New short communications section: call for papers

Communications from the Mammal Society , which have been published twice yearly, in June (see pp. 209–244, this issue) and December, will cease from the end of this year. From January 1999, this Section of the Journal of Zoology will be allocated to Short Communications , and contributions will be welcomed on all taxa within the general field of zoological research, both invertebrate and vertebrate. Three copies of each paper, following the Instructions for Contributors printed at the back of the Journal of Zoology , should be sent directly to Dr M. L. Gorman, Editor of Short Communications, Journal of Zoology , Department of Zoology, Aberdeen University, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, Scotland, U.K. Tel.: +44 (0)1224 272850; fax: +44 (0)1224 272396; e-mail: m.gorman@abdn.ac.uk .     

Conference announcement and first call for abstracts/papers

Conference announcement and first call for abstracts/papers     

Meeting threats to global health: a call for American leadership

Although the application of major biomedical advances has yielded spectacular results for individual health, there has been little improvement in the health of whole populations. There is a "back to the future" irony in the fact that at the inception of the 21st century, the eruption and spread of a multitude of "old" and "new" infectious diseases has become the most serious global threat to the health of humankind. At this historical juncture, the United States is the country with the most potential for favorably influencing global health and health care. Although there are historical, cultural, economic, and political factors that impede the United States from rising to this challenge, there is both a moral imperative and a rational long-term self-interest basis for the U.S. medical profession and government to exercise leadership in facing the health challenges of tragic and genocidal proportions that threaten everyone in an increasingly interdependent world.