Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

Join us on May 7th at noon for the next McGill Cares webcast to support informal caregivers. During candid, interviews with leading experts, Claire Webster explores topics related to caring for a loved one with dementia.

96 Global Health NOW: Deadly Risks in India’s Fireworks Factories; Keeping Warm Can Be Toxic in Mongolia; and An Extra Coat of Coolness in Cape Town View this email in your browser April 15, 2025 Forward Share Post Millions of Indians celebrate the Diwali Festival with fireworks—without realizing the dangerous conditions factory workers in Sivakasi endure. Gurugram, India, October 31, 2024. Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty ‘Invisible Suffering’: Deadly Risks In India’s Fireworks Factories
SIVAKASI, India—The explosion shook the ground beneath the fireworks factory and threw him into the air.

The February 19 blast broke bones in both his legs and broke his right arm. His face is covered in scars from third-degree burns, and both his eyes have been badly damaged.

“I couldn’t see anything but darkness, and I couldn’t open my eyes,” Palpandey, 31, said from his hospital room days after the explosion. “I’ve never felt fear like that in my life.”

Fireworks’ Toll:

• Explosions like the one at Neerathilingam Fireworks are not uncommon in this city in Southern India that produces nearly 90% of the country’s fireworks and employs tens of thousands of workers like Palpandey (who uses only his first name).


• Employers typically pay for injured workers’ initial care, but then workers are often on their own in subsequent months and years.


• A 2023–2024 government report said 91 workers were killed in the most recent year, but only those killed at the site of an explosion are counted—not those who die later.

The Quote: “The suffering of these people who die later is invisible—they don’t show up on government counts of deaths,” says social activist Vijay Kumar.

Kamala Thiagarajan for Global Health NOW

Ed. Note: Our thanks go to Padmavathy Krishna Kumar, who shared the idea for this topic and received an honorable mention in the 2025 Untold Global Health Stories contest, co-sponsored by Global Health NOW and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.

Look for part II of the series tomorrow: “Fireworks and Heartbreak in a Hard-Hit Village.” READ THE FULL STORY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Denmark could eliminate cervical cancer by 2040, the Danish Cancer Society says, as a national HPV vaccination campaign has brought the rate down to lower than 10 out of 100,000 women; the WHO elimination standard is lower than four per 100,000 women. The Local Denmark

Female genital mutilation is linked to significant long-term health complications, including a 2X+ risk of prolonged or obstructed labor in childbirth and a 4.4 times higher likelihood of experiencing PTSD, per a new study in BMC Public Health that analyzes evidence from ~30 countries. WHO (news release)
 
A group of national organizations representing America’s academic, medical, and independent research institutions announced a joint effort to develop a new indirect costs funding model for federal research grants to submit to the federal government. Association of American Medical Colleges

Participants of a study in Tanzania who were cured of infection with Wuchereria bancrofti worms—which cause lymphatic filariasis—showed a ~60% reduction in HIV infections in a follow-up comparison of two study periods published in The Lancet HIV. German Center for Infection Research (news release) U.S. and Global Health Policy News Trump plan would slash State Dept. funding by nearly half, memo says – The Washington Post (gift link)

Trump eyes huge climate research cuts at NOAA – Axios

Federal government to remove gender dysphoria from protected disabilities list – The 19th

Free US family planning clinics face financial ruin after White House freezes funds – The Guardian

Impact of CDC Hepatitis Lab Closure on US Public Health – Contagion Live

EPA Plans to Stop Collecting Emissions Data From Most Polluters – Undark CLIMATE CHANGE Keeping Warm Is Killing Thousands in Mongolia
Some 7,000 people in Mongolia have died this winter due to air pollution, caused by the coal that provides 70% of the nation’s energy and warms most homes.

Raw coal smoke contains carcinogenic particles, and the briquettes introduced by Mongolia’s government can cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

• Citizens regularly suffer from respiratory diseases, liver and lung cancers, asthma, and flu.


• By February, there had been 811 deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning. 

The climate crisis has exacerbated Mongolia’s pollution problem, as extreme winters are killing off animals that have supported nomadic herding families, forcing them into cities. 

There they construct gers: circular tents with central stoves that feed out through a chimney in the roof. More than 50% of Mongolia’s population live in gers; each household burns ~50 pounds of coal daily in winter.

The Guardian GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES TECH & INNOVATION An Extra Coat of Coolness in Cape Town
South Africa’s summer sun can quickly make informal dwellings unbearably hot. The homes—often made of corrugated metal sheets and wood—can reach temperatures of 95°F / 35°C during the day, and barely budge at night. 

The heat takes a heavy toll on the millions of South Africans who live in such settlements, preventing sleep and compounding stress. 

A paint-related program aims to bring relief: Researchers are investigating the effect of painting roofs with reflective, UV-resistant paint—which manufacturers say can dramatically reduce temperatures. 

• The study will track buildings’ internal temperatures, and also potential impacts on inhabitants’ sleep and physiology.

The Telegraph OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS A vaccine expert worries child measles deaths are being 'normalized' – NPR’s All Things Considered 

Starved in jail – The New Yorker

'Parkinson's is a man-made disease' – Politico.eu

Stopping gonorrhoea's descent towards untreatability – The Lancet Infectious Diseases (commentary)

Why 3.5 Billion People Lack Basic Oral Care—and What Needs To Change – Health Policy Watch (podcast)

Young Children’s Exposure to Chemicals of Concern in Their Sleeping Environment: An In-Home Study – Environmental Science & Technology

The Fly That Ruined the World Record (A Metaphor for Chagas Disease) – ISGlobal Barcelona Institute for Global Health Blog

Europe deplores America's 'chlorinated chicken.' How safe is our poultry? – NPR Issue No. 2708
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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An Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday has further jeopardized already limited access to lifesaving medical care in the war-torn enclave.

96 Global Health NOW: Health Workers Killed as Sudan Marks 2 Years of Civil War; Ghana Grapples With a Deadly Outbreak; and India’s Global Warming Enigma View this email in your browser April 14, 2025 Forward Share Post People who fled the Zamzam for the internally displaced camp after it fell under RSF control commiserate in a makeshift encampment near the town of Tawila, Sudan. April 13. AFP via Getty Health Workers Killed as Sudan Marks 2 Years of Civil War
The last medical clinic in Sudan’s famine-gripped Zamzam camp in Darfur came under fire this weekend, with Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries killing the entire clinical staff, reports The New York Times (gift link). 

• Nine clinic employees were killed in the attacks, per Relief International, which runs the facility. 


• The broader assault has killed 100+ people, including ~20 children at the camp, home to ~500,000. 

“Death is everywhere,” a camp resident told the BBC. “People are wounded, and there is no medicine or hospital to save them.”

Even before the attacks, conditions at Zamzam camp were “catastrophic,” the UN’s Sudan humanitarian coordinator told UN News. 

The attacks come at the two-year mark of Sudan’s conflict, which has led to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and “suffering of industrial proportions,” per UN officials.

• ~150,000 Sudanese have been killed, and ~13 million have been displaced. There have been 156 confirmed attacks on health, per the WHO.


• ~25 million people now face extreme hunger. And sexual violence is pervasive, reports the AP.

And aid efforts continue to be stymied by both “systematic obstruction” by the warring armies and deep funding cuts, per The New Humanitarian. 

Related: 

Children of war: six orphans’ 1,000-mile journey across Sudan in search of safety – The Guardian

Sudanese Refugees’ Lives at Risk as UNHCR Suspends Medical Help – Egyptian Streets

Sudan needs $2.2 bln for first year of health sector rehab, minister says – Sudan Tribune GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   3 million+ children worldwide died from antimicrobial resistance-related infections in 2022, per new research presented at ESCMID Global 2025 in Vienna; deaths were highest in Southeast Asia and Africa. Clinton Health Access Initiative

New mpox cases are averaging ~3,000 per week in African countries, with Uganda accounting for 50% of those in the past week; the region has received 1 million+ vaccine doses but needs 6.4 million doses over the next six months to slow the virus’s spread. CIDRAP

More than a dozen cases of invasive meningococcal disease, a life-threatening bacterial infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis, have been linked to religious pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia amid declining compliance with vaccination requirements over the past two years. WHO

Whooping cough cases have surged 1,500%+ in the U.S. since hitting a low in 2021; there were 10 pertussis-related deaths last year, compared with two to four in previous years. ProPublica Health, Foreign Aid, and Science Cuts USDA’s $1B bird flu plan uses money intended for schools, food banks – Politico

NOAA Scientists Are Cleaning Bathrooms and Reconsidering Lab Experiments After Contracts for Basic Services Expire – ProPublica

Dozens of USAID contracts were canceled last weekend. Here's what happened – NPR Goats and Soda

Why CDC cuts are being called ‘the greatest gift to tobacco industry in the last half-century’ – STAT

After Trump grant cuts, some universities give researchers a lifeline – Science

OCHA, the UN’s emergency aid coordination arm, to cut staff by a fifth – The New Humanitarian

Fearing paper on evolution might get them deported, scientists withdrew it – The Washington Post (gift link)

Hopkins trailblazer scrambles to protect cancer research as Trump cuts hit home – The Baltimore Banner MENINGITIS Ghana Grapples With a Deadly Outbreak
A lethal meningitis outbreak is escalating in Ghana’s Upper West region, upending an already strained health system.

A closer look: 

• The region has reported 200+ cases and ~17 deaths. 


• Ghana is in Africa’s “meningitis belt”—a stretch of 26 countries where dry seasonal winds allow further bacterial spread.

Already overwhelmed: The outbreak comes as Ghana’s health system struggles with understaffed hospitals, supply shortages, and slashed USAID funding.

• Ghana faces a $156 million funding shortfall due to the aid freeze—a major setback to the country’s health programs.


• There is no vaccine for the rare Streptococcus strain causing the outbreak, and officials say economic turmoil means that hopes for developing one have dimmed. 

Pulitzer Center / The World  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CLIMATE India’s Global Warming Enigma
As India increasingly grapples with punishing heat waves, scientists are puzzling over a strange phenomenon: The country is warming more slowly than many others—amounting to half the global average over the last decade. 

Why? Scientists aren’t sure. But theories include: 

• The shroud of air pollution: India’s air pollution may be reflecting solar radiation, which could help with cooling. 


• Shifting winds: Warming over the Middle East has pulled monsoon winds northward, leading to an increase in extreme rains—and, potentially, cooling. 


• Impact of irrigation: The expansion of irrigation in northern India could also be a factor; as water evaporates, it absorbs heat from the air, reducing warming. 

Scientists say understanding the trend will allow more accurate forecasts and help the country better prepare for future warming.

Science

Related: India races to beat the smog with an electric mobility revolution in Kashmir – The Telegraph OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Somalia: Frontline hospitals under pressure as fighting escalates – ICRC (news release)

Measles outbreaks spark concern over rare 'horrific' neurological disorder – CBC

Africa's Plan to Fill Health Funding Gaps Amidst Declining Coffers – Africa CDC

Tuberculosis could end if there’s more US public health funding, experts say – The Guardian

Educate to Empower: Protecting Reproductive Rights in Texas – O’Neill Institute / Georgetown Law (commentary)

CDC denies Milwaukee's request for help with unsafe lead levels in public schools – CNN

Recent hospital violence fuels effort to create workplace protections – Axios

Dogs could help predict valley fever spread in humans – University of California, Davis via ScienceDaily Issue No. 2707
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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More than 12.4 million people have been forced from their homes across Sudan – including over 3.3 million refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries – as two years of civil war fuel famine, disease outbreaks and the collapse of the health system.

The Israeli bombardment of Al-Ahli, a Gaza City hospital, has put even more pressure on the remaining health facilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, where the delivery of aid and movement of humanitarian workers is highly restricted by the Israeli authorities.

96 Global Health NOW: RFK’s Muddled Messaging; Burmese Doctors Face Relentless Devastation; and Upper-Class Clown RFK encourages MMR vaccination, but continues to qualify the endorsement. View this email in your browser April 10, 2025 Forward Share Post One year-old River Jacobs is held by his mother while he receives an MMR vaccine at a vaccine clinic in Lubbock, Texas, on March 1. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images RFK’s Muddled Messaging
As the U.S. measles outbreak continues to widen, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s messaging on the crisis has been unpredictable, reports The Guardian. 

Vacillating on vaccination: One one hand, Kennedy has encouraged MMR vaccination during his most recent tour through the Southwest, which included attending the funeral of an 8-year-old girl who died of measles. 

• But he continues to qualify the endorsement, questioning safety studies and government mandates in his first sit-down TV interview, and continuing to promote unproven alternative therapies, reports The New York Times (gift link). 

Equivocating on severity: While Kennedy is promising to deploy more CDC staff to the outbreak, which has sickened 600+ people in the U.S. and killed three, he continues to downplay its threat—calling the U.S. response a global “model,” reports ABC News.

• Misleading comparison: Kennedy contrasted U.S. numbers to those in the WHO’s European region, which has reported 127,000 cases and 37 deaths. But those numbers are not comparable, global health experts say, because of the large number of countries included in the European region and the wide disparities among them. 

• And health officials continue to caution that the U.S. numbers of actual cases are likely to be greatly undercounted.

Toll of confusion: Doctors and disease experts say Kennedy’s mixed messaging is undermining a cohesive response, reports Reuters. 

• “Our work is becoming harder by the minute,” said Rana Alissa, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Florida chapter.

Related:

National public health group calls for RFK Jr. to resign, citing ‘complete disregard for science’ – STAT

New measles dashboard allows public to track vaccination rates in Illinois schools – ABC 7 Chicago GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
In a genetics milestone, scientists have sequenced the complete genomes of six ape species, with the research, published in Nature, providing key new insights into human evolution, health, and genetic disease. Penn State (news release)

Long COVID affected ~1 in 7 working-age adults in the U.S. by late 2023, with socioeconomically disadvantaged adults 150%+ more likely to have ongoing symptoms, finds two new studies—one study published in Communications Medicine, and another published in BMC Medicine. CIDRAP

An at-home spit test for prostate cancer could outperform current testing methods for assessing prostate cancer risk—a breakthrough that could improve early detection, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests. The Independent

Additional NIH funding for Columbia University has been frozen by the Trump administration, which cut off $250 million for research grants in addition to $400 million frozen last month. Inside Higher Ed CONFLICT Burmese Doctors Face Relentless Devastation 
Amid Burma’s ongoing civil war, health care providers have become increasingly vilified as enemies of the state, as they defy junta orders to treat people wounded in the resistance.

• The junta has closed ~7 private hospitals in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. 

Now, as Mandalay reels from the March 28 earthquake that killed ~3,500 people, health workers describe harrowing conditions and scant resources.

Ongoing health threats: Doctors say survivors now face threats of disease and a lack of food, water, and shelter. They also blame the junta for delays and restrictions of aid distribution. 

• “The junta cares more about shutting down hospitals and blocking doctors than saving lives after the earthquake,” said one physician, Dr. Min—who lost four colleagues in the earthquake. 

The New York Times (gift link) 

Related: Earthquake Pushes Myanmar's Health System to Verge of Collapse – Think Global Health GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES A Gutting End to ‘The Greatest Thing You’ve Never Heard Of’
USAID’s program to combat neglected tropical diseases through drug distribution has always been a relatively small effort—requiring a fraction of the agency’s budget.

But the effort had a massive impact: Treatments for diseases like trachoma and intestinal worms have been delivered to 1.7 billion people across 31 countries, and at least one NTD has been eliminated in almost half of those countries.

• “For such a little amount, we’ve been able to reach so many people,” said Angela Weaver, at Helen Keller Intl—who called the USAID drug distribution program “the greatest thing you’ve never heard of.”

Now, USAID cuts mean programs are ending, and their future progress is imperiled. 

• Across Africa, tens of thousands of NTD-related community health worker positions have been cut, and pharmaceutical companies that previously donated drugs are hesitating to ship them.

The Guardian

Related: Silent Killers: Neglected Tropical Diseases in South Sudan – The Borgen Project (commentary) ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Upper-Class Clown  
He may be divisive as a political figure, but Boris Johnson will forever be our Prime Minister of Comedy.
 
Most recently, while on vacation in Texas, BoJo was nipped in the face by a feisty ostrich while his toddler giggled hysterically, the Independent reports.
 
Far from his best bungled photo op, this was merely a helpful reminder of all his other gaffes. Some of our faves:

• The time he struggled to glove up at a Welsh vaccination center. “Like OJ Simpson!” he exclaimed. “Absolutely,” his minder agreed, seeming to have no other choice.  

• When he not only rode a zip line holding two Union Jacks, but got stuck mid-zip. 

• Or when he wrestled with an umbrella at a drizzly memorial service. Even King Charles (then merely a Prince) had a chuckle.

• When he ducked an interview by hiding inside an industrial fridge at a dairy farm. “Right heʼs been taken inside … into the freezer,” a reporter explained. Chilly reception indeed!

QUICK HITS Heavy drinking linked with lasting impact on the brain, study finds – CNN 

USAID enabled 208 Afghan women to defy the Taliban ban on college — until now – NPR Goats and Soda

Preventable ‘meningitis belt’ deaths targeted in health agency action plan – UN News

New reports suggest diabetes weight loss drugs could reduce Alzheimer's risk – Medical Xpress

Ukraine: Stark increase in civilian casualties in March, UN Human Rights Monitors say – OHCHR

Road deaths fell below 40,000 in 2024, the lowest since 2019 – Ars Technica

A biotech company says it has bred three pups with traits of the extinct dire wolf – NPR Issue No. 2706
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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Recent funding cuts have caused “severe disruptions” to health services in almost three-quarters of all countries, according to the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Millions of deaths could be avoided from meningitis if countries are able to adopt new guidelines designed to diagnose and treat the disease more effectively, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.