Washington Post: A new wave of diseases threatens Southern Europe and the Middle East
Peter J. Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine

“…[A] new wave of tropical infectious disease is threatening Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. … [I]t is apparent that an enormous band of territory extending from Spain and Morocco in the west to Asia Minor, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula in the east is under threat and could become a source for epidemics that imperil the world. … Action is urgently needed to answer this threat. Key needed measures include expanded surveillance for selected tropical infections, as well as studies to better understand how these infections are transmitted and where they originate. A global health-security agenda launched last year and endorsed by the G7 countries is intended to address some of these urgent issues. Wherever possible, public-health preparedness efforts must be intensified on both sides of the Mediterranean and in the Middle East…” (10/23).