Climate change and public health in Germany - An introduction to the German status report on climate change and health 2023.

Global warming of 1.5°C and even 2°C is likely to be exceeded during the 21 century. Climate change poses a worldwide threat and has direct and indirect effects on infectious diseases, on non-communicable diseases and on mental health.

[Four years after the Ebola crisis : Challenges, experiences, and implications in the German public health context].

The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa in 2014/2015 was by far the biggest, most prolonged, and geographically most widespread outbreak of this disease since the discovery of the Ebola virus in 1976. Although no cases of Ebola virus disease were confirmed in Germany, a number of crisis management activities were initiated.Based on a combination of local, national, and international lessons learned, literature research, and a large number of discussions among German colleagues as well as German and foreign colleagues, the experiences of selected German public health actors as well as implications for health protection activities in Germany are presented.

[The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa in 2014/2015: important data and political events].

In 2014/2015 West Africa suffered an Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak of unprecedented unknown severity. The outbreak affected mostly Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and for the first time spread to major cities, some of which have international airports. Worldwide, 28,652 cases were registered, 11,325 of which were fatal.

[Incident-crisis-disaster. Conceptualizing unusual biological incidents].

Unusual biological threats demand adequate preparedness efforts, as demonstrated, for example, by the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa in 2014/2015 and pandemic influenza in 2009/2010. In Germany, responsibilities for such efforts are located in different governmental authorities and differ from state to state. As a result, there are many different preparedness approaches using divergent core terminology.

Germany's expanding role in global health.

Germany has become a visible actor in global health in the past 10 years. In this Series paper, we describe how this development complements a broad change in perspective in German foreign policy. Catalysts for this shift have been strong governmental leadership, opportunities through G7 and G20 presidencies, and Germany's involvement in managing the Ebola virus disease outbreak.

Some personal notes on role plays as an excellent teaching tool : commentary on "using and developing role plays in teaching aimed at preparing for social responsibility".

Role plays are extremely valuable tools to address different aspects of teaching social responsibility, because they allow students to "live through" complex ethical decision making dilemmas. While role plays are getting high marks from students because their entertainment value is high, their educational value depends on their closeness to students' work experience and the skills of the teacher in helping students comprehend the lessons they are meant to convey.

Unfinished business: efforts to define dual-use research of bioterrorism concern.

Biotechnological research poses a special security problem because of the duality between beneficial use and misuse. In order to find a balance between regulating potentially dangerous research and assuring scientific advancement, a number of assessments have tried to define which types of research are especially open to misuse and should therefore be considered dual-use research of special concern requiring rigorous oversight. So far, there has been no common understanding of what such activities are.

Biosecurity policies at international life science journals.

The prospect of bioterrorism has raised concerns about the potential abuse of scientific information for malign purposes and the pressure on scientific publishers to prevent the publication of "recipes" for weapons of mass destruction. Here we present the results of a survey of 28 major life science journals--20 English-language international journals and 3 Chinese and 5 Russian journals--with regard to their biosecurity policies and procedures. The survey addressed the extent to which life science journals have implemented biosecurity procedures in recent years, how authors and reviewers are advised about these procedures and the underlying concerns, and what the practical experiences have been.