Medicines are increasingly the product of complex supply chains, introducing vulnerabilities to their reliability and safety. CFR Senior Fellow Laurie Garrett lays out how G8 and G20 nations can help to remedy the drug safety crisis.

Laurie Garrett discusses the current state of global health programs.

Interest and political will for universal health coverage is growing across the world. Through risk-pooling, medical care can be made accessible and affordable in poor and emerging-market countries.

Laurie Garrett and Captain Eustaquio Castro-Mendoza, USN, discuss the steps that must be taken to protect Haiti, still recovering from the earthquake, from the coming hurricane season.

Laurie Garrett and Dana March point out that vaccinations against influenza do not mrerely protect the population from the virus itself but that they have significant long term health benefits that should not be ignored.

Laurie A. Garrett argues that in handling pandemics, "governments should only set up action and threat assessment systems that are flexible, and useful."

Richard Holbrooke and Laurie Garrett, write about the concept of “viral sovereignty,” an “extremely dangerous idea” that asserts that deadly viruses are the sovereign property of individual nations. Fueled by self-destructive, anti-Western sentiments, this concept is slowly gaining traction and poses a real threat to global health.

Laurie Garrett argues that our focus in the fight against AIDS should not be to create a multibillion dollar industry that only treats the disease. Instead, our resources need to be geared towards finding a long-term cure that can stop the spread of the virus permanantly.

Every year, 536,000 women die during childbirth, and an additional 8 million become severely disabled. The death toll doesn’t end with the mothers: 5 percent of all newborns die after their mother’s death, and millions of other children are left orphaned. Isobel Coleman and Laurie Garrett argue that the way to reduce this staggering level of maternal mortality is to “pass legislation that shows real resolve, with money and legislated programs behind it.”

Laurie Garrett discusses the confluence of health crises, including bird flu, climate changes and energy and food costs, in Bangladesh.

The Senate has earmarked funds in response to fears of a killer-flu pandemic. Now Washington just has to get its spending priorities straight.