Regulatory underpinnings of Global Health security: FDA's roles in preventing, detecting, and responding to global health threats.

In February 2014, health officials from around the world announced the Global Health Security Agenda, a critical effort to strengthen national and global systems to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats and to foster stronger collaboration across borders. With its increasing global roles and broad range of regulatory responsibilities in ensuring the availability, safety, and security of medical and food products, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is engaged in a range of efforts in support of global health security. This article provides an overview of FDA's global health security roles, focusing on its responsibilities related to the development and use of medical countermeasures (MCMs) for preventing, detecting, and responding to global infectious disease and other public health emergency threats.

The evolution and expansion of regional disease surveillance networks and their role in mitigating the threat of infectious disease outbreaks.

We examine the emergence, development, and value of regional infectious disease surveillance networks that neighboring countries worldwide are organizing to control cross-border outbreaks at their source. The regional perspective represented in the paper is intended to serve as an instructive framework for others who decide to launch such networks as new technologies and emerging threats bring countries even closer together. Distinct from more formal networks in geographic regions designated by the World Health Organization (WHO), these networks usually involve groupings of fewer countries chosen by national governments to optimize surveillance efforts.

Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS): a trust-based network.

The Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) network was formally established in 2001 through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by six Ministers of Health of the countries in the Greater Mekong sub-region: Cambodia, China (Yunnan and Guangxi), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The main areas of focus of the network are to: i) improve cross-border infectious disease outbreak investigation and response by sharing surveillance data and best practices in disease recognition and reporting, and by jointly responding to outbreaks; ii) develop expertise in epidemiological surveillance across the countries; and iii) enhance communication between the countries. Comprised of senior health officials, epidemiologists, health practitioners, and other professionals, the MBDS has grown and matured over the years into an entity based on mutual trust that can be sustained into the future.

Reproductive health risk and protective factors among unmarried youth in Ghana.

Context: In Ghana, as in many other Sub-Saharan African countries, the behaviors of the current cohort of adolescents will strongly influence the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This study sought to identify factors associated with elevated risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection among unmarried Ghanaian youth.

Methods: A nationally representative sample of 3,739 unmarried 12-24-year-olds were surveyed.

Reproductive health risk and protective factors among youth in Lusaka, Zambia.

Purpose: To: (a) identify risk and protective factors for behaviors that expose Zambian youth to risk of HIV infection and, (b) assess whether research findings from the United States concerning protective factors in "high-risk" environments might apply to other settings.

Methods: A community-based sample of 2328 youth ages 10-24 years residing in Lusaka, Zambia was interviewed. Multivariate statistical methods were used to isolate risk and protective factors for selected sexual and contraceptive behaviors.