Networking a Cure for HIV

    

Fig.1. HIV illustration (left, credit: ©iStock.com/Rost-9D) and receiving treatment (right, credit: WHO).

Editor’s Note: SciColl held our first community workshop on Emerging Infectious Diseases in October 2014. This October, we're posting several pieces that highlight the important work where collections continue to play an integral role.

Editor’s Note: SciColl intern, Eden Absar from the University of Houston, contributed this article as part of her time in the SciColl office during Summer 2017. 

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an enigma of an infection that has puzzled scientists, doctors, and researchers since the first presented case in the 1980s. Although the modern medical community continues to study it and gather information, a cure for the disease remains elusive. According to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, as of 2015, there are nearly 37 million people worldwide who have been infected by HIV. Of that number, 1.8 million are children under the age of 15. In 2015, approximately 150,000 children were newly infected with HIV - a rate of nearly 400 new pediatric HIV patients every day. These numbers present a huge problem that appears to grow threateningly larger in the face of the lack of a cure for the disease.

"From [DNA] to Plate, Make Food Safe"

Fig.1. Scanning electron microscope image of Campylobacter jejuni bacteria, a top cause of bacterial food-related gastrointestinal illness in the United States (Credit: De Wood, Pooley, USDA, 2008).

Every year, foodborne illnesses kill nearly 2 million people around the world. These illnesses are caused by harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances and present a very real danger to food security and health care. Food safety is the topic of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Health Day, today on April 7, with the slogan "From farm to plate, make food safe." In an effort to promote food safety, the WHO released guidelines to prevent food contamination that can create a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition.