Research Library

This review highlights new information on the major neglected parasitic infections affecting impoverished Americans, with respect to their distribution and unique clinical presentations as well as their surprising links to cardiovascular, respiratory and neuropsychiatric conditions ordinarily thought of as noncommunicable diseases.

This study is a systematic review to assess the prevalence of toxocariasis in North America and whether selected groups are at risk for infection. Further research is needed to determine the true current burden of toxocariasis in North America; however, the prevalence estimates gathered in this review suggest that the burden of disease is significant.

Marijuana decriminalization and legalization have gone past being a trend and are settling in as federal policy, writes nonresident fellow Gary Hale, a 31-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration. This policy brief includes recommendations for how the DEA can adjust its policies to adopt a new paradigm on marijuana policy.

States with large African-American populations are more likely to have harsher incarceration practices, worse conditions of confinement and tougher policies toward juveniles compared with other states, according to a study led by Katharine Neill, the Alfred C. Glassell III Postdoctoral Fellow in Drug Policy.

Nearly 50,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America and Mexico have poured across the United States’ border with Mexico in the past eight months. While Mexico, the U.S. and the Central American sending countries share responsibility for contributing to the recent surge, they also share the responsibility to find a solution.

This article analyzes the "Global Burden of Disease Study 2010" and examines the study's implications for neglected tropical diseases.

Peter Hotez, fellow in disease and poverty, proposes ways for countries around the world to increase their reliance on vaccine diplomacy in their foreign policy approaches.

Governance of the natural gas sector in Argentina is at an incipient stage. The oil and gas sector developed under a centralized management structure in which a relatively insulated government imposed policy on the sector. That structure is well-developed, even if unstable and characterized by lack of credibility. The traditional unilateral government control of the sector is not appropriate for creating a favorable investment climate for the high-cost, high-risk investments required in shale gas or for managing the protests by civil society actors that have erupted against fracking. But the creation of governance as a replacement for government control is only beginning and faces many obstacles to its full development. The evolution of governance will have a major impact on the development of the country's shale gas resources. Consequently, the full development of Argentina's shale gas potential is problematic.

In this article, Peter Hotez, fellow in disease and poverty, summarizes 10 of the worst global “hotspots” where neglected tropical diseases predominate.

Microfinance institutions have continued to grow over the past few decades, enabling greater access to credit in many of the world's less developed nations. However, in many Muslim countries, the poor tend to reject microfinance on religious grounds. This paper develops an alternative microfinance model that is Islamically permissible and tests it against the standard model.