This week in PLoS Medicine: BAT influences EU policies; Spread of MRSA mapped across Europe; Role of national health systems in global health discussed

Read the new papers published in PLoS Medicine this week, including a Research Article that finds that British American Tobacco (BAT) strategically influenced the European Union Treaty so that new EU policies emphasize business interests over public health, and another Research Article that maps the spread of MRSA across Europe and finds that MRSA is being spread by patients moving between hospitals rather than spreading freely in the community. This second Research Article is accompanied by a Perspective that discusses the mapping of MRSA and suggests that it illustrates the ability of spatial mapping techniques to help understand the spread of new or re-emerging pathogens.

Also published this week is a Policy Forum – the second in a four-part series on the changing nature of global health institutions – that offers a framework to better understand national health systems and their role in achieving global health goals.

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