With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health organizations are on the front lines in the fight to save lives. But the rapid spread of the virus has stretched resources thin as public health organizations and healthcare providers combat the pandemic on multiple fronts.

Though COVID-19 has impacted communities around the world, it has not affected all communities equally. When a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team noticed that Latinx residents in parts of central Virginia were suffering disproportionately high rates of COVID-19 infection, they wanted to learn why.

Across the United States today, more than two million people have an opioid use disorder. As drug overdoses continue to increase nationwide, fewer and fewer families are left untouched by an epidemic that claims 130 lives in the United States each day.

When Dr. Evelyn McKnight was battling breast cancer in 2002, the last thing on her mind was Hepatitis C. So when she and her husband Thomas learned that she had contracted the virus from unsafe injection practices during her treatment, they were shocked.

The American Southwest is among the most ruggedly beautiful areas of the country. But for residents of the Navajo Nation, which encompasses more than 27,000 square miles of this region, the environment also brings with it an increased exposure to the deadly hantavirus.

Though the burden has drastically decreased in most industrialized nations, typhoid fever remains a serious health risk in much of the world. Spread through contaminated food and water, an estimated 26 million cases of typhoid fever occur worldwide each year, causing approximately 215,000 deaths. In countries like Zimbabwe, where the disease remains endemic, typhoid poses a recurring threat, particularly in the crowded urban areas around the capital city, Harare.

For the estimated 100,000 people in the United States who suffer from sickle cell disease, living with this potentially deadly blood disorder is a daily challenge. But in the fight against the disease, medical professionals have been hampered by a frustrating lack of data on how, when and where patients are accessing care.

The 2014 outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa moved disease preparedness into the global spotlight. Global health gaps in areas such as disease surveillance, laboratory capacity and workforce development have a direct impact on Americans’ health, safety and security.