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Mon, 11/18/2024 - 10:08
96 Global Health NOW: As Measles Cases Rise, Alarm Grows Over RFK’s Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric; A Memorable ASTMH; and ‘Mentor Mothers’ in Rural Africa November 18, 2024 Hawaii aid workers help out with MMR vaccinations on December 6, 2019, in Apia, Samoa. Yoshida/Getty As Measles Cases Rise, Alarm Grows Over RFK’s Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric
Measles cases surged 20% globally last year—a trend health leaders worry will only continue if vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes the helm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Measles cases jumped from 8.6 million to 10.3 million between 2022 and 2023 —driven largely by a COVID-19 pandemic-era drop in vaccinations, . 

  • Most affected are the world’s poorest and conflict-riven countries, especially in Africa, where deaths from measles increased by 37%, . 
Public health officials fear vaccine coverage could drop further under an HHS headed by RFK Jr., a “leader … in instilling mistrust in public health as a system and the people who do that work,” said Robert Wood Johnson Foundation chief Richard Besser.
  • In Samoa, where a 2019 measles outbreak infected 5,700+ people and caused 83 deaths, health officials say misinformation spread by Kennedy’s nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, worsened the crisis by contributing to vaccine hesitancy, .
EDITORS' NOTE Street life in downtown New Orleans, November 8, 2019. Getty A Memorable ASTMH Meeting
More than 4,000 scientists, researchers, practitioners, and other experts gathered in New Orleans last week through this weekend for the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene.
 
And GHN was there. We were honored to meet with so many professionals from so many countries (welcome, those of you who just signed up for GHN!) and sit in on so many informative sessions. , including briefs on mpox, Hansen’s disease, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and a walking tour through public health history. —Brian and Dayna GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Kala-azar cases in Kenya are on the rise with 124 people sickened in the last month as doctors call for urgent interventions to constrain the disease’s spread.

Dengue deaths in Bangladesh have surpassed 400 as the country battles its worst outbreak in years; rising temperatures and a longer monsoon season have driven the surge in infections, with 78,595 patients hospitalized.

A never-before-seen virus that causes a malaria-like illness has been detected in Peru, doctors say; an investigation into an initial case revealed that the virus is a previously unknown phlebovirus.

61,000+ people in Sudan have died during the first 14 months of conflict in the country—a death toll “significantly higher than reported,” per a new wartime mortality by researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. WOMEN'S RIGHTS Iran to Open Clinic for Hijab Defiance
Officials in Iran have announced plans to open a “treatment clinic” for women who resist mandatory hijab laws—a move decried by human rights advocates.
  • The clinic will promote “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal,” per one Iranian official.
The announcement follows reports of a university student who publicly protested after being assaulted by campus guards for a hijab violation. That student has since been transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
  • Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have reported torture and forced medication of dissidents in state-run psychiatric hospitals.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES MATERNAL HEALTH ‘Mentor Mothers’ Fill Gaps in Rural African Villages
In the OR Tambo district in the Eastern Cape, pregnant women and new moms living with HIV—and their children—are healthier thanks to trusted peer support workers.

These “mentor mothers,” who also have HIV, are trained and deployed to this remote area to encourage women to take and stay on antiretroviral treatments.
  • More than a third of pregnant women in the region have HIV, but they rarely pass it to their babies.
Through home visits and a mobile clinic, mentor mothers also offer check-ups, track babies’ milestones and vaccinations, and provide advice for healthy living.

OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS US health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler –

Dengue fever spiked to record levels in 2024: Climate change will make it even worse –

Jeddah conference closes with adoption of global pledges to tackle antimicrobial resistance –

The Philippines will not intervene if Interpol arrests Duterte over ‘war on drugs’ –

E. coli outbreak linked to organic carrots sickens people in 18 states –

Jay Bhattacharya, an NIH critic, emerges as a top candidate to lead the agency –

RFK Jr. isn't the only one. More than a billion people have parasitic worms ​​–

Study to look at why some people with aggressive cancer are ‘super-survivors’ ​​– Issue No. 2816
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Thu, 11/14/2024 - 09:31
96 Global Health NOW: Rising Resistance Threatens a Key Malaria Drug; Uncontrolled Diabetes Reaches New Heights; and Fun, Games—and Fame The malaria parasite is acquiring partial resistance to a key medication used to care for children experiencing severe malaria. November 14, 2024 Employees transfer barrels of artemisinin at a pharmaceutical company in southern China on Aug. 27. Huang Xiaobang/Xinhua via Getty Images Rising Resistance Threatens a Key Malaria Drug
In yet another ominous sign for malaria treatment’s prospects, the malaria parasite is acquiring partial resistance to a key medication used to care for children experiencing severe malaria, according to a study  and presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene.
 
Major findings:
  • The study, led by Ugandan researchers Ruth Namazzi and Robert Opoka from Makerere University in Kampala, found partial resistance to the malaria drug artemisinin in 11 of 100 children treated for severe malaria.
  • They found that 10 patients “cured” of severe malaria experienced a resurgence of the same strain of the parasite within 28 days of the original infection—which implies the first treatment didn’t fully eliminate the parasite, said study coauthor Chandy John.
  • They also noted that it took more than 72 hours to clear the parasites in two children—a duration that the WHO defines as early treatment failure. 
The Quote: “We need studies to confirm whether other places are finding these elevated rates of artemisinin partial resistance,” John said. “We’ll need to see what happens over the next couple of years to see just how bad this problem is in Africa.”
 
EDITORS' NOTE GHN in NOLA  
We’re thrilled to be in New Orleans this week for the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene annual meeting.
 
If you’re here too, please stop by GHN’s exhibit, #114. We’re right across from our friends at the DNDi/MSF booth, which you should also visit!
 
We’d also like to welcome new GHN subscribers who visited our booth and signed up last night—from countries including Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Eswatini, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and Zambia. Thanks for subscribing!
 
If you enjoy Global Health NOW, please share the  with colleagues and friends. —Dayna Kerecman Myers, dkerecm1@jhu.edu; and Brian W. Simpson, bsimpso1@jhu.edu. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Weight loss drugs may help curb alcohol addiction, new published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests, with GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy cutting risk for hospitalization.  

State medical boards almost never discipline doctors who spread misinformation about COVID-19, an from the University of North Carolina School of Law has found.

The bird flu infection that has left a Canadian teen in critical condition is not the version of H5N1 found in cows and currently circulating in the U.S., genetic sequencing has found; it is instead of a genotype found in wild birds.

A new diagnostic test uses genetic sequencing to ID pathogens from a range of possible culprits—viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi—which could help doctors more effectively diagnose and treat hard-to-identify infections like meningitis.   NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES Uncontrolled Diabetes Reaches New Heights 
The number of adults globally living with diabetes has soared 4X since 1990—surpassing 800 million, finds a released on World Diabetes Day, .

Extra troubling: 445+ million people with diabetes—59% of the global total—are not receiving treatment, . 
  • The problem is most acute in LMICs, where treatment rates are as low as 10%, . India, Pakistan, and Indonesia have especially high rates of untreated diabetes. 
Behind the rise: The “alarming” uptick stems from factors including a lack of physical activity, unhealthy food marketing, and economic hardship, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 
  • Tedros called for countries to “urgently take action”—particularly to equip health systems to meet the crisis. 
  • The WHO also launched new guidance on today. 
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES POLLUTION Smog Shrouds Pakistan
Daily activities have come to a standstill in Pakistan’s populous Punjab province, as thick smog envelops the region, . 

Outdoor activities have been banned, schools closed, and markets shuttered as the debilitates millions of residents living in Lahore, Multan, and surrounding areas. 
  • Air quality index readings have surpassed ~1,000; 300+ is considered hazardous to health, per .
Officials have deployed 200+ mobile clinics and added hospital beds to treat ~70,000 patients daily reporting respiratory distress. 
  • that 11+ million children are at risk. In January, 240+ children in Punjab province .
Sources: The is a product of vehicle emissions, construction and industrial work, and seasonal crop burning. 

Most vulnerable: “It’s poor people that are facing the brunt of the air pollution crisis because they have no means to protect themselves from it,” environmental lawyer Ahmad Rafay Alam told NPR. ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Fun, Games—and Fame
You might have thought a toy’s value is measured by asking: “Do I like playing with it?”
 
But you’d be wrong.
 
This week, anyway, the question is: Is it among the elite?
  • Three 1980s icons—Phase 10, Transformers, and My Little Pony—have joined the  in Rochester, New York.
And for a contest we learned about just yesterday, we suddenly feel very strongly about it.
 
No longer a bridesmaid: The honor was “extra validating” for seven-time finalist My Little Pony, . 
  • But how did lush-maned mini ponies—whose chief function is hairstyling—edge out the humble stick horse behind ? Why were balloons and trampolines bounced out of the running?
And might we spare  for the beloved playthings not even in contention—say, mud, the spoon-and-pot duo, the kitchen sink, and buttons (literally any buttons)? QUICK HITS Many long COVID patients adjust to slim recovery odds as world moves on –

Kenya's new health insurance rollout sparks challenges and concerns –

Scientific breakthrough to prevent negative side effects of weight loss drugs like Ozempic –

The Making Of A New American Epidemic –

The people cracking the world's toughest climate words – Issue No. 2815
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Wed, 11/13/2024 - 09:21
96 Global Health NOW: Haiti Isolated and Imperiled; Stopping Polio in Gaza and Why It Matters; and STIs Slow Down in the U.S. Hospitals in Haiti face “indescribable” surge of traumatic injuries November 13, 2024 After being injured in a tanker truck explosion, people recover in a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on September 17. Clarens Siffroy/AFP via Getty Haiti Isolated and Imperiled
A surge of gang violence in Haiti puts the country at further risk of isolation, as airlines halt flights to the country and as hospitals and medical groups like Médecins Sans Frontières describe untenable working conditions. 

No flights: Haiti’s main international airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed after three U.S. commercial passenger planes were hit by suspected gang gunfire, and the FAA has now banned all U.S. airlines from operating in Haiti for 30 days, . 
  • Even UN helicopters are unable to land in the capital, and the closure has raised questions about the arrival of 600 Kenyan police officers, deployed to reinforce a UN-backed security mission.
Ambushed ambulance: At least two patients in an MSF ambulance in Port-au-Prince were executed by members of a vigilante group in a “shocking display of violence” that “seriously calls into question” MSF’s ability to continue delivering medical care there, . 

Hospitals are struggling to cope with an “indescribable” surge of traumatic injuries, as doctors and medical facilities buckle under the pressures of an already devastating year, .  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Global temperatures may be closer to the “crucial” 1.5C warming threshold than previously thought, according to of Antarctic ice cores suggesting that, in 2023, human-driven warming reached 1.49C above pre-industrial levels.

Children in Somalia face perilously high rates of pneumonia and diarrhea—two leading killers of children under age 5 globally—as well as the added risk of low immunization rates, per a by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Pathogens on microplastics can survive wastewater treatment and can quickly form protective microbial biofilms—allowing them to form colonies of “plastispheres” that pose a threat to human and environmental health, finds a new from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

​​Women are stockpiling emergency contraception pills in the week since Donald Trump was re-elected as U.S. president, with one company’s sales of morning-after pills rising 966% as of Friday compared with three days before the election. GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY A child is vaccinated during the polio vaccination campaign in Deir al Balah, Gaza, on September 1. Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images Stopping Polio in Gaza and Why It Matters  
Last week’s conclusion of a two-month effort to protect over half a million children from polio was an important advance for Gaza—and the world, writes vaccine expert Walter Orenstein in an exclusive commentary for GHN. 
 
Gaza’s challenge: The polio strain circulating in Gaza is type 2 variant poliovirus, which 31 countries are currently battling.
 
The vaccine used in Gaza is the . It’s less likely than a previous version of the oral polio vaccine to revert to a form that can cause paralysis. 
 
Encouraging record: Over the three and half years of nOPV2’s use, the number of type 2 variant poliovirus cases has been reduced, providing hope that the end of type 2 variant polio is in sight, writes Orenstein. 
 
The future: Polio anywhere is a risk to communities everywhere. All children everywhere need to be fully vaccinated against polio. This will require overcoming hurdles like war, climate disasters, political instability, and vaccine misinformation. 
 
We’ve seen the result of such commitment in Gaza. It’s now essential to get the same cooperation, resources, and determination everywhere. 
 
  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH STIs Slow Down in the U.S.
Some good news for sexually active Americans: The STI epidemic lost steam in 2023, according to .
  • Overall, syphilis increased by only 1% after years of double-digit increases.
  • Cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from 2022.
  • Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, falling below pre-COVID levels.
What’s behind the improvement?
  • Growing use of the antibiotic doxycycline as a “morning-after pill” to reduce the risk of bacterial STIs.
  • Changes in sexual behavior and testing habits among high-risk populations after the 2022 mpox outbreak.
  • More funding into health departments following the pandemic, meaning more health workers conducting testing and contact tracing and connecting people to treatment.
QUICK HITS ‘More mortality, more illness’: Global health community braces for impact of U.S. election –

Mpox vaccination shortage delays Kinshasa's drive against outbreak –

WikiGuidelines group publishes first new UTI guidance in 14 years –

This scientist treated her own cancer with viruses she grew in the lab – Issue No. 2814
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Tue, 11/12/2024 - 09:54
96 Global Health NOW: Malaria in Children Surges in South Sudan; Seeking Suicide Intervention in Japan; and America’s Covid-19 Hangover November 12, 2024 Malaria in Children Surges in South Sudan
An upsurge in malaria cases in South Sudan, fueled by recent floods, is overwhelming the country’s health system, .
  • Pediatric patients with severe malaria have swamped a Médecins Sans Frontières-supported hospital in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, , forcing doctors to treat some patients in halls.

  • 400 children with severe malaria are admitted weekly—2X last year’s numbers.
Another Impact: Oil-Contaminated Water

Years of unprecedented flooding have left large swaths of South Sudan’s Unity State submerged, allowing pollution from mismanaged oil production facilities to seep into drinking water sources—causing digestive illnesses and birth defects, .
 
No recourse: Reliance on the oil industry means little has been done to hold companies accountable, advocates say—with one former oil engineer describing the spreading oil as a “silent killer.” DATA POINT The Latest One-Liners
Refugees and asylum seekers are nearly 3X as likely to be colonized or infected with drug-resistant bacteria as the host-country population, that explored case studies in nine current humanitarian settings.

Dengue death rates are 2X higher for women (1.86%) than men (0.61%) in Chattogram, Bangladesh, this year; doctors say delayed hospitalization, anemia, and low blood pressure—all more common among women—explain the disparity.

The American Stroke Association’s on stroke prevention—the first in 10 years—recommend that doctors consider a new class of drugs that can drastically reduce weight, and screen for non-medical risk factors like economic stability and racism.

Online e-cigarette retailers are failing to comply with restrictions on sales for minors, including regulations on age verification, shipping methods, and flavor restrictions ; delivery services only scanned IDs for 1% of buyers. MENTAL HEALTH Seeking Suicide Intervention in Japan
Advocates in Japan are calling for a greater focus on youth mental health after suicides among schoolchildren in the country remained “alarmingly high” in 2023.
  • 513 deaths were reported in Japan last year—marking the second consecutive year above 500, per Japan’s Ministry of Health, and a sharp increase from 300 in 2010. 
Contributing factors: Family economic stress, bullying, school pressures, reduced in-person socialization, and disillusion about the future are all contributing to the crisis, researchers said.
  • “One of the biggest problems among young people today is that they find it difficult to be optimistic about their future,” said Izumi Tsuji, a sociologist at Chuo University and member of the Japan Youth Study Group.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ALCOHOL America’s Covid-19 Hangover
Drinking in the U.S. increased sharply during the pandemic and still hasn’t returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, .
  • Americans who reported drinking heavily increased to 6.29% in 2022, up from 5.1% in 2018.

  • 69.3% said they had consumed alcohol in the past year, up from 66.34% in 2018.

  • 6.45% of women reported having drunk heavily, while the men’s reported rate was 6.12%.
The Quote: “People assumed this [drinking] was caused by acute stress, like what we saw with 9/11 and Katrina, and typically it goes back to normal after these stressful events are over,” said principal investigator Brian P. Lee. “But that’s not what we’re seeing.”

OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Rwanda discharges last patient of Marburg virus disease: WHO – 

Paxlovid cuts COVID hospitalization, death risk and speeds symptom relief, studies find –

US FDA lifts clinical hold on Novavax's combo COVID-flu shot –

Mpox Cases Plateau in Congo's Epicenter But Rise in Other Countries –

'More mortality, more illness': Global health community braces for impact of U.S. election –

No Pandemic Agreement By December As Negotiators Need 'More Time' –

More young people are surviving cancer. Then they face a life altered by it –

Easy-fit prosthetics offer hope to thousands of Gaza amputees – Issue No. 2813
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Mon, 11/11/2024 - 09:20
96 Global Health NOW: Putting ‘Health at the Core’ of Climate Action; Iraq Set to Lower Girls’ Age of Consent to 9; and The (Global) Power of Plastic WHO says human health and well-being should be the “top measure of climate success” November 11, 2024 Attendees at the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 11. Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Putting ‘Health at the Core’ of Climate Action
Human health and well-being should be the “top measure of climate success” and should be “at the core of all climate negotiations, strategies, policies and action plans,” ahead of the climate conference, which launched today in Baku, Azerbaijan.
  • “Health is the lived experience of climate change,” said Maria Neira, the WHO’s director for environment, climate change, and health. 
While health has been a feature of past COPs, the conference is shifting to “prioritize health on a permanent basis,” . 

A released for the conference covered a wide range of health-related recommendations, , including: 
  • Putting more focus on cities to drive initiatives like sustainable urban design and housing, clean energy, urban agriculture, and improved sanitation. 
  • Creating resilient health systems to protect health and save lives.
  • Investing in interventions like heat-health warning systems and clean household energy.
  • Improving biodiversity, recognizing the “synergistic health benefits” of clean air, water, and food security.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Canada has detected its first “presumptive” case of human bird flu: a teenager in British Columbia who likely caught the virus from a bird or animal, from province health officials.

Testing for bird flu should be expanded at U.S. farms, says the CDC—after a revealed that some dairy workers had H5N1-related antibodies in their blood despite not showing symptoms of the virus.

Abortion pills and gender-affirming medications are in unprecedented demand post-election, suppliers report—with people “trying to plan for the reproductive apocalypse” feared under another Trump presidency.

The WHO will convene its International Health Regulations Emergency Committee next week to determine whether mpox remains a global health crisis; the disease continues to spread in Africa, which has seen 46,000+ cases so far this year. HUMAN RIGHTS Iraq Set to Lower Girls’ Age of Consent to 9 
  Iraq’s parliament appears poised to lower the legal age of marriage from 18 to 9. 

The dominant coalition of conservative Shia Muslim parties claims that the change would protect young girls from “immoral relationships”; women’s rights activists counter that the government is attempting to “legalise child rape.” 

The change would also erase women’s rights to divorce, child custody, and inheritance. 

Athraa Al-Hassan, of Model Iraqi Woman, said she fears that Iraq’s governance system could be replaced with a system that puts religious rule above the state—as in Afghanistan and Iran.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES POLLUTION The (Global) Power of Plastic
Plastic pollution is affecting all pressing global environmental problems, including climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and freshwater and land use, according to a published last week in One Earth.
  • In 2022, over 500 metric tons of plastic were produced worldwide, but just ~9% of it was recycled. The rest is burned or dumped.
The study’s authors are urging delegates to the UN Environment Assembly to consider the entire life cycle of plastics—from raw material extraction to production, use, and environmental impact.

The warning comes before to agree to a legally binding global treaty to cut plastic pollution.

OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Suspected poisoning kills dozens in besieged Sudanese town –

WHO calls for urgent action in Africa to eliminate Cervical Cancer amid high burden –

Africa CDC launches trial of smallpox drug for mpox –

Research suggests no need for yellow fever vaccine booster after initial dose –

New research from Philly ER doctors shows the ‘excruciating’ effect of xylazine withdrawal, and how to manage it –

Three states had paid leave on the ballot. Voters in each one overwhelmingly approved them –

America Has an Onion Problem – Issue No. 2812
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Thu, 11/07/2024 - 09:33
96 Global Health NOW: The Coming Cancer Wave; Ketamine’s Surge Among Gen Z; and A Moment That Calls for Cuteness November 7, 2024 A breast cancer patient speaks with doctors at a hospital in Herat, Afghanistan, on April 2, 2014. Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty The Coming Cancer Wave
Cancer deaths worldwide will nearly double by 2050, driven mostly by large increases in LMICs, .
  • Annual cancer deaths are expected to increase by 90% to 18.5 million cancer deaths by 2050 from 9.7 million in 2022.

  • Cancer deaths in LMICs by 2050 will increase by 146%, while the increase in high-income countries will be 57%, according to the estimates.

  • Cancer cases and deaths in Africa are projected to increase at a rate 5X that of Europe.
What’s behind the global increase? Among the multiple factors is the fact that people are living longer (which raises cancer risk), Massachusetts General Hospital’s Andrew Chan told .
 
And the much greater surge in LMICs? Chan blames the “Westernisation of populations,” including rising obesity rates and poor diets.
 
What’s needed? “Higher-quality health care and universal health insurance coverage would help prevent, diagnose and treat cancer around the world,” the researchers noted, .
 
Study details: An international team led by University of Queensland researchers drew on cases and death rates for 36 types of cancer across 185 countries and used UNDP population projections to estimate future cases and deaths. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
The first cluster of illnesses outside of Africa caused by the new, more infectious mpox variant has been identified in the U.K.; four members of the same household are being treated in a London hospital.
  Major global food companies peddle less-healthy products in low-income countries than those sold in high-income countries, from the Access to Nutrition Initiative—which split the assessment into low- and high-income countries for the first time this year.
 
Eight countries made commitments to ban corporal punishment ahead of today’s UN conference on the issue; Panama, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, Burundi, Sri Lanka, and the Czech Republic have pledged total bans, while Gambia and Nigeria said they would enforce a ban in schools.

The UN has launched the first-ever to improve infrastructure for walking and cycling across the continent—which accounts for —and prevent 41 million tons of carbon emissions over the next decade. U.S. Election News R.F.K. Jr. Lays Out Possible Public Health Changes Under Trump –

‘Go wild, Robert’: what Trump’s victory means for global health –

Election reveals voters' abortion disconnect –

Trump won. Is the NIH in for a major shake-up? – SUBSTANCE USE Ketamine’s Surge Among Gen Z 
In England and Wales, ketamine usage among 16–24-year-olds has more than tripled, mirroring trends in the U.S. and U.K.
  • Compared to drugs like cocaine, ketamine is widely available and cheap—costing as little as $30 per gram.

  • Long-term use leads to frequent urination, incontinence, and a shrinking bladder, as well as potential renal and liver failure.
Many people who use ketamine seek it out to manage mental health. But while the drug has , clinical settings are key, as providers are still determining optimal doses and delivery—and ketamine obtained on the streets may also be mixed with other toxins.
  

 
Related: We checked up on the states that promise transparency on opioid settlement funds – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HUMAN RIGHTS Ending ‘Sex Normalization’ Surgeries in Serbia 
Kristian Randjelovic was born intersex, but underwent “sex normalization” surgery as an infant. After a childhood spent grappling with the fallout of his doctors’ decision, he received sex reassignment surgery at age 19.
  • Such “normalization” surgeries affected many intersex infants in Serbia until as recently as a decade ago; the country’s laws still enforce binary classification at birth.

  • The UN estimates that up to 1.7% of the world's population is intersex, which would translate to about 110,000 in Serbia alone.
Today, Randjelovic is Serbia's only publicly declared intersex individual and an activist for intersex rights—an experience with implications for millions of others “born into societies with evolving understandings of sex and gender.” 

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION A Moment That Calls for Cuteness  
In a week ruled by election anxiety for many, it seems the pachyderm gods knew just what was needed: another insanely cute pygmy hippo named after a meat product.
  • A pink-cheeked Moo Deng (meaning “bouncy pork” in Thai) kicked off an internet sensation when she was born at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo in July. 

  • Coming for Moo Deng’s viral crown is Haggis (a mound of miscellaneous sheep meat), a pygmy hippo last week, sparking debate about who’s the hippest lil’ hippo, .
“Moo Deng? Who deng?” Edinburgh Zoo for initially pitting the pygmies against each other because after all, both births are great news for the endangered species, and for our collective mood.
 
We may not know where the world is headed right now, but if it’s in the direction of more Moo Dengs … well, that’s no bad thing.

Related: He’s fast, feisty and could play Quidditch. Meet the bat that won a beauty contest – QUICK HITS Beyond Burns International leads campaign on burn awareness in Ghana –

An Improved Alert System for Emerging Infectious Diseases –

U.S. diabetes burden grew since 2000 –

South African study finds high risk of TB infection in kids –

Are Schools With Armed Police Actually Safer? –

Snakebite envenoming in Africa remains widely neglected and demands multidisciplinary attention –

In Vermont, where almost everyone has insurance, many can't find or afford care –

Phone therapy aids refugee children, study shows – Issue No. 2811
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Wed, 11/06/2024 - 09:23
96 Global Health NOW: What Trump’s Victory Means for U.S. Health; Taming an Isolating Tropical Disease; and Ditching HIV Meds Due to Stigma What are Trump’s health priorities? November 6, 2024 Donald Trump takes the stage during a campaign rally at the J.S. Dorton Arena on November 4 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images What Trump’s Victory Means for U.S. Health
Donald Trump’s return to power heralds potentially huge changes in the U.S. health care system, public health, and the federal agencies overseeing vaccines and medications.
 
After promising to let vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” on health policies, Trump’s victory speech promised that Kennedy would “help make America healthy again,” .
 
Trump’s health priorities, according to Trump:
  • He’s against a national abortion ban.
  • He won’t try again to repeal the Affordable Care Act but said he will try to reduce costs within the ACA and “possibly let the current enhanced tax credits expire,” per STAT.
  • He will block federal funds for gender-affirming care and ban it entirely for minors.
  • He proposed tax credits for long-term caregivers.
  • “Sounds OK to me” was Trump’s response to RFK Jr.’s proposal to remove fluoride from water supplies, . (The CDC “recommends community water fluoridation as a cost-effective way to improve Americans’ oral health,” .)
The Quote: “My first reaction is that a Trump administration would be the most anti-public health, anti-science administration in history,” Lawrence Gostin, of the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown Law School, told .  
 
Other election news: Supporters of abortion rights scored victories in ballot measures in states like Missouri, New York, Colorado, and Maryland, but ballot items expanding rights in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota fell short, .
 
Related:

Where Trump stands on abortion –  
 
What’s at Stake for Public Health in the 2024 U.S. Election? –  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
36% of Americans mistrust the science behind COVID vaccines, according to , which also showed that people who lost a loved one to the disease were nearly 4X more likely to trust vaccine experts.

G20 leaders have launched a global coalition to strengthen countries’ capacity to manufacture ۲ݮƵ, with projects selected based on two criteria: the diseases they target and how they leverage technology to promote equitable access, according to a declaration signed in Rio de Janeiro.

Scientists in China, the U.S., and Switzerland have figured out a way to study coronaviruses that are hard to grow in the lab, ; they have added specially designed receptors to human cells that the viruses can bind to and invade the cell.

A “substantial” proportion of infants in LMICs were colonized with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, according to a , suggesting that health care settings and neonatal antibiotic administration may be key factors in the acquisition of these infections. NEGLECTED DISEASES Taming an Isolating Tropical Disease
Today, at least 36 million people live with the effects of lymphatic filariasis (LF), which is transmitted by mosquitoes and manifests later in life in conditions like elephantitis and extreme swelling of tissue (lymphoedema) or the scrotum (hydrocele).
  • Efforts to combat LF in at-risk populations through preventive drug administration began in the 1990s; 21 countries have eliminated it so far, with 23 more expected to do so by 2030.
Suffering in the shadows: There is no cure for LF, but self-care and surgery to drain fluid can help. The challenge is finding people already affected, as the swelling—disabling and sometimes seen as a sign of witchcraft—keeps people from leaving home.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Ditching HIV Meds Due to Stigma
Nearly a million Malawians, ~8% of the East African nation’s population, live with HIV—one of the highest rates globally. 

Despite achieving the (95% aware of their HIV status, 95% receiving treatment, and 95% with suppressed viral loads), Malawi struggles to reach the remaining 5%. 

Stigma remains a major barrier: Myths about HIV persist, particularly in rural areas, leading some patients to discard their medications rather than risk social ostracism.

The financial burden of managing HIV treatment—including transportation costs and the need for family “guardians” to care for patients in under-resourced hospitals—is another barrier. The fear of losing income can also deter people from seeking care.

QUICK HITS Highly potent synthetic opioids are already in Europe’s drug supply chains –

How cigarettes and chocolates helped to tackle a TB epidemic –

FDA requires manufacturers facilitate return of unused opioids –

UK findings suggest RSV vaccination could reduce antibiotic prescribing –

Impossible, you say? Try asking a toddler – Issue No. 2810
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Tue, 11/05/2024 - 09:35
96 Global Health NOW: Fading Fear of HIV Tied to Rising STIs; Rwanda’s Robust Outbreak Response; and The ‘Low-Tech’ Therapy That Saved Millions of Lives November 5, 2024 Peer educators of the Wits Reproductive Health Institute Sex Worker Programme sit in the waiting area of the clinic in Hilbrow, Johannesburg on July 20, 2017. Gulshan Khan/AFP via Getty Fading Fear of HIV Tied to Rise in STIs  
In South Africa’s wealthy Gauteng province, HIV infections are falling—with condoms, PrEP, PEP, and antiretroviral drugs credited for slashing new infections—but other sexually transmitted infections are on the rise.
 
“The ugly news is clinics are treating so many syphilis and gonorrhea cases,” says sexual health counselor Sithembile Nale.
  • ~1,255 of 66,377 pregnant women seeking antenatal care between April and December 2023 .

  • Men being treated for urethritis (an inflammation usually caused by gonorrhea or chlamydia) jumped from 12% to 15% in three years.
A false sense of security: Johannesburg sex worker Abi Dlodlo says that before PrEP and PEP were widely available, clients didn’t pressure her to have unprotected sex because they feared HIV—but now, her younger clients in particular resist condoms, arguing they are safe because of anti-HIV treatments.
 
What’s needed: Earlier STI education, testing, and treatment efforts.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Sudan launched a malaria vaccination campaign yesterday—a first for the country with the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region’s highest malaria incidence rates; the effort aims to reach ~148,000 children under the age of 12 months.

The CDC has of four U.S. cases of an emerging, sexually transmitted fungal infection caused by Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII, a fungus that causes genital tinea (ringworm); the patients were diagnosed between April and July of this year.
 
Road deaths in Warsaw—previously one of Europe’s deadliest cities in traffic safety terms—fell 55% in the last ~10 years; safety advocates credit steps like laws prioritizing pedestrians and hefty fines for driver violations.
   
The WHO named 17 pathogens as top priorities for new vaccine development, in a —including HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis as well as pathogens like Group A streptococcus and Klebsiella pneumoniae that are increasingly resistant to antimicrobials. MARBURG Rwanda’s Robust Outbreak Response
A month into Rwanda's first-ever Marburg outbreak, the country’s rapid-fire efforts to contain the deadly virus are being hailed as “unprecedented” and “very, very encouraging.”

Case fatality rates for Marburg virus have been known to reach 90%, but Rwanda’s rate is 22.7%, said Yvan Butera, Rwandan Minister of State for Health. The number of new cases has also dropped dramatically, from several a day to just four reported in the last two weeks. 

Key success factors:
  • Extensive testing and contact tracing.

  • Solid and well-connected health infrastructure and well-trained health professionals.

  • Experimental vaccines and treatments.
“It's not yet time to declare victory, but we think we are headed in a good direction,” said Butera.



Related: 

Rwanda marks 3 weeks without Marburg deaths amid containment efforts –

Rwanda gets additional 1,000 Marburg vaccine doses – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES RIP, RICHARD CASH The ‘Low-Tech’ Therapy That Saved Millions of Lives 
Oral rehydration therapy—a “simple” mixture of clean water, salt, and sugar—is a well known, highly effective remedy used worldwide to treat cholera and other diarrheal diseases. 

ORT has saved ~50 million lives—and was described by The Lancet as “potentially the most significant medical advance of the century,” in a remembrance of Richard Cash, the researcher who helped develop ORT in the 1960s and 70s. 

The problem: 50 years ago, diarrheal diseases were responsible for ~5 million child deaths per year, .

The solution: Responding to a 1967 cholera outbreak in Bangladesh, Cash and his medical partner, David Nalin, devised the ORT mixture, which made water more absorbable. Dehydration deaths in children began to plummet. 
  • “We’re enamored by high technology,” Cash . “And we’re not in love with low-tech. …And I would argue [for] just the opposite.”
OPPORTUNITY Coming Up: The Global Health Landscape Symposium 
2024 is a watershed year for elections—in more than 40 nations around the world, including the U.S. presidential election today.
 
How will the changes in governance impact global health investments and policies?
 
The 2024 Global Health Landscape Symposium, November 18–21, will explore the implications for the global health community, with a mix of virtual and in-person discussions on using the power of our collective voice, working across disease areas, and fighting for sustainable funding and equitable policies.
  • November 18–21, 2024
  • Online or in Washington, D.C.
QUICK HITS Negotiators Have A Week To Decide If Pandemic Agreement Possible By December –

A Q&A with the FDA's top vaccine regulator amid a fresh wave of disinformation –  

No more fluoride in the water? RFK Jr. wants that and Trump says it 'sounds OK' –

Cost of Mpox Shot Deters Americans at Risk, Critics Say –

CDC warns of spike in whooping cough cases –

Screen Time Before 2 Years of Age and Risk of Autism at 12 Years of Age –

Novel way to beat dengue: Deaf mosquitoes stop having sex – Issue No. 2809
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Mon, 11/04/2024 - 16:41
96 Global Health NOW: October Recap November 4, 2024 Voters wait in line to cast their ballots during early voting in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on November 1. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Public Health on the Ballot
In the final sprint of the U.S. election, threats to public health programs have been amplified as Donald Trump bashes health agencies and embraces vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., .

Dismantled and diminished agencies: Project 2025, the blueprint for a new Republican administration, includes “momentous” changes to the FDA, CDC, and NIH—organizations that Trump describes at rallies as filled with “corruption.”
  • Employees at health agencies could also see their jobs at risk if Trump were to reinstate a previous executive order that made thousands of federal workers more vulnerable to termination.
Global disconnection: Health officials also fear that another Trump presidency would further erode the country’s international role in health by breaking ties with the WHO and pulling the plug on programs like PEPFAR. 

Meanwhile, Kennedy’s role in Trump’s campaign is already worrying health leaders, who say he is normalizing a dangerous anti-vax position and could do more damage to essential immunization requirements were he given a role in a Trump administration, .
  • “I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump said of Kennedy at his Madison Square Garden rally. “I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on ۲ݮƵ.”
Related: 

Election 2024: What’s at Stake for Public Health? –

Ted Kennedy Jr. expresses concern about Trump’s ‘flagrant disregard’ for public health –

What Trump winning the election could mean for the CDC – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Polio vaccinations in Gaza resumed over the weekend, with 58,600 children in northern Gaza receiving their final dose as health workers attempt to vaccinate thousands more before the campaign’s end today—but some ~15,000 children needing a second dose live in areas that are now inaccessible because of fighting.

~25% of child deaths that occur after visits to U.S. emergency rooms could be prevented if the departments were more fully prepared to treat children—and 80%+ of ERs are not prepared for pediatric cases, a published in JAMA Network Open has found.

Fewer than 1 in 6 health care workers in hospitals and nursing homes reported getting COVID-19 boosters during the 2023–2024 respiratory virus season, has found.

Authorities in Lahore, Pakistan, closed schools and issued work-from-home orders in response to “unprecedented” air pollution; per IQAir, Lahore’s level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is currently 44.4X the WHO annual air-quality guideline value. OCTOBER MUST-READS Shifting Alliances in the Tobacco Fight 
The FDA faces a particularly galling challenge as it seeks to regulate next-generation nicotine products: lawyers who switched sides in the fight. Nearly two dozen former FDA lawyers now work for the tobacco industry. These insiders, who previously helped craft regulations, give tobacco companies a strategic advantage in litigation.
Russian Propaganda Targets Anti-Malaria Programs
Pro-Russian propagandists are seeking to undermine Western-funded health care programs in Africa, spreading disinformation about scientists fighting malaria and other infectious diseases on the continent. Using a variety of tactics involving influencers and more traditional media, Russia has sponsored 80 disinformation campaigns in 22 African countries since 2022, per the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Political Violence as a Public Health Problem 
As political rhetoric grows more inflammatory before the U.S. presidential election, what kinds of violence prevention strategies could be most effective? UC Davis’ Violence Prevention Research Program is taking a closer look at the potential for political violence interventions. While their survey found 3.7% of respondents view large-scale civil conflict as likely, 44% said they could be dissuaded from joining by family members.
The Feds’ Silence as Vets Sounded Avian Flu Alarm
When U.S. farm veterinarians initially raised alarms about avian influenza in cows, they were met with silence from the USDA. Critics say the agency’s conflicting mandates regarding food safety and agricultural trade have led to a “don’t test, don’t tell” policy among dairy farmers, resulting in patchy nationwide surveillance as the virus spreads. OCTOBER’S BEST NEWS A Malaria-Free Egypt 
Malaria was detected in Egypt as early as 4000 BCE, and ~100 years ago, it had a 40% prevalence rate in the country. But in October, the WHO the country malaria-free, following decades of effort. Key interventions included free malaria diagnosis and treatment for all residents, malaria detection training, and ongoing surveillance and vector management. 

“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

GHN EXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY Workers collect freshly picked marigold flowers for sale on August 13, 2024 in Qujing, Yunnan Province of China. Wang Yong/VCG via Getty Stories That Matter    Do you have an amazing global health story to share? This is your chance to tell the world! , sponsored by GHN along with our friends at the , is ready for your entries.
  • Nominate an issue you feel deserves urgent attention, whether you’ve worked on it firsthand or come across it in your travels.

  • The best nominations are unique and specific (e.g., not chronic disease in the developing world).
Looking for inspiration? Check out some of our stories from past winners, including:
  • by Esther Nakkazi—an honorable mention winner just published last week.

  • by Joanne Silberner. 

  • by Amy Maxmen. 
Nominations Deadline: November 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. EST GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES BIOETHICS Editing an Ethics Pact
The Declaration of Helsinki—a foundational set of ethical guidelines for medical research adopted in 1964—has been significantly revised.

Key updates, which were , include:
  • A shift in language, describing people involved in research as "human participants" instead of “subjects.” 

  • A demand for healthy volunteers to be protected—not just patients. 

  • A call for compliance not just from physicians, but all medical science researchers.
Increasing inclusivity: While prior guidelines sought to protect vulnerable people—pregnant women or racial minorities, for example—from being subjected to research, such exceptions have widened disparities in research. Now, researchers are advised to balance potential study harms with harms of exclusion.

QUICK HITS After Spain’s Floods, a Surge of Volunteers, and of Rage –

An Idaho health department isn’t allowed to give COVID-19 vaccines anymore. Experts say it’s a first –

Will SA’s new vaping laws lead to more smokers instead of fewer? –

Texas Banned Abortion in 2022—Here’s How It’s Affecting OB-GYNs and Patient Care –

Bridging the women's health gap, an economic imperative for Africa –

High prevalence of shigellosis found in Africa –

School-leaver at 11, domestic slave at 12, gang member at 15: how a missing birth certificate derailed a life –

Diabetes risk soars for adults who had a sweet tooth as kids –

Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula – Issue No.: Oct-2024 Monhtly
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:

Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->



 
  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Mon, 11/04/2024 - 09:33
96 Global Health NOW: Public Health on the Ballot; Your October Recap; and Editing an Ethics Pact November 4, 2024 Voters wait in line to cast their ballots during early voting in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on November 1. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Public Health on the Ballot
In the final sprint of the U.S. election, threats to public health programs have been amplified as Donald Trump bashes health agencies and embraces vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., .

Dismantled and diminished agencies: Project 2025, the blueprint for a new Republican administration, includes “momentous” changes to the FDA, CDC, and NIH—organizations that Trump describes at rallies as filled with “corruption.”
  • Employees at health agencies could also see their jobs at risk if Trump were to reinstate a previous executive order that made thousands of federal workers more vulnerable to termination.
Global disconnection: Health officials also fear that another Trump presidency would further erode the country’s international role in health by breaking ties with the WHO and pulling the plug on programs like PEPFAR. 

Meanwhile, Kennedy’s role in Trump’s campaign is already worrying health leaders, who say he is normalizing a dangerous anti-vax position and could do more damage to essential immunization requirements were he given a role in a Trump administration, .
  • “I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump said of Kennedy at his Madison Square Garden rally. “I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on ۲ݮƵ.”
Related: 

Election 2024: What’s at Stake for Public Health? –

Ted Kennedy Jr. expresses concern about Trump’s ‘flagrant disregard’ for public health –

What Trump winning the election could mean for the CDC – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Polio vaccinations in Gaza resumed over the weekend, with 58,600 children in northern Gaza receiving their final dose as health workers attempt to vaccinate thousands more before the campaign’s end today—but some ~15,000 children needing a second dose live in areas that are now inaccessible because of fighting.

~25% of child deaths that occur after visits to U.S. emergency rooms could be prevented if the departments were more fully prepared to treat children—and 80%+ of ERs are not prepared for pediatric cases, a published in JAMA Network Open has found.

Fewer than 1 in 6 health care workers in hospitals and nursing homes reported getting COVID-19 boosters during the 2023–2024 respiratory virus season, has found.

Authorities in Lahore, Pakistan, closed schools and issued work-from-home orders in response to “unprecedented” air pollution; per IQAir, Lahore’s level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is currently 44.4X the WHO annual air-quality guideline value. OCTOBER MUST-READS Shifting Alliances in the Tobacco Fight 
The FDA faces a particularly galling challenge as it seeks to regulate next-generation nicotine products: lawyers who switched sides in the fight. Nearly two dozen former FDA lawyers now work for the tobacco industry. These insiders, who previously helped craft regulations, give tobacco companies a strategic advantage in litigation.
Russian Propaganda Targets Anti-Malaria Programs
Pro-Russian propagandists are seeking to undermine Western-funded health care programs in Africa, spreading disinformation about scientists fighting malaria and other infectious diseases on the continent. Using a variety of tactics involving influencers and more traditional media, Russia has sponsored 80 disinformation campaigns in 22 African countries since 2022, per the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Political Violence as a Public Health Problem 
As political rhetoric grows more inflammatory before the U.S. presidential election, what kinds of violence prevention strategies could be most effective? UC Davis’ Violence Prevention Research Program is taking a closer look at the potential for political violence interventions. While their survey found 3.7% of respondents view large-scale civil conflict as likely, 44% said they could be dissuaded from joining by family members.
The Feds’ Silence as Vets Sounded Avian Flu Alarm
When U.S. farm veterinarians initially raised alarms about avian influenza in cows, they were met with silence from the USDA. Critics say the agency’s conflicting mandates regarding food safety and agricultural trade have led to a “don’t test, don’t tell” policy among dairy farmers, resulting in patchy nationwide surveillance as the virus spreads. OCTOBER’S BEST NEWS A Malaria-Free Egypt 
Malaria was detected in Egypt as early as 4000 BCE, and ~100 years ago, it had a 40% prevalence rate in the country. But in October, the WHO the country malaria-free, following decades of effort. Key interventions included free malaria diagnosis and treatment for all residents, malaria detection training, and ongoing surveillance and vector management. 

“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

GHN EXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY Workers collect freshly picked marigold flowers for sale on August 13, 2024 in Qujing, Yunnan Province of China. Wang Yong/VCG via Getty Stories That Matter    Do you have an amazing global health story to share? This is your chance to tell the world! The Untold Global Health Stories of 2025 Contest, sponsored by GHN along with our friends at the , is ready for your entries.
  • Nominate an issue you feel deserves urgent attention, whether you’ve worked on it firsthand or come across it in your travels.

  • The best nominations are unique and specific (e.g., not chronic disease in the developing world).
Looking for inspiration? Check out some of our stories from past winners, including:
  • by Esther Nakkazi—an honorable mention winner just published last week.

  • by Joanne Silberner. 

  • by Amy Maxmen. 
Nominations Deadline: November 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. EST GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES BIOETHICS Editing an Ethics Pact
The Declaration of Helsinki—a foundational set of ethical guidelines for medical research adopted in 1964—has been significantly revised.

Key updates, which were , include:
  • A shift in language, describing people involved in research as "human participants" instead of “subjects.” 

  • A demand for healthy volunteers to be protected—not just patients. 

  • A call for compliance not just from physicians, but all medical science researchers.
Increasing inclusivity: While prior guidelines sought to protect vulnerable people—pregnant women or racial minorities, for example—from being subjected to research, such exceptions have widened disparities in research. Now, researchers are advised to balance potential study harms with harms of exclusion.

QUICK HITS After Spain’s Floods, a Surge of Volunteers, and of Rage –

An Idaho health department isn’t allowed to give COVID-19 vaccines anymore. Experts say it’s a first –

Will SA’s new vaping laws lead to more smokers instead of fewer? –

Texas Banned Abortion in 2022—Here’s How It’s Affecting OB-GYNs and Patient Care –

Bridging the women's health gap, an economic imperative for Africa –

High prevalence of shigellosis found in Africa –

School-leaver at 11, domestic slave at 12, gang member at 15: how a missing birth certificate derailed a life –

Diabetes risk soars for adults who had a sweet tooth as kids –

Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula – Issue No. 2808
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:

Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->



 
  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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You can or .
Categories: Global Health Feed

Thu, 10/31/2024 - 09:46
96 Global Health NOW: Using Día de los Muertos to Sell Cigarettes; Mpox Response Ramped Up; and Happy Heidi-Ween! Big Tobacco's profit-seeking cultural appropriation. October 31, 2024 GHN EXCLUSIVE Q&A View of cigarette butts on an ashtray with an image of a sugar skull, in Mexico City. Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Using Día de los Muertos to Sell Cigarettes
During the Day of the Dead, the streets of Mexico are full of cultural symbols: altars adorned with family photographs and keepsakes, people donning skeleton-themed face paint, and bunches of marigolds. 
  • But the objects displayed also include a more sinister item:  
Even as regulations and bans work to limit tobacco use, the presence of “themed” packs demonstrates how far the industry will go to keep its consumers hooked—even using symbols that resonate with their cultural identity, Graziele Grilo, a program officer for the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told GHN.

Appropriation normalizes tobacco use: The IGTC’s data collection revealed cigarette packs in Mexico that used the national flag’s colors, traditional animals, and Día de los Muertos symbols. Collectible, metallic packs were sold as limited editions to increase desirability—and according to , it worked.

Legislation is working to thwart these tactics: 
  • Most countries already have graphic health warning labels on packs.

  • 20+ countries have banned point-of-sale display of tobacco products.

  • 24+ countries require plain and standardized packaging—limiting or banning the use of shapes, colors, symbols, and descriptors.
Related: Tobacco Companies May Have Found a Way to Make Vapes More Addictive – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   South Sudan has declared a cholera outbreak and launched a task force in response to 50 suspected cholera cases reported following massive flooding that has displaced 46,000+ people in the Upper Nile state.
 
The discovery of bird flu in a pig on an Oregon farm on October 29 marks the first case of H5N1 virus in U.S. swine; the case raises concerns that the virus is closer to becoming a greater threat to humans.
 
Japan is masking up as the country confronts its most serious outbreak of “walking pneumonia” in more than two decades; ~6,000 cases of mycoplasma pneumonia have been reported this year—a 10X jump over 2023.
 
Researchers have uncovered a key mechanism used by the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness to evade antibodies, ; Trypanosoma brucei “constantly changes a surface coat made up of millions of copies of a single protein.”  (Ed. Note: At GHN's publication time, the  site was down.) MPOX Ramping Up the Response
The WHO has deployed its newly created for the first time: Its mission is to assist in the mpox outbreak response in Africa, .
  • 50+ experts are now targeting eight affected countries, with a focus on the DRC and Burundi.  
Background: The GHEC, formed in 2023 to address gaps revealed during the COVID-19 response, supports countries experiencing public health emergencies by:
  • Assessing emergency workforce in affected countries.

  • Deploying a “surge” of various experts, tailored to the countries’ needs. 

  • Facilitating networking between leadership to coordinate and share best practices.
Mpox deep dive: A WHO analysis of global mpox surveillance from 1958–2024 that reviewed 6,585 mpox sequences collected from 64 countries found:
  • “Highly mobile” clade 1 viruses circulating in Central Africa, and unique clade 1 sequences in Eastern Africa, . 

  • Ongoing human-to-human transmission of clade 2b in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“If we want to prevent the next mpox global outbreak, it is now time to strengthen mpox surveillance,” the researchers wrote. 

Meanwhile: Isolated cases outside of Africa continue to be reported, with the latest ones confirmed in and in   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES DISASTERS How Floodwaters Hollowed Out a ‘Fragile’ Health System
Hurricane Helene's devastating impact continues to reverberate across the U.S. Southeast—particularly in Western North Carolina’s health care system, where floodwaters destroyed critical infrastructure in a region already facing barriers to care.
  • “The health care infrastructure in western North Carolina is already so fragile,” said Kody H. Kinsley, the North Carolina secretary of Health and Human Services.
Ongoing impacts:
  • Much of the region is relying on bottled water and mobile water units because municipal water remains undrinkable. 

  • The region’s largest hospital is pumping in more than 200,000 gallons of water from tankers into the hospital each day; several other hospitals in the region remain closed.

  • Health officials are warning of heightened risks stemming from contaminated water, toxic mud, debris-related injuries. 
ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Happy Heidi-Ween!  
Ah, Halloween—the day every year when ordinary people buy pounds of candy, debate candy corn, wear the best costume they can muster—and then hang their heads in shame when they see what Heidi Klum is wearing.
 
The supermodel’s have seen her transformed into Hindu goddess Kali; Jessica Rabbit; and an elderly woman. In 2022, she just wanted “something random,” she —so she embodied a giant worm made of elaborate prosthetics dubbed “” by her hair and makeup team.
  • Nevertheless, come Halloween, she was inching her way down the Halloween red carpet, fully horizontal. 
Every year, it becomes clearer that Heidi loves Halloween the most—but equally important: Who hates it the most?
  • It could be this , a self-described “Halloween Grinch” who can’t recall ever enjoying a Halloween party. Guess she wasn’t invited to Heidi’s …
Related:

Tim Gunn Judges a Literary Costume Contest — See Exclusive Photos from the New York Public Library's Halloween Parade –  

This DIY Halloween costume turns you into the world's scariest animal ​​–

This Is The Best Dog Halloween Costume We've Ever Seen – QUICK HITS Shortage of IV fluids leads to canceled surgeries –

Ukraine: Population drops by 10 million since Russia invaded in 2014, UNFPA reports –

Overdose deaths are rising among Black and Indigenous Americans –

Sudan: from a forgotten war to an abandoned healthcare system –

New gene discovery aids HIV vaccine progress –

Noninvasive malaria test could be global game changer –

Harvard School of Public Health Study Finds That Deforestation May Increase Malaria Transmission –

New toolkit aims to help U.S. hospitals spot deadly viral hemorrhagic fevers faster and safer –  

Exosomes are touted as a trendy cure-all. We don’t know if they work – Issue No. 2807
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Wed, 10/30/2024 - 09:25
96 Global Health NOW: Tuberculosis Resurgent; Russia Revives Bioweapons Site; and Ghost Harvest October 30, 2024 Volunteers provide a free tuberculosis clinic in China's Guizhou province. March 23, 2023. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Tuberculosis Resurgent
8.2 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2023, the —the highest number recorded since the agency began tracking efforts.

The “notable increase” from 7.5 million reported in 2022 means TB is once again the top infectious disease killer, surpassing COVID-19. The total number ill with TB is now ~10.8 million, .
  • “The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 
Missing targets: Global funding for TB care and research remains “far below” needs, and global milestones for reducing the TB disease burden are well off-track, .

Key factors: New TB cases are largely driven by undernutrition, HIV infection, diabetes, alcohol use disorders, and smoking, and half of TB-affected households face “catastrophic costs.”

Highest burden: China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines together accounted for 56% of the global TB burden. 

Positive development: Overall TB deaths dropped from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million, suggesting that treatment services have largely recovered from COVID-era disruptions, . 

Meanwhile: Advocacy groups like Médecins Sans Frontières have Cepheid, the company that produces TB tests, to lower its costs, . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Militants in Pakistan attacked a health center yesterday, killing two police officers prepping to escort polio workers on a door-to-door campaign; militants also stormed a different health center and warned workers against participating in anti-polio efforts.

Climate change has driven up the number of deaths from extreme heat and has worsened drought and food insecurity, per the .

Dengue fever in Florida is on the rise, with stagnant floodwaters left behind by hurricanes Helene and Milton increasing risks; 50 cases have been logged in the state this year.

Nitazenes have been linked to 278 deaths in the U.K. this year, as many people who sought to buy prescriptions for diazepam received fake ۲ݮƵ with the dangerous synthetic opioids instead. HEALTH SECURITY Russia Revives Bioweapons Site 
New construction at a military research site near Moscow shows signs of being a specialized laboratory complex designed to handle extremely dangerous pathogens, say U.S. intelligence officials.

The past: The site, Sergiev Posad-6, was a major biological weapons research center that conducted experiments during the Cold War on the viruses that cause smallpox, Ebola, and hemorrhagic fevers. 

The present: Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, satellite imagery revealed expansions of the facility, including new biological labs, which have continued.
  • Russian officials have said the labs will be used to strengthen the country’s defenses against pandemics and bioterrorism—the same justification the Soviet Union used to expand its bioweapons program in the 1970s and 1980s.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NUTRITION Ghost Harvest
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are making many foods—including global staples like rice and wheat—less nutritious, reducing protein, vitamins, and critical micronutrients like zinc and iron.
  • A found that when carbon levels rise, protein levels drop by ~10%, iron by 16%, zinc by ~9%, and magnesium by ~9%.
Over 2 billion people worldwide already face micronutrient deficiencies that can severely impact health. Field studies simulating projected 2050 CO2 levels found that:
  • 175 million additional people could become zinc deficient.

  • 122 million additional people could become protein deficient.
Beyond reducing CO2 emissions: Solutions include fortifying staple foods with essential nutrients and planting varieties less susceptible to increased CO2.



Related: The climate crisis is a nutrition crisis — but solutions exist – OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS CDC offers new details on Lassa fever case in Iowa –

Workplace violence at hospitals continues to surge –

Japan's Shionogi says Phase 3 study showed COVID pill reduces transmission –

Zika is still spreading. Why don’t we have a vaccine yet? –

Health groups call for suspending state plan on maternal deaths, saying it burdens patients –

A Texas Woman Died After the Hospital Said It Would be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage –

The Consequences of US Elections for Women’s Health Globally –

Universal health care may drive the vote in Puerto Rico –

How to prepare for the end of daylight saving time and potential health effects – Issue No. 2806
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Tue, 10/29/2024 - 09:44
96 Global Health NOW: The Lives Needlessly Lost to Extreme Heat; Plan B Missing From Many Tribal Clinics; and What Hinders Human Bird Flu Surveillance? October 29, 2024 A woman cools off in a fountain as a heat wave hits London, on July 19, 2022. Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty The Lives Needlessly Lost to Extreme Heat
Human-induced climate change drove more than half of Europe’s 68,000 heat deaths in 2022—the continent’s hottest summer on record, , citing a .
  • 38,000 fewer people—10X the number of people murdered on the continent—would have died without anthropogenic warming.

  • The heat killed more women than men, more southern Europeans than northern Europeans, and more older people than younger people.

  • The study comes on the heels of that the world is on track to heat by a catastrophic 3°C by the end of the century.
Meanwhile, proposed federal rules to protect workers from extreme heat might have saved the lives of U.S. laborers, .
  • OSHA, the U.S. worker protection agency, says the government’s estimate that extreme heat kills ~480 workers a year is a vast undercount; Public Citizen puts the toll closer to 2,000.
OSHA has fined employers over heat-related employee deaths, but without national regulations on prevention, its reach is limited—and the agency depends on employees to report unsafe conditions.
  • Many workers—especially farmworkers with H-2A visas are afraid to report unsafe conditions, fearing employer retaliation.
President Biden’s proposed rules would require employers to provide ample water and breaks and ensure new workers have time to acclimate to high-heat jobs—but several industry groups and conservative lawmakers have opposed the rules, which are unlikely to be finalized before Biden leaves office. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Lebanon hospitals are stretched thin trying to treat patients with severe burns as a result of continuing Israeli airstrikes; the country’s only burn unit doubled its beds, but can’t keep up with the critical burn cases.
 
An Iowa resident who recently traveled to West Africa has died after contracting Lassa fever, the state’s health department announced yesterday; the CDC, which is working to confirm the diagnosis, said the risk to the general public is extremely low.

Transplant experts say they’re seeing more people revoking their organ donor registrations after a report that organs were nearly harvested from a Kentucky man mistakenly declared dead.

In a future pandemic, Australians are less likely to accept lockdowns and other measures that helped keep the country’s rate of excess deaths among the world’s lowest, per a new report on the country's COVID-19 response. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS Plan B Missing From Many Tribal Clinics
In 100+ federally funded clinics and pharmacies run by Native American tribal nations, the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill remains inaccessible—despite being available over-the-counter at most American pharmacies for more than a decade.

An investigation by APM Reports, Type Investigations, and KOSU found:
  • 54 tribal clinics in 11 states do not provide emergency contraception.

  • Another 51 clinics impose limits like age restrictions.
Reasons unclear: While most tribal officials interviewed declined to explain the gaps, those who did cited a lack of demand and staff’s personal feelings around the issue. 

An outlier: The Cherokee Nation no longer requires a prescription for Plan B for patients 17 and older. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES AVIAN FLU What Hinders Surveillance?
Human H5N1 infections continue to be reported—but researchers are struggling to grasp the scale of transmission because of inadequate surveillance. 

Emails from state and local health departments give some glimpse into reasons for the gaps: :
  • Communication breakdowns with farmers who do not want their workers to be monitored for bird flu.

  • Delays between the start of outbreaks and health department visits. 

  • Insufficient attention to certain aspects of the outbreaks, including cases in pet cats. 
And it’s about to get harder, as cold and flu season will make it “significantly more difficult for the country’s public health departments to track the virus,”  

Related: H5N1 avian flu isolate from dairy worker is transmissible, lethal in animals – OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Animal-to-human viral leap sparked deadly Marburg outbreak –

She says her husband tried to kill her. Enter the 'Pink Wheels' squad –

Rare disease initiative aims to speed diagnoses and treatment in Latin America –

Tenant Right-to-Counsel and Adverse Birth Outcomes in New York, New York –

Shifting power in global health will require leadership by the Global South and allyship by the Global North –

The Dilemma at the Center of McDonald’s E. Coli Outbreak –

Why cars might be the scariest thing this Halloween – Issue No. 2805
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Mon, 10/28/2024 - 09:24
96 Global Health NOW: ‘Hell on Earth’ in Saudi Detention Centers; A Voice for Hispanic Health; and Coverage Graveyards and Ghost Networks Detainees packed into sweltering rooms with no access to basic hygiene or outside air October 28, 2024 ‘Hell on Earth’ in Saudi Detention Centers
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to live in inhumane, “degrading” conditions inside Saudi detention centers: packed into sweltering rooms with no access to basic hygiene or outside air, . 
  • “It’s no exaggeration to say that place was hell on earth. They never let us outside during my nine-month stay. They never let anyone experience fresh air or sunlight,” said Zaro Gebre, an Ethiopian detainee who smuggled out footage from inside the detention centers. 
Crackdown on migrants: Ethiopians fleeing war and poverty for the Gulf make up a significant proportion of those in the detention centers, .

Reforms promised, unfulfilled: New footage of the centers was released yesterday as part of an that followed up on The Telegraph’s into the centers’ human rights abuses four years ago.
  • Yet conditions remain unchanged since then, or worse: Detainees sleep packed together on floors with trash bags, toilets overflow, and violence erupts between detainees. 
  • The Saudi government faces little pushback from the global community, as the country seeks to burnish its image as an international soccer hub, argues one investigative reporter in a .  
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
A gene editing therapy for chronic hepatitis B will be tested in human trials in Moldova after the nation’s regulators approved Precision BioSciences’ study of the treatment.

Ozempic may reduce Alzheimer’s risk, per a published in Alzheimer's & Dementia last week that showed semaglutide was associated with a 40%–70% lower risk of a first-time Alzheimer’s diagnosis in patients with type 2 diabetes compared with seven other diabetes medications.

Opioid makers and marketers misused scientific evidence to support inaccurate claims about the drugs—including that they were not addictive—per a new published in Health Affairs Scholar.

McDonald’s has ruled out beef patties as the source of the E. coli outbreak linked to its Quarter Pounder hamburgers, which has killed at least one and sickened ~75 others; instead, onions are believed to be the source of the outbreak. INSURANCE Coverage Graveyards and Ghost Networks
In the U.S., having health insurance is no guarantee that essential medical care will be covered—or even available as advertised. 

Two obstacles gaining more attention: 
  • Denial for dollars: It has become common for insurers to outsource medical reviews to large companies like one called EviCore, which uses algorithms that increase denial rates, . 
  • “Ghost networks”: Far too often, patients purchase health coverage promising access to therapists and other mental health professionals listed in provider directories—only to find them out-of-date and inaccurate, . 
COMMUNITY HEALTH A Voice for Hispanic Health
During the COVID-19 pandemic, journalist Tibisay Zea noticed something in Boston’s Hispanic community: Its members were poorly informed on health issues. To help close that information gap, she launched the Salud podcast in 2022.
  • The show covers culturally relevant health information on topics like COVID-19, diabetes, cancer, and workplace accidents, all of which disproportionately affect Latino people. 
Zea focuses on connecting health experts with personal stories from the Latino community—an approach that not only informs but also resonates emotionally with listeners, many of whom face socioeconomic challenges and barriers to health care.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES WATER How Women Suffer When Wells Go Dry
Water insecurity comes with major health risks—and women often bear the burden. 

Recent in water-scarce areas of Peru and Indonesia included interviews with women who reported: 
  • Extreme physical exertion from carrying heavy water buckets that led multiple women to go into premature labor and miscarry.
  • Struggling to secure water for sanitary births. 
  • Barriers to menstrual hygiene, which prevented young women and girls from attending school.
Increased violence: Indonesian women in water-insecure households were more than twice as likely to report experiencing gender-based violence in the last year.

QUICK HITS Some people with ADHD thrive in periods of stress, new study shows –

HIV-Infected Patient Refused Care In Armenia –

Remembering Dr. Richard Cash: How a 'simple' intervention helped save millions of lives –

The Final Push: Overcoming the Last Barriers to Global Polio Eradication –

Gas-powered leaf blowers are noisy, polluting and harmful to our health. But are bans the best way to go? – Issue No. 2804
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Thu, 10/24/2024 - 09:26
96 Global Health NOW: A Widening E. coli Investigation; The Silence of the Feds; and Hospital Gown … But Don’t Make it Fashion October 24, 2024 A Widening E. coli Investigation
A multistate outbreak of E. coli infections has prompted an expansive, by the CDC and U.S. agencies that have linked the infections to McDonald’s restaurants. 

Outbreak details, : The food poisoning has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states, including 10 who were hospitalized and one person who .
  • But the number of people affected by the outbreak is likely much higher, . 
Zeroing in on a source: Of 18 sickened people interviewed, all reported eating at McDonald’s.
  • A specific ingredient has not been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, but the that the onions or beef patties used for Quarter Pounders are the likely source of contamination, . 

  • McDonald’s has taken Quarter Pounders in about a fifth of its stores, and the onion supplier, Taylor Farms Colorado, issued a broader recall of yellow onions—though the company said that it has found no traces of E. coli in tests. 
Bigger picture: The outbreak, which comes on the heels of the Boar’s Head listeria contamination linked to 10 deaths, has prompted larger questions about U.S. food safety, .

Related: Why food recalls are everywhere right now – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Rifaximin, a common antibiotic used to treat liver disease, is fueling bacterial resistance to daptomycin—one of the few treatments effective against the superbug vancomycin-resistant enterococcus faecium (VRE), .

People 50 and older should get pneumococcal vaccines to protect against pneumonia and other dangerous illnesses, a CDC advisory panel recommended yesterday, replacing earlier guidance aimed at people ages 65+.  

A second dose of the 2024–25 COVID-19 vaccine is now for people ages 65+ and for people with moderate or severe immunocompromising conditions, per a CDC vaccine advisory group.

Single-use vapes will be banned in England starting next June, as the British government tries to curb rising vape usage among children and teens. VIOLENCE ‘Shocking, Staggering’ Sexual Violence in DRC
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen an “acute escalation” of sexual violence in recent years, per a from Physicians for Human Rights.
  • ~90,000 documented sexual assaults were reported in 2023 in DRC—up from 40,000 in 2021. The group believes it is a “severe undercount.”
“The level of sexual violence is shocking. It's staggering,” said PHR director Saman Zia-Zarifi.

Other organizations echo the findings:
  • A recent described an “explosion of sexual violence,” with MSF teams treating 25,000+ sexual assault survivors in 2023 compared to a previous average of 10,000 victims per year. 
  • UNICEF’s chief of child protection in the DRC, Ramatou Toure, described a ”skyrocketing” crisis in camps—where “almost every girl or every woman has experienced sexual violence.” 
Driving the surge: Armed rebel and militia groups have gained strength, and the UN’s 2023 withdrawal of its peacekeeping forces at the request of DRC’s government has led to a “vacuum” of protection. 



Related: Four in 10 deaths in war zones last year were women, UN report finds – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES SUBSTANCE USE What Makes ‘Pink Cocaine’ So Dangerous
A designer drug called tusi has been in the news lately due to its connections with Sean “Diddy” Combs and the recent death of Liam Payne.
  • It’s a bright pink powder combining any number of substances. Common ingredients include ketamine and ecstasy, but usually not cocaine.
Users are led to believe that tusi is safer than street drugs, but without knowing the exact ingredients of a given batch—which could even include fentanyl or xylazine—the effects can be unpredictable and even fatal.
  • The drug has been linked to at least nine deaths so far, including four suicides and four accidental overdoses.
AVIAN FLU The Silence of the Feds
When U.S. farm veterinarians began to sound the alarm about avian influenza detected in cows, they were expecting a full-blown response from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including widespread testing and surveillance. 

Instead, they got silence: “Nobody came. When the diagnosis came in, the government stood still,” said one veterinarian. 

Conflict of interest: The USDA’s sometimes conflicting mandates to oversee the safety of the nation’s food animals while also protecting the nation’s agriculture trade has resulted in a “‘don’t test, don’t tell’ policy among dairy farmers.”

The result? There is no nationwide surveillance or accurate sense of H5N1’s scope as the virus continues to spread.
  • “We are repeating every single mistake” of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. 
ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Hospital Gown … But Don’t Make it Fashion
Iconic is usually a compliment in the fashion world. Not this time.
 
The hospital “gown” is an affront to formalwear everywhere. An insult to our tastes and our figures. And really more of a glorified sheet than a garment.
 
Why the sartorial shame? The New York Times’ fashion critic
  • This wretched wearable was designed to accommodate IVs and provide easy access to the body, resulting in the “dehumanizing” fronts-in, butts-out design behind (ahem!) countless hospital humiliations.

  • Even Diane von Furstenberg couldn’t make it chic. The designer reimagined her iconic wrap dress as a patient gown for the Cleveland Clinic. And it’s .
Another idea: “You might as well just walk around naked,” Timothy Andrews, a health industry analyst and frequent hospital outpatient, said to . “It’s probably easier—just give us a belt and a loincloth.” QUICK HITS Tens of thousands of UK dementia patients to be enrolled in clinical trials –

U.S. Study on Puberty Blockers Goes Unpublished Because of Politics, Doctor Says –

Crackdown on Homeless Encampments Raises Public Health Questions –

World’s first vaccine for norovirus the ‘winter vomiting bug’ begins final stage trial –

Perspectives on Medical School Admission for Black Students Among Premedical Advisers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities –

Youth cheerleading is getting more athletic — and riskier –

Surgical Centers Urged to Nix Mandatory Pre-Op Pregnancy Tests – Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!

Drinking is cheaper than it’s been in decades. Lobbyists are fighting to keep it that way –

How breast milk can help fight climate change – Issue No. 2803
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Wed, 10/23/2024 - 09:36
96 Global Health NOW: Lebanese Hospitals on Alert; Malaria Becomes ‘Ancient History’ in Egypt; and Switching Sides on the Tobacco Fight October 23, 2024 Lebanese forces take security measures around Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut on October 22, after an Israeli attack near the area. Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Lebanese Hospitals on Alert as Strikes Intensify 
  UN officials are urging protections for health care facilities in Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike Tuesday near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital—the largest public hospital in Lebanon—led to “significant damage,” .

Another hospital, the Al-Sahel Hospital in Dahiyeh, was evacuated amid “horror and tears” after Israel claimed that Hezbollah is stockpiling cash and gold in a bunker under the hospital, increasing fears that Lebanon’s health sector could face the same destruction as Gaza’s, .

Other mounting health risks: 400,000+ displaced Lebanese children face growing risk of cholera, scabies, and waterborne diseases due to unsanitary conditions in shelters, .
  • Last week, health authorities Northern Lebanon’s first case of cholera. 
Meanwhile in Gaza: Escalating violence across northern Gaza has forced the postponement of the polio vaccination campaign’s final phase, .
  • And the WHO led a “high risk” in northern Gaza to transfer patients to Gaza City this week amid intense hostilities and the denial of deliveries of critical medical supplies, blood, and fuel.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   New stroke prevention guidelines from the American Stroke Association for the first time call out specific risks faced by women and gender-diverse individuals taking the hormone estrogen; also call for screening for and addressing social determinants of health.

Girls and young women may be more susceptible to the clade Ib mpox subvariant, that found a higher percentage of cases and a much earlier average age of infection—6 years—among girls, compared with 17.5 years for boys.
 
An E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers has sickened at least 49 people in 10 U.S. states, leading to one death and 10 hospitalizations, the yesterday; investigators are focused on onions and beef as potential sources of contamination.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture weakened its bird flu emergency order last spring in response to pushback from state and industry officials—potentially contributing to disease transmission across state lines, records show. GOOD NEWS Malaria Becomes ‘Ancient History’ in Egypt   
After three years of interruption to the transmission chain in Egypt, the country malaria-free.
  • The country had a prevalence of ~40% in 1930—but public health officials made strides over the last century, . 
How they did it, :
  • Free diagnosis and treatment, regardless of legal status. 

  • Malaria detection training for health professionals.

  • Malaria screenings provided at the country’s borders. 
Vigilance to continue: The health ministry pledges to guard its malaria-free status through surveillance, integrated vector management, and rapid response to imported cases.
 
The Quote: "Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES BIG TOBACCO Switching Sides on the Tobacco Fight 
As the FDA fights an “epic struggle” against the tobacco industry over next-generation nicotine products, the agency is contending with a particularly galling dynamic: lawyers who have shifted alliances. 

Nearly two dozen FDA lawyers have left the FDA’s tobacco regulation arm to advise, litigate for, or work with the tobacco and vaping industry over the last 15 years, according to a review by The Examination.

Insider advantage: The lawyers often helped craft and defend the same regulations the industry is fighting—giving them a powerful upper hand in litigation.
  • “It seems like every time we get sued in the tobacco industry, a former FDA lawyer is leading the lawsuit,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told an oversight organization last year. 
CLIMATE CRISIS Climate Change’s Psychological Toll
Climate-related changes threaten more than people’s physical safety and livelihoods. These changes also act as a “threat multiplier,” increasing risks for mental health problems. 
  • Survivors of California’s 2018 Camp wildfire were diagnosed with PTSD at a rate comparable to war veterans.

  • Slower-onset changes like drought, land cover change, rising sea levels, etc., can cause stress over time that erupts into violence like 2019’s Ogossagou massacre in Mali.
A hefty price tag: Mental disorders due to climate, pollution, and environment-related causes could cost the global economy $47 billion annually by 2030. 

To address these issues, researchers are pushing for mental health to be a focus in climate policy and interventions, such as in countries’ Paris Accord climate action plans.

OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Polio Anywhere is a Threat Everywhere: Why the UK Must Act –

Dengue fever: with a record 12.4m cases in 2024 so far, what is driving the world’s largest outbreak? –

Ukraine: Population drops by 10 million since Russia invaded in 2014, UNFPA reports –

Elderly Americans with dementia have become some of the GOP’s top donors without even realizing it –

Beyond Longevity: The Critical Role of Mental Health in Japan’s Well-Being –

How one woman set up a mental health helpline for the whole of South Africa –

How does the brain react to birth control? A researcher scanned herself 75 times to find out –

Coke, Twinkies, Skittles, and … Whole-Grain Bread? – Issue No. 2802
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Categories: Global Health Feed

Tue, 10/22/2024 - 09:35
96 Global Health NOW: The Push to Prevent Drownings in Uganda; Switching Sides on the Tobacco Fight; and Heeding Africa’s Hearing Loss October 22, 2024 GHN EXCLUSIVE Bystanders watch rescuers search the site of a capsized cruise boat on Lake Victoria near Mutima village, south of Kampala, Uganda. November 25, 2018. Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty The Push to Prevent Drownings in Uganda
KAMPALA, Uganda—Every year, —people like Owen Ntanda, an 18-year-old boat operator who drowned in the lake last summer, despite being a good swimmer—giving the lake a reputation as one of the “” in the world.
  • by researchers at Makerere University and the CDC estimated Uganda’s drowning death rate to be 8.5 per 100,000 population per year—~2,942 drowning deaths a year. 

  • Worldwide, . But in Uganda, young adults aged 20–39 years are most affected, —and men in Uganda are 3X more likely to drown than women. 
Behind Uganda’s high drowning rate:
  • A lack of safety gear like life jackets—most of which are substandard.

  • Overloaded cargo boats—which are not well-policed.

  • Supercharged floods fueled by climate change.
Steps toward change:
  • Uganda will become one of the first countries to implement a national drowning intervention strategy—expected to launch this fall—giving each stakeholder ministry a mandate and drowning prevention activities.
  • The Ministry of Health has established emergency response services focused on water emergencies, boosting first aid training, and procuring water boat ambulances.
Ed. Note: This article is part of , made possible through the generous support of loyal GHN readers. Kyra Guy of USC’s Keck School of Medicine won an honorable mention for entering the idea for this story in the 2024 Untold Global Health Stories contest, co-sponsored by GHN and CUGH, which is now accepting nominations for the 2025 round. ! GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A large proportion of sub-Saharan African teens with severe asthma are missing out on diagnosis and treatment, of 27,000 students from urban areas in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria; of ~3,000+ reporting symptoms, just ~600 had a formal diagnosis.

School administrators in Mexico have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk foods like sugary fruit drinks and chips or face heavy fines between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense.

Washington state its first suspected avian flu infections in people—four agricultural workers who tested positive after working with infected poultry at a facility that culled ~800,000 birds that tested positive for avian flu last week.

U.S. infant mortality was higher than expected in the months following the Supreme Court decision that eliminated federal abortion protections, , corresponding with a 7% absolute increase in infant mortality overall, representing 247 excess deaths. DATA POINT VIOLENCE A Public Health Approach to Political Violence 
As political rhetoric grows more incendiary leading up to the first U.S. presidential election since the January 6, 2021 insurrection, the at the University of California at Davis has begun to study the threat of political violence in earnest. 

A key goal of their research: Identify risk factors and interventions that could deescalate potential unrest before it arises. 

“Openness to change”: According to a from the program released last month, just 3.7% respondents said it was “very likely” that they would participate as a combatant in a large-scale civil conflict—but ~44% said they would be “not likely” to join if they were dissuaded by family members, and ~30% said they could be deterred from participating if a respected religious leader urged them not to.

Such findings can “guide prevention efforts,” the survey concluded.

HEALTH DISPARITIES Heeding Africa’s Hearing Loss
54 million people in Africa are facing hearing loss by 2030, due to factors including a shortage of hearing specialists and a limited budget for ear and hearing care (EHC).
  • Up to 75% of child hearing loss in LMICs is preventable.
  • Only 10% of the 33 million people who need hearing aids have access and can afford them. 
  • Hearing loss costs Africa an estimated $27 billion per year, in terms of the impact on human lives and economies. 
Solutions: pushes for EHC policies and implementation—urging more dedicated funding, better-equipped facilities, and exploration of public-private partnerships. 
 
OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Committee reviewing euthanasia in Canada finds some deaths driven by homelessness fears, isolation –

A Maine Law Could Have Forced the Lewiston Mass Shooter Into Mental Health Treatment. Why Wasn’t It Used? –  

China unveils first diagnosis guidelines to battle escalating obesity crisis –

Medicaid will cover traditional healing practices for Native Americans in 4 states –

Ending “domestic helicopter research” –

As Ukraine's birth rate plunges, here's what one doctor is doing to reverse the trend –

The Perverse Consequences of Tuition-Free Medical School – Issue No. 2801
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Mon, 10/21/2024 - 09:19
96 Global Health NOW: Barriers to Polio Vaccination; The Overdose Vaccine ‘Moon Shot’ and Where Early Education is Enshrined October 21, 2024 A child looks on before receiving a vaccination for polio in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 5. Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Barriers to Polio Vaccination ‘Leaving Children Vulnerable’
While health workers in Pakistan battle a growing polio outbreak, polio vaccination teams in Gaza are also contending with widening obstacles.

In Pakistan: Health officials have confirmed six more cases of wild poliovirus type 1, bringing the total number of infected children this year to 39—after just six cases last year, .  
  • Vaccine hesitancy and attacks against vaccination teams have increased as hardline clerics and militants spread misinformation about the vaccine’s safety, “leading to missed opportunities for immunization and leaving children vulnerable,” said Melissa Corkum, chief of UNICEF’s polio team in Pakistan. 

  • Pakistan will launch a nationwide vaccination campaign next week to vaccinate 45 million+ children. 
In Gaza: Today the UN and WHO launched the second round of a widespread polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, targeting 590,000 children with booster doses, .
  • But conditions have deteriorated in the enclave since the first round of vaccinations—making it more difficult for families to travel to vaccination sites amid destroyed infrastructure and increased safety concerns. 

  • And health workers are concerned polio vaccines won’t reach Gaza’s northern communities because of ongoing fighting and fears for health workers’ safety, .
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   The global oral cholera vaccine stockpile has been depleted, the WHO said Friday, jeopardizing outbreak response amid a 126% rise in cholera mortality from January 1 to September 29 across five WHO regions.

Whooping cough cases in the U.S. have hit their highest number—18,506—since 2014; outbreaks of the disease, which can be prevented by vaccination, are hitting mostly older kids and teens.

Women seeking pain relief at emergency departments can wait 30 minutes longer than men, per a published in PNAS that assessed 22,000 discharge notes from emergency departments in the U.S. and Israel.

Over-the-counter contraceptives could be required to be covered by U.S. health insurers without cost-sharing, according to a new proposal the Biden administration unveiled today. OPIOID CRISIS The Overdose Vaccine ‘Moon Shot’ 
Efforts to prevent opioid overdose with a vaccine have largely been fruitless—until now. A number of opioid overdose vaccines are currently being tested, all relying on the same basic strategy:
  • Stimulate the immune system to protect against an opioid’s ability to overwhelm the brain and shut down the breathing process.
How it works: Portions of the fentanyl molecule are linked to proteins the body recognizes in order to trigger an immune response.

Also underway: The first fentanyl monoclonal antibody is undergoing human trials, with initial published in Nature Communications showing that monkeys treated with the antibody survived a lethal dose of fentanyl.

The Quote: “It’s a moon shot, but a moon shot is what the country needs right now,” said JR Rhan, co-founder of startup Ovax, which is developing an opioid overdose vaccine.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES WEST NILE VIRUS Ukraine’s Viral Threat
West Nile virus has killed 11 people and sickened 88 in Ukraine over the last three months—marking a “serious” new threat to the country that will likely become more common with climate change, said Ukraine's Deputy Health Minister.
  • “We probably have to get used to the fact that this fever will be in even greater numbers in Ukraine,” Ihor Kuzin said.
Growing hotspot: Outbreaks are typically found on bird migratory routes, and Ukraine is a stop along several such flight paths, explained Kuzin.

CHILD & ADOLESCENT HEALTH Where Early Education is Enshrined 
In Norway, the “intrinsic value” of childhood is upheld in the 63-page Kindergarten Act of 2006, a law guaranteeing every child’s right to attend kindergarten.

These schools, serving children 5 and under, are seen “as an investment for society and the child,” said Kristin Aasta Morken, a program leader in Oslo.

As such, Norwegian kindergartens are:
  • Publicly funded: National funds cover 85% of operating costs.

  • Inclusive: Children with disabilities are not segregated, and non-Norwegian speakers are given communication aids.

  • Embracing nature: Children spend 70% of their kindergarten time outside, in all weather—in keeping with the Norwegian saying: “There is no bad weather, just bad clothes.”
RESOURCE QUICK HITS ‘One-man anti-abortion army’: shadow of US global gag rule looms over Nepal’s family planning services –

China ends international adoption. Reactions range from shock to relief –

Under a L.A. Freeway, a Psychiatric Rescue Mission –

Tobacco Sponsorship of F1 Could Put Children on a Fast Track to Addiction –

Nut bans little help to allergic air passengers –

Life-saving spongelike 'bandage' rapidly stops hemorrhaging and mitigates risk of infection – Issue No. 2800
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Thu, 10/17/2024 - 09:48
96 Global Health NOW: Rwanda’s Marburg Vaccine Quandary; War-Torn Sudan’s Medical Training Nightmare; and A ‘Conker’-Versial Victory October 17, 2024 Sabin Vaccine Institute delivered 700 doses of its Marburg vaccine to Rwanda on Oct. 5.
Photo Courtesy of the Sabin Vaccine Institute Rwanda’s Marburg Vaccine Quandary 
As Rwanda rushes to contain the third biggest outbreak of the fatal Marburg virus ever, it has quickly greenlit experimental vaccines and treatments.

But officials have taken divergent routes in deploying those, approving the first-ever clinical trial for a Marburg treatment, while rejecting a similar trial for vaccines, . 

This reflects an “agonizingly difficult” debate:
  • Marburg outbreaks are rare and small—Rwanda has confirmed 62 cases and 15 deaths—meaning there are few opportunities to test vaccine efficacy.

  • Yet the virus is lethal, with ~80% of cases affecting health care workers, which “weakens the area’s overall health infrastructure,” virologist Kari Debbink explained to “Public Health on Call.”
Ultimately, the government elected to “move fast to protect the front-line workers” by rejecting the trial and giving them access to the vaccine—but some public health leaders see this as a missed opportunity in overall vaccine development.

The vaccine: Rwanda has received 1,700 doses of an experimental vaccine from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and ~700 people have been vaccinated—primarily health care workers and contacts of those infected.

The therapy trial: The Rwandan government has agreed to proceed with a WHO-led randomized clinical trial to test the antiviral drug remdesivir and a monoclonal antibody against Marburg, . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners  

The U.S. FDA put a hold on Novavax’s application to advance its combination COVID-19 and influenza vaccine after a trial participant reported a serious adverse event—a form of nerve damage—last month; the patient received the combination shot in a phase two trial that finished in July last year.

 
Italy has criminalized surrogacy overseas, levying jail time and steep fines for citizens who go abroad to have children via surrogate in a move opponents described as “medieval” and discriminatory to same-sex couples.

Breast cancer risk is “slightly higher” for women with hormonal IUDs, finds a large study published in ; the findings align with similar risks tied to taking long-term hormonal birth control pills.

Western Pacific nations are failing to meet UN targets to reduce premature deaths from lifestyle-related diseases like cancer and diabetes by 2030, —largely due to a slow decline in tobacco and alcohol consumption. GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY Doctors consult with patients in a clinic in a camp for internally displaced people in South Kordofan, Sudan, on June 17. Guy Peterson / AFP via Getty War-Torn Sudan’s Medical Training Nightmare   The ongoing conflict in Sudan has not only pushed public services beyond the point of collapse, it has disrupted medical training and licensing, with lasting consequences for the country’s health care workforce, write three Sudanese medical professionals in an .
  • Medical education in much of the country has halted because of the destruction of medical schools and hospitals.

  • Medical students and interns have emigrated—worsening the long-standing brain drain of medical professionals.
Remarkable resilience:
  • Physicians are still training interns and students.

  • Displaced physicians are establishing specialty units in neurosurgery and orthopedics, for example, in remote hospitals.
But:
  • Disruptions in medical training have compromised the national public health infrastructure, exacerbating the country’s overwhelming health needs.

  • Broken health systems will continue to undermine public health even after the war ceases.
What needs to happen now:
  • International agencies and organizations need to join now with Sudanese partners to revitalize medical training in the country.

  • Sudan must act as soon as possible to avoid future physician shortages by facilitating resident transfers to other in-country residency programs with better security and additional capacity.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CLIMATE CRISIS Disparities in South Africa Extend to Heat Impacts
In a country with income inequality, a recent temperature-mapping study found that heat also impacts neighborhoods very differently: Overall, townships were 6ºC (42.8ºF) hotter than wealthier suburbs.

Environmental factors: Under the hot sun, tree cover allows for evaporative cooling. The suburb of Waterkloof has 54.1% tree cover—compared to only 2.6% in the neighboring township of Mamelodi.

Structural inequality: Township residents often live in makeshift steel shacks that trap heat and can reach up to 48.5ºC (119ºF) inside.

Extreme heat can cause heat stroke, dehydration, and heat exhaustion, and exacerbate respiratory problems.

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION A ‘Conker’-Versial Victory  
An English town—and chestnut enthusiasts everywhere—has been roiled by a spot of scandal after the winner of the World Conker Championships was accused of cheating.
 
The beloved autumn tradition in the village of Southwick involves stringing up chestnuts and hurling them at one another until one competitor is obliterated. But this year, “King Conker”—82-year-old David Jakins—was caught with a steel conker in his pocket after winning the contest.
  • According to , Jakins’ opponent claimed that his own conker “disintegrated in one hit" when he faced Jakins. “That doesn’t just happen.”
  • The case will be a tough nut to crack: Jakins claims he carries the steel conker as a joke. That old chestnut…
But if he is indeed a chestnut cheater, Jakins is more than welcome in the conker battle royale of South London—a lawless, “anything-goes” competition where cheating is actively encouraged, . QUICK HITS Imperial modelling shows 100 Days Mission could have saved 8 million lives –

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War’s Public Health Impacts Are Vast. Tallying Them Is Difficult. –

People are catching avian flu from wild birds, study suggests –

South Australia’s upper house narrowly rejects ‘Trumpian’ bill to wind back abortion care –

CDC issues interim recommendations to prevent sexual Oropouche virus spread –

‘Smart’ insulin prevents diabetic highs — and deadly lows –

6 Things to Eat to Reduce Your Cancer Risk – Issue No. 2799
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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Wed, 10/16/2024 - 09:33
96 Global Health NOW: Halving Premature Mortality Rates; Thalassemia’s Strain on Blood Supplies; and Enter the Untold Global Health Stories Contest! October 16, 2024 A Sudanese patient with kidney failure undergoing dialysis at the Soba Hospital in southern Khartoum. June 3, 2023. AFP via Getty Halving Premature Mortality Rates: ‘A Prize Within Reach’
All countries—even those afflicted by poverty and conflict—can cut their premature death rates in half by 2050 through a series of policy priorities, posits a new Lancet presented at the closing of the in Berlin.

The roadmap, dubbed “50 by 50,” argues that steady focus on 15 “priority conditions”—including infectious diseases like tuberculosis, noncommunicable diseases, and other issues such as accidents and suicide—is the key to dramatically improved mortality rates.
  • “It’s a prize within reach,” said the report’s lead author, Gavin Yamey of the .
Other high-impact efforts:
  • Tackling tobacco: High tobacco taxes are “by far” the most crucial policy tool for reducing premature deaths.

  • Improving medical access: Subsidizing essential ۲ݮƵ and vaccines and expanding childhood immunizations can lead to “significant gains.”
If the global goal is met, a person born in 2050 would have a 15% chance of dying before age 70—down from 31% for someone born in 2019, “meaning dramatic improvements for billions,” . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   23 attacks on hospitals and health workers in Lebanon have led to 72 deaths and 43 injuries among health workers and patients since mid-September—putting health facilities “under massive strain.”

Five new suspected human cases of bird flu have been , adding to six confirmed cases in the state, the U.S.’s largest dairy supplier.

Novo Nordisk is halting its insulin pen production, the company told governments and nonprofit organizations—a move critics say was made to scale up the production of more profitable injectable weight-loss drugs.

Vaccine-derived poliovirus type 3 has been detected in wastewater samples in French Guiana, per a that urged nearby countries to keep vaccination levels above 95% to minimize the risk of outbreaks. GHN EXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY Workers collect freshly picked marigold flowers to sell. August 13, Qujing, China. Wang Yong/VCG via Getty Send Us Your Story Ideas! 
Do you know of a global health story that the media is overlooking? The , co-sponsored by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and GHN, is open and ready for your entries!
 
How it works:
  • you feel deserves urgent attention, describing the story and why it deserves more coverage and support in 150 words or less.

  • The best nominations focus on a specific issue in a specific location (i.e., not global chronic disease) and include available data, evidence, and contact information.
The win-win: If we choose your issue, we’ll provide a platform to expand the audience for your issue in GHN and through CUGH’s network.
 
Bonus: The grand-prize winner will receive a free registration to CUGH’s annual meeting in February in Atlanta.

Deadline: Enter by November 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. EST. BLOOD DISORDERS Thalassemia’s Strain on Blood Supplies
  People with the genetic blood disorder thalassemia are not able to produce a sufficient amount of hemoglobin and require regular blood transfusions to prevent debilitating anemia. 

In Southeast Asia, the condition is so prevalent that more than a third of blood supplies go toward such transfusions.
  • In Thailand and Laos, 30%–40% of donated blood is used to treat thalassemia patients. 
“We need blood banks for accidents, for childbirth, for dengue fever, hemodialysis, cancer and other diseases. But treating thalassemia is the single biggest use,” said Chanthala Souksakhone, head of the National Blood Institute at the Lao Red Cross.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CLIMATE CRISIS In Defense of Biodiversity
Zoonotic diseases—caused by pathogens that spill over from animals to humans, like Ebola, mpox, and Lyme—sicken 2.5 billion people and kill 2.7 million every year. As global temperatures rise and humans disrupt ecosystems, the risk of these diseases is expected to rise.
  • Deforestation, for instance, increases human encounters with animals acting as disease reservoirs, while climate change makes new regions hospitable to disease vectors like mosquitoes and ticks.
Natural barriers: Diverse ecosystems safeguard humans against a panoply of zoonotic illnesses by diluting the intensity of pathogen transmission among many species.

“We need to appreciate the value that the natural world offers to humanity, from an infectious disease-mitigation standpoint,” says University of Notre Dame professor Jason Rohr.

QUICK HITS Female Genital Mutilation Happens in America, Too – Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!

Millions of aging Americans are facing dementia by themselves –

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State supreme court races could determine abortion access in several states –

Employers should be fined for unhealthy workplaces, says think tank –

Ukraine: Time to recognise ‘tremendous potential’ of demining –

Using genomics to find solutions to malaria –

A new way to support grandparents raising kids affected by the addiction epidemic – ​​ Issue No. 2798
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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