Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: China’s ‘Patriotic Public Health’ War on Chikungunya; HHS Halts mRNA Development; and Rural Romania Battles Vaccine Mistrust
August 6, 2025
A worker sprays insecticide at a residential community on July 29, in Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. VCG via Getty
China Fights Chikungunya with ‘Patriotic Public Health’
To fight a chikungunya outbreak that has sickened thousands, Chinese authorities have launched an all-out assault on mosquitoes—deploying soldiers “spraying clouds of disinfectant” and drones to track down their breeding grounds, and threatening fines for people who fail to disperse standing water, .
The Quote: “It’s fundamentally no different from the Maoist-style public health campaigns. It involves the mass mobilization of the people. It’s targeting a particular threat to public health and potentially could lead to unintentional consequences,” says Yanzhong Huang, a Council on Foreign Relations senior global health fellow.
Related: What to know about chikungunya virus, as U.S. travel alerts issued – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners A gonorrhoea vaccination program has been launched in England as the country tries to reduce its soaring infection rates and curb the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant strains; gonorrhoea infections in the country reached a record ~85,000 cases in 2023.
Legionnaires' disease has killed three people in a New York cluster that has sickened ~70 people after it emerged in Harlem last week.
Raw milk consumption has been linked to 21 people in Florida being sickened by E. coli and campylobacter bacteria, including six children under the age of 10 and seven people who were hospitalized, of the risks of drinking unpasteurized milk.
E. coli can evolve antibiotic-resistance during treatment, , which tracked in real time how the bacteria quickly developed a mechanism to escape a drug’s effects by amplifying a resistance gene it already carried. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Deep Staff Cuts at a Little-Known Federal Agency Pose Trouble for Droves of Local Health Programs – Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!
Has NSF defied a court order by suspending 300 UCLA grants? –
Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds –
Does SA need a COVID-like ministerial advisory committee to deal with HIV funding cuts? –
CDC to disburse delayed funds for fighting fentanyl and more, staffers say –
Why Trump is targeting these programs that help keep drug users alive –
The GOP is choosing pesticides over the MAHA moms – RESEARCH HHS Pulls the Plug on mRNA Development
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced yesterday that HHS will cancel 22 federally funded mRNA vaccine development projects worth $500 million—a move infectious disease specialists and biosecurity experts warned was “dangerous” and “short-sighted,” .
Details: The contracts were between the federal emergency preparedness agency, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna to develop vaccines for respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu—building off the breakthroughs credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and saving millions of lives, .
Amid Europe’s worst measles outbreak in 25 years, Romania is the region's most affected country, with around 13,000 of the ~18,000 cases in the European Economic Area registered between June 2024 and May 2025.
Factors behind the crisis: poverty, an underfunded medical system, brain drain of health workers, and anti-vaccine rhetoric amplified by far‑right politicians and misinformation during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacteria Cases Are on the Rise Along the Gulf Coast –
Pregnant people in rural parts of the country are running out of places to give birth –
Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs –
As influencers spread ‘toxic’ claims, what is the truth about sunscreen? –
Many studies of air-cleaning tech say they curb viral spread, but new review raises questions –
Scientific fraud has become an ‘industry,’ alarming analysis finds –
Kids in Pennsylvania Are Breathing (Much) Easier After a Coal Plant Shuttered – Issue No. 2770
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, 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 2025 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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
To fight a chikungunya outbreak that has sickened thousands, Chinese authorities have launched an all-out assault on mosquitoes—deploying soldiers “spraying clouds of disinfectant” and drones to track down their breeding grounds, and threatening fines for people who fail to disperse standing water, .
- The virus, transmitted by the bites of infected mosquitoes, has infected ~8,000 people in China in four weeks, mostly around Foshan—marking the country’s largest outbreak since 2008, .
- While rarely fatal, the disease can cause fevers and excruciating pain.
The Quote: “It’s fundamentally no different from the Maoist-style public health campaigns. It involves the mass mobilization of the people. It’s targeting a particular threat to public health and potentially could lead to unintentional consequences,” says Yanzhong Huang, a Council on Foreign Relations senior global health fellow.
Related: What to know about chikungunya virus, as U.S. travel alerts issued – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners A gonorrhoea vaccination program has been launched in England as the country tries to reduce its soaring infection rates and curb the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant strains; gonorrhoea infections in the country reached a record ~85,000 cases in 2023.
Legionnaires' disease has killed three people in a New York cluster that has sickened ~70 people after it emerged in Harlem last week.
Raw milk consumption has been linked to 21 people in Florida being sickened by E. coli and campylobacter bacteria, including six children under the age of 10 and seven people who were hospitalized, of the risks of drinking unpasteurized milk.
E. coli can evolve antibiotic-resistance during treatment, , which tracked in real time how the bacteria quickly developed a mechanism to escape a drug’s effects by amplifying a resistance gene it already carried. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Deep Staff Cuts at a Little-Known Federal Agency Pose Trouble for Droves of Local Health Programs – Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!
Has NSF defied a court order by suspending 300 UCLA grants? –
Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds –
Does SA need a COVID-like ministerial advisory committee to deal with HIV funding cuts? –
CDC to disburse delayed funds for fighting fentanyl and more, staffers say –
Why Trump is targeting these programs that help keep drug users alive –
The GOP is choosing pesticides over the MAHA moms – RESEARCH HHS Pulls the Plug on mRNA Development
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced yesterday that HHS will cancel 22 federally funded mRNA vaccine development projects worth $500 million—a move infectious disease specialists and biosecurity experts warned was “dangerous” and “short-sighted,” .
Details: The contracts were between the federal emergency preparedness agency, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna to develop vaccines for respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu—building off the breakthroughs credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and saving millions of lives, .
- , Kennedy claimed the mRNA vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections,” and that funding will shift to “safer, broader” platforms like whole-virus vaccines.
- Some late-stage contracts will continue, but no new federal funding will support mRNA vaccine development.
- The HHS said “other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement.”
- “We’re weakening critical countermeasures at the very moment that global health risks are intensifying,” .
Amid Europe’s worst measles outbreak in 25 years, Romania is the region's most affected country, with around 13,000 of the ~18,000 cases in the European Economic Area registered between June 2024 and May 2025.
- Romania has the EU’s lowest vaccination rate (62 %), falling short of the 95% the WHO says is needed for effective disease control.
Factors behind the crisis: poverty, an underfunded medical system, brain drain of health workers, and anti-vaccine rhetoric amplified by far‑right politicians and misinformation during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacteria Cases Are on the Rise Along the Gulf Coast –
Pregnant people in rural parts of the country are running out of places to give birth –
Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs –
As influencers spread ‘toxic’ claims, what is the truth about sunscreen? –
Many studies of air-cleaning tech say they curb viral spread, but new review raises questions –
Scientific fraud has become an ‘industry,’ alarming analysis finds –
Kids in Pennsylvania Are Breathing (Much) Easier After a Coal Plant Shuttered – Issue No. 2770
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, 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 2025 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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: The Troubled Fight Against Polio; Plastics: A ‘Grave, Growing’ Danger; and Wartime Russia is Losing the Battle Against HIV
August 5, 2025
A health worker administers polio drops to schoolchildren for vaccination during a door-to-door poliovirus eradication campaign. Lahore, Pakistan, April 21. Arif Ali/AFP via Getty
The Troubled Fight Against Polio
The WHO and its partners were close in 2021 to scoring a huge win against polio. They recorded just five cases of the natural virus that year. But the poliovirus eluded vaccination efforts and caused 99 cases last year.
In a deeply reported investigation, the AP blames misinformation, mismanagement, a flawed strategy, and the oral vaccine.
Challenges: Vaccinating children in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the only countries with uninterrupted polio transmission) is a difficult proposition.
WHO’s response: “There’s so many children being protected today because of the work that was done over the past 40 years,” said Jamal Ahmed, WHO’s polio director. “Let’s not overdramatize the challenges, because that leads to children getting paralyzed.”
Polio’s end? Transmission is estimated to end within 18 months, and eradication reached by 2029, Ahmed said.
Related: Takeaways from AP’s report on problems in the worldwide campaign to eradicate polio – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Misuse of tourniquets is causing thousands of unnecessary amputations and deaths in Ukraine, surgeons say; one estimates that up to three quarters of the ~100,000 amputations performed on Ukrainian soldiers since 2022 were caused by improper use of tourniquets.
Adolescents in Rwanda aged 15 or older will be able to access family planning services without parental consent under a new law passed by the country’s parliament aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies.
An oral anti-COVID-19 treatment passed a clinical trial efficacy test, ; the drug, called CP-COV03 or Xafty, is based on niclosamide, a medication previously used to treat tapeworm infections.
About two-thirds (59%) of American adults polled will likely skip fall COVID-19 boosters heading into the cold and flu season; about six in ten Republicans say they will “definitely not” get the vaccine. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Plastics: A ‘Grave, Growing’ Danger
The planet is awash in a “plastics crisis” that poses a threat to human and planetary health, .
Surge in production: Plastic output has grown 200X since 1950—driven largely by single-use items.
Toll on health: Plastics are linked to disease and death across all ages, costing ~$1.5 trillion annually in health-related damages.
Related: UN races to close global deal that would curb virgin plastic and toxic additives – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HIV/AIDS Wartime Russia is Losing the Battle Against HIV
War has significantly disrupted HIV prevention and care in Russia—developments that could have long-lasting impacts.
By the numbers: In the first year of the war alone, the recorded incidence of HIV among military personnel soared by 40X+.
But war itself is a key factor in transmission, as blood transfusions and the reuse of syringes in field hospitals have increased risks.
HEAT As Temperatures Climb, So Do ER Visits
Emergency room visits increase with higher temperatures, especially among young children, —and the maladies may be unexpected.
Related:
American Summers Are Starting to Feel Like Winter –
Why certain medications can increase your risk in the heat – TONIGHT: WEBINAR ON HEATWAVES QUICK HITS Gates Foundation promises $2.5B for ‘sidelined’ women’s health –
Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Is More Deadly Than Previously Imagined –
Chicago was supposed to warn residents about toxic lead pipes last year. Most still have no idea –
Caffeine pouch craze: A teenage trend troubling some experts –
Trump officials look to block abortion services at veterans affairs hospitals –
White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge –
Eating ultra-processed foods could make it harder to lose weight –
More elderly Americans are choking to death. Are these devices the answer? –
Unwanted pregnancies surge with alcohol, but not with cannabis, study finds – Issue No. 2769
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, 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 2025 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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
The WHO and its partners were close in 2021 to scoring a huge win against polio. They recorded just five cases of the natural virus that year. But the poliovirus eluded vaccination efforts and caused 99 cases last year.
In a deeply reported investigation, the AP blames misinformation, mismanagement, a flawed strategy, and the oral vaccine.
Challenges: Vaccinating children in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the only countries with uninterrupted polio transmission) is a difficult proposition.
- Some religious leaders tell people to avoid vaccinations, health systems are weak, and hundreds of vaccinators and security officers have been targeted and killed.
WHO’s response: “There’s so many children being protected today because of the work that was done over the past 40 years,” said Jamal Ahmed, WHO’s polio director. “Let’s not overdramatize the challenges, because that leads to children getting paralyzed.”
Polio’s end? Transmission is estimated to end within 18 months, and eradication reached by 2029, Ahmed said.
- 45 million children in Pakistan and 11 million in Afghanistan need to be vaccinated this year.
- Full immunization requires four doses of two drops each.
Related: Takeaways from AP’s report on problems in the worldwide campaign to eradicate polio – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Misuse of tourniquets is causing thousands of unnecessary amputations and deaths in Ukraine, surgeons say; one estimates that up to three quarters of the ~100,000 amputations performed on Ukrainian soldiers since 2022 were caused by improper use of tourniquets.
Adolescents in Rwanda aged 15 or older will be able to access family planning services without parental consent under a new law passed by the country’s parliament aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies.
An oral anti-COVID-19 treatment passed a clinical trial efficacy test, ; the drug, called CP-COV03 or Xafty, is based on niclosamide, a medication previously used to treat tapeworm infections.
About two-thirds (59%) of American adults polled will likely skip fall COVID-19 boosters heading into the cold and flu season; about six in ten Republicans say they will “definitely not” get the vaccine. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Plastics: A ‘Grave, Growing’ Danger
The planet is awash in a “plastics crisis” that poses a threat to human and planetary health, .
Surge in production: Plastic output has grown 200X since 1950—driven largely by single-use items.
Toll on health: Plastics are linked to disease and death across all ages, costing ~$1.5 trillion annually in health-related damages.
- Infants and children are highly susceptible to toxins.
- <10% of plastic is recycled.
Related: UN races to close global deal that would curb virgin plastic and toxic additives – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HIV/AIDS Wartime Russia is Losing the Battle Against HIV
War has significantly disrupted HIV prevention and care in Russia—developments that could have long-lasting impacts.
By the numbers: In the first year of the war alone, the recorded incidence of HIV among military personnel soared by 40X+.
- And the proportion of Russian HIV patients receiving antiretroviral therapy has now fallen below 50% for the first time in many years.
But war itself is a key factor in transmission, as blood transfusions and the reuse of syringes in field hospitals have increased risks.
HEAT As Temperatures Climb, So Do ER Visits
Emergency room visits increase with higher temperatures, especially among young children, —and the maladies may be unexpected.
- While the links between mortality rates and heatwaves have been long studied, heat’s impact on morbidity—illness and poor health—has been less understood.
- Data also showed that children under 5 visited ERs at higher rates than any other age group.
Related:
American Summers Are Starting to Feel Like Winter –
Why certain medications can increase your risk in the heat – TONIGHT: WEBINAR ON HEATWAVES QUICK HITS Gates Foundation promises $2.5B for ‘sidelined’ women’s health –
Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Is More Deadly Than Previously Imagined –
Chicago was supposed to warn residents about toxic lead pipes last year. Most still have no idea –
Caffeine pouch craze: A teenage trend troubling some experts –
Trump officials look to block abortion services at veterans affairs hospitals –
White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge –
Eating ultra-processed foods could make it harder to lose weight –
More elderly Americans are choking to death. Are these devices the answer? –
Unwanted pregnancies surge with alcohol, but not with cannabis, study finds – Issue No. 2769
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, 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 2025 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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
High stakes negotiations got underway at the UN Geneva on Tuesday to agree on a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution, attended by delegates from nearly 180 countries.
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: A ‘Deadly Intersection’ of Crises in Sudan; The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazil’s North; and July Recap
August 4, 2025
People gather by the makeshift graves of those buried in Khartoum's southern suburb of al-Azhari, on August 2. Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty
A ‘Deadly Intersection’ of Crises in Sudan
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attacked—a part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 2024–25 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a “potent” immune response to the virus, ; the trial—only the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIV—showed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazil’s North
BOA VISTA, Brazil—From Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazil’s frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
Editor’s note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this article—the third in a series—with support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
Hanoi’s Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
America’s Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuries—yet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
SOKOTO, Nigeria—In the region surrounding Farfaru’s primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heat—with “parametric” payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinson’s improve and maintain movement through capoeira—a blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue –
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups –
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study –
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out –
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together –
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations –
‘Well, no, you don’t have to have children’: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life –
What makes Finland the ‘world’s happiest nation’? In a word, simplicity. – Issue No. 7-2025-July Monthly
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, 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 2025 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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attacked—a part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
- Bakeries have shut down and prices for any available food have skyrocketed—leading many to rely on animal feed for sustenance, .
- Severe food shortages led to the deaths of 13 children last month at Lagawa displacement camp in East Darfur state, .
- Children are especially at risk as medical supplies run low and basic infrastructure deteriorates.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 2024–25 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a “potent” immune response to the virus, ; the trial—only the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIV—showed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazil’s North
BOA VISTA, Brazil—From Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazil’s frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
- Mayra Figueiras started a nonprofit, Humanidade Mais que Fronteiras, and prevents human trafficking with vocational training, language classes, and—when possible—food baskets.
- Marcia Maria de Oliveira, a professor and sociologist at the Universidade Federal de Roraima, has led human trafficking investigations for more than two decades.
- Sister Ana Maria da Silva prevented machine gun-toting police from deporting dozens of women and children she was protecting from sexual exploitation. For her brave defiance, she’s known as La Monja Loca (The Crazy Nun).
Editor’s note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this article—the third in a series—with support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
- Why? Childhood exposure to microbes such as those found in farm dust and farm animal exposure can contribute to the development of a healthy immune system. But researchers are still trying to pinpoint environmental factors unique to the Amish, who have fewer allergies than other traditional farming families worldwide.
Hanoi’s Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
- What’s fueling the pollution? Urbanization in Vietnam has led to a rapid increase in development, which includes widespread use of concrete for highways, metro lines, and buildings; Vietnam uses more cement per capita than any country except China, and almost 2X than the U.S.
America’s Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuries—yet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
- “The public and private sectors alike are barely doing a thing to address what is essentially a national health emergency,” writes Jennifer Senior, who chronicles her own struggle and exhaustive efforts to find solutions and calls for broader cultural and structural changes to address the sleep crisis.
SOKOTO, Nigeria—In the region surrounding Farfaru’s primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
- That began to change with the 2014 introduction of the New Incentives cash rewards program, which spurred a surge in mothers bringing their children in for childhood immunizations to protect against diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis B, and polio.
- The clinic now sees ~30–40 babies a day across 11 northern states—where vaccine hesitancy and misinformation run rampant and missed vaccinations contribute to rising infant mortality rates.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
- The disease—the first eliminated neglected tropical disease in Burundi, and the second in Senegal—can lead to scarring, in-turned eyelids, and blindness, and primarily affects regions where clean water and sanitation are scarce, . 90% of the global trachoma burden is in Africa.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heat—with “parametric” payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinson’s improve and maintain movement through capoeira—a blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue –
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups –
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study –
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out –
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together –
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations –
‘Well, no, you don’t have to have children’: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life –
What makes Finland the ‘world’s happiest nation’? In a word, simplicity. – Issue No. 7-2025-July Monthly
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, 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 2025 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
96
Global Health NOW: A ‘Deadly Intersection’ of Crises in Sudan; The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazil’s North; and July Recap
August 4, 2025
People gather by the makeshift graves of those buried in Khartoum's southern suburb of al-Azhari, on August 2. Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty
A ‘Deadly Intersection’ of Crises in Sudan
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attacked—a part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 2024–25 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a “potent” immune response to the virus, ; the trial—only the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIV—showed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazil’s North
BOA VISTA, Brazil—From Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazil’s frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
Editor’s note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this article—the third in a series—with support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
Hanoi’s Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
America’s Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuries—yet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
SOKOTO, Nigeria—In the region surrounding Farfaru’s primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heat—with “parametric” payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinson’s improve and maintain movement through capoeira—a blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue –
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups –
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study –
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out –
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together –
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations –
‘Well, no, you don’t have to have children’: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life –
What makes Finland the ‘world’s happiest nation’? In a word, simplicity. – Issue No. 2768
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, 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 2025 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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attacked—a part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
- Bakeries have shut down and prices for any available food have skyrocketed—leading many to rely on animal feed for sustenance, .
- Severe food shortages led to the deaths of 13 children last month at Lagawa displacement camp in East Darfur state, .
- Children are especially at risk as medical supplies run low and basic infrastructure deteriorates.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 2024–25 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a “potent” immune response to the virus, ; the trial—only the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIV—showed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazil’s North
BOA VISTA, Brazil—From Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazil’s frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
- Mayra Figueiras started a nonprofit, Humanidade Mais que Fronteiras, and prevents human trafficking with vocational training, language classes, and—when possible—food baskets.
- Marcia Maria de Oliveira, a professor and sociologist at the Universidade Federal de Roraima, has led human trafficking investigations for more than two decades.
- Sister Ana Maria da Silva prevented machine gun-toting police from deporting dozens of women and children she was protecting from sexual exploitation. For her brave defiance, she’s known as La Monja Loca (The Crazy Nun).
Editor’s note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this article—the third in a series—with support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
- Why? Childhood exposure to microbes such as those found in farm dust and farm animal exposure can contribute to the development of a healthy immune system. But researchers are still trying to pinpoint environmental factors unique to the Amish, who have fewer allergies than other traditional farming families worldwide.
Hanoi’s Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
- What’s fueling the pollution? Urbanization in Vietnam has led to a rapid increase in development, which includes widespread use of concrete for highways, metro lines, and buildings; Vietnam uses more cement per capita than any country except China, and almost 2X than the U.S.
America’s Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuries—yet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
- “The public and private sectors alike are barely doing a thing to address what is essentially a national health emergency,” writes Jennifer Senior, who chronicles her own struggle and exhaustive efforts to find solutions and calls for broader cultural and structural changes to address the sleep crisis.
SOKOTO, Nigeria—In the region surrounding Farfaru’s primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
- That began to change with the 2014 introduction of the New Incentives cash rewards program, which spurred a surge in mothers bringing their children in for childhood immunizations to protect against diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis B, and polio.
- The clinic now sees ~30–40 babies a day across 11 northern states—where vaccine hesitancy and misinformation run rampant and missed vaccinations contribute to rising infant mortality rates.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
- The disease—the first eliminated neglected tropical disease in Burundi, and the second in Senegal—can lead to scarring, in-turned eyelids, and blindness, and primarily affects regions where clean water and sanitation are scarce, . 90% of the global trachoma burden is in Africa.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heat—with “parametric” payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinson’s improve and maintain movement through capoeira—a blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue –
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups –
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study –
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out –
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together –
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations –
‘Well, no, you don’t have to have children’: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life –
What makes Finland the ‘world’s happiest nation’? In a word, simplicity. – Issue No. 2768
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, 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 2025 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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
ɬ researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients’ use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patient’s file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
