In October 2010, a virulent South Asian strain of El Tor cholera began to spread in Haiti. Interventions have included treatment of cases and improved sanitation.

Madeleine C. Thomson and colleagues call on climate and health researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to work together to tackle infectious diseases.

Animal migrations are often spectacular, and migratory species harbor zoonotic pathogens of importance to humans. Animal migrations are expected to enhance the global spread of pathogens and facilitate cross-species transmission.

The spread of infectious disease via commercial airliner travel is a significant and realistic threat. To shed some light on the feasibility of detecting airborne pathogens, a sensor integration study has been conducted and computational investigations of contaminant transport in an aircraft cabin have been performed.

Even doctors recoil from faecal transplants – but you might get over such squeamishness if it was your only hope of beating a killer infection.

In January, entomologists will start deploying a strange bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis in an attempt to halt disease transmission by mosquitoes. Their target is Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits dengue, a human viral disease that causes crippling joint and muscle pains. Recent studies have shown that infection with Wolbachia makes mosquitoes resistant to the dengue virus. Now, a team at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, wants to test whether they can spread Wolbachia in the wild by setting free small numbers of mosquitoes infected with the microbe.

Nine years ago, a small group of infectious-disease experts gambled on an unorthodox strategy to make a much-needed—and affordable—vaccine for Africa. Last Monday in Burkina Faso, it paid off in spades with the kickoff of a massive campaign to immunize 20 million people in three African countries against deadly meningococcal meningitis by the end of December.

Luc Montagnier is applying unorthodox ideas to the treatment of autism. With support from the Autism Research Institute (ARI), based in San Diego, California, the Nobel laureate is about to launch a small clinical trial of prolonged antibiotic treatment in children with autism disorders.