Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

Adolescents who start using cannabis early and often are more likely to need health care for both mental and physical problems as they enter adulthood, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

96 Global Health NOW: U.S., Canada Risk Measles-Free Status; WHO Warns of Tobacco Treaty Interference; and Brazil's Teen Pregnancy Turnaround View this email in your browser October 28, 2025 Forward Share Post A nurse demonstrates how to put on a mask at a measles screening point at Victoria Hospital, in London, Ontario, on July 9. Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty U.S., Canada Risk Measles-Free Status
The consequences of teetering government commitments to vaccines and falling vaccination rates are emerging across North America.    Measles-free no more: Canada and the U.S. are poised to lose their status as countries that have eliminated measles, CNN reports. Canada’s year of continuous measles transmission and its 5,000+ cases this year make it likely that a November PAHO meeting will determine the country is no longer measles free. The U.S. may soon get the same label.      Muzzled experts: Doctors and public health experts in Florida have been reluctant to speak out about a state plan to end required childhood vaccinations, per KFF News. 

• Pediatricians are afraid of losing business, county health department officials refer reporters to state officials, and University of Florida infectious disease experts were told not to speak to reporters without supervisor approval.  

Needed: “It’s really those vaccine champions from communities that help improve vaccination, spread awareness about the need for vaccination, and kind of create the positive change that we need in order to ensure that these outbreaks don’t persist and don’t continue to happen,” McGill University epidemiologist Nicole Basta told the Toronto Star.     Not needed: When a reporter asked Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo if his team had created computer models of potential outbreaks after the policy change, he replied “absolutely not,” and added that parents’ freedom of choice wasn’t a scientific matter.     Related: 
Threat to U.S. vaccines as CDC staff supporting key advisory panel laid off – The Guardian     Kansas City health experts say confusing CDC vaccine guidance risks wider spread of infections – KCUR / NPR Kansas City     Measles outbreak in South Carolina grows; Canada’s elimination status threatened – CIDRAP DATA POINT

9 of 10
————
Portion of air pollution-linked deaths attributable to noncommunicable diseases in 2023. —Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
  The Latest One-Liners   The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia is committing grave atrocities in Darfur’s regional capital, El Fasher, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warns, citing ethnically motivated killings, summary executions of civilians attempting to flee the area, and attacks on humanitarian volunteers attempting to administer aid. UN News
  Thousands of stillbirths—nearly 30%—occur without clear warning signs or clinical risk factors, per a large Harvard and Mass General Brigham analysis of ~2.8 million U.S. pregnancies that documented ~19,000 stillbirths between 2016 and 2022—with Black families and poorer communities bearing a disproportionate toll. The Washington Post    Cigarette butts are an “overlooked yet potent” vector for antibiotic resistance genes, according to a Chinese-led PNAS report that detected 95 potential pathogens in cigarette butts collected from 105 urban green spaces and 35 cities across China. CIDRAP
  Weight loss drugs are lowering the U.S. obesity rate, albeit slowly—from a high of 39.9% three years ago to 37% of U.S. adults this year, according to a new Gallup poll that shows a doubling in the number of people taking the drugs over the past year and a half. NPR Shots  BIG TOBACCO WHO Urges ‘Vigilance’ Against Tobacco Treaty Interference  
The tobacco industry is ramping up efforts to undermine an international treaty to reduce smoking and vaping, the WHO is warning ahead of a key meeting in Geneva next month, reports The Telegraph.

Background: The meeting will involve updates to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a 20-year-old treaty with 183 signatories that includes policies on advertising limits, health warnings, and smoking bans.

Big Tobacco tactics: But ahead of the meeting, the WHO is urging governments to “remain vigilant” to various ways the tobacco industry is infiltrating and manipulating delegations, including posing as consumer, economic, or scientific groups to promote misinformation in “a deliberate strategy to try to derail consensus.”    Meanwhile, in the UK: A British lawmaker who is pushing against a proposed ban on tobacco to anyone born after 2008 has a relative who is “very high up” at British American Tobacco, reports The Examination.  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES FAMILY PLANNING Brazil Turns Around its Teen Pregnancy Epidemic    Brazil once had one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Latin America, with ~750,000 Brazilian girls ages 15–19 giving birth in 2000.     But over 25 years, births among that age have plummeted 44%, falling below 400,000 in 2019, with ~281,000 projected for 2025.    Contraception intervention: The primary driver for the reversal has been the rapid expansion of birth control access, with free birth control, condoms, and IUDs provided by the country’s national health system, Sistema Unica de Saude.     Outreach: Community health program Saude da Familia sends educators door to door to share family planning options.     Broader change: Poverty reduction, improved education, and expanded internet access have transformed opportunities for young women.    The Telegraph   OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Texas sues Tylenol company over autism claims – The Texas Tribune

Behind the Dismantling of the C.D.C.: Reform or ‘Humiliation’? – The New York Times (gift link)

This 'minor' bird flu strain has potential to spark human pandemic – Nature

Anti-abortion pregnancy centers are looking to offer much more than ultrasounds and diapers – AP    Some viruses can play a deadly game of hide and seek inside the human body – NPR Goats and Soda    Clocks to go back: Three impacts Daylight Saving Time changes can have on you - what the science says – The Scotsman    Picture of health: going to art galleries can improve wellbeing, study reveals – The Guardian  Issue No. 2812
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, 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: Diphtheria’s Dangerous Return; Bird Flu Rebounds; and Model of Healthy Architecture View this email in your browser October 27, 2025 Forward Share Post Pediatrician Mohamud Omar examines a child’s tonsils in the diphtheria ward of Demartino Public Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, last month. Brian Otieno/The New York Times Diphtheria’s Dangerous Return    Diphtheria, a deadly bacterial disease long controlled by vaccines, is spreading again in regions destabilized by conflict and climate-driven displacement, as hospital wards throughout parts of Africa and the Middle East fill with children struggling to breathe.    Fueling factors: Mass displacement, COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, and vaccine hesitancy have left millions of children vulnerable—especially in regions with hollowed-out health systems.  

• And global aid cuts this year have contributed to severe malnutrition and the shuttering of immunization programs.  

Global spread: Outbreaks have erupted in Chad, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen; sporadic cases are appearing in Europe among refugee and migrant communities.  

• While the U.S. rarely sees travel-related cases, full kindergarten vaccination rates including diphtheria coverage have dropped from 95% in 2020 to 92% in 2024–25. 

High danger, urgent intervention: Diphtheria now kills up to 1 in 4 infected children in low-resource settings, prompting Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to create emergency vaccine funding for boosters. 

• “We didn’t even have a diphtheria support modality, because we didn’t need one. And now we have to build out a whole new process to help countries respond,” said Katy Clark, a diphtheria expert with Gavi.  

The New York Times (gift link)  THE QUOTE
  "What is very sad is many people were cheering in the streets because they were happy there was a peace deal. Imagine, (some of) those same people are dead after they were told the war is over." ————— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general: Gaza health 'catastrophe' will last for generations – Arab News The Latest One-Liners
Gun violence is trending downward for more than three-quarters of U.S. cities with the most shootings—including Chicago, Baltimore, Memphis, and Los Angeles—per an analysis of 150 U.S. cities; the trend holds across red and blue cities and states in every region of the country. The Trace 
  South Africa regulators have approved lenacapavir—making it the first African country to register the twice-yearly anti-HIV injection, and at record speed (within 65 days); distribution could roll out as early as February 2026. Bhekisisa Thanks for the tip, Elna Schutz!    
NHS England is trialing a 15-minute blood test that distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections, allowing faster diagnoses and reducing the overprescription of antibiotics; the trial among children will run in three EDs through March. The Independent 

The recycling process increased levels of toxic chemicals in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a type of plastic commonly used for food packaging, per a recent study in the Journal of Chromatography A that suggests a direct tie between recycling intensity and the level of chemical contamination in recycled products. Environmental Health News INFECTIOUS DISEASES Bird Flu Rebounds    After a lull in cases for the past several months, bird flu is rapidly making a comeback worldwide, leading scientists to warn of a potentially severe viral season.     In Europe, early outbreaks are being reported in the highest number of countries in at least a decade, reports Reuters via South China Morning Post. From August to mid-October, 56 outbreaks have been reported in 10 EU countries and Britain, with the most reported in Poland, the top EU poultry producer.     In the U.S., the virus has hit dozens of poultry flocks since the start of September, killing ~7 million farmed birds, including 1.3 million turkeys that will impact Thanksgiving supply, per The New York Times (gift link). Idaho, Nebraska, and Texas have reported outbreaks in dairy herds. And infections in wild birds are on the rise.   

• But the government shutdown and federal health cuts are causing scientists to question whether the U.S. has an adequate response plan and communication, reports Axios.   

Related:    Bird flu prevention zone measures introduced to prevent disease's spread – BBC    Germany culls over 400,000 poultry amid bird flu outbreak – Anadolu Ajansı    What does it mean if a deadly strain of bird flu has been found on Australia's Heard Island? – ABC News Australia  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH How Ants Model Healthy Architecture    To gain fresh insights into health-based building design, scientists just had to think a little smaller.  

• Black garden ants can quickly adapt their nest architecture to limit the spread of deadly fungal infections, finds research published in Science.

Disease defense on demand: Ants infected with the lethal fungus Metarhizium brunneum isolate themselves while others restructure their nest to include more compartments, longer and more winding paths, and fewer connections to reduce contact and protect the queen and larvae. 
  Scaling up: Scientists say such dynamic and collective strategies could one day inspire public space designs that can reduce disease transmission in humans.    NPR Goats and Soda  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS UN alarmed by ‘terrifying’ situation in Sudan’s El Fasher, calls for immediate ceasefire – UN News     DRC: Cholera Epidemic Rapidly Spreading Across The Country – Forbes    Meet the nurse in Uganda who climbs a 1,000-foot ladder to save lives – PBS NewsHour    WHO Report Raises Alarm on Clinician Mental Health, Working Conditions – JAMA Network     New Initiative Aims To Bring Doctors Up To Speed On Down Syndrome – Disability Scoop Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!     AI chatbots are sycophants — researchers say it’s harming science – Nature  Issue No. 2811
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, 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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Thirty-five years ago, polio, a highly infectious viral disease, paralysed around 350,000 children per year. Following a UN-led international push, that number is now less than 50.

96 Global Health NOW: Cancer Besieges Lebanon; The Untold Stories Contest of 2026 Has Launched, and A Jaw-Dropping Face-Off View this email in your browser October 23, 2025 Forward Share Post A flock of birds flies over a cloud of smog. Beirut, Lebanon, August 14. Joseph EID/AFP via Getty Cancer Besieges Lebanon    Beirut is often shrouded in smog pumped out by unregulated vehicles and diesel generators. Cigarette smoke permeates public places.  
  The toxic air and smoke have contributed to a staggering cancer crisis in Lebanon, finds the global cancer survey published in The Lancet, which analyzes the cancer burden worldwide from 1990 to 2023 and forecasts the cancer burden up to 2050. 
  The survey projects that cancer cases and deaths will rise worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. But Lebanon’s crisis is particularly acute, reports NPR Goats and Soda:  

• The country has the fastest increase in cancer incidence and deaths worldwide, with new cancer cases up 162% and deaths by 80% over the period covered in the survey.  

Systemic inaction: Lebanon has no anti-smoking or health education campaigns. And few people seek out available screening tools due to low awareness.  

• “Cancer is killing … Why have you been waiting so long to take action?” study coauthor Ali Mokdad asked of the Lebanese government. 

Meanwhile, a rise of several cancers in adults of all ages worldwide could be driven by obesity, finds a separate global cancer study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which recorded an uptick in cancer incidence rates from 2003 to 2017, per MedPage Today.     Related: Of Corn and Cancer: Iowa’s Deadly Water Crisis – The New Republic Thanks for the tip, Cecilia Meisner! GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners

1,600+ measles cases in the U.S. have been reported this year, CDC data show, as an outbreak in upstate South Carolina linked to two schools with low vaccination rates expands to 20 cases. CIDRAP

Major methane leak alerts from the world’s oil and gas sectors are often ignored by companies and governments, despite improved satellite detection from the UN Environment Programme, finds a new report from the agency, which determined that just 12% of alerts lead to responsive action. UN News

Pregnant detainees in ICE facilities in Louisiana and Georgia are not receiving adequate care, says the ACLU, which called on U.S. officials to release expectant and postpartum mothers from federal detention facilities. AP 

Members of Gen Z are significantly underrepresented in clinical trials and health studies, meaning millions of young people could miss out on new treatments for health conditions, or may risk using unsafe or ineffective medication due to low participation in medical research. The Guardian 

UNTOLD STORIES CONTEST OF 2026 Boatmen sleep inside mosquito nets on their boats on the Buriganga River. Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 24. Syed Mahamudur Rahman/NurPhoto via Getty Send in Your Untold Stories 
The Untold Global Health Stories Contest of 2026 has launched! A joint effort between GHN and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, this annual contest is your chance to spotlight an underreported issue that you care about. 

• Nominate an issue you feel deserves a broader audience, whether you’ve worked on it firsthand or come across it in your travels. 

• If you win, we'll send a reporter to cover your story and help it get the spotlight it deserves. 

Pro tip for Professors: Having students write a short (50-word max) pitch makes a great assignment. Students have won in some of our previous years!  
  Looking for inspiration? Check out some of our stories from past winners, including The Mystery of Chronic Mountain Sickness in the Andes, reported by Lucien Chauvin, and Blazing Injustice: The Hidden Crisis of Burn Injuries in Nepal, covered by Joanne Silberner. 

• Deadline: November 24, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EST
• Learn more about the contest 

ENTER THE UNTOLD STORIES CONTEST REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH When a Menstrual Cycle Brings Mental Chaos    Millions of people worldwide experience premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) marked by extreme mood changes, irritability, and thoughts of self harm.  

• A 2024 study of ~3,600 women with PMDD found that 82% had suicidal thoughts before their periods, and 25% had tried to end their lives during a “PMDD crisis.”  

Despite symptoms that typically impair a person’s daily life, diagnosis is inconsistent. Clinicians often debate whether PMDD falls under gynecology or psychiatry.  

• By one estimate, 90% of women with PMDD are mistakenly thought to have another condition. 

Treatment options vary widely—from hormonal contraceptives, SSRIs, and therapy to drug-induced menopause or surgical removal of reproductive organs.    Despite the high burden, PMDD research and funding lag behind comparable women’s health conditions.    Undark  ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION A Jaw-Dropping Face-Off    Like all elite athletes, competitors in the World Gurning Championships all seek the optimal physique: A flexible forehead with extremely muscular eyebrows. A lower lip that can stretch over the nose. And a bug-eyed stare befitting a Halloween mask.    After all, a win hinges on “the grotesqueness of the grimace” contenders make onstage, per the official rules of this centuries-old “reverse beauty pageant”— a fixture of the annual Egremont Crab Fair in Egremont, England, reports The New York Times (gift link). 

• “Gurning” is another word for making the kind of face your mother warns “will freeze like that”; the sort of grimace people make when they bite into the sour crab apples for which the quintessentially British festival is named. 

The rules: Competitors contort their faces while framed with a horse collar called a “baffin.” Per the official rules, no hands or excessive makeup may be used; however, “thrashing around onstage and making wild, animal-like noises” is acceptable. To an extent:  

• “You've got to make people laugh without scaring the children,” organizer Lesley Rogers told the International Business Times UK. 

QUICK HITS Hundreds of thousands of NHS workers urge Starmer not to cut support for Global Fund – The Telegraph 
'An urgent public health crisis': Why so many people are struggling to get medicine – BBC  
How Did Dengue Go Global? This Mosquito Species Might be to Blame. – Georgetown University 
Nicholas Kristof: Opinion: Trump Revives Foreign Aid, Helping Needy Billionaires – The New York Times (opinion; gift link) 
HIV specialists in short supply, especially in the South – Healio  
Updated CPR guidelines provide expanded recommendations for managing choking and opioid overdose – News Medical  
Why Women Feel Unsafe in Nature: The Gender Gap in Green Spaces – ISGlobal – Barcelona Institute for Global Health Issue No. 2810
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, 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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Gaza’s health system remains in ruins despite the fragile ceasefire holding, with hundreds of thousands still facing urgent medical and humanitarian needs, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday.

McGill University is proud to present the 2024 Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Diseases to Dr. Joseph C. Wu, Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute.

View Previous Recipients

McGill University is proud to present the 2024 Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Diseases to Dr. Joseph C. Wu, Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute.

View Previous Recipients