The Lancet
Jun 13, 2015 Volume 385 Number 9985 p2323-2432 e49-e50
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

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Editorial
MERS—the latest threat to global health security
The Lancet
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61088-1
The spread of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) to South Korea, and now to China, is an important signal of the need for increased vigilance in global health security measures. As reported in Correspondence in this week’s issue, the rapid transmission of MERS in South Korea led to 12 laboratory-confirmed cases over a 2-week period in May, and many more cases since, with relatives, medical staff, and a fellow patient all contracting the disease, which started with one 68-year-old man who had travelled to the Middle East.

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Editorial
Iraq’s neglected health and humanitarian crisis
The Lancet
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61089-3
“The situation is bad, really bad, and rapidly getting worse”, said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in her keynote address to launch a new humanitarian response plan for Iraq last week. Iraq’s health and humanitarian crisis results from decades of war and occupation, most recently the takeover of territory by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the counter-insurgency launch by the government and its allied forces. Since January, 2014, 2·9 million people have fled their homes and presently 8·2 million people in Iraq require immediate humanitarian support.