Global Health Programs aggregator

ɬ�﷬ Faculty of Medicine news: ɬ�﷬ researchers launch intersex health communication guide

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 09:56:18 -0400

Researchers at ɬ�﷬’s Centre of Genomics and Policy (CGP) have launched a first-of-its-kind guide to help Canadian health-care providers offer more inclusive, respectful and affirming care to intersex adults.

Global Health Now: Global Health NOW: The Collapse of Malaria Care in Cameroon; What’s Driving Turkey’s Diabetes Spike? And The Fattest Fat Bear Week

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 09:27:43 -0400

Global Health NOW: The Collapse of Malaria Care in Cameroon; What’s Driving Turkey’s Diabetes Spike? And The Fattest Fat Bear Week

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October 2, 2025


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A nurse prepares a dose of malaria vaccine at a district hospital. Soa, Cameroon. April 17, 2024. Kepseu/Xinhua via Getty

The Collapse of Malaria Care in Cameroon

For families in places like northern Cameroon, the cascading effects of U.S. aid cuts have resulted in a simple, stark reality: When their children contract malaria, there is increasingly nowhere to turn.

The unraveling of care in the region, where the U.S. had played a leading role in the malaria response for ~10 years, has led to a ~15% spike in malaria deaths in the first half of this year—notably among babies, medical workers say.

The current overview:

Loss of community health care: Today, 2,100+ of 2,354 U.S.-funded community health workers in Northern Cameroon are inactive—meaning no one is traveling to the region's most remote villages to administer care.

Critically low stocks of injectable artesunate, a lifesaving malaria drug once supplied through U.S. funds, mean that even families who reach health clinics have limited options for care.

Unknown toll: Even as cases and deaths escalate, researchers say they don’t know the true number, as data collection is also a casualty of funding cuts. As the toll of similar disruptions becomes clear in other African nations, health experts warn that years of hard-won gains in malaria control risk being reversed.

Cameroon had previously seen major progress, with deaths dropping from 1,519 in 2020 to 653 in 2024, largely thanks to funding from the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative. That fund now faces a 47% cut in the 2026 budget.

Reuters via Yahoo News

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES

The Latest

One-Liners

59 people are still missing after an Indonesian school collapsed Monday in the town of Sidoarjo, but rescuers say they’re not seeing any more signs of life under the rubble; at least five students have been confirmed killed and ~100 injured after the building’s foundation pillars buckled during an unauthorized expansion. BBC

The DRC has reported seven new Ebola virus cases in the latest outbreak—making 64 cases total and 42 deaths—but there are signs that transmission is lessening, credited to surveillance and clinical care improvements, per a WHO African regional office update this week. CIDRAP

Australia pulled ~20 more sunscreens from shelves after a regulatory investigation exposed more brands for falling short of their advertised protection levels and raised “significant concerns” about a testing laboratory at the center of the scandal that started in June; the country has the world’s highest rates of skin cancer. The Independent

The Trump administration plans to block funding to groups that promote diversity policies abroad, in the same vein as the Mexico City Policy that prevents foreign groups receiving any U.S. global health funding from providing or promoting abortions—even if those activities are paid for with non-U.S. government funding. Politico

NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES

What’s Driving Turkey’s Diabetes Spike?

Diabetes rates in Turkey have risen sharply over the last 20 years, from 9.9% in 2002 to 16.6% in 2022—double the EU average, and the highest rate in the European region.

A range of factors is driving the rapid surge, say doctors and researchers, including:

Poor management: Many cases go undiagnosed or poorly treated; hospitalizations for uncontrolled diabetes far exceed OECD averages.

Inadequate policy: Weak food industry regulations have led to an influx of cheap, sugary foods and drinks, and a lack of public health intervention means many people remain unaware of risks.

Obesity: 66.8% of Turkey’s population is overweight or obese, per a 2022 WHO Report—putting more people at risk for developing diabetes.

RIP JANE GOODALL

DISASTERS

Infections in the Wake of Pakistan’s Floods

Cholera, diarrhea, malaria, and dengue are surging as floodwaters recede in Pakistan—putting millions of displaced people at risk, say doctors.

Deadly deluge, widespread displacement: ~2.5 million people have been displaced by massive flooding along the Chenab River; the monsoon rains that started in June have now led to the deaths of ~1,000 people, including 250 children, per the UN.

Overcrowded camps, overwhelmed hospitals: Millions are now crammed into camps where poor sanitation, limited clean drinking water, and stagnant standing water create conditions for rapidly spreading disease.

And nearby hospitals in Multan report a doubling of cholera and malaria cases, with doctors treating ~100 patients daily for gastrointestinal issues.

The Guardian

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION

The Fattest Fat Bear Week

Fat Bear Week was launched in 2014 to raise awareness of the ursine excellence in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. With a record 1.5 million public votes under its ever-expanding belt this year, it’s safe to say: We’re aware.

The contest tracks and celebrates Katmai bears’ widening waistlines as they prepare for winter hibernation.

Weighing in at over 1,200 pounds, a voluptuous veteran, the “ludicrously capacious” 32 Chunk triumphed despite a broken jaw that threatened his salmon intake.

Undeterred, Chunk ended up “gaining girth beyond what anybody could have possibly imagined with that injury,” beamed superfan Naomi Boak, The Guardian reports.

Votes have closed for the year, but the most magical of livestreams is still live. In this corner of the internet, you may peep a majestic bear sitting pensively on a rock—or just an endless stream of a stream. Either way, it’s the ultimate diversion.

QUICK HITS

A new documentary about a dastardly worm and a heroic effort by Jimmy Carter – NPR

Reproductive health challenges in coastal Bangladesh: a silent threat of water salinity – BMC Women’s Health

Risk of long COVID in children may be twice as high after a second infection – Medical Xpress

Walmart plans to remove artificial colors and other food additives from store brands by 2027 – AP

Black mamba venom has a deadly hidden second strike – University of Queensland via ScienceDaily

“You can’t see what you’ve never had to live”—Cultivating imagination and solution spaces in global health and development – PLOS Global Public Health

These 99 'lab hacks' will make your scientific work easier – Nature

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, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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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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World Health Organization: Gaza health system overwhelmed as WHO reports 42,000 people have life-changing injuries

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Nearly 42,000 people in Gaza are living with life-changing injuries from the ongoing conflict – including more than 10,000 children – as the health system collapses under relentless strain, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday.

ɬ�﷬ Faculty of Medicine news: Biochemistry professor Ian Watson awarded Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network’s Data Sharing & Use Pilot program funding

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 10:54:27 -0400

ɬ�﷬ Faculty of Medicine news: New AI tool detects hidden warning signs of disease

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:28:43 -0400

ɬ�﷬ researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can detect previously invisible disease markers inside single cells.

In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers demonstrate how the tool, called DOLPHIN, could one day be used by doctors to catch diseases earlier and guide treatment options.

Global Health Now: Global Health NOW: U.S. Government Shutdown Centers on Health Care; Bangladesh Bets on British Malaria Vaccine; and Inside China’s Detention Camps

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:09:03 -0400

Global Health NOW: U.S. Government Shutdown Centers on Health Care; Bangladesh Bets on British Malaria Vaccine; and Inside China’s Detention Camps

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October 1, 2025


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The U.S. Capitol at dawn on October 1, in Washington, D.C. Al Drago/Getty Images

Health Care Hangs in the Balance as U.S. Government Shuts Down

Funding for the U.S. government has halted amid a Congressional deadlock over federal health spending—further imperiling health agencies in an already tumultuous period, reports KFF Health News.

Subsidies at the center: The impasse centers on Affordable Care Act subsidies, set to expire after 2025. Democrats want an extension, as well as a restoration of Medicaid cuts enacted over the summer; Republicans demand reforms first.

Without renewed subsidies, insurers warn of double-digit premium increases.

Health services at risk: If a shutdown drags on, impacts to health operations include:

~40% of HHS workers furloughed

NIH clinical trials put on hold

FDA food safety efforts curtailed

Disease surveillance and local CDC support disrupted

Community health centers at risk of closure

Drug price deal: Meanwhile, yesterday President Trump announced a deal with Pfizer to lower Medicaid drug prices and sell discounted drugs via a direct-to-consumer site dubbed TrumpRx.gov, reports NPR—part of an effort to align drug prices in the U.S. with those in other countries.

U.S. patients often pay nearly 3X more for prescription drugs than patients in other developed nations, where governments set rates, reports Reuters.

Prices on the TrumpRx site, launching in 2026, follow a “most-favored-nation” model, matching the lowest rates in other developed countries. The deal targets uninsured consumers, and experts say most Americans will see limited savings overall.

More U.S. Health Policy News:

Trump orders $50M for AI in pediatric cancer research – Axios

Medicaid work requirements have not boosted insurance coverage or employment, study finds – British Medical Journal via Medical Xpress

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES

The Latest

One-Liners

A surge of visceral leishmaniasis, also known as Kala-azar, has led a Kenyan county to declare a public health emergency; 850 infections of the deadly parasitic disease were recorded between June 2024 and August 2025. The Kenya Times

Rohingya urgently need an influx of international support, says the UN’s refugee chief, as in Myanmar they continue to “live with the threat of arbitrary arrest and detention, with restricted access to health care and education”; at the same time, the humanitarian response to the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh “remains chronically underfunded.” Anadolu Agency

Mpox response across Africa is being analyzed at a gathering of countries’ health officials and Africa CDC officials in Addis Ababa this week, per AllAfrica; meanwhile, vaccine experts are warning that waning immunity to smallpox ~50 years after the last vaccination campaign is leading to increased vulnerability to mpox, per Science Nigeria.

The rise of early-onset cancers in U.S. adults could be due to increased detection and overdiagnosis rather than a true spike in the disease, suggests a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, which looked at the eight cancers with the fastest-rising incidence among adults under 50. Euronews

MALARIA

Bangladesh Bets on British Vaccine

Over the last decade, Bangladesh has made huge strides against malaria: Cases in the south Asian nation dropped from ~57,000 in 2014 to 13,000 in 2024.

But the disease has a final stronghold: The Chittagong Hill Tracts, a region bordering India and Myanmar, where ~90% of Bangladesh’s remaining malaria cases are found.

In an attempt to eliminate the disease, researchers are traveling across the remote region to immunize thousands of villagers, in the first mass rollout in Asia of the British malaria vaccine R21.

Researchers say the approach could speed up elimination efforts in hard-to-reach areas exponentially, allowing more countries to follow the likes of China, Sri Lanka, and Belize in wiping out the illness.

The Telegraph

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES

HUMAN RIGHTS

Inside China’s Detention Camps

A former schoolteacher coerced into working in mass detention camps in Xinjiang, China, has publicly spoken about the conditions inside, which included torture, forced labor, and forced sterilization.

Over 1 million Muslims from ethnic groups such as the Uyghurs have been detained in these high-security camps, which the Chinese government claims are vocational centers—but rights groups allege involve genocide.

Eyewitness testimony: Qalbinur Sidiq, who is ethnically Uzbek, was a Chinese elementary school teacher before she was forced to work as a Chinese teacher in two camps. Sidiq, 55, was eventually sterilized against her will and reports seeing young women forcibly sterilized.

Sidiq received asylum in the Netherlands in 2019. Now, she speaks out against China’s policies toward Uyghurs and Muslim minorities.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

QUICK HITS

‘Will my baby be born in a tent? Will it have food?’: what it’s like to be pregnant in Gaza – The Guardian

Listeria found in Walmart, Trader Joe’s meals may be linked to deadly outbreak – CNN

Kentucky has kicked people off food benefits using data that doesn’t tell the full story – AP

AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds – Science

Should the Autism Spectrum Be Split Apart? – The New York Times (gift link)

Manifesting isn't all "woo-woo." Science says you can train your brain – Axios

Issue No. 2797

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World Health Organization: World News in Brief: ‘Trust crisis’ impacts vaccine rollouts, Cyberspace must ‘serve the common good’, Türk calls for lasting truce in Lebanon

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Immunisation experts at the UN World Health Organization (WHO) have warned that global protection against preventable diseases is under threat, in part because of an “information and trust crisis” regarding vaccines.

ɬ�﷬ Faculty of Medicine news: ɬ�﷬ researchers win Brain Canada’s Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research Award

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:19:25 -0400

Jérôme Fortin, Paul Masset, and Simon Thebault have received the Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research Award from Brain Canada for their research in brain cognition, brain cancer, and neurological disabilities.

The ɬ�﷬ researchers are among 22 successful applicants from across the country. They will each receive $100,000 in research funding distributed over a period of two years.

Global Health Now: Global Health NOW: A New Vaccine for the Meningitis Belt; How Early Unions Endanger Girls; and Bologna Slows Down—and Sparks a Showdown

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:26:05 -0400

Global Health NOW: A New Vaccine for the Meningitis Belt; How Early Unions Endanger Girls; and Bologna Slows Down—and Sparks a Showdown

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September 30, 2025


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A New Vaccine for the Meningitis Belt

A century of meningitis outbreaks across a wide strip of sub-Saharan Africa may be dramatically reduced thanks to a new vaccine that prevents the lethal disease.

Outbreaks from Senegal to Ethiopia have claimed tens of thousands of lives every few years.

How will the new vaccine help? Men5CV targets the five Neisseria meningitidis bacteria that cause most epidemic meningitis across the belt. Bacteria can infect the meninges (the lining that surrounds the brain and spinal cord) and kill within hours, if untreated.

The vaccine has been distributed in Niger and Nigeria and will roll out in other countries soon.

Men5CV, developed by India’s Serum Institute of India and the Seattle-based PATH, is expected to cost $3 per dose.

Why is there a meningitis belt? Dust storms across the region can cause sand and dust to damage people’s airways, allowing bacteria to enter the bloodstream and then lead to new infections of close contacts.

The Quote: “It’s a powerful new weapon that, with wider rollout, has the potential to protect millions of vulnerable people,” said the University of Southampton’s Michael Head.

The Telegraph

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES

The Latest

One-Liners

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients who inhaled heparin were half as likely to require ventilation and had a significantly lower risk of dying compared with those receiving standard care, per an Australian National University and King's College London study of data from ~500 patients across six countries. News Medical

A new, affordable human papillomavirus test delivers results in less than an hour with no specialized laboratory required, per research in Nature Communications led by Rice University, in collaboration with colleagues in Mozambique and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Rice University (news release)

More than 99% of people suffering first-time heart attacks, strokes, or heart failure also had at least one of four risk factors for cardiovascular disease: “suboptimal” high blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood glucose, or smoking, a prospective cohort study reveals—a far higher prevalence of warning signs than previous studies found. STAT

Opioid use disorder diagnoses among commercially insured U.S. patients soared ~40% post-pandemic—from 386 patients per 100,000 in 2021 to 539 patients per 100,000 in 2024, FAIR Health's Opioid Tracker shows; the hardest-hit states were Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Delaware. Axios

U.S. and Global Health Policy News

Trump’s USAID pause stranded lifesaving drugs. Children died waiting. – The Washington Post (gift link)

Fragile N.C. Residents Lose Medicaid Support for Food and Housing Health – The New York Times (gift link)

HHS would furlough nearly 32,500 in shutdown – Axios

Researchers are relieved at Trump’s likely pick for National Cancer Institute – Science

Energy Dept. adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list – Politico

Cannabis stocks soar after Trump shares video promoting drug’s use for seniors – The Guardian

CHILD MARRIAGE

How Early Unions Endanger Girls

Child marriage—both formal and informal—continues to harm millions of girls globally, finds Plan International’s 2025 State of the World’s Girls report, which drew from interviews with 250+ girls across 15 countries.

Even in countries with laws prohibiting child marriage, there are few protections against cohabitations or informal marriages, reports CNN.

The report found that a significant number of girls in early unions face intimate partner violence and have lost access to education or employment.

Lack of agency: The most common reasons girls in the study said they married young were economic hardship, familial pressure, and cultural norms.

Breakthrough in Bolivia: Bolivia has banned all marriages and unions under age 18 with no exceptions, in a major victory for girls’ rights, per Plan International. Previously, the law allowed for exceptions through parental or judicial authorization.

Related: When I was married at 13 I was told refusal would end in my death. Now girls in Iraq as young as nine face the same fate – The Guardian (commentary)

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES

ROAD SAFETY

Bologna Slows Down—and Sparks a Showdown

Last year, Bologna became Italy’s first major city to adopt a 30 km/h (19 mph) speed limit on most streets in an effort to reduce crashes, pollution, and noise.

Crash deaths dropped significantly in 2024, and no pedestrian deaths were recorded.

However, the policy drew fierce opposition from conservative national leaders, who argued that the limit created a burden on industries that rely on drivers and have since moved to block enforcement and pursue legal challenges against the local policy.

Unclear future: Enforcement gaps and national pushback have weakened the policy’s impact, advocates say, and crash fatalities rose again in 2025.

But other Italian cities—including Milan and Rome—have now followed Bologna’s lead, issuing their own slow-street policies.

Bloomberg CityLab

OPPORTUNITY

QUICK HITS

Halal concerns drive vaccine hesitancy as Indonesia fights measles outbreak – AP

‘I wanted to be dead’: Survivors of Assad’s prisons battle trauma and disease – The Telegraph

Louisiana issues warrant for California doctor accused of mailing abortion pills – The Guardian

Ecuadorian scientists cleared of criminal charges in COVID-19 testing case – Science

Mpox Outbreaks Expose Global Vulnerability As Smallpox Immunity Fades, Experts Warn – Science Nigeria

Gender differences in opioid and stimulant poisoning in the central region of Iran – Nature Scientific Reports

Gaps in the global health research landscape for mpox – BMC Medicine / BioMed Central BMC Medicine

Want to do disruptive science? Include more rookie researchers – Nature

Issue No. 2796

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World Health Organization: Breathless in Gaza: Health crisis deepens as families burn plastic for fuel

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Doctors in Gaza are warning of a surge in respiratory illnesses as families – cut off from basic supplies – burn plastic and cardboard to cook and keep warm. They say the outbreak will worsen unless life-saving medicines, fuel and food are allowed into the devastated territory.