February 3, 2015 to discuss the recent outbreak of measles in the United States, and explains why anti-vaccine movements aren't uniquely American.

Measles, a disease once thought to be eliminated in the U-S, is making a comeback. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control reported 644 cases. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness. It’s caused by a virus and spreads through the air through sneezing and coughing, and can lead to serious complications, even death. All 50 states require that students get vaccinated. But there are exceptions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. All but 2 states grant exemptions for people with religious beliefs against immunizations. And a growing number of states -- now 20 of them -- let people with philosophical objections to vaccines to opt their kids out. Anti-vaccines movements aren't just an American phenomenon. Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins us to talk about why so many preventable diseases are still a risk in developed countries. PHOTO: Pediatrician Charles Goodman, talks with patient Carmen Lopez, 37, holding her 18-month-old son, Daniel after being vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, or MMR at his practice in Northridge, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015.(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Fifteen years after measles was declared eradicated in the United States, more than 70 people have come down with the disease — an outbreak that started at Disneyland. Laurie Garrett appears on a panel on KCRW's To The Point with host Warren Olney on January 23, 2015 to discuss how this outbreak started and what it indicates about vaccination rates.

Although some in Liberia are now referring to Ebola in the past-tense, the epidemic looks likely to continue past its ninth month. Laurie Garrett just returned from Sierra Leone and Liberia, and she appears on WBEZ's Worldview on November 25, 2014 to give an update on what the epidemic looks like now.

The Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea is now in its ninth month and it looks likely to continue. Some 5000 people have died of Ebola in these three countries. Other African nations, like Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have been declared Ebola free by the World Health Organization. Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, has just returned from a trip to Sierra Leone and Liberia. She’s put herself on a self-imposed quarantine and she joins us, via phone from quarantine, to give us an update on the state of the epidemic. (photo: Ebola health care workers carry the body of a middle aged man that they suspected of dying from the Ebola, on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh))

This week Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, passed away. A Dallas-area hospital initially turned him away, and his death has raised questions about what might have happened if he had been diagnosed and admitted to the hospital sooner. As healthcare workers are forced to wait for symptoms of Ebola to materialize before they can treat patients, Laurie Garrett argues on Science Friday on October 10, 2014 that rapid diagnostic testing tools could be a game changer in this ongoing outbreak.

Ebola reports every day now, from West Africa and well beyond. The Spanish nurse in trouble. An American cameraman being treated in Nebraska. The first case that walked into an American hospital, Thomas Duncan, dead today, in that hospital in Dallas. Is America ready for Ebola? The CDC says we'll stop it in its tracks. But 80 percent of American nurses surveyed last week said their hospitals have not taught them about it. Laurie Garrett joins Tom Ashbrook on WBUR's On Point on October 8, 2014, to discuss these issues.

On September 30, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that Ebola has reached the shores of the United States. A Liberian man who traveled from his home country to visit relatives in Dallas, Texas late last month has been diagnosed with the deadly virus. On The Takeaway with John Hockenberry on October 1, 2014, Laurie Garrett explains how likely the virus is to spread, and how the CDC and the WHO are handling the outbreak.