Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

Co-Principal Investigators Manisha Pahwa, CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, and Professor Ananya Banerjee, from McGill's Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, have been awarded $449,604 from the Canadian Cancer Society’s Health Equity Research Grant

96 Global Health NOW: U.S. Agencies Brace for More Cuts; Launching a Vaccine Trial During an Ebola Outbreak; and The ‘Wild West’ of Antivenoms in Africa View this email in your browser February 17, 2025 Forward Share Post People at a "Save the Civil Service" rally hosted by the American Federation of Government Employees outside the U.S. Capitol. February 11, Washington, D.C. Kent Nishimura/Getty U.S. Health and Aid Agencies Brace for (More) Impact
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary last week amid upheaval at the nation’s health agencies, as deep staffing cuts were announced and the future of international aid and research funding remains tenuous.

 Scientists and health leaders say they expect more turmoil.

• Kennedy has said he will prioritize research on chronic diseases and would give infectious disease research at the NIH “a break” for eight years, reports Nature. 


• The HHS announced Friday that 5,200 workers across the department would be terminated, reports Science—a move one senior CDC scientist described as “taking a wrecking ball to both the deep institutional knowledge of the agency and its future.”

A closer look: 

• NIH: Layoffs currently total 1,165 people, reports Reuters.


• CDC: Hundreds of agency staffers have been terminated, including “disease detectors” who trained laboratory staff; the agency expects ~1,300 layoffs, reports NBC. 


• FDA: Firings appear to focus on employees assessing food safety, medical devices, and tobacco products, reports the AP.

Meanwhile, a federal judge ordered a pause on the foreign aid freeze, saying it was unlawful for the Trump administration to renege on approved funds that predated his administration, reports Roll Call.

• But widespread cuts to USAID-funded staff and treatments and other aid organizations are already in effect—and deeply felt in places like Zimbabwe, which has seen HIV care halted, reports The Guardian. 

Related:

Tens of thousands go hungry in Sudan after Trump aid freeze – AFP

The mess inside Rubio's 'lifesaving' waivers – Devex

Researchers face impossible decisions as U.S. aid freeze halts clinical trials – Science

Trump Firings Impact 'Front Line of Surveillance' for Bird Flu Outbreak – Rolling Stone

'My wife fears sex, I fear death' - impacts of the USAID freeze – BBC GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A measles outbreak in rural west Texas continues to spread, with 49 cases confirmed, most among unvaccinated school-age children; officials suspect the true number of infections is closer to 200–300 cases. NBC

Rural Americans face “significantly shorter, less healthy lives” than their urban counterparts—with rural men in particular facing shorter life spans due to obesity, smoking, and chronic conditions such as heart disease, per research published last year in the Journal of Rural Health. PBS NewsHour

Louisiana public health officials will stop promoting vaccination, the state’s attorney general announced in a news release—citing the need for the government to “pull back its tentacles from the practice of medicine.” CIDRAP

President Donald Trump directed his administration to evaluate the “threat” to children posed by antidepressants, stimulants, and other common psychiatric drugs as part of an executive order signed Thursday establishing a commission led by newly confirmed health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized the use of those drugs. The Washington Post GHN EXCLUSIVE A nurse injects a dose of an Ebola virus vaccine at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, on Feb. 3. Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua via Getty Images Launching a Vaccine Trial During an Ebola Outbreak   Just four days after Uganda’s Ministry of Health announced a new Ebola outbreak on Jan. 30, a team of local and international investigators began a trial of a vaccine candidate against the Sudan virus.
 
Swati Gupta, IAVI vice president, shares details in an interview with GHN about how the clinical trial was launched so quickly. Key points:

• “Part of the reason that we could get the trial started so quickly is because there was already Sudan virus vaccine in country, and the WHO also had pre-approved protocols and other documentation,” said Gupta.


• There is currently no licensed vaccine for Sudan virus, which causes severe hemorrhagic fever disease and has an average case fatality rate of up to 50%.


• The trial of IAVI’s VSV Sudan vaccine involves the WHO, Makerere University, the Uganda Virus Research Institute, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and others.

Read the full article for information on the trial’s use of the ring vaccination strategy and other details.
  
Brian W. Simpson, Global Health NOW GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NEGLECTED DISEASES The ‘Wild West’ of Antivenoms in Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, a venomous snakebite is too often a death sentence: ~20,000 people in the region are killed each year, with rural populations especially impacted by lack of access to care and by severe antivenom shortages. 

But even getting an antivenom is no guarantee of survival, finds a deep dive by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: 

• Diluted and fraudulent antivenoms have flooded the poorly regulated market. 


• Some corporations knowingly sell ineffective products—such as antivenoms made for Indian snakes, which are ineffective in Africa. 

The Quote: “It’s a cowboy show out there. Some of them are selling stuff that honestly, you may as well just pour down the drain,” said Thea Litschka-Koen, a leading snakebite expert in Eswatini. 

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism  OPIOID CRISIS Overdose Deaths—Through the Lens of One County
Hamilton County, Ohio, has long battled a staggering opioid overdose epidemic. But that is starting to change. 

The county—which includes Cincinnati—saw a sharp drop in overdose deaths, from 393 in 2023 to ~270 in 2024.

Reflecting a national trend: National overdose deaths decreased by 20%+ in 2024, per provisional CDC data.

Behind the drop: Researchers and frontline responders point to a “confluence of factors,” including:

• Broadened access to naloxone and opioid addiction treatment


• More outreach programs


• Crackdowns on Chinese chemical suppliers and Mexican criminal groups manufacturing fentanyl


• And potentially—a diminished population of at-risk people because so many have already succumbed to overdoses

The Washington Post (gift link)  QUICK HITS Dispatch: Children reduced to skin and bones in war-torn Sudan’s forgotten famine – The Telegraph

Landmark Vaccine Deals Signal Africa's Shift Toward Local Manufacturing – Health Policy Watch

Trump Will Withhold Money From Schools That Require Covid Vaccines – The New York Times (gift article)

U.S. bird flu hospitalizations rise to 4 after Ohio discloses case – CBS 

The teen loneliness machine – Axios

New Polling: Majority of voters want compassion, not cruelty, for refugees – Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Empathy for other peoples' pain peaks in young adulthood – University of Kent via ScienceDaily

Are PhDs losing their lustre? Why fewer students are enrolling in doctoral degrees – Nature Issue No. 2676
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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96 Global Health NOW: Eyes on RFK Jr; Re-mapping Medicine in Burma; and Cat Diplomat Naps on the Job The U.S. Senate will vote today on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as the nation’s Health Secretary. View this email in your browser February 13, 2025 Forward Share Post RFK Jr., President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, arrives for his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on January 29, in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker via Getty Eyes on RFK Jr. 
The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as the nation’s Health Secretary today, amid concerns about his vaccine skepticism and conflicts of interest, reports the AP. 

Dynamics at play: Despite some Republicans’ skepticism about Kennedy’s views, he is expected to be confirmed, with most GOP senators embracing Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” vision. 

• Democrats, however, oppose Kennedy, and it is unclear whether he will win support from Sen. Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor and vaccine supporter, reports The Washington Post (gift link).

“Following the science”—in certain directions: When senators pressed Kennedy about his support of the theory that vaccines cause autism, he responded: “I just want to follow the science.” 

• But The New York Times (gift link) reports that the paper Kennedy cites was funded by an anti-vaccine organization and published in a fringe journal run by people with ties to Kennedy—raising larger fears that Kennedy will “have wide powers to advance his favored research studies,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University. 

• Critics have also voiced concern over Kennedy financially benefiting from his oversight; he has profited from referring clients to a law firm suing the makers of Gardasil. 

Looking ahead: If confirmed, Kennedy will oversee $1.7 trillion for public health programs, including health insurance programs, food and drug supply, and infectious disease response. 

• He has vowed to overhaul agencies like the NIH, FDA, and CDC.

More Trump Transition News:

Medicare removes sexual orientation, gender identity questions from enrollment forms – STAT

US actions have serious impact on global health, WHO chief says – Reuters

This is what happens to the body when HIV drugs are stopped for millions of people – AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
83% of mpox cases in the DRC’s outbreak have been linked to sex work, finds a new study of Clade 1b’s epidemiologic and genomic evolution published in Nature Medicine. CIDRAP

Multidrug-resistant TB in children is rising, especially in low-income regions, finds a new study published in Pediatric Research; younger children were found to be at the highest risk of mortality. News Medical

The reemergence of dengue virus serotype 3 in Brazil after 17 years could lead to new outbreaks of the disease, as the population there has not been immunized against that type, warns an article published in the Journal of Clinical Virology. EurekaAlert

Once-weekly semaglutides used to treat obesity could help curb alcohol cravings, a small new study published in JAMA Psychiatry has found; researchers say the findings bear further study. AP CONFLICT Re-mapping Medicine in Burma
Health care in Burma “is in collapse,” following four brutal years of civil war, per a recent UN situation report. 

But a “patchwork of facilities” in opposition-held territory have sprung up, where displaced doctors aim to provide care in wartime conditions. 

Background: Tens of thousands of doctors and nurses refused to work for the military junta after its coup in 2021. But a violent crackdown targeted those health workers—leading many to seek refuge in regions controlled by opposition groups. 

They are now building a new health infrastructure despite a host of obstacles, including attacks on health care, a rise in communicable diseases, and the U.S. aid freeze—which doctors say could “prove a near-fatal blow” for the fledgling operations. 

The Telegraph GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES GUNS Disarming Domestic Abusers
In Tennessee, ~40% of women killed in domestic violence shootings were shot by someone who was barred from having a gun at the time of the crime.

Proposed legislation seeks to prevent that—using simple changes in enforcement.

Background: While Tennessee prohibits those convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms, it does not require them to disclose the names of the people they gave the guns to—which would allow for follow-up or recourse if a convicted abuser maintains access, 2023 reporting by ProPublica and WPLN found.  

Effective intervention: Follow-up reporting highlighted the efforts of rural Scott County, which requires gun-dispossession forms to include the names of gun recipients. The new GOP-sponsored bill is modeled on this policy and requires more transparency. 

ProPublica ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Cat Diplomat to Nap on the Job 
​​“Sorry, Iʼm retired” is a great way to avoid pesky requests. But if the new gig is in Bermuda … that may change things.
 
It did for Palmerston the cat, former chief mouser at the UK Foreign Office.
 
Because a “quieter and easier” life in the British countryside wasnʼt relaxing enough, the diplomat came out of retirement to join his adoptive father for the “purr-fect” gig in the pink sand paradise, The Independent reports.
 
Key cat asset: Itʼs well known that humans just want to be liked by cats, and Palmerstonʼs feline air of indifference could derail diplomatic talks with a single side-eye. Not to mention his considerable soft—and fluffy—power. “I just welled up over a cat retiring,” gushed one fan after his 2020 departure from official duties.

Now heʼs back, but with boundaries. In a silent attack on ʼthis could have been an emailʼ-ism, Palmerston “will attend only the meetings he deems important, offering advice when necessary,” between naps.  QUICK HITS J&J, Sanofi stop E.coli vaccine trial due to low effectiveness – Reuters 

Some red states report zero abortions. Doctors and researchers say it's not true – KFF News via NPR Shots

MSF urges govt to prioritise, eliminate noma disease – The Guardian Nigeria

As Oropouche cases continue in the Americas, PAHO urges countries to keep their guard up – CIDRAP

An asteroid could hit Earth in 2032. Don't panic — yet  – Axios Issue No. 2675
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.

Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues: http://www.globalhealthnow.org/subscribe

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