What we're reading: Why DRC Ebola crisis calls for a PHEIC, how to end an epidemic and more

It's time to declare a public health emergency on Ebola - This opinion piece highlights what the declaration of a PHEIC, or public health emergency of international concern, would do towards optimizing and accelerating efforts to control the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and enhancing preparedness in neighboring countries. Shifting the argument of whether the nearly yearlong outbreak, which last month spread into Uganda, meets the criteria for a PHEIC -- and strong arguments have been made that it does -- to the purposes served by the declaration, the piece lays out critical and currently missing components of an effective response. The strategies they delineate are supported by the experience of the authors, former White House Ebola response coordinator Ronald Klain and senior scholar with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law Dr. Daniel Lucey, who has served as a volunteer medical responder to outbreaks that included the West Africa Ebola crisis. How Australia Could Almost Eradicate HIV Transmissions - Australia prioritized pragmatic approaches to controlling the spread of HIV soon after recognizing the epidemic there, and this article updates the latest moves to make the most of the tools at hand, with widespread uptake of PrEP. Contrasting universal access to Truvada or its generic equivalents in Australia with lingering obstacles between patients and the proven prevention measure in the U.S., the article highlights a path to success the initiative to end HIV as an epidemic in America could follow.

HIV laws out of touch with scientific evidence and should be amended - This piece by HIV and infectious diseases experts in Singapore offers another useful tip for HIV efforts in the U.S. which outstrips any other country in numbers of local laws criminalizing HIV.