Headlines making waves across the United States recently featured the severity of this year’s flu virus. Record numbers of cases are reported for the particularly severe strain of influenza. Health experts are urging everyone to get their flu shot if they have not already. Absent are headlines suggesting a vaccine shortage.
Though we may take for granted access to vaccines protecting us from the flu and other viruses, in many parts of the world access to vaccinations, antibiotics, and HIV/AIDS and family planning commodities is limited. Restrictive financing, stockouts, untrained supply chain managers, logistics hardships, fragile infrastructure, weak health systems, and a host of other challenges threaten commodity security in many countries. Read more »
We’ve come a long way over the past 40 years in preventing and treating infectious diseases. The number of child deaths now drops every year. And malnutrition is causing fewer deaths than in the past, too. However, more young people and middle-aged adults are suffering—and dying—from disease and injury. Noncommunicable diseases have become the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. 
