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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96 Global Health NOW: Anti-Science Bills Sweep U.S; Azithromycin Trial Has No Impact on Infant Deaths; and ‘Gut-Healing’ Food Treats Malnutrition View this email in your browser October 22, 2025 Forward Share Post Crates of freshly bottled raw milk at the Lolans Farm stand. Middleborough, Massachusetts, March 17. David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Anti-Science Bills Sweep State Legislatures     A wave of legislation aiming to weaken or roll back public health protections has been introduced in U.S. states this year, finds a new AP investigation, which tracked the introduction of 420+ bills, and found that ~30 such bills have already been adopted in 12 states.     Most of the laws focus on three categories—vaccines, raw milk, and water fluoridation—and cover a range of directives, including:  

• Anti-vaccine bills: Make it easier to get vaccine exemptions; prohibit vaccine requirements; place more restrictions on certain vaccines or programs.  

• Raw milk: Remove restrictions on raw milk sales.  

• Fluoride: Ban fluoride in drinking water or make fluoridation a ballot measure.  

Organized effort: While campaigns behind such legislation typically frame themselves as grassroots, more AP reporting found that most are backed by well-funded national organizations tied to HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and include members benefiting politically and financially.    Conspiracy-to-policy pipeline: The trend signals the normalization of an anti-vaccine movement that has already led to falling vaccination rates and the comeback of preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough.  

• “The march of conspiracy thinking from the margins to the mainstream now guiding public policy should be a wake-up call for all Americans,” said Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   DRC’s cholera outbreak has spread to 20 of the country’s 26 provinces, with 58,000+ suspected cases and 1,700+ deaths so far this year, Médecins Sans Frontières reports; separately, the UN issued a warning that incidents of rape and conflict-related sexual violence in the country have surged by a third compared to last year. MSF; UN News 
Ambulances supplied to Malawi by the UK Aid Match Maternal Health program from 2015 to 2018 were sold off to fund repairs for officials’ cars, drawing outrage from locals and civil society groups; one official defended the move, claiming that the vehicles “were faulty and would be costly to fix.” The Telegraph 
A hepatitis A outbreak in the Czech Republic is among the worst the country has seen in decades, with 21 deaths and 1,842 cases recorded earlier this month; centered in Prague, the outbreak has begun to spread to other regions. Radio Prague International 
  Men who use plastic tableware have a higher accumulation of microplastics in their semen and lower sperm counts, finds a study published in the Journal of Nanobiotechnology that studied samples from ~200 men of reproductive age in Chongqing, China. Environmental Health News  U.S. and Global Health Policy News   The Pentagon Retreats from Climate Fight as Heat and Storms Slam Troops – Inkstick 

It’s been a month. And we still don’t know much about Kennedy’s long COVID consortium – The Sick Times     Government shutdown means many CDC experts are skipping a pivotal meeting on infectious disease – AP    The Deceptive Phrase Behind Trump’s Medicaid Purge – Mother Jones INFANT MORTALITY Mass Azithromycin Trial Has No Impact on Infant Deaths    A major trial in Mali that aimed to help reduce infant mortality through mass antibiotic distribution had no impact on infant death rates, finds a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine—findings that could change WHO-recommended intervention tactics.     Background: After a 2018 trial showed that administering the commonly used antibiotic azithromycin 2X per year reduced deaths in 1–5-year-olds, the WHO recommended the intervention for infants.     The study: 149,000+ infants ages 1–11 months received either a placebo every three months, or azithromycin, distributed 2X or 4X per year.  

• Mortality rates were nearly identical across all groups.  

Implications: Researchers suggest that broader age groups may need to be targeted to see a benefit—though that could raise antibiotic resistance risks.    CIDRAP      Related: ‘I fear we are sitting on a time bomb.’ Scientists debate mass distribution of antibiotics in Africa – Science   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES MALNUTRITION The Growing Impact of a ‘Gut-Healing’ Food    A food supplement for undernourished children that also seeks to repair the gut microbiome is gaining recognition after being named one of the Best Inventions of 2025 by TIME Magazine.    Feeding the body—and bacteria: Severe childhood malnutrition can lead to the maldevelopment of digestive bacteria critical for growth and immunity.  

• The new food formulation, dubbed MDCF-2 (microbiome-directed complementary food), blends chickpea, soybean, and peanut flours with green banana into an affordable combination that nourishes this microbiome.  

• The therapeutic food was the result of a collaboration between researchers studying malnutrition at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and those studying the gut microbiome at Washington University in St. Louis.  

Global reach: Studies of MDCF-2 are currently underway in India, Mali, Pakistan, and Tanzania.     The Daily Star  OPPORTUNITY Community Reporters from ICFP and the Family Planning News Network (FPNN) interview Indigenous activists in Riohacha, Colombia, in August 2025. Courtesy of ICFP It’s Not Too Late to Register for ICFP    The fight for sexual and reproductive health and rights is happening now—and you can be part of it.    Join the International Conference on Family Planning 2025 virtually to connect with advocates, learn from global leaders, and add your voice to a movement shaping the future of health and equity worldwide. 

• November 1–6, 2025
• Register here 

QUICK HITS Dangerous or life-saving? Why drug programs that stop disease are under fire. – The Washington Post (gift link)    More Europeans are dying from HIV now than 15 years ago – aidsmap  
Eight countries added to methanol poisoning warning list – BBC    WHO warns $1.7bn funding shortfall threatens polio eradication efforts – Al Jazeera    More people are freezing their eggs — but most will never use them – Rewire News Group     How one Michigan town is putting partisanship aside in pursuit of clean water – The Christian Science Monitor    Bird flu hiding in cheese? The surprising new discovery – Cornell University via ScienceDaily  Issue No. 2809
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: High Costs of Malaria Funding Cuts; Navigating Taliban Taboos to Care for Women; and Iran’s Transgender Care Paradox View this email in your browser October 21, 2025 Forward Share Post Women breastfeed their babies while waiting to have them vaccinated against malaria at the launch of a vaccination campaign for children from zero to 23 months. Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, July 15, 2024. Sia Kambou/AFP via Getty High Costs of Malaria Funding Cuts       Draconian cuts to malaria prevention programs could translate to 990,000 more deaths in the next five years, according to new estimates by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and Malaria No More UK. 

• Even a 20% reduction in support to the Global Fund in its upcoming replenishment could lead to 33 million more cases and 82,000 more deaths by 2030. 

• Beyond lives lost, that Global Fund shortfall would mean a $5.14 billion hit to Africa’s GDP by 2030.  

• Malaria currently kills ~600,000 people—mostly children under five—every year.  

Fundraising in doubt: 

• The Global Fund, which delivers nearly two-thirds of all international funds for fighting malaria, convenes its supporters on November 21. It aims to raise $18 billion in the next three years, The Independent reports. 

• Germany committed $1 billion to the Global Fund last week, but that amount is 23% less than its previous commitment, according to The Guardian.   

• The UK is poised to make a similar funding reduction.   

The takeaway: The report underscores both the human and economic impact of an era defined by wealthy countries’ retreat from international commitments.      The Quote: “Cutting funding risks the deadliest resurgence we’ve ever seen,” warned Malaria No More UK’s Gareth Jenkins, per The Guardian.     Related:     Malaria resurgence could kill 750,000 children and wipe $83 billion from Africa's GDP by 2030, new report warns – Africa Science News    New Insights into Malaria Could Reshape Treatment – Columbia University Irving Medical Center    Innovation: The unique programme protecting children against malaria – Médecins Sans Frontières  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A groundbreaking retinal implant—a tiny photovoltaic microchip, thick as a human hair—allowed 27 out of 32 participants in a Moorfields Eye Hospital, London-based study to see well enough to read again, offering hope to people with an advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration. BBC    Pregnancy and breastfeeding trigger the accumulation of protective immune cells—T cells that can live for decades postpartum—that lower the chances of breast cancer, per a Melbourne-based study in humans and mice that sheds light on the mechanism underpinning breastfeeding as a known cancer risk reducer. Nature    Cancer patients who received an mRNA COVID vaccine within 100 days of beginning immunotherapy lived significantly longer than those who didn’t; research presented Sunday at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin suggests the vaccine may act like a “flare” to activate the immune system and boost cancer-fighting responses. University of Florida via ScienceDaily    Shingles vaccination may reduce the risk of heart disease, dementia, and death in adults aged 50 and older, per a Case Western Reserve University–led matched cohort study presented at IDWeek 2025 (not yet published); compared to the pneumococcal vaccine, shingles-vaccinated adults had a 50% lower risk of vascular dementia, 25% lower risk of heart attack or stroke, and 21% lower risk of death. CIDRAP   DATA POINT  

887 million
———————
People––nearly 80% of the world’s poor––who live in regions that are exposed to extreme heat, flooding, and other climate hazards. —UN News
  DISASTER RESPONSE: AFGHANISTAN Navigating Taliban Taboos to Care for Women     In the days following deadly earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan in August, aid agencies trying to help women were forced to navigate strict—and often contradictory—Taliban gender-based regulations.     Women bear the brunt: The majority of the 2,200+ people who died were women and girls, who were more likely to sleep inside structures that collapsed. 

• Taliban restrictions prevented men from aiding many injured women, forcing the few female workers available to travel treacherous terrain with male guardians. 

• Women’s exclusion from medical schools also meant a diminished female health workforce to assist in the crisis. 

Seeking workarounds: The crisis has also exposed tensions between Taliban hardliners enforcing bans and pragmatic officials who urged international female aid workers to head to earthquake zones to help women.

NPR Goats and Soda
Related: Let Afghan women work: maternal health depends on it – The Lancet (commentary)   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HUMAN RIGHTS Iran’s Transgender Care Paradox     Despite Iran’s widespread discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ people, the country is billing itself as a global destination for gender-affirming surgery—with medical tourism agencies offering low-cost operations and luxury stays in an advertising push that aims to generate ~$7 billion annually.    But the promotion diminishes often-contradictory cultural attitudes toward trans and gay rights and hides the grim reality of ongoing stigma, say advocates.    Background: Iran is one of the few places in the Muslim world that permits gender-affirming care, with religious leaders legalizing transition surgeries ~40 years ago as a legitimate medical need.     Abusive tool: But gay and gender-nonconforming people have also been coerced into unwanted procedures, under threat of violence or the death penalty, to maintain strict gender binaries and suppress gay rights.     The New York Times (gift link)  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Sexual violence, torture and betrayal: Life under Putin’s occupation – The Telegraph    My life with ALS: A week in Brooke Eby's life behind the phone camera lens – The Cut     New Leaders' Initiative Aims To Drive Investment In Health – Health Policy Watch    New medical school center set to investigate healthy aging with HIV – Yale Daily News 

Medical Care in the Hardest Places: Dr. Jill Seaman's Three Decades in South Sudan – Angels in Medicine  
Mosquitoes found in Iceland for first time as climate crisis warms country – The Guardian Thanks for the tip, Cecilia Meisner!   Issue No. 2808
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: The Resistance to Ending UNAIDS; Gaza’s Ecological Wounds; and Spreading the Benefits of Child Spacing in Nigeria View this email in your browser October 20, 2025 Forward Share Post Headquarters of the WHO and UNAIDS. Geneva, Switzerland, May 16, 2009. Gunter Fischer/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty The Resistance to Ending UNAIDS    A growing number of voices are decrying a proposal made by UN Secretary-General António Guterres last month to sunset UNAIDS by the end of 2026—four years early—as part of a broader UN restructuring plan, reports Health Policy Watch.     Background: The single-sentence proposal appeared without warning in a UN80 reform plan released in September.    Sounding the alarm: UNAIDS officials and member states argued at the World Health Summit last week that such a timeline could be the “nail in the coffin” of global HIV response, and especially dangerous given destabilization this year from funding cuts by the U.S. and other countries, reports The Guardian. 

• “Sunsetting can be good if you stand in a beautiful sunset. And it can be terrifying if you’re standing by yourself, and it just all of a sudden gets dark,” said Christine Stegling, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, at the summit.   

• 1,000+ civil society organizations worldwide have signed a letter expressing “deepest alarm” at the proposal. 

Voices from vulnerable regions: Health leaders from sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia have described how dismantling critical UNAIDS assistance like surveillance and advocacy could quickly lead to a resurgence in HIV transmission.  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   The last Ebola patient in the DRC was released yesterday from a treatment center in Kasai province; the outbreak, which began Sept. 4 and numbered 64 cases with 45 deaths, will be declared over if no new cases occur in the next 42 days. Al Jazeera
  Fiji has earned WHO validation for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem, following surveys and studies to improve understanding of the disease as well as school WASH initiatives; it is the 26th country to achieve the milestone, and it’s the first NTD to be eliminated in Fiji. WHO (news release)
  The FDA will expedite reviews for a round of nine experimental drugs that align with “U.S. national interests,” including drugs for pancreatic cancer, infertility, deafness, and vaping addiction. AP
  Peanut allergies have declined sharply among children since pediatric guidelines issued in 2017 encouraged parents to introduce infants to peanuts rather than avoid them, per a study published in Pediatrics, which found the rate of peanut allergies among children under 3 plunged from 1.46% in 2012–2015 to 0.93% in 2017–2020. The New York Times (gift link) ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Gaza’s Ecological Wounds     Two years of bombardment have left Gaza facing ecological disaster, finds a new report by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies—with contaminated ground, air, and water that threaten residents’ safety. 

• “What we are witnessing is not just a humanitarian catastrophe but an ecological collapse that threatens the very possibility of recovery,” said study author David Lehrer.   

Toxic rubble: ~200,000 destroyed buildings have left behind ~61 million tons of rubble contaminated with asbestos, heavy metals, and industrial chemicals. 
  Afflicted air: Airborne rubble particles and open waste burning have filled Gaza’s air with hazardous dust, raising risks of cancer and respiratory illness, especially for children. 
  Waste-filled water: Gaza’s water supply is critically low and heavily polluted, leaving just 8.4 liters of water daily per person for drinking and sanitation—well below emergency standards.     The Bureau of Investigative Journalism GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES FAMILY PLANNING Spreading the Benefits of Child Spacing in Nigeria     Nigeria’s Kano State has one of the country’s highest fertility rates at 5.8, and modern contraceptive use remains low at just 10.6%—leading to rapid population growth that strains the region’s fragile economy. 
Child spacing, the practice of timing pregnancies around safe and manageable intervals, is a key tool in family planning efforts—but most messaging targets women.    Meeting men: To address this gap, MSI Nigeria Reproductive Choices, a sexual and reproductive health care services provider, is actively engaging men through targeted discussions about child spacing and contraceptive use during traditional social gatherings known as Majalisa.     And supporting women: The organization is reaching Kano women through 100+ door-to-door community health workers called MS Ladies.   Nigeria Health Watch     Related: Trump Administration Decimates Birth Control Office in Layoffs – The New York Times (gift link)  OPPORTUNITY Attention Humanitarian Workers: Apply to the H.E.L.P. Course     The Health Emergencies in Large Populations (H.E.L.P) course, offered by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is accepting applications for the January 2026 session.      For 25+ years, the H.E.L.P. course has offered humanitarian workers intensive training in the public health principles of disaster preparedness and disaster management, drawing participants from a variety of civil society, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement—including nurses, physicians, public health professionals, lawyers, journalists, managers, planners, logisticians, and aid workers—some with many years of experience, and others just beginning their careers.

• The virtual course will run January 5–16, 2026, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time.
• Both noncredit and academic credit options are available.
• Learn more about the course, course fees, and application
• More questions? Email helpcourse.jhsph@gmail.com 

QUICK HITS Sudan hit by triple outbreak of deadly diseases – The Telegraph     ‘You Could Treat a Child for a Few Dollars.’ Now Those Clinics Are Gone. – The New York Times (gift link)     New study shows faster way to cure vivax malaria Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health – University of Oxford     Overdose in America: analysis reveals deaths rising in some regions even as US sees national decline – The Guardian     Global Health Leaders Urge Fewer Agencies Amid Funding Crisis – Health Policy Watch    Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data – Nature    Surrey-developed colour-changing label will prevent vaccine waste – BBC    It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Chemtrail? New Conspiracy Theory Takes Wing at Kennedy’s HHS – KFF Health  Issue No. 2807
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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96 Global Health NOW: Upending Lesotho’s HIV Fight; The Danger of ‘America First’ in Global Health; and A Series of Very Fortunate Events View this email in your browser October 16, 2025 Forward Share Post Upending Lesotho’s HIV Fight    Over two decades, U.S. funding helped Lesotho, a small nation with one of the world’s highest HIV rates, build an effective health network that allowed it to make lifesaving gains to set it on track for AIDS elimination by 2030.  

• Last year Lesotho reached UNAIDS’s 95-95-95 target of HIV-positive people aware of their status, in treatment, and reporting a suppressed viral load. 

But that progress has quickly unraveled in the months following the Trump administration’s abrupt freeze on foreign aid and the dismantling of USAID. Lesotho officials estimate that the country has been set back 15 years and that thousands of lives are at risk.    Through an in-depth AP report and powerful photojournalism, the consequences of cuts and subsequent chaos come into sharp focus: 

• “Everyone who is HIV-positive in Lesotho is a dead man walking,” said Hlaoli Monyamane, a 32-year-old miner with HIV.  

Pivotal PEPFAR funds slashed: Lesotho lost 23% of its PEPFAR funding—one of the hardest-hit nations in terms of the share of such funding cuts. The immediate cutoff led to shuttered clinics and labs, widespread layoffs among health workers, and the sudden halt of prevention programs, including ones targeting mother-to-baby HIV transmission.  

• "When a child who was receiving treatment stops getting treatment, it feels like a crime against humanity,” said Catherine Connor, with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation 

Temporary reinstatement, persistent uncertainty: The U.S. State Department has since announced “bridge” programs to resume lifesaving HIV services, but restarting the programs is slow and fear remains high. 

AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Uruguay has legalized euthanasia, making it one of the first countries in Latin America to pass such legislation; it is now among a dozen countries worldwide to allow assisted suicide. France24    Abortion access in Costa Rica has now been restricted to cases when the mother’s life is in danger after a rule change made by the country’s president that required no legislative approval. AP    ~700 drugs used in the U.S. depend on chemicals solely produced in China, finds a new analysis by U.S. Pharmacopeia; experts fear that such heavy reliance on China could leave American patients vulnerable if the country curtails exports. The New York Times (gift link)   A New York resident with chikungunya is the state’s first known locally acquired case, health officials say; the U.S. hasn't seen a locally acquired infection since 2019. USA Today U.S. and Global Health Policy News Democratic governors form a public health alliance in a rebuke of Trump – AP    How Texas Planned Parenthood is surviving without public funds – The Texas Tribune    Foreign Aid Cuts Halt Migrant and Refugee Health Project in Peru Partners In Health – Partners in Health     Trump Rattles Vaccine Experts Over Aluminum – The New York Times (gift link)  GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY A pharmacist stocks PrEP medicine at a pharmacy in a community center operated by LoveYourself, a nonprofit impacted by U.S. foreign aid cuts. February 19, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. Ezra Acayan/Getty The Danger of ‘America First’ in Global Health    The recently released America First Global Health Strategy presents a bold vision of U.S. leadership while overlooking the realities on the ground that determine whether lives are saved or lost, write Ana Maria Crawford and Michele Barry in an exclusive commentary for GHN. 
The argument: 

• The strategy equates health leadership with dollars spent and medical products exported. However, among high-income nations, the U.S. health system has the highest per-capita spending ($13,432 per person) and the lowest life expectancy (78.4 years).  

• The strategy correctly notes that U.S. foreign assistance programs are often inefficient, but it offers misguided solutions including privatization, conditional aid, and bilateral agreements.  

• Its narrow focus on infectious diseases reflects yesterday’s battles, not today’s realities.  

• The report overlooks the pivotal role of soft diplomacy yet concedes that programs like PEPFAR and smallpox eradication did more than save lives.  

• The authors are most concerned by the strategy’s retreat from multilateralism. Global health crises cannot be contained through a patchwork of bilateral agreements, the pair argues.  

The takeaway: If implemented, the strategy would worsen the very problems it seeks to solve, write Crawford, a Stanford University clinical professor, and Barry, senior associate dean for Global Health at Stanford.    Ana Maria Crawford and Michele Barry for Global Health NOW READ THE FULL COMMENTARY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES SUBSTANCE USE Ireland’s Alcohol Labels Dry Up    Passed in 2018, Ireland’s Public Health (Alcohol) Act—a law that would require cancer warnings on all alcohol containers—was due to take effect in 2026.     But in July, the Irish government quietly postponed the measure until 2028.    Why? Newly obtained documents reveal a campaign by alcohol companies to delay the law’s implementation.     How did they do it? 

• Weaponizing trade disputes by calling the proposed legislation a non-tariff trade barrier. 

• Insisting that future labeling requirements are best pursued at the European level. 

• Using “science‑based” reports to downplay alcohol’s cancer risks. 

Health experts expressed concern the label rollout may never materialize.    The Journal     ICYMI: Why Alcohol Needs a Cancer Warning Label – Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health

Related: When men drink, women and children pay the price – La Trobe University via ScienceDaily  ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION A Series of Very Fortunate Events    To connect with fellow humans, some people get together for dinner, coffee, or a walk. Others make art from pork scraps, or celebrate the birth of someone long dead.    It seems that no matter the hobby, there’s a gathering to match. It just may be on the other side of the planet.     Some options:    Put a fork in it: Pudding mit Gabel—German for “I eat pudding wrong,” per Stephen Colbert—is the ideal meetup if you want to eat the soupy treat with a fork.    Pork art: In Pennsylvania, there’s a contest for sculpting scrapple, an iconic but infamous “porcine delicacy” that marries meat scraps and cornmeal in a loaf to eat or, better yet, use for arts and crafts.     Lipstick on a water buffalo: For the bovine enthusiast, a Chonburi, Thailand, festival gives a glow-up to the humble, and probably unsuspecting, Bubalus bubalis. Yes, that is its official scientific name.    Posthume drama: Everyone except Jane Austen herself seemed to descend on Bath, England, many in costume, to celebrate the literary icon’s 250th birthday. Being honored with a 10-day, 2,000-guest extravaganza sounds … exhausting. Fortunately for Austen, she is already asleep.    QUICK HITS Proposed UK cuts to global aid fund could lead to 300,000 preventable deaths, say charities – The Guardian    'I can't afford to save both twins': Sudan's war left one mother with an impossible choice – BBC    Study finds no link between mRNA COVID vaccines early in pregnancy and birth defects – CIDRAP    Nearly 70% of U.S. adults considered obese under new definition, study finds – CBS    California to ban ultra processed foods from school meals – The Telegraph    Tiny brain nanotubes found by Johns Hopkins may spread Alzheimer’s – Johns Hopkins Medicine    Did lead poisoning doom Neanderthals? – Science   Issue No. 2806
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: Demanding Justice for Health Workers; Rehabilitation: The Forgotten Frontline; and Triple Triumph in the Maldives View this email in your browser October 15, 2025 Forward Share Post A portrait of Viktoriia, a nurse who was injured on July 8, 2024, when a Russian missile struck the Ohmatdyt National Children's Hospital where she worked. Lviv, Ukraine, September 28, 2024. Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Demanding Justice for Health Workers    U.K. medical leaders are urging the government to back International Criminal Court prosecutions for war crimes targeting health workers, patients, and medical facilities.    The appeal from the Royal College of Nursing comes in the wake of a new report that details the rising incidence of violence against health workers, and the “deep and lasting scars” left on communities through such brazen attacks, as described by nurses working under threat in Afghanistan, Burma, Gaza, and Lebanon.  

• “What is the point of international law if they murder our colleagues and don’t face consequences?” asked one senior nurse quoted in the report.  

Key details of the report:  

• Killings of health workers spiked 5X over a decade, from 175 in 2016 to 932 in 2024, driven by conflicts in Palestine, Ukraine, Lebanon, and Sudan. 1,200+ attacks have been reported this year. 

• Working under intimidation from family members and authorities has become common in places like Afghanistan.  

• Health infrastructure collapse and severe shortages hinder the ability to provide basic care.  

A need for action: Along with calling for international partners to investigate and prosecute health law violations, nursing leaders are also calling for restored foreign aid for health systems.  
  The Guardian  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Cannabis use and addiction have been associated with genes also linked to bipolar disorder, obesity, and other traits, per a new genome-wide association study published in Molecular Psychiatry; while the findings may one day lead to treatments for cannabis use disorder, researchers caution that clinical application is years away. The Washington Post (gift link)    The Sudanese city of El Fasher has been declared “uninhabitable,” per a new report from MedGlobal—which described tens of thousands of people trapped inside “pushed to the edge of survival” as they face severe malnourishment, total destruction of infrastructure, and a cutoff from humanitarian aid amid ongoing artillery and drone attacks. The Guardian    120+ people have been hospitalized in Gabes, Tunisia, for respiratory distress related to fumes from a nearby chemical factory that residents say is emitting toxic fumes. Al Jazeera     Safety of children’s toys will be more closely regulated by the EU, which will now require all toys sold online to include a “digital product passport” that will allow consumers and regulators to check each toy’s compliance with EU laws. Euronews  GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY A member of China Search and Rescue Team provides medical consultations for local residents in Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar), April 5. Cai Yang/Xinhua via Getty Rehabilitation: The Forgotten Frontline     Following a disaster, like the March 28 earthquake that shook the Sagaing region in Burma (Myanmar), rehabilitation services are often an afterthought—but they should be introduced far earlier in the response, argues Emaan Zahra Ijaz, a physiotherapy student at Gulf Medical University, UAE.  
  “These are not optional extras; they are medically proven, evidence-based interventions,” writes Ijaz. For many survivors, the real challenge begins after surgery, she notes: Without the aid of early rehabilitation, they face a greater risk of long-term disability, pain, and, critically, the loss of independence. 
  Yet rehabilitation is one of the most overlooked elements of disaster response. Despite international guidelines confirming the need for early introduction—ideally within the first few days—“early rehab is still seen as optional or secondary and is systemically excluded from emergency response plans,” Ijaz says. 
  Success stories: Examples that could serve as models include the ICRC’s deployment of rehabilitation professionals within weeks following the 2020 Beirut Port blast in Lebanon, and the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee’s efforts following the August earthquake in Afghanistan.   READ THE FULL COMMENTARY BY EMAAN ZAHRA IJAZ GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES MATERNAL & CHILD HEALTH Triple Triumph in the Maldives    
The Maldives has officially become the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of three diseases: hepatitis B, HIV, and syphilis.    Recipe for success: 

• 95% of pregnant women receive antenatal care.  

• 95% of newborns receive hepatitis B vaccinations on time.  

• Free antenatal care, vaccines, and diagnostic services—including testing for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B—are included in the Maldives’ universal health coverage. 

A model to follow: Mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B, HIV, and syphilis still affects millions worldwide. But the Maldives elimination efforts are a strong example of elimination strategies for others moving forward.     European AIDS Treatment Group   EVENT A Call to Action for Youth Mental Health     Join the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Mental Health for A Call to Action for Youth Mental Health, a hybrid convening to mark the U.S. launch of the Second Lancet Commission Report, spotlighting the urgent need to address the global adolescent mental health crisis.     This gathering will bring together young people, researchers, and decision-makers to develop an agenda of actionable change for adolescent mental health in the U.S. while highlighting lessons from the Global North and South. 

• October 27–28 at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in D.C.
• RSVP by October 20  (A detailed agenda and logistics information will follow upon confirmation)
• Learn more about the event 

QUICK HITS They Fought Outbreaks Worldwide. Now They’re Fighting for New Lives. – The New York Times (gift link)    Scientists lose jobs and grants as US government shutdown takes a toll – Nature  
  Health of world's forests at 'dismal' levels, causing threat to humanity, report warns – Irish Examiner    This Nobel Peace Prize front-runner didn't win — but did get the 'alternative Nobel' – NPR Goats and Soda    On the Front Line of the Fluoride Wars, Debate Over Drinking Water Treatment Turns Raucous – ProPublica    Shamans openly using psychedelic drugs for treatment in South Africa – BBC     Microplastics are everywhere. You can do one simple thing to avoid them. – The Washington Post (gift link)     Ditch ‘shrink it and pink it’ women’s trainer design, say experts – The Guardian  Issue No. 2805
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: ICE Hinders U.S. Care; A WWII ‘Ghost Fleet’ Poses a Current Threat; and Reporting Beyond the Crash View this email in your browser October 14, 2025 Forward Share Post People rally outside Glendale Memorial Hospital during the "Good Trouble Lives On" vigils for civil rights icon John Lewis. July 17, Glendale, California. David McNew/Getty ICE Hinders U.S. Care     The latest stressor for overburdened U.S. nurses and other health workers: Masked, armed ICE agents in hospitals.      Health workers have reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have interfered with care for some patients, including ICE detainees, per Axios.     On their own: Nurses and doctors are unsure how to protect patients because of a lack of direction from hospitals. 

• But some health workers have erased white boards that list patient names and hidden medical records.  

Recent examples of ICE interference:

• ICE agents have refused to step away from confidential medical conversations between detainees and health care providers. 

• Los Angeles doctors said they can’t do follow-up care for patients taken to an ICE processing facility, per LAist. 

• ICE agents also prevented an emergency nurse from assessing the health of a screaming detainee, according to The Guardian. 

Aren’t hospitals safe havens? No, the Department of Homeland Security canceled a Biden-era “sensitive locations” policy that banned immigration enforcement in hospitals, schools, and churches, per Axios.     The Quote: “We have an ethical and moral duty to provide excellent medical care and to serve the patient’s interest,” an LA doctor told LAist, but armed agents’ presence in the hospital has made it “very difficult to do that.”     Related:     Know Your Rights: Immigrant Safety in Hospitals and Clinics – ACLU NorCal     Health Care Providers and Immigration Enforcement: Know Your Rights, Know Your Patients’ Rights – National Immigration Law Center  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Heavy flooding that swept across Mexico’s Gulf Coast and central states last week killed 64 people; dozens more are missing and 100,000+ homes were destroyed as the government faces criticism over response time and failure to issue alerts or order evacuations. CBC    Aging men’s brains shrink more quickly than those of aging women’s, per a new study of 4,726 brains published in PNAS yesterday; the finding indicates women’s brains age more slowly than men’s, but it doesn’t explain why Alzheimer’s is more common in women. Nature   
   Middle-aged people who stop smoking can effectively erase the habit’s negative impact on cognitive skills such that, after 10 years, they have the same risk for dementia as those who never smoked, per a study involving 9,436 people published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity yesterday. The Guardian    The WHO and partners launched an upgraded version of its public health intelligence system to aid early detection of public health threats; the 2.0 Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) system incorporates new data sources and AI functionalities and is offered as a public good, free of charge to member states and eligible organizations. WHO (news release)  DATA POINT

680,000
—————
Children in Haiti uprooted from their homes by violence—a doubling over last year’s figures. —UNICEF USA
  POLLUTION A WWII ‘Ghost Fleet’ Poses a Current Threat    Oil leaking from a World War II-era Japanese warship poses a growing environmental risk in waters off Micronesia—and officials worry it’s just the start of a burgeoning crisis with historical origins.     The Rio de Janeiro Maru, which sank in the Chuuk Lagoon in 1944, began to leak last month, initially releasing ~4,000 liters of oil per day. 

• Fishing—a critical source of food and income—has been halted in the region, with residents warned not to consume affected food or water. 

“Ticking time bombs”: The 60+ WWII wrecks remaining in the lagoon contain ~39.5 million liters of oil and toxins, and their containment tanks are expected to begin failing within five years without urgent international intervention, say local officials. 
  South China Morning Post  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ROAD SAFETY Reporting Beyond the Crash    Africa is home to the world’s highest road fatality rates.    But news articles about crashes across the continent all too often miss the big picture—blaming victims’ actions and failing to account for unsafe infrastructure, weak laws, and other factors that contribute to preventable deaths.     Shifting framework: That problematic pattern, explored in a WHO review earlier this year of ~1,000 news reports in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania, is driving a WHO-backed initiative to train journalists to report on crashes as a public health crisis rather than isolated accidents.      A new narrative: So far, ~5,000 journalists have been trained worldwide in solutions-based reporting, leading to more expansive stories, investigations, and documentaries.     Think Global Health (commentary)  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Africa: Beyond Malaria - Uncovering the Overlapping Crisis of Long Covid in Ethiopia and Uganda – AllAfrica  

Torture, blackmail, extortion: the dangers of queer online dating in Ghana – The Guardian 

Africa’s floods and droughts are messing with our minds. Researchers are trying to figure out how – Bhekisisa  
  Lessons from Peru: what Australia can learn about the growing risk of dengue fever – ANU Reporter / The Australian National University    Innovation in medicines for global health: a 20-year landscape analysis – Nature  
HEPA purifiers not tied to less viral exposure in elementary classrooms, analysis finds – CIDRAP    Kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests, a study shows – NPR Shots     What the Anti-Sunscreen Movement Misses – Undark  Issue No. 2804
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: Post-Pandemic Picture of Health; ‘Lowest Layer of Hell’ for Burmese Refugees; and Superbugs Stalk Ukraine’s Hospitals “An emerging crisis” of youth deaths. View this email in your browser October 13, 2025 Forward Share Post A view of the "Silent Struggle" statue, an art project by artist Sazza created to break the taboo surrounding suicide, decorated with photos and candles, in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, on November 4, 2024. Ana Fernandez/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty A Post-Pandemic Picture of Health    The top causes of mortality around the world are shifting away from COVID-19 and back to increasingly urgent noncommunicable threats like heart disease, finds the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, published in The Lancet and presented at the World Health Summit in Berlin—the first snapshot of global health since the height of the pandemic, reports CBC.     Highlights of the 2023 report, drawing from 300,000+ data sources across 204 countries, include:     Chronic conditions on top: Heart disease is once again the world’s leading cause of death, eclipsing COVID-19, which fell from 1st in 2021 to 20th in 2023.  

• Other NCDs like stroke, diabetes, and COPD now account for two-thirds of global deaths and disability, while deaths from infectious disease continue to decline.  

Rising youth mortality: The world faces “an emerging crisis” of rising deaths among teenagers and young adults, reports The Guardian. 

• In North America and parts of Latin America, deaths from suicide, drug overdoses, and alcohol use are on the rise among people ages 20–39.  

Global life expectancy rates have also recovered from the pandemic dip—but stark disparities remain, with life expectancy ranging from 83 years in high-income regions to 62 years in sub-Saharan Africa, per Medical Xpress.  

• That gap is “sure to widen” with international aid cuts this year, warned senior author Emmanuela Gakidou. 

Preventable loss: Nearly half of all global death and disability is linked to modifiable risk factors like high blood sugar, poor diet, and smoking.                                                                                          GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Rift Valley Fever has killed 17 in Senegal in an outbreak that has led to 119 cases in the country’s northern livestock-producing region, per the nation’s health ministry. The Telegraph    Antibiotic resistance is increasing sharply among common hospital infections, per the WHO’s Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance report, which found that 40%+ of antibiotics lost potency against infections between 2018 and 2023, and 1 in 6 bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotic treatments in 2023. The Guardian

Overdose deaths among adults 65+ from fentanyl mixed with stimulants surged 9,000% from 2015 to 2023, according to findings presented at the Anesthesiology 2025 annual meeting; the research used CDC data to reveal the trend among older adults, who are often left out of overdose analyses. ScienceDaily    ~600 U.S. CDC workers have been terminated as part of the Trump administration's mass layoffs of federal agency workers; while the administration rescinded more than half of ~1,300 termination notices it originally sent Friday, upheaval at the agency is ongoing. Axios  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES REFUGEES Aid Cuts Deepen the ‘Lowest Layer of Hell’ in Burma    Burmese families that have endured years of conflict and displacement now face even more acute suffering after U.S. aid cuts deprive them of essential food and medical aid. 

• “We are in the lowest layer of hell already,” said an advocate with one shuttered aid group.  

• Now, increasingly desperate refugees along the Thailand-Burma border are forced to scour jungles and rivers for even menial sources of sustenance. 

Vast need: The UN estimates ~40% of Burma’s population now requires humanitarian aid, with children especially vulnerable to malnutrition and starvation.     Void left behind: The U.S. was once the largest aid donor to this population before the abrupt cuts. Aid groups are now seeking new lines of support, with little traction.     AP  OPPORTUNITY ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE The Superbugs Stalking Ukraine’s Hospitals    Drug-resistant infections are surging among Ukraine’s wounded and spreading beyond hospitals into the general population as overwhelmed trauma wards, poor infection control, and misguided antibiotic use fuel spread. 
  Especially notorious: Klebsiella pneumoniae, a once-rare bacterium, is now the “signature pathogen” of the war, and an often-untreatable threat.     New tactics: Doctors have been deploying a range of new strategies against the superbugs, including doubling up on antibiotic regimens, using faster genetic testing to ID strains, and improving antibiotic stewardship.     Stemming from the start: A new pilot program aims to treat battlefield wounds like bioweapon exposure, using hazmat gear and improved antiseptics to prevent infections.  

• “We can’t afford to lose more limbs and more lives,” said Hailie Uren, a clinician who led antimicrobial resistance efforts in Lviv. 

Knowable   QUICK HITS Germany announces billion-euro investment to fight AIDS and malaria – DPA International 
Why Fiji has the world's fastest growing HIV epidemic – ABC Australia (audio)    A brain test may predict antidepressant-related sexual problems, early research suggests – CNN     In Kenya, a search for links between a changing climate and mental health – AP     Bangladesh launches typhoid vaccination drive to combat drug-resistant threat – Straits Times    Maryland failed to document many deaths from suspected child abuse or neglect – The Baltimore Banner    Post-monsoon dengue outbreak risk high: Experts – The Rising Nepal     Your nose gets colder when you're stressed. These thermal images show the change – BBC   Issue No. 2803
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: In Gaza, Fragile Hope for Peace Amid Deepened Devastation; Toxic Textile Recycling; and Egyptian Strongman in Ship Shape “When the fighting stops, a new struggle will begin": WHO View this email in your browser October 9, 2025 Forward Share Post Palestinians gather outside Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on October 9 to celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire agreement expected to take effect soon, in Gaza City, Gaza. Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images Fragile Hope for Peace Amid Deepened Devastation     Israel and Hamas are inching toward a deal that could end two years of war, raising fragile hopes for an imminent ceasefire—and relief for both Israeli hostage families and 2 million Gaza civilians living in dire humanitarian conditions.     But even as hopes build, the health crisis for Gazans amid two years of relentless war continues to deepen, adding urgency to the already-daunting path toward recovery.  
  Acute malnourishment: 54,600+ children in Gaza are acutely malnourished—12,800 severely so, finds a new UN study published in The Lancet; and ~16% of preschool-age children are suffering from life-threatening wasting, reports the AP.  
  Shattered health system: Rebuilding Gaza’s decimated health system will be critical to lasting stability and peace, says the WHO, as Gaza’s health services are near total collapse. Rebuilding will cost $7 billion+, per WHO estimates.  

• “When the fighting stops, a new struggle will begin—to rebuild Gaza’s health system and rescue an entire population from the edge of famine and despair,” said Hanan Balkhy, WHO Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.  

• Only 14 of 36 hospitals are partially functioning, reports Al Jazeera, even as a “constant stream of trauma patients” seek help in Gaza City.  

Aid still lacking: Despite famine declarations, essential aid including food and medicine, and critical medical supplies remain scarce, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told NPR’s All Things Considered, describing “three premature babies on a bed sharing oxygen” due to a lack of incubators.     What’s next: With talks ongoing, the UN has said it is poised to deliver aid to Gaza as soon as possible, reports Euronews.   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Drinking even a single diet beverage a day may up the risk of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) by 60%, while consuming a sugary beverage could increase the risk by 50%, per a new study of 123,788 people without baseline liver disease; the research, not yet peer-reviewed or published, was presented at the United European Gastroenterology Week conference in Berlin Monday. CNN 

The Ebola outbreak in southern DRC is starting to be contained, the WHO said yesterday, with no new cases reported in 10 days; as of October 5, the total case count was 64 (53 confirmed, 11 probable) and 43 deaths (32 confirmed,11 probable). AP    59% of Americans surveyed disapproved of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s job performance as HHS secretary, according to a new KFF poll; but Republicans surveyed reported they trusted RFK Jr. as much as their own health care provider. NPR    Scientists in Japan have identified a potential biological cause of long COVID-19 brain fog; the Yokohama City University researchers found that people with the condition experience widespread increases in activity related to AMPA receptors, a type of molecule crucial for learning and memory. Euronews MALARIA Lessons from Suriname’s Success  
Twenty-five years ago, Suriname had the highest malaria transmission rates in the Americas. This summer, it was the first Amazon nation certified malaria-free by the WHO, thanks to innovative measures that could be a model for neighboring countries, say epidemiologists.     Community-based approach: Suriname embraced a strategy that put rapid testing, treatment, and training in the hands of local communities in remote areas.    Targeting the marginalized: Health workers also created a treatment model for transient gold miners working illegally in the rainforest, who are especially susceptible to malaria.  

• The Malakit Project distributed self-testing and treatment kits directly to miners—contributing to a 43% reduction in malaria cases between 2018 and 2020.  

“It’s about how we treat these vulnerable, often invisible populations,” said Patricia Sanchez with the UN Foundation.    The Telegraph  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The Toxicity of Textile Recycling    Panipat, India, is gaining global prominence as a hub of textile recycling, where factories process ~1 million tons of international textile waste annually, shredding old fabrics and spinning them into new fiber.  
But the lack of both labor and environmental protections has led to mounting health problems and water pollution.    Health crises: Doctors in Panipat report high rates of lung disease, skin conditions, and cancer linked to continuous inhalation of lint and dust containing microfibers and microplastics. 

• The factories often lack basic protections like adequate ventilation and protective masks.  

Environmental fallout: Hundreds of bleaching and dyeing facilities, many unregulated, discharge toxic wastewater into the ground, contaminating local water sources.     The Guardian  ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION An Egyptian Strongman in Ship Shape
Pulling a locomotive and a truck wasn’t enough to convince the Egyptian wrestler Ashraf Mahrous—aka Kabonga—that he was the world’s strongest man.  

• So, seeking a Guinness world record, he’s now pulled a 700-ton ship with only the rope clenched between his teeth. 

Why? While Kabonga grew up hauling his friends around for fun, it was when they saw him “push a car using only a finger” that they encouraged him to get serious, NBC News reports.  
Today, he trains daily at a Cairo gym and puts away at least a dozen eggs, two whole chickens, and 11 pounds of fish. Impressive—but we’re convinced his success hinges not just on strength, but on mind games: “I spoke to [the ship], saying ‘It's either me or you today.’”  
His next goal: pulling a plane with his eyelid muscles. QUICK HITS Indian police arrest owner of cough syrup company linked to deaths of 17 children – Reuters     Do young people need Covid boosters? Research shows more protection for ages 65 and older – NBC News
  Pharmacies facing angry patients over Covid jab confusion – BBC    Pig liver transplant into a living person edges it closer to the norm – New Scientist     Measles warning in WA's Pilbara as confirmed cases rise – ABC News Australia      In Paul Farmer’s Beautiful Garden of Global Health Equity: Reflections on the Third Remembrance of His Passing – New England Journal of Medicine  Issue No. 2802
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: Revised Recommendations for COVID-19 Vaccines; Conscripting Chatbots in the HIV Fight; and Pets as Heralds of Chemical Exposures View this email in your browser October 8, 2025 Forward Share Post Ruth Jones, an immunization nurse, holds a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Borinquen Health Care Center. Miami, Florida, May 29. Joe Raedle/Getty Revised Recommendations for COVID-19 Vaccines
   COVID-19 vaccine guidance in the U.S. is finally becoming clearer after months of confusion, reports NPR.     Who is eligible? The CDC now recommends updated COVID-19 shots for everyone 6 months+, expanding on the FDA’s narrower recommendations in August.  

• The CDC says everyone seeking a shot should first have a conversation with a health care professional about risks and benefits.  

• But prescriptions or even a doctor’s appointment aren’t required; pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens are allowing self-attestation of eligibility.  

What about children? The new requirement could prove more challenging for parents seeking to vaccinate their children, reports NBC.  

• Children’s shots are typically administered in doctors’ offices, which may not be consistently stocked, especially after the delayed guidance.   

• Major pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS typically offer vaccines only to children older than a set threshold like 3 years, 5, or higher, depending on the state.  

Does insurance cover the shot? All major insurance, including Medicaid and Medicare, will cover the shots. The Vaccines for Children program, which provides vaccines to 40% of U.S. children, has begun shipping doses.     Meanwhile, in England, criteria have been limited this year so that only those age 75+, and younger patients with weakened immune systems are being offered free boosters, reports the BBC. 

• Between a third and a half of people who arrive for vaccination appointments are being turned away, leading to angry outbursts, report pharmacists. 

Related: Acting CDC director says to break up MMR shot – The Hill  DATA POINT

90,000
————
Additional microplastic particles ingested each year by bottled water drinkers, compared with tap water drinkers. —Concordia University via ScienceDaily
  The Latest One-Liners   200+ health facilities in eastern DRC have exhausted their supplies due to conflict-related looting, disruptions, and humanitarian funding declines, the ICRC reports today; in a survey last month, 85% of facilities reported medicine shortages, and 40% reported staffing shortages. ICRC (news release) 
  Nearly 28,000 injuries on the job in the U.S. each year are linked to hot weather, per a new study led by George Washington University and Harvard researchers that indicated that workers in states with workplace heat exposure standards had a lower risk of injury on hot days. George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health    A taste-based flu test has been developed by researchers who chemically engineered a sensor that reacts to viral activity in a patient's saliva and releases a tasteable reporter upon detection, per a study published in ACS Central Science; however, additional clinical studies with direct human testing are needed. News Medical    The U.S.’s federal organ transplant network has been ordered to stop some monitoring of transplant and donation outcomes amid the government shutdown, and ~25% of the staff of the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing, contracted by the government to manage most network functions, have been furloughed. Axios  HIV/AIDS Conscripting Chatbots in the HIV Fight     In South Africa, the rollout next year of the injectable anti-HIV drug lenacapavir has the potential to dramatically reduce the virus’s transmission—but only if millions of people take it.  

• Convincing them to do so will involve a concerted push from doctors, nurses … and AI chatbots.  

AI ally: The country’s health department has endorsed a new chatbot, Self-Cav, a WhatsApp-based AI system devoted to helping young South Africans navigate questions about HIV, sex, and other health topics.     Target demographic: Health advocates are especially trying to reach young women ages 15–24, who account for ~40% of new HIV infections despite making up just 8% of the population. 
  Bhekisisa  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Pets as Heralds of Chemical Exposures    Understanding how pollution affects pets could yield insights that improve both animal and human health, researchers say.  

• Because pets share our air, water, and homes but live shorter lives, typically in one location, they may help scientists trace environmental risks more clearly. 

One example: Lead-screening clinics for local dogs, in Flint, Michigan, identified several animals, all living in the same household, whose results were of “extreme concern.” Officials subsequently found that the lead level of the home’s drinking water posed a clear danger to both people and animals.    Because they spend a lot of time on the ground, dogs and cats could be at elevated risk from other chemical contaminants—making them especially good “sentinel species.”  
  The New York Times (gift link)  OPPORTUNITY Stanford Global and Planetary Health Research Convening     The 12th Annual Stanford Global and Planetary Health Research Convening will be held in-person on January 28, 2026, at Stanford University—bringing together students, faculty, staff, and researchers working in global and planetary health from Stanford and beyond. There will be no virtual option to attend.      This year’s theme, Reimagining Global and Planetary Health, explores potential solutions and strategies to help address global and planetary health challenges and build resilience; researchers are invited to submit abstracts to be considered for presentation.  

• Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. PT at the Arrillaga Alumni Center, Stanford University 
• Submit an abstract by Oct. 23 
• Learn more and register 

QUICK HITS Darfur: ICC convicts Janjaweed leader of war crimes and crimes against humanity – UN News    Trump slashed funding for universities that helped create these vital drugs – The Washington Post (gift link)    Past surgeons general warn HHS Secretary Kennedy must go – CIDRAP    The rise of ‘nightmare bacteria’: antimicrobial resistance in five charts – Nature    Public Health Response to the First Locally Acquired Malaria Outbreaks in the US in 20 Years – JAMA Network Open    Promise and gaps in America First strategy for global health – The BMJ (commentary)     Lessons from a historic quest to heal spider bites are helping to fight neglected tropical diseases today – Phys.org    Podcast: How to Cover Science Under Trump – Undark Issue No. 2801
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: Tobacco Use Falls, Industry Pivots; Aid Cuts Hit Yemen Amid Measles Crisis; and Conversion Therapy Goes Before the Court View this email in your browser October 7, 2025 Forward Share Post A customs officer burns cigarettes seized from illegal trade during a press conference in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on July 22. Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP via Getty Tobacco Use Falls, Industry Pivots    Global tobacco use is continuing its decades-long fall, according to a WHO report released yesterday, but the industry is fighting back by marketing new nicotine products to young people.    Positive trendlines:  

• Prevalence of tobacco use among those 15+ was 19.5% last year, dropping from 26.2% in 2010, and 33.1% in 2000. 

• Men in Southeast Asia using tobacco plummeted to 37% last year from 70% in 2000. 

Not so positive: 

• 24.1% of adult Europeans used tobacco in 2024—the world’s highest prevalence, Health Policy Watch reports.  

• In Bulgaria, nearly 36% of people smoke— Europe’s highest prevalence. 

‘New wave’ of addiction: 

• 100 million+ people globally vape, including 86 million adults and 15 million youths ages 13–15, per WHO estimates. .  

• WHO’s Etienne Krug warned of e-cigarettes’ “new wave” of nicotine addiction, per the BBC, saying: “They are marketed as harm reduction but, in reality, are hooking kids on nicotine earlier and risk undermining decades of progress.”  

WHO advice: “Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco-control policies,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.    Related: How Milwaukee smoke shops are handling Wisconsin’s new vape law as confusion persists – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   The deaths of at least 14 children in India have been linked to contaminated cough syrup, the Indian-made Coldrif Syrup—which allegedly contained up to 500X the permissible limit of a toxin called diethylene glycol; Indian police have opened a manslaughter investigation into the deaths. The Telegraph 
  The U.S. has become increasingly reliant on other countries for antibiotics over the past several decades, per a new analysis by Johns Hopkins University researchers that shows that China supplies more than 60% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients U.S. antibiotics manufacturers need—and, since 2020, nearly a third of the finished antibiotics imported by the U.S. come from India. CIDRAP 
  Suicides among Gen Z adults who are now entering their late 20s are exceeding the number of millennials’ suicides a decade ago, per a Stateline analysis of CDC data; 85% of the increase is among Black and Hispanic men. Stateline  
  A historic phase 3 trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of antimalarial drugs in the first trimester of pregnancy—aimed at addressing a longstanding gap in malaria research—enrolled its first patient; the trial is being conducted in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Kenya. Medicines for Malaria Venture  U.S. and Global Health Policy News CDC stops recommending COVID-19 shots for all, leaves decision to patients – AP

CDC signs off on fall Covid shots. It may not be easy to get one, depending on where you live. – NBC     Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired – Nature    Psychiatrists call for RFK Jr. to be replaced as health secretary – NPR  GHN EXCLUSIVE Q&A A nurse records vital signs for a measles patient in the Médecins Sans Frontières isolation ward at Al-Wahda hospital, Dhamar, Yemen. May 27. Mohammed Khawamel/MSF Aid Cuts Hit Yemen Amid Measles Crisis    Even before conflict in Yemen escalated a decade ago, only about half the country’s population had access to health services. Today, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases are rising exponentially amid gaps in routine immunization programs and the loss of U.S. aid funding—which accounted for over 50% of the country’s humanitarian response plan funding in 2024.    “The detrimental impact [of the cuts] cannot be overstated,” Marisa Lister, a Médecins Sans Frontières medical coordinator based in Sanaa, told GHN in a Q&A.    Key challenges:  

• MSF facilities encounter vaccine-preventable diseases daily, including measles, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus.  

• Measles cases at MSF facilities in Yemen have risen 470% since 2022. From April through July 2025, MSF saw 1,400+ measles patients—more than half of them children under 5. 

• Health care needs rise during the peak disease season (July–October). 

• Widespread malnutrition further exacerbates the challenges of treating measles. In one hospital, nearly half of all people treated for measles were classified as severely malnourished.     

For a disease as contagious as measles, “case management alone cannot and will not stop an outbreak,” says Lister. “Instead, the root causes—often inadequate vaccination coverage and poor water and sanitation—need to be tackled.”      Annalies Winny, Global Health NOW  DATA POINT

15 million
——————
Number of deaths per year that could be prevented by adoption of a “planetary health” diet, which could also head off a climate disaster. —South China Morning Post
  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HUMAN RIGHTS Conversion Therapy Goes Before the Court    This week the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments around Colorado’s conversion therapy ban in a case that could have nationwide implications not only for LGBTQ+ protections, but also for how states regulate medical care, reports STAT.     Details: Chiles v. Salazar is a challenge to a 2019 state law that bans licensed therapists from trying to change a young person’s sexual or gender identity—a practice known as conversion therapy that is widely condemned by major psychological and medical groups as ineffective and dangerous. Colorado is one of 20 states with such a ban.  

• But plaintiff Kaley Chiles, a counselor represented by conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), argues that the ban violates therapists’ First Amendment rights.  

Coopted evidence: Meanwhile, researchers say ADF has “profoundly misrepresented” their research on sexual fluidity in the arguments to support conversion therapy, reports The Guardian.    OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Bangladesh dengue cases top 50,000 in 2025 – Outbreak News Today    Haiti battles rabies with vaccines and vigilance – UN News     A three-pronged approach to combat malaria in Burundi – Médecins Sans Frontières     Their parents never got them vaccinated. As young adults, they faced a choice. – The Washington Post (gift link)     Pediatricians Can’t Bear These Costs – The Atlantic (gift link)    A bold doctor sent her kids away and helped beat one of the world's deadliest viruses – NPR Goats and Soda    He Was Expected to Get Alzheimer’s 25 Years Ago. Why Hasn’t He? – The New York Times (gift link)  Issue No. 2800
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: A Nobel Prize for Illuminating the Immune System; Mississippi’s Maternal Care Emergency; and Fishing for Parasites View this email in your browser October 6, 2025 Forward Share Post A screen displays the portraits of the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at a Karolinska Institute press conference. Stockholm, Sweden, October 6. Atila Altuntas/Anadolu via Getty A Nobel Prize for Illuminating the Immune System      Three scientists who conducted groundbreaking research into the human immune system were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine today, with the awards committee calling their discoveries “fundamental” to our understanding of immunology, reports the AP.    Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi made key discoveries to unlock an understanding of peripheral immune tolerance—how the body regulates its immune system, how immune cells are typically prevented from attacking the body, and what happens when they do.     Ongoing impact: “Their discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases,” wrote the Nobel Committee in a brief describing the research.     Interlocking discoveries: The three decades of research began in 1995, when Sakaguchi’s experiments with mice led to the discovery of a previously unknown set of immune cells, now known as regulatory T cells or T-regs, which protect the body against autoimmune diseases, reports The New York Times (gift link).  

• In 2001 Brunkow and Ramsdell discovered a mutation in Foxp3, a gene linked to rare human autoimmune disease, which was later found to control the development of those T-regs. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A baby in Alberta, Canada, died of measles late last week, marking the country’s first death from the outbreak that began last spring; the baby’s mother contracted measles during pregnancy, and the baby, born prematurely, died shortly after birth. CBC    Invasive mosquitoes capable of carrying dengue, chikungunya, and Zika have been located in England for the first time, per a paper published in PLOS Global Public Health; the findings demonstrate the new threat posed by the insects as they move northward through Europe amid rising temperatures. The Telegraph    Brazilians are avoiding liquor as officials investigate a surge in methanol poisoning cases that includes 11 confirmed cases tied to alcohol, 116 suspected cases, and one death. AP    A generic form of the abortion medication mifepristone was approved by the FDA ahead of the government shutdown, per a letter to drugmaker Evita Solutions; it is the second generic version to reach the market. NBC  U.S. and Global Health Policy News Renowned U.S. climate center trims staff ahead of expected budget cuts – Science

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived. - ProPublica

After Trump's Medicaid Cuts, Patients at Rural Maine Clinics Feel the Fallout – The New York Times (gift link)

Exclusive: After months in limbo, four NIH institute directors fired – Science  THE QUOTE
  “My work isn’t dangerous, but stopping research that could lead to cures could be.” ————— ––Sarah Stanley, a University of California, Berkeley tuberculosis researcher, in a STAT commentary: The NIH ordered me to stop my ‘dangerous’ gain-of-function research. It isn’t dangerous at all.
  MATERNAL HEALTH Mississippi’s Maternal Care Emergency     Last year, Mississippi reported its highest rate of infant deaths in over a decade: 10 deaths per 1,000 births. Among Black babies, the rate was markedly higher: 15.2.    The uptick led the state to declare a public health emergency in August.  

• “If having babies dying at the rate that our babies are dying is not a public health emergency, I don't know what is,” said Daniel Edney, Mississippi’s health officer.  

Convergence of crises: Cost and lack of insurance are major barriers to care, as the state resisted Medicaid expansions; and more than half of Mississippi's counties are considered “maternity care deserts.”    Bigger picture: Mississippi’s crisis is a warning for the rest of the U.S., say obstetricians, as cutting Medicaid expansions in other states could lead ~6 million women to lose coverage.     NPR Shots   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NTDs: SOLUTIONS Fishing for Parasites     Africa’s Lake Victoria is infested with schistosomes, parasites that can infiltrate the skin and cause schistosomiasis, or bilharzia, a disease that affects 200 million people, kills ~10,000 people a year, and impairs children’s physical and cognitive development. 

• The schistosomes thrive within the lake’s abundant snail population.  

A new angle in angling: To reduce the snail (and parasite) population, scientists have turned to catfish—a natural predator that has steadily disappeared from the lake in recent years, per a study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.  

• Restocking catfish cut snail numbers by 57% and bilharzia infections by 55%. 

The Economist   OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS All in one ‘super’ Covid vaccines could slow next pandemic, study finds – The Telegraph

Russia spiralling into an HIV crisis – The Lancet (commentary)

Afghanistan: Ban on Girls’ Education Linked to Rise in Forced and Child Marriage – IPS

Yes, Amish people do have autism, but we still don’t know how many do – – STAT (commentary)

Fresh Insights Into the Stubborn Problem of Lead Water Pipes – Undark

Millions could be living with hidden smell loss after COVID without knowing – NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine via ScienceDaily

Cannabis and Breastfeeding: What’s the Harm? – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

With makeshift jump ropes and hide and seek, kids play to cope with crisis – NPR Goats and Soda Issue No. 2799
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: The Collapse of Malaria Care in Cameroon; What’s Driving Turkey’s Diabetes Spike? And The Fattest Fat Bear Week View this email in your browser October 2, 2025 Forward Share Post 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. 

DW   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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96 Global Health NOW: U.S. Government Shutdown Centers on Health Care; Bangladesh Bets on British Malaria Vaccine; and Inside China’s Detention Camps Plus: President Trump's deal with Pfizer to lower Medicaid drug prices View this email in your browser October 1, 2025 Forward Share Post 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
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: A New Vaccine for the Meningitis Belt; How Early Unions Endanger Girls; and Bologna Slows Down—and Sparks a Showdown View this email in your browser September 30, 2025 Forward Share Post 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
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: New Consensus to Tackle NCDs—Without the U.S.; Wrapping Babies in Malaria Protection; and Contraceptive Stigma in Sierra Leone View this email in your browser September 29, 2025 Forward Share Post Rural doctor Zhu Daqing (L) and another doctor measure a patient's blood pressure in Xinshui Village. Guizhou Province, China, July 19, 2023. Yang Wenbin/Xinhua via Getty New Consensus to Tackle NCDs—Without the U.S.    A UN declaration to address noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health will move forward with wide global support, despite being derailed by the U.S. at a High-Level General Assembly session, reports Health Policy Watch.     Broad support: The declaration sets 2030 targets for ongoing efforts in areas like tobacco reduction and hypertension control and introduces goals around mental health access for the first time, per the WHO. The draft was widely supported by UN blocs, with leaders of countries like the Philippines saying “the investment case is clear.”  
  RFK Jr.’s rejection: But the draft could not be adopted by consensus after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the country would “reject” the declaration. 

• Kennedy said the declaration overreached while failing to address key health issues—though he did not elaborate on those problems, reports NPR Goats and Soda. He also cited concerns over gender identity and abortion, though the declaration does not address either of those issues.  

• The declaration will still be submitted for a vote at the UN General Assembly in October; advocates remain optimistic about its adoption without U.S. support.  

Critical components missing: Key tax measures on unhealthy products were weakened by corporate lobbying, reports The Guardian.  

• “We saw specifically language changing from having countries implement health taxes … to now have countries consider health taxes, and we saw the removal of targets,” Mary-Ann Etiebet, president and CEO of Vital Strategies, told Bhekisisa’s Mia Malan (video). 

• And air pollution goals omitted any mention of fossil fuels, which “is like pledging to tackle smoking without mentioning tobacco,” said the Clean Air Fund’s Jane Burston, per Devex. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES DATA POINT

~3.3 million
———————
The number of lives saved around the world by American foreign aid in 2023. —Our World in Data
  The Latest One-Liners   1,000+ children in Indonesia fell ill with food poisoning last week, per the BBC—bringing total cases to 6,000+ since January—in a spate of incidents tied to an ambitious push to deliver ~80 million free meals; President Prabowo Subianto defended the program today and announced steps to improve safety. The Jakarta Post     The U.S. FDA announced plans last Friday to review the safety of the abortion drug mifepristone, in a move that could lead to new dispensing restrictions. CBS    A distinct form of diabetes with symptoms meeting neither type 1 nor type 2 criteria has been named type 5 diabetes by the International Diabetes Federation in a commentary published in The Lancet Global Health that urges other health entities to adopt the name for the condition, which could affect ~25 million people. NPR Goats and Soda     Flu in U.S. children is leading to more cases of severe encephalopathy and related deaths, per new CDC data; the nation logged 280 pediatric flu deaths last year—the deadliest apart from the H1N1 pandemic in 2009–2010—as fewer children receive flu vaccines. NBC  U.S. and Global Health Policy News Ebere Okereke: America First in Global Health: How Africa Should Respond – Think Global Health (commentary)     Trump Cancels Trail, Bike-Lane Grants Deemed ‘Hostile’ to Cars – Bloomberg CityLab    ‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry – Science    White House considers funding advantage for colleges that align with Trump policies – The Washington Post (gift link)    Medical Groups Warn Against Visa Fees for Foreign Doctors – The New York Times (gift link) 

WHO Staff in Geneva Call for Freeze in Layoffs and Independent Review of Downsizing Plans – Health Policy Watch  MALARIA Wrapping Babies in a New Protection    Infants in Uganda spend much of their first two years carried snugly in cloth wraps called lesus. Such wraps could potentially provide even greater security against malaria once treated with mosquito repellent, finds a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.     Key findings: Among 400 pairs of moms and children who used baby wraps treated with permethrin—an insecticide commonly sprayed on bed nets and clothes—malaria infections fell by ~65%, per the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.  

• The benefit held through 24 weeks, with fewer hospitalizations and no serious side effects. 

Wraps to address gaps: The wraps could offer low-cost protection for infants too young for vaccination.  

• “There’s a lot of the day when you’re not under a net. Baby wraps fill in some of those gaps when a net isn’t particularly helpful,” author Ross Boyce told MedPage Today.  

Thanks for the tip, Michael Macdonald!   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES Thanks for the tip, Dave Cundiff!  FAMILY PLANNING Contraceptive Stigma in Sierra Leone    Stigma around contraceptive implants in women is an ongoing barrier to family planning in Sierra Leone, even as the country seeks to improve reproductive health services.    No women spared: The stigma applies both to single women, who are expected to abstain from sex, and to married women, who are encouraged to embrace having children.  

• “Societal pressure has driven many girls to remove the implant or switch to less visible methods,” said Eunice Dumbuya, an activist in Freetown.  

And yet: The country is seeing progress in access. Contraceptive prevalence is 24% for all women in Sierra Leone, per the country’s 2019 Demographic and Health Survey.  

• The country is part of the FP2030 initiative, which aims to make modern contraception available to all women and girls by 2030. 

IPS 

Related: Why more Kenyan women are turning to IUDs for family planning – The Standard OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS They fled war and sexual violence and found a safe space in Athens. Then the aid cuts hit – The Guardian

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers were badly wounded in Gaza. Here's what saved them – NPR Goats and Soda

The forgotten pandemic: Hong Kong influenza in Australia (1968–1970) – Medical Journal of Australia

For Indigenous Infants, This Devastating Virus Finally Meets a Formidable Foe – Scientific American

Twenty-Five Years of Mifepristone: How Activists Brought the Abortion Pill to America and Changed Reproductive Health Forever – Ms.

Nearly 7 in 10 COVID survivors tested didn't know they had a dulled sense of smell – CIDRAP

Some people tape their mouths shut at night. Doctors wish they wouldn’t – AP Issue No. 2795
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: High Stakes, Shifting Landscapes on Climate Action; ‘Nightmare Bacteria’ on the Rise; and They’re Kind of a bIg Deal China, the world’s top emitter, pledged to cut emissions while U.S. sits on the sidelines at climate summit. View this email in your browser September 25, 2025 Forward Share Post People ride in heavily polluted fog on Wenhua West Road in Zaozhuang in China's Shandong province. January 3, 2024. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images  High Stakes, Shifting Landscapes on Climate Action    Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, the “stakes could not be higher” as global warming accelerates, leading scientists and UN officials warned world leaders convened at the UN General Assembly yesterday.  

• 2024 was the first year global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C, the Agreement’s critical threshold—leading to extreme weather disasters and worsening health and infrastructure challenges in communities across the globe, reports UN News.  

Intervention still possible: If countries cooperate to transition to clean energy sources and eliminate food system waste, the under-1.5°C goal can still be reached, scientists said. And yesterday, most of the world’s leading powers signaled they were willing to do that, reports DW, which provided a rundown of where major players stand.  

• “We need new plans for 2035 that go much further, and much faster,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.  

New plans submitted: Ahead of COP30 in Brazil in November, 47 countries submitted updated climate plans, but big emitters like the EU and India have yet to show their new plans.     China makes a modest—but pivotal—pledge: The world’s top emitter pledged to cut emissions by 7%–10% by 2035 and expand clean energy, aiming for over 30% non-fossil fuel use. The relatively small goal could still be “transformative” globally, experts said.  
U.S. on the sidelines: The U.S. did not participate in the summit, with President Donald Trump roundly dismissing climate action as a “green scam,” reports The New York Times (gift link). Other global leaders appeared undeterred, with the EU’s climate commissioner saying the bloc would do the “exact opposite of what the U.S. is doing.”  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
90% of global research and development funding is being spent on universities, nonprofits, and government agencies in high-income countries, finds a new report from Impact Global Health; while that money is directed to solve problems such as neglected diseases in LMICs, just 10% of the funding is going directly to LMICs themselves. Devex    A potential treatment for leishmaniasis has been identified in compounds found in Okinawan marine sponges, which effectively killed the disease-causing parasite while sparing human cells, finds a new study published in Marine Biotechnology; researchers are hopeful the treatment could also be used against other protozoan diseases. Tokyo University of Science via Phys.org    Over one-third of hospital-acquired infections involved drug-resistant bacteria, finds a new study published in eClinicalMedicine that drew on 34 hospital-based studies involving 20,658 patients across 18 countries. Medical Xpress    Basic services in health facilities—including reliable water, sanitation, hygiene, waste management, and electricity—have improved in 100+ countries that have made “unprecedented efforts”; however, billions are still served by facilities without those essential features. WHO  ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE ‘Nightmare Bacteria’ on the Rise    Infections from drug-resistant “nightmare bacteria” spiked ~70% in the U.S. between 2019 and 2023, finds a new report from CDC researchers published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.    Driving the increase: bacteria with the NDM gene, a resistance gene that makes treating infections extremely difficult.  

• Once rare, NDM-related infections rose 460%, with 1,800+ cases in 2023 across 29 reporting states. But that is likely only a partial picture, researchers say.   

• “The rise of NDMs in the U.S. is a grave danger and very worrisome,” said David Weiss, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University.  

Possible COVID link: Heavy antibiotic use during the pandemic may have fueled resistance.    AP  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES VACCINES New Protections for Newborns    Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a leading cause of newborn sepsis, meningitis, and lifelong disabilities—causing 400,000 infections, 91,000 infant deaths, and 46,000 stillbirths annually, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.     Yet it has long flown under the radar. It is often undetected in pregnancy, carried by 15% of women without symptoms.  

• While testing and antibiotic protocols have become standard in high-income countries, many cases go undetected worldwide.  

Vaccines on the horizon: A long-awaited maternal vaccine from Pfizer is now in phase 3 trials, and another vaccine from Danish company MinervaX is also under development.  

• “There has been incredible progress. But it has taken so long,” said physician Carol Baker, who proposed a GBS vaccine in 1976.  

Science   ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION They’re Kind of a bIg Deal     It’s “arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar.” Science’s “most whimsical and notorious honor.”      It’s the Ig Nobels, the prize for research that “makes people laugh, then think.” And year after year, it does.      It’s hard to pick a favorite from this year’s roster of ridiculousness. Some top choices investigate pressing issues like: 

• The growth rate of one man’s fingernail for 35 years 

• Whether cows painted like zebras deter flies  

• Lizards’ pizza preferences 

• Alcohol’s impact on how well bats can fly—and how well humans speak a foreign language 

The honors were presented in a digestion-themed evening that grumbled with entertainment, including research explained in 24 seconds, an operatic ode to gastroenterology, and paper planes pelting winners.     We can’t all win bIg, but can we at least be invited to the party?  QUICK HITS EU, WHO counter Trump's warnings on autism and pregnancy – Reuters     Sexually transmitted disease cases fall, but not syphilis in newborns – AP  
Phase 1 trial finds high dose of malaria monoclonal antibody is safe, elicits immune response – CIDRAP     New European Partnership on One Health AMR: €253 million for research and innovation against antimicrobial resistance – European Commission    Harvard Dean Was Paid $150,000 as an Expert Witness in Tylenol Lawsuits – The New York Times (gift link)   What to Know About MMR and MMRV Vaccines – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Pubilc Health 
  The rare disease that stops us feeling fear – BBC  Issue No. 2794
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: A Surge of Diseases in Sudan; Centering Youth and Mental Health at UNGA; and Firearm Suicides Among Older Americans View this email in your browser September 24, 2025 Forward Share Post Patients receive treatment in the cholera isolation center at the refugee camps of western Sudan. Tawila, Darfur, August 14. AFP via Getty A Surge of Diseases in Sudan   In war-ravaged Sudan, medics are fighting their own multifront war against a surge of diseases overwhelming the country’s devastated health infrastructure, reports Al Jazeera.     Malaria, typhoid, and dengue are all on the rise amid the country’s rainy season—especially in Khartoum, which reported 5,000+ cases of those diseases and dozens of deaths in the past month.  

• Khartoum state’s health ministry recorded 14,012 dengue cases since January 2024, reports Sudan Tribune. Mobile clinics have been deployed throughout the region.   

Cholera has spread to all 18 states of Sudan, with 113,600+ cases and 3,000+ deaths nationwide. Darfur is particularly affected, reporting a high fatality rate, reports the AP.  

• The WHO has launched a vaccination campaign in the worst-hit areas, after weeks battling “access, transport and logistical challenges,” per UN News. The campaign aims to protect 1.86 million people, especially children, who are disproportionately affected. 

Hospitals are overcrowded and struggling to treat patients amid medicine and equipment shortages. 

• In conflict-affected areas, 70% of hospitals are non-operational; half of Khartoum’s hospitals have been destroyed.  

Related: Sudanese children face forced recruitment, sexual violence in war, official says – Sudan Tribune  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Afghanistan’s malaria case count rose 21%+ from July to August, with ~13,000 infections, per the WHO’s latest update—which also notes declining but still-high caseloads of other diseases including respiratory infections, diarrhea, and measles, and warns that the August 31 earthquake has further taxed already overloaded health services. Kabul Now
  Consuming alcohol in any amount raises dementia risk, suggests a large combined observational and genetic study published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine; the findings also “challenge the notion that low levels of alcohol are neuroprotective.” Medical Xpress    Childhood exposure to chemicals in plastic household items has been linked to long-term health risks, per a new study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health that found that three commonly used classes of chemicals—phthalates, bisphenols, and PFAS—can be tied to ongoing conditions like heart disease, asthma, infertility, and obesity, especially when encountered early in life. News Medical    A study linking apple cider vinegar to weight loss has been retracted by The BMJ Group; the study claimed drinking diluted apple cider vinegar could lead to dramatic weight loss, but a later investigation found irregularities in the data and that the results could not be replicated. ABC News (Australia)  U.S. and Global Health Policy News Death by aid cuts: how a decision in the US led to the loss of a mother in Yemen – The Guardian 
The nation where Trump’s aid cuts are colliding with a deadly Ebola outbreak: ‘What we feared has now happened’ – The Independent    Trump’s ‘tough it out’ to pregnant women meets wave of opposition by medical experts – STAT    Trump says Cuba has ‘virtually no autism.’ That’s news to Cuban doctors – CNN 

White House slashes medical research on monkeys and other animal testing, sparking fierce new debate – CBS GHN EXCLUSIVE Teenage girls planting a tree near homes destroyed by floods along the bank of the Mathare River. Nairobi, Kenya, June 5, 2024. Boniface Muthoni/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Centering Youth at the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health
Tomorrow, for the first time, mental health will be at the heart of a UN meeting involving all member states at the heads of state level—presenting an opportunity to make mental health, and specifically young people’s mental health, an economic and moral priority, write a trio of authors at the center of the push.     At the UN High-Level Meeting on the Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, taking place tomorrow in New York, governments will make political and financial commitments to mental health—but the negotiations to shape the outcomes have been underway for months.     The draft political declaration calls on all UN member states to take steps including: 

• Scaling up services, support, and treatment for mental health conditions. 

• Improving suicide prevention measures and addressing mental health stigma. 

• Regulating harmful digital environments in a way that protects young people’s rights.    

To improve young people’s lives around the world, these words need to be translated into action, the authors say—sharing examples of partnerships like the Being Initiative, a global, multistakeholder effort to promote investment in mental health led by Grand Challenges Canada, with partners including Science for Africa Foundation, Fondation Botnar, United for Global Mental Health, Orygen, and the UK’s Department for Health. 
  Nicole Bardikoff, Aline Cossy-Gantner, and Sarah Kline for Global Health NOW   READ THE FULL COMMENTARY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES GUNS Firearm Suicides Among Older Americans    Gun suicides among Americans ages 70+ have risen steadily from 2009 to 2023, claiming 63,836 lives over that period, finds a new analysis of CDC data. 

• The trend worries researchers, as the demographic makes up a growing share of the U.S. population.  

Behind the uptick: A range of factors impacting older people: severe illness, isolation, lack of mental health support, financial pressures, and easy access to firearms.  

• The U.S. has a much higher suicide rate among older adults than Mexico or Canada, which have stricter gun laws. 

Most at risk: Older white men in rural areas.     Possible interventions: Doctors can do more to assess their older patients’ mental health and connect them to resources, say advocates. Gun sellers can also provide screening and resources.     The Trace  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Decades after they endured forced contraception, Greenlandic women still suffer from the trauma – AP
  Toxic Air in Tanzania’s Port City Threatens Millions, Researchers Warn – IPS    Two new studies predict results of declining MMR uptake, restricting non-medical vaccine exemptions – CIDRAP    Endemicity, disability and neglect: Leprosy in Colombia 2007–2020 – PLOS    Officials, doctors urge vaccination amid 'concerning' surge in Chicago mpox cases – Chicago Sun Times    Chicago Has Hundreds of Thousands of Toxic Lead Pipes—and Millions of Unspent Dollars to Replace Them – Inside Climate News     The wellness industry needs to stop scaring people – STAT (commentary)    Ethicists flirt with AI to review human research – Science  Issue No. 2793
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: Trump Links Autism With Tylenol; Russia’s Infected Troops; and ‘Nicotine-Free’ Vapes Not Free of Health Concerns View this email in your browser September 23, 2025 Forward Share Post President Trump (C) takes questions after making an announcement on “significant medical and scientific findings for America’s children” at the White House. September 22, Washington, D.C. Andrew Harnik/Getty Trump Links Autism With Tylenol    President Trump dispensed dubious medical advice from the White House yesterday, telling pregnant women about a dozen times to avoid taking Tylenol (known as acetaminophen in the U.S., or paracetamol in most countries), the AP reports.     Trump told pregnant women to “fight like hell” not to take Tylenol, claiming the medication would increase the autism risk in their children, per The Atlantic (gift link).      What does the evidence say? No definitive scientific evidence has linked Tylenol use by pregnant mothers with autism in their children, NPR reports, though the FDA will be updating drug labels to advise that they avoid acetaminophen. 

• An Environmental Health article in August that analyzed 46 previous studies found 27 had significant links between prenatal acetaminophen use and neurodevelopmental disorders. 

• However, study co-author Ann Bauer, a University of Massachusetts epidemiologist, told NPR the U.S. government “may be jumping the gun,” adding: “I think those of us in the research community would like to see stronger evidence.” 

Trump on vaccines: The president also advised spreading out vaccinations, overturning the current immunization schedule, per The New York Times (gift link), as heads of HHS, NIH, FDA, and Medicare/Medicaid stood behind him. 

• Medical experts like New York University bioethicist Art Caplan said the president’s guidance was irresponsible.  

Related: The drug Trump plans to promote for autism shows real (and fragile) hope – The Washington Post (gift link)   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Measles cases are up 31-fold in the Americas this year, per PAHO, with 11,300+ confirmed infections and 23 deaths recorded in 10 countries as of mid-September compared to 358 cases for the same period last year, with 71% of cases in unvaccinated people; Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. accounted for 96% of cases. Firstpost

Violence and abuse by patients against staff in GP clinics are widespread globally and usually triggered by long waiting times and providers’ refusal to prescribe requested drugs, according to new research analyzing 50 previous studies from 24 countries. The Guardian

The Heritage Foundation urged the FBI to add a new designation to its list of domestic violent extremist groups for Transgender Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism, claiming violence from trans people and allies is increasing, although trans people make up less than 1% of mass shooters and are much more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence. The Advocate

In China, AMR-attributable deaths in children under 5 declined by 95% over the past three decades but rose by 68% among people 65+, per a study in BMC Medicine; the authors attribute the mortality reduction in young children partially to pneumococcal vaccination and WASH efforts, and the increased mortality among older people to chronic health issues and weakened immune systems. CIDRAP THE QUOTE
  “High blood pressure is like a battering ram.” —————————— Tom Frieden, President/CEO, Resolve to Save Lives, speaking at a UNGA side event this morning on the toll of hypertension as “every second of every day, the blood is slamming against the brain, heart, and kidneys.”  
  INFECTIOUS DISEASES Russia’s Infected Troops    Russia has formed military units composed of soldiers with HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases, deploying them in segregated units on the front in eastern Ukraine. 

• The troops are outfitted in armbands and bracelets that signal their illness.  

A growing crisis: The move speaks to a mounting health emergency within the Russian military, which is seeing surging cases of HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis.  

• The number of Russian soldiers with HIV was 20X higher at the end of 2023 than it was at the start of the war.   

• Infections have spread via syringes and other contaminated medical instruments used by Russian battlefield medics, as well as by rising drug use, say Ukrainian officials.  

Risk to Ukrainian troops: Ukrainian soldiers say they have received no guidance on interacting with wounded or killed Russian troops, raising contamination concerns. 
The Telegraph    Related: Despite U=U, concerns about sharing HIV status persist among older people – aidsmap  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES SMOKING ‘Nicotine-Free’ Vapes Not Free of Health Concerns    Nicotine-free products are swiftly gaining popularity worldwide—and are largely unregulated outside Europe, raising safety concerns among researchers. 
  Background: Products like Spree Bar, Happy Hippo, and Outlaw Dip are made with nicotine analogs—synthetic chemicals like 6-methyl nicotine—to provide what manufacturers describe as an alternative, less-addictive buzz.  
  Risk remains: But some of the analogs may be more potent and addictive than nicotine, say researchers. And some “safe” ingredients may be included in unsafe concentrations—or may pose risks when inhaled versus digested.  

• Plus: Bright packaging and candy-like flavors may attract and hook underage users. 

No oversight: “These products were intentionally designed to bypass regulation,” said Sven Eric Jordt, a researcher at Duke University. 
  The Examination  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Special edition: Your essential UNGA primer – Devex    Ebola outbreak in the DRC: why is it so deadly? – Nature     Teen pregnancies up for the first time in 14 years – BBC    Bill Gates pledges $US912 million to AIDS and malaria non-profit as US cuts funding – ABC Australia    For-Profit Corporations Are Buying Up More Psychiatric Hospitals. Some Flout Federal Law With Scarce Repercussions. – ProPublica    TB stigma in India: A narrative review of types of stigma, gender differences, and potential interventions – PLOS Global Public Health    Ticks are migrating, raising disease risks if they can't be tracked quickly enough – KFF Health News     Scientists discover microplastics deep inside human bones – Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo via ScienceDaily    If A.I. Can Diagnose Patients, What Are Doctors For? – The New Yorker  Issue No. 2792
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: A Volatile Vaccine Panel; Danes’ Cancer Care; and Housing, Health, and Climate Change Confusion and concern followed last week's key CDC vax panel meeting. View this email in your browser September 22, 2025 Forward Share Post Martin Kulldorff (C) is seen during a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. September 19, Chamblee, Georgia. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty A Volatile Vaccine Panel
   Confusion and concern followed a key U.S. vaccine advisory panel’s meeting last week, as it narrowed recommendations for some vaccines, tabled other controversial votes, and engaged in “chaotic” debate, reports NPR Shots.     The result: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the CDC and is now composed of members hand-picked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., backed away from its most controversial proposals.    But: Medical experts warned that the meetings reflected a politicization of medicine that will lead to the “erosion of the committee’s integrity,” per The Washington Post (gift link).     Takeaways:     COVID-19 vaccine: ACIP voted against a proposal requiring prescriptions for COVID-19 vaccines but voted to limit recommendations for the shot to adults aged 65+ and those with health conditions. People under 65 should consult their doctor before getting vaccinated, the committee said.     MMRV vaccine: The panel recommended limiting the use of the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine in children under 4, saying instead that MMR vaccine and varicella vaccine be administered separately for that age group. 

• But: ACIP voted that children in federal programs like Vaccines for Children can still access the combined shot.  

Hepatitis B: ACIP voted to “indefinitely postpone” ending universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination in favor of a more targeted approach, after backlash from pediatric experts who said the move would endanger vulnerable children, reports Politico.  
  Related:     Why universal COVID-19 vaccine guidance offers stronger protection than high-risk-only policies – News Medical   Winner of mRNA Nobel Prize says ACIP member’s claim that Covid vaccines persist is “absolutely impossible” – STAT     Several Northeastern States and America’s Largest City Announce the Northeast Public Health Collaborative – NYC Health (news release)  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Ebola has claimed 31 lives in the DRC’s Kasai Province outbreak—a sharp increase over the 16 reported September 14—with 48 confirmed and probable cases so far, the WHO said late last week. UPI

A flesh-eating disease in Nigeria has killed seven people and infected 67 others in the remote community of Malabu; federal health officials say bacterial disease Buruli ulcer is the primary suspect but confirmation is still pending. The Guardian (Nigeria)    China extended the prison sentence of Covid whistleblower Zhang Zhan for another four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to Reporters sans Frontières. The Independent 
  Stanford University scientists have created the first-ever AI-designed virus; the virus, discussed in a preprint paper bioRxiv last week, has a unique mission: targeting and killing Escherichia coli (E. coli). Nature  U.S. and Global Health Policy News
______________________________________________ Trump admin reportedly set to link autism to Tylenol use in pregnancy – CNBC     The Trump Administration’s Response to Congo’s Ebola Outbreak Isn’t Normal, Infectious Disease Leaders Say – NOTUS 
  ‘America First’ Global Health Strategy Commits to Funding Medicines and Health Workers – In Time-Limited, Bilateral Deals – Health Policy Watch 
  Despite fear of retaliation, hundreds of federal workers urge Congress to protect medicine and science – STAT    This Geriatrics Training Program Escaped the Ax. For Now. – The New York Times (gift link)   DATA POINT

39%
———
Americans who have confidence that RFK Jr. is providing trustworthy public health information, per a new poll. —Annenburg Public Policy Center / University of Pennsylvania
  CANCER Lessons From the Danish Care Model    UK health policymakers creating a new NHS, long-range cancer care plan are looking to Denmark for guidance.    Major strides: From 1995 to 1999, Denmark's five-year survival rate for rectal cancer was ~48%; by 2014, that rate had risen to 69%.  
  How? Denmark’s health system has implemented benchmarks for quick diagnoses followed up by immediate treatment, home chemotherapy administration, and upgraded hospital screening equipment. 

• "They are diagnosing cancer earlier, people are surviving longer, more people are taking up screening – all of those factors as well as investment in workforce and kit are critical components of a cancer plan,” says Cancer Research UK’s Michelle Mitchell. 

BBC GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HOUSING At the Nexus of Climate Change and Health 
Housing is supposed to play a “frontline role” when it comes to protecting human health.     But as climate change accelerates, housing’s role has become more complex, per a new Lancet Public Health paper.    Multidirectional impact: Housing is “a contributor, an outcome, and a mediator” of climate-health interactions, the paper finds: 

• Contributor: The construction and operation of homes increase greenhouse gas emissions.  

• Outcome: As extreme weather events increase, housing is increasingly affected—becoming unsafe and unaffordable.  

• Mediator: Suitable, adaptive housing can protect humans from harmful exposure. 

Push for better policy: The authors urge system-wide housing reforms, from construction to energy policy, to improve resilience, equity, and sustainability. 
The Lancet Public Health  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS UN ‘gravely alarmed’ by deteriorating situation in Sudan’s el-Fasher – Al Jazeera    An HIV Outbreak in Maine Shows the Risk of Trump’s Crackdown on Homelessness and Drug Use – KFF Health News Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!     Amendments to the International Health Regulations enter into force worldwide – News Medical      Extreme weather events can have lasting health effects, researchers find – Spectrum News  
  Mouth Microbes Linked to Pancreas Cancer Risk – MedPage Today    The importance of language in medical training materials – Michigan Health Lab    How did assaults on science become the norm — and what can we do? – Nature (book review)  Issue No. 2791
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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  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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