It is not often clear when the spread of a disease, such as cholera, becomes a pandemic.

CFR's Laurie Garrett provides historical context to the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico.

Land-based epidemics aren't the only thing we should be worried about, says Laura H. Kahn.

The World Bank analyzes trends and determinants in rising food prices as well as the impact on countries and households and recommends policy options for governments facing food crises.

Conscious of the increasing pressure on limited water resources, UN-Water has identified water scarcity as the theme for World Water Day 2007. This report reflects on the challenges posed by the unsustainable increase in water use and its degradation across the globe.

A policy brief based on the 2006 Joint International Conference: "Desertification and the International Policy Imperative." Desertification has emerged as an environmental crisis of global proportions. Recent evaluations clearly demonstrate there are no signs that it is abating on a global scale.

This report assesses the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation. The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to serious environmental problems.

Agriculture is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Greenpeace’s new report Cool Farming details the destructive practices resulting from industrial agriculture and presents workable solutions to help reduce its contribution to climate change.

The ACLU discusses the need for a public health -- not a law enforcement/national security -- approach to preparing the country for a pandemic.

Anderson Cooper reports on a nutritional breakthrough.

This study tested the association of multiple interventions with reduced disease transmission during the 1918 epidemic.

The RAND Corporation examines past attempts to rebuild public health and health care delivery systems during nation-building efforts after U.S. military deployments (PDF).

The disease burden of a population, and how that burden is distributed, are important pieces of information for prioritizing and defining strategies to protect population health. To help provide a reliable source of information for policy-makers, WHO has developed methods to analyse the impacts of risks for health, and has estimated the impacts of 26 risk factors worldwide, including climate change

A new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at the evolution and spread of the H5N1 (avian flu) virus.

An article in the British Medical Journal looks at whether influenza vaccination policy is consistent with the available evidence.

New York University's Law School issues a research guide on International Health Law, which provides information about general trends in global diseases and their legal implications.

An editorial in the British Medical Journal celebrates the fact that 2006 will be the first year in human history when women can expect to enjoy a longer life expectancy than men across the world.

Despite the early successes of the WHO, its performance in recent years in
fighting diseases raises serious concerns.

Sherry Cooper argues that the long-term economic effects of a pandemic could lead to considerable supply and demand effects. Loss of labour and trade would dominate the supply-side effect and social distancing and fear would increase the demand for essentials such as non-perishable food, water, medical supplies and health-care services, but reduce the demand for virtually everything else.

This report by the IMF's Avian Flu Working Group posits that once the pandemic has run its course, economic activity should recover relatively quickly. Both consumption and average hours worked might even overshoot the pre-pandemic level temporarily.