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The years 2011, 2012, and 2013 witnessed both significant developments and setbacks in global polio eradication efforts. On the positive side, January 13, 2012, marked a full year since India had detected a case of wild poliovirus. On the negative side, polio continued to be endemic in three countries-Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria-and in those countries the goal of eliminating polio seemed more challenging than ever. Between December 2012 and January 2013, sixteen polio workers were killed in Pakistan, and in February 2013, nine women vaccinating children against polio in Kano, Nigeria, were shot dead by gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamist sect. In addition, after a 95 percent decline in polio cases in 2010, the number of cases in Nigeria rebounded in 2011. Recognizing that polio was unlikely to be eliminated in these countries in the near term, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative moved its target date for eradication from 2013 to 2018.

These setbacks sparked a debate about the appropriate strategy for global eradication of polio. Indeed, some experts believed that recent setbacks were not caused by poor management but were instead the result of epidemiological characteristics and preconditions that might render polio eradication unachievable. These experts argued that global health efforts should focus on the control or elimination of polio rather than on the eradication of the disease.

This case presents an overview of polio and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and recounts the successful effort to eradicate smallpox. The case enables a rich discussion of the current global strategy to eradicate polio, as well as the issue of whether eradication is the appropriate global public health objective. More generally, the case provides a concrete example of a particular type of global public good, namely infectious disease eradication.

After analyzing and discussing the case, students will be able to:

• Understand the nature of a global public good

• Perform a back-of-the-envelope benefit-cost analysis of polio eradication

• Discuss the appropriate strategy for eradicating an infectious disease

• Apply game theory to analyzing which countries would be likely to contribute funds toward global polio eradication

• Discuss the role of private organizations in the provision of global public goods

Understand the nature of a global public good

Perform a back-of-the-envelope benefit-cost analysis of polio eradication

Discuss the appropriate strategy for eradicating an infectious disease

Apply game theory to analyzing which countries would be likely to contribute funds toward global polio eradication

Discuss the role of private organizations in the provision of global public goods

The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated a global movement of open innovation initiatives aimed to provide knowledge and tools to support policy decisions and actions in the emergency scenario. The authors describe an open innovation process aimed to build an information coordination system to reduce the infection diffusion within the population.

The authors use coordination theory principles to elaborate a framework of activities, resources and dependencies among information resources and producers in the COVID-19 emergency. The framework was applied to develop a case study aimed at describing a health emergency system implemented by Dyrecta Lab (a research laboratory on computer science) and CITEL (a medical research center).

The authors describe the existence of relevant “flow,” “fit” and “share” dependencies within the activities of infection containment and medical treatment. The authors identify eight key resources and a number of actors involved in those activities, and describe a platform able to gather a multitude of epidemic-related metrics with the purpose to address dependencies and support decision making.

The authors provide insights for advancing the academic discussion on process coordination principles in time-constrained, volatile and highly demanding scenarios.

The value of the authors’ research can be identified for practitioners engaged to develop innovative development projects for public utility. The authors provide a contribution also for first responders and health operators involved in management of the current and future emergencies.

The adoption of process coordination principles is a relatively new and powerful approach to analyze and optimize the processes that characterize the management of emergency scenarios. Besides, the study and application of open innovation in healthcare are partially limited.

This paper attempts to discuss the synergies between the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Ebola preparedness and response – with a specific outlook about how the five (5) targets in SDG.3 can be prioritized and integrated into the measures taken against the battle of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) as well as any other sporadic health disasters and emergencies elsewhere.

This paper draws on the published literature, including reports, peer-reviewed articles, statistical data and relevant documents identified from authenticated sources.

Sustainable development, which is the nitty-gritty of SDGs, is underscored as a germane in almost all regional and international frameworks. However, as traditional natural hazards persist, alongside the persistence of civil conflicts and instability, socioeconomic challenges such as EVD pose serious hindrances to SDGs, and achieving them by 2030 might be a deferred dream, especially in low- and middle-income countries such as DRC.

This paper will help to inform the decisions of bureaucrats at different levels, especially those aimed at promoting and integrating health into sustainable development.

The recent 2018 EVD outbreaks in DRC, which galvanized the regional and global attention, call for an approach that elucidates an interaction between the SDGs and countermeasures of responding to this deadly disease in the DRC and elsewhere.

Observes that the World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted the goal of “Health for All” since 1977. The Workers’ Health Programme of WHO aims to: strengthen international and national policies for health at work; develop a healthy work environment; develop healthy work practices and health promotion; strengthen occupational health care and services; establish appropriate support for occupational health; develop occupational health standards which are science‐based; develop human resources for occupational health; establish appropriate information systems and raise public awareness; strengthen research; foster collaborative efforts.

The learning outcomes are to understand the definition of public value and the strategic drivers behind public value creation, understand the nature of social innovation in the public sector, identify the critical opportunities and challenges involved in sustaining innovation in the public sector and identify the role that non-profit organizations can play in supporting and sustaining social innovation.

This case puts participants in the shoes of a global health innovator’s leadership team as the organization approaches a funding crisis. The organization, VillageReach, is on a quest to expand across the public health system of Mozambique and experiences a funding dilemma. The case reveals the challenges of working with governments to achieve large-scale, systemic change. It explores the conundrum of using international donor funding to embed new practices in government service delivery. Ultimately, it asks participants to choose between the pursuit of new, small-scale innovative projects and the large-scale rollout of a national programme.

This teaching case is written for courses focused on social entrepreneurship, social innovation and social change. It can also be used in courses focused on non-profit management and public sector innovation. Specifically, the teaching case is suitable for two audiences: social enterprise and non-profit managers focused on strategy, development and operations (the case focuses on an enterprise that relies primarily on donor funding) and health-care managers and administrators. Generally, the case is suitable for undergraduates in their final year of study as well as graduate-level business and public administration courses, including MBA, MPH, MPA, EMBA and Executive Education courses.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

At the invitation of Miss Olga Nethersole, founder and honorary organiser of the People's League of Health, a number of medical and science councillors and official members of the League met at luncheon at Claridge's Hotel, London, on October 18th, to welcome the members of the newly appointed Veterinary Council. The speeches which followed dealt with the campaign of the League for a safe milk supply, and the part which veterinary science, in conjunction with the other interested professions, might play in attaining the desired end.—Prof. T. J. Mackie, D.P.H., of the Department of Bacteriology, Edinburgh University, said that the formation of the new Veterinary Council was a significant event in the history of the League. It emphasised the absolute necessity of enlisting the co‐operation of the veterinary profession in the campaign for human health. If we were to guard our own health we must pay due respect to the health of our domestic animals, and particularly those from which we received our essential foods, such as milk. It was common knowledge to both the medical and the veterinary profession that our milk supplies, collectively speaking, were not safe, and that, in fact, they might carry a constant menace to the public health. Milk‐borne tuberculosis dominated the whole question of our milk supplies. It must be remembered, however, that tuberculosis was only one of the milk‐borne infections. There were others such as diphtheria, enteric fever, scarlet fever, and undulant fever. Yet there was distinct apathy, and sometimes antipathy, to the simple measures that would regulate this state of affairs. The League were to be congratulated on having performed a valuable public service in their critical survey of the question of bovine tuberculosis, and bringing out in fair relief the essential facts in regard to tuberculosis of animal origin in human beings. Some of the facts in the report could not be too often and strongly repeated. In England and Wales, for instance, it had been shown that every year the bovine type of tuberculosis bacillus caused at least 4,000 new cases of human tuberculosis and at least 2,000 deaths. And seven per cent. of the ordinary samples of vended milk contained this organism. He could speak feelingly, for in Scotland they had rather more than their share of tuberculosis of the bovine type in the human subject. When one reflected on all that had been done in various ways for the improvement of public health, it seemed almost incredible that food was being sold daily with a seven per cent. and sometimes a 14 per cent. chance of it containing a germ capable of producing a crippling or even fatal disease without any warning to the public. If tuberculosis were not an insidious disease, but an explosive epidemic, even if its incidence were not so high, these conditions would not have been tolerated so long as they had been. The veterinary profession recommended the eradication of disease from herds as the fundamental remedy. It was the fundamental remedy, but even the highest grade tubercle‐free milk might carry a very dangerous infection, and, in any case, he did not think the objects which the veterinary profession had at heart, and with which he sympathised, and compulsory or universal pasteurisation on the other hand, were mutually exclusive. He did not see that pasteurisation would set back the clock of progress against the eradication of tuberculosis in the herds. The problem was an urgent one. The eradication of the disease from dairy cattle must proceed slowly and against difficult obstacles, and they could not wait. It was estimated that, if the eradication of tuberculosis were continued at the present rate in this country, it would be 400 years before we reached the stage that had been reached in America. Even if it were expedited, it must remain a relatively slow process. He could not understand those individuals who were content to tolerate the continuance of bovine tuberculosis in the human being in the hope that some day a raw tubercle‐free milk might be universal. Our agricultural and public health organisations were doing the people an injustice in their tacit sanction of the ordinary raw market milk. If they were not prepared to countenance compulsory pasteurisation, at least in the large communities, the only alternative was an official designation of that milk, which would make it clear to the public that it was not free from potential danger. He sometimes wondered what would be the effect of such an official designation if there were displayed in the retail milk shops an official notice stating to the public that such milk was not free from diseases dangerous to human subjects, and that they were warned not to use it without previous sterilisation. He was sure that if that were done the problem would very soon solve itself. Some Local Authorities were pressing hard for powers of compulsory pasteurisation. He thought the League might very well carry on the campaign by educating public opinion and influencing Parliament to that end. If the Government Departments were not willing to move in the matter and take action, then the public must be informed in the clearest possible terms what the position was. The League, in tackling the milk problem by its own methods, had a magnificent opportunity of making a great contribution to the important cause for which it stood.—Professor J. Basil Buxton, of the Institute of Animal Pathology at Cambridge University, said that pasteurisation could not by any means dispense with the necessity for clean milk. They must produce clean milk, however much or however little they might cook it or otherwise treat it afterwards.—Professor Gaiger, President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, said that they had an enormous job in front of them if they were going to make our milk free from the germ of bovine tuberculosis.—Sir Leonard Hill said that if we could get the people on the right diet we should enormously diminish the amount of disease. Of all the foods milk was one of the most important, and we ought to make the supply safe. Pasteurisation should be made compulsory at once.—Major D. S. Rabagliati, Chief Veterinary Inspector to the County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire, told the gathering of the important work carried out by his Local Authority, who were the pioneers in the veterinary inspection of cows. He maintained that even if there were compulsory pasteurisation that was no reason why they should not have a clean supply of milk.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of the USA and other nations with developed veterinary infrastructure and identify the critical factors that led the evolution of the US foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) response strategy.

A thorough literature review was conducted, including official reports of US FMD outbreaks and peer-reviewed articles on outbreaks in previously FMD-free countries. Textual analysis was conducted on past and current publicly available US FMD response plans, identifying the use of the term “vaccination” or “emergency vaccination” indicating the potential use of these strategies.

The USA has shifted from a strategy of exclusively stamping-out to a response strategy that would consider emergency vaccination, including vaccinate to slaughter and vaccinate to live, in any FMD outbreak. The factors that led to this shift in policy include economic factors, the emergence of new vaccine technologies, the changed landscape of the US livestock industry, and the experiences of other typically FMD-free countries.

An outbreak in the USA is likely to rapidly outpace the current capacity for stamping-out. Experience from other FMD outbreaks, and lack of publicly available literature from the USA, indicates that it is critically important that further consideration, sufficient attention, and stakeholder deliberation need to occur to ensure vaccination strategies (to live and to slaughter) are implementable in an outbreak.

The majority of peptic ulcers are associated with Helicobacter pylori infection and it is now clear that eradication of H. pylori dramatically reduces ulcer recurrence. Other important outcomes of H. pylori infection include chronic gastritis (which may be asymptomatic), gastric cancer and lymphoma. Aims to give a brief overview of the discovery, epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of H. pylori associated disease.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an efficient method for solving susceptible‐infected‐removed (SIR) epidemic model. A SIR model that monitors the temporal dynamics of a childhood disease in the presence of preventive vaccine. The qualitative analysis reveals the vaccination reproductive number for disease control and eradication. It introduces homotopy perturbation method (HPM) to overcome these problems.

The paper considers HPM to solve differential system which describes SIR epidemic model. The essential idea of this method is to introduce a homotopy parameter, say p, which takes values from 0 to 1. When p=0, the system of equations usually reduces to a sufficiently simplified form, which normally admits a rather simple solution. As p is gradually increased to 1, the system goes through a sequence of deformations, the solution for each of which is close to that at the previous stage of deformation. One of the most remarkable features of the HPM is that usually just few perturbation terms are sufficient for obtaining a reasonably accurate solution.

HPM is employed to compute an approximation to the solution of the non‐linear system of differential equations governing the problem.

The paper is of value in presenting, via some tables and figures, some numerical experiments which resulted from applying new methods on test problem.