Introduction to Filoviridae The family Filoviridae encompasses a group of enveloped, negative-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses known for their distinctive filamentous morphology and their capacity to cause severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and non-human primates. Since the mid-twentieth century, filoviruses have emerged from elusive zoonotic reservoirs to precipitate regional epidemics characterized by high case fatality rates. The most notable of these include the

US CDC - Map of affected areas Introduction and Global Health Context of the 2026 Bundibugyo Ebolavirus In May 2026, the global health community was alerted to a rapidly expanding, high-mortality viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Uganda1. On May 17, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the event a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)3. The etiologic agent was identif

Introduction to the Dobbs 2022 Supreme Court Decision The June 2022 United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization dismantled the federal constitutional protection for abortion established by Roe v. Wade, returning the authority to regulate, restrict, or ban abortion access to individual state legislatures1. The immediate aftermath of this ruling produced a deeply fragmented reproductive healthcare landscape across the nation. Roughly hal

Introduction and Historical Context of NW Screwworm The New World screwworm, scientifically classified as Cochliomyia hominivorax, is an obligate ectoparasite native to the tropical and subtropical environments of the Western Hemisphere. Unlike the vast majority of blowflies that colonize necrotic tissue, the larvae of C. hominivorax feed exclusively on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals, causing a rapidly progressing and highly destructive condition known as myiasis1.

Introduction to Global Biosecurity and the “One Health” Protocol The architecture of global health security is continuously tested by the emergence, re-emergence, and geographic expansion of biological threats. In the contemporary interconnected biosphere, biodefense and biosecurity represent critical pillars of national and regional security, transcending traditional military paradigms to encompass public health, agricultural stability, economic continuity, and ecological re

Introduction - Spread of the New World Screwworm into Texas The confirmation of a New World screwworm infestation in a livestock calf in southern Texas on June 3, 2026, marks a critical inflection point in the modern landscape of North American agricultural biosecurity.1 For decades, the United States maintained a stringent state of eradication regarding this obligate parasite, relying on a strategically placed biological barrier in the Darien Gap of Panama to prevent northwa

Introduction Disease vectors represent a profound and persistent challenge to global public health, operating as the critical biological bridge that facilitates the transmission of pathogenic agents between hosts. These vectors, predominantly hematophagous arthropods such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and sandflies, are responsible for the propagation of infectious diseases that dictate the epidemiological landscape of vast regions of the planet.1 Among these organisms, anthro

Introduction On April 27, 2026, public health authorities within the South Carolina Department of Public Health officially declared the conclusion of the largest localized measles outbreak recorded in the United States since 1991.1 The epidemiological event, which spanned an uninterrupted sequence of thirty consecutive weeks, was formally declared over following a continuous 42-day observation window—representing two full viral incubation periods—during which no newly associa

Introduction to the Emerging Epidemiological Landscape of Rotavirus Rotavirus remains one of the most significant global viral pathogens responsible for acute, severe, dehydrating gastroenteritis, historically exacting its highest toll on infants and young children worldwide. Belonging to the Reoviridae family, this highly contagious enteric pathogen represents a profound burden on global health infrastructure. For decades following the successful introduction of oral live-at

Introduction to the 2026 Ebola (Bundibugyo virus) Epidemic Event As of late May 2026, the international public health community is confronting a severe and rapidly expanding epidemic of Ebola virus disease, primarily concentrated within the northeastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with confirmed cross-border exportation into neighboring Uganda.1 Unlike the vast majority of highly publicized filovirus outbreaks over the past decade, which were driven almos

Introduction - Global Landscape of COVID-19 Pandemic The global landscape of infectious disease monitoring has undergone a profound paradigm shift since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Traditional case-based surveillance, while foundational to public health and epidemiology, is inherently reactive and subject to significant temporal lags. It relies on a cascade of dependent events: an individual must become infected, complete an incubation period, develop recognizable c

Introduction The global and domestic initiatives to end the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic by the year 2030 are currently navigating a highly complex paradigm defined by unprecedented scientific breakthroughs and simultaneous sociopolitical regressions. Over the past four decades, advancements in antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis have transformed HIV from an invariably fatal diagnosis into a manageable chronic condition. Epidemiological data thr

Introduction The emergence and rapid dissemination of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presented the global scientific community with an unprecedented challenge: tracking a highly transmissible, rapidly mutating pathogen across vast, heterogeneous geographic landscapes. While traditional epidemiological surveillance has historically relied on temporal epidemic curves—plotting the raw number of new cases against time—this unidimensional approach

Introduction: Aspergillus on the Rise Popular media and science journalism frequently captivate the public imagination with dramatic headlines highlighting the emergence of novel or ancient biological entities. Discourse ranges from the discovery of ancient Scottish fossils representing extinct branches of early life, to speculative articles in outlets like the Daily Galaxy discussing unclassified fossil life forms or the role of horizontal gene transfer in triggering early t

Introduction For over a century, the United States public health infrastructure has relied upon widespread immunization to continuously reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with infectious diseases. The steady expansion of the childhood immunization schedule, driven by rigorous scientific evaluation and federal coordination, culminated in the elimination of endemic transmission for several pathogens, most notably measles in the year 2000. However, the epidemiological

Introduction to the Next Generation of HIV Immunization The pursuit of a highly effective prophylactic vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains one of the most formidable challenges in modern biomedical science. For more than four decades, the staggering genetic diversity of the virus, its rapid mutation rate, and its sophisticated immune evasion mechanisms have thwarted traditional vaccine design strategies. The primary goal of contemporary HIV vaccine

Introduction and Historical Context In the year 2000, the United States achieved a landmark public health milestone: the declaration that endemic measles had been eliminated within its borders. 1 This status, maintained by a highly effective, two-dose measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination program, signified that the continuous, year-round transmission of the measles virus was no longer occurring domestically. 4 However, the elimination of a disease is fundamentally differ

Introduction As the acute crisis of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has transitioned into an endemic reality, the focus of the global medical and scientific communities has increasingly shifted toward the chronic sequelae of the infection. Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), widely referred to as Long COVID, has emerged as a complex, heterogeneous, and debilitating condition that currently affects tens of millions of people worl

Introduction The sequencing of the human genome at the turn of the millennium marked the beginning of a new era in biology, providing the complete "book of life." Yet, for over two decades, our ability to read this book has been uneven. While the 2% of the genome that codes for proteins—the exome—is relatively well understood, the remaining 98% of non-coding DNA has remained largely opaque. These vast stretches of sequence, once dismissed as "junk DNA," are now known to conta

Abstract The first quarter of the 21st century was poised to be the era of measles eradication. Following the successful elimination of the virus from the Americas in 2016 and the achievement of elimination status in numerous European nations, the global health community anticipated a gradual march toward the total suppression of the measles virus (MeV). However, the period spanning 2024 to early 2026 has witnessed a catastrophic reversal of these gains. This report provides