Shakoor Hajat

With hundreds of thousands of people at risk of dying in unexpected heat-waves the latest advice on protecting yourself has been reviewed by a joint Canadian/British team in The Lancet medical journal. Shakoor Hajat of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tells Peter Goodwin that showering and drinking plenty of fluids is good, but — contrary to the usual advice — you could also allow yourself the occasional light beer in very hot weather.

Alice Perry

It will soon be easier to track the public health expert you need in around 190 different countries thanks to a Rockefeller Foundation grant awarded to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to strengthen its network of more than 12 000 former students and staff all over the world. Alice Perry tells Peter Goodwin about their aims to improve the availability of public health experts particularly in low-income countries.

Polly Roy

Professor Polly Roy discusses her team’s new vaccines for bluetongue: a lethal midge-borne disease of sheep, which is related to human diseases, including rotavirus infection. The vaccines — one already under development by a pharmaceutical company, the other at an advanced stage of laboratory testing — have been designed at the molecular level following clarification of the gene structures within the bluetongue virus. This makes them intrinsically safe to use, avoiding the need to use weakened forms of the actual virus for inoculation.

Francesco Checchi

Infectious disease such as diarrhoea and pneumonia have killed 80 per cent of around 300 000 people dying as a direct result of the war in Darfur, according to study published in The Lancet from a Belgian group led by Olivier Degomme. An editorial comment on this research was written by Francesco Checchi of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who specialises in infectious diseases. He discusses the implications with Peter Goodwin.

Anne Mills

Professor Anne Mills of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explains to Peter Goodwin how health systems development in Thailand has achieved healthcare coverage for all citizens, irrespective of ability to pay. Following her award of the Prince Mahidol Prize for Medicine — and in the light of the work she has done in Asia and Africa — she discusses how the Thai experience could give lessons for developing health systems in low and middle income countries in other parts of the world.

Peter Godfrey-Fausset

Peter Godfrey-Faussett of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, co-chair of a session on tuberculosis control at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 58th Annual Meeting, describes the Zamstar Intervention in Southern Africa with 24 communities and 1.2 million people. He talks with Peter Goodwin about the need to involve and support local communities and local teams in order to have success in controlling TB by applying known methods systematically through good organisation.

Albert Picado

Albert Picado of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on his goups findings presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 58th Annual Meeting, Washington DC, that insecticide-treated bed-nets did not prevent infection with leishmania donovani parasites—cause of the deadly visceral leishmaniasis—transmitted by the bite of the sandfly. He told Peter Goodwin about the study in India and Nepal in which they compared villages with and without bednets.

Carlton Evans

Carlton Evans of the Universidad Peruana-Cayetana-Heredia in Lima, Peru and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine talked with Peter Goodwin about his group’s finding—presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting—that women are just as likely to have TB as men: contrary to popular belief. He probes the reasons for this and emphasises the importance of prioritising the position of women in the poor communities where TB is prevalent.

Richard Horton

At a briefing held simultaneously in London and Washington DC Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, Andy Haines, Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Anil Markandya from the Basque Centre for Climate Change in Bilbao, Spain, and Paul Wilkinson, James Woodcock and Alan Dangour from the London School tell Sarah Maxwell and Peter Goodwin about their findings, just published in a special edition of the Lancet, on the consequences to human health of mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. In agriculture and food, urban transportation, electricity generation and home energy use the Lancet data showed large positive effects on human health over the next few decades if we choose the right strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.