The outpouring of global health research and information from within Massachusetts has situated the state as a leading locus of knowledge and work in this field. However, it does not seem that this focus has been reflected in the priorities of our legislators.

The UN reserves the label of “famine” for only the most severe emergencies—at least two deaths per 10,000 people per day, at least 30 percent of children with acute malnutrition, and at least 20 percent of the population unable to reach its food need. When the UN declared famine last July, the region, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti, had faced nearly two successive years of almost no rainfall and over 12 million individuals needed food aid.

As the discovery of HIV/AIDS enters its thirtieth year, the end of the virus that has eluded humanity for the past three decades is finally in sight.