Itzhak Matthai asks why measles continues to kill hundreds of thousands of people despite the availability of a simple and cheap solution and despite a marked global improvement over the last few years.

Everyone knows about measles, but do we perhaps take it for granted, thinking it an unproblematic and easily avoidable issue? A disease most prevalent amongst young children between the ages of one to four, it is highly contagious - particularly in the four days before any sign of physical symptoms - and has been responsible for millions of deaths worldwide, mostly through the various complications it is liable to cause including hepatitis, conjunctivitis, encephalitis and severe respiratory infection (1).

Thank goodness, then, for the measles vaccine, which costs around GBP 0.17 including safe injection equipment and has been around for 40 years (2). Furthermore, the vaccine has been proven to be both safe and effective - so why does the disease continue to take lives even today across the whole world?

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Karl Pang takes a global look at what different countries are doing to combat this important clinical concern

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causes major morbidity and mortality. Once introduced into an institution it frequently becomes endemic, difficult to control, expensive to treat and often impossible to eradicate.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a gram positive coccus is just one of a family of staphylococcal bacteria. 30% of healthy adults are colonized by S. aureus in their nose. (more…)