Dr Seth Berkley is an epidemiologist and global health leader whose career has been shaped by one central problem: vaccines save lives, but only if people can actually get them.

His 40-year career has spanned the global, from helping to build Uganda’s first HIV surveillance system and founding the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative; to leading Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for more than a decade – overseeing the immunisation of hundreds of millions of children worldwide. And when COVID-19 struck, Seth co-founded COVAX, the global initiative designed to stop wealthy nations monopolising vaccines.

In conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Seth discusses the highs and lows of his globe-trotting career - from saving millions of young lives through vaccine distribution, to setting his own shattered leg after a climbing accident in Namibia - and addresses the huge challenge of tackling vaccine scepticism.

While the School of Public Health was not officially founded until 2013, public health has remained a pertinent topic since the University’s founding. On Monday, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Faculty Fellow in University History William Goedel PhD’20 hosted a talk on the longer evolution of public health at the University, starting primarily in the 1800s.

The United States declared victory in the fight against measles in 2000, saying the once common and deadly illness had been eliminated. But that could be changing, as measles makes an unwelcome global comeback. Canada already lost its measles-elimination status last year, and now the United States and Mexico—where cases have climbed into the thousands—face a similar fate.

---

Experts warn that communities underestimate measles’ danger

A sharp rise in U.S. measles cases is linked to falling MMR vaccination rates and growing immunity gaps

---

Respiratory syncytial virus is continuing to spread later into the spring than usual, driving most states to extend the window for RSV immunizations for eligible infants and toddlers.

---

The CDC has paused diagnostic testing for more than two dozen infectious diseases —including rabies and pox viruses — according to the agency’s website.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon told Healio that the pause is temporary while the CDC “evaluates these assays as part of our routine review to uphold our commitment to high-quality laboratory testing.”

---

The largest measles outbreak in the United States seems to be winding down. The South Carolina Department of Public Health says the state has now gone two full weeks without a new infection. Also, no one in the state is in quarantine or isolation for measles at this time, according to Brannon Traxler, MD, MPH, South Carolina’s chief medical officer.

---

Flu and Covid, including a new variant called BA.3.2, nicknamed “cicada,” are still circulating, along with several other respiratory illnesses and a nasty stomach bug that are leaving many Americans feeling cruddy.

The symptoms for most of the viruses are so similar — sniffles, cough, muscle aches, fever — that doctors say you really can’t tell what you’ve got without a test.

---

The School of Public Health’s Pandemic Center received a $900,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to launch a program for mid-career professionals in Africa designed to provide specialized training on biological threat reduction policy. The three-year initiative is set to launch in summer 2026 and will include a 9–10-week online course and a yearlong fellowship.

---

This hour, we look at the spread of measles in the United States. And we talk to health and science communicators who are working to tell the story of that disease in new ways.

---

Ahead of the World Cup, state health leaders say they are relying on a playbook they’ve used many times before, for blizzards, holiday celebrations, championship games, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Boston Marathon bombing.

Yet the World Cup dwarfs virtually any other event hosted in the region in decades, spanning 16 North American cities over five weeks and drawing an estimated 2 million fans to Greater Boston. Players and ticket-holders will ricochet across not just the region, but the country.

---