96 Global Health NOW: The Health-Improving Power of Pollinators; and The Deep Disparities in Kenya’s AI-Driven Health Coverage View this email in your browser May 7, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES At least 29 passengers left a cruise ship in the midst of a hantavirus outbreak on April 24, without contact tracing, after the first on board passenger death, but the WHO maintains the risk to the public is still low, per the AP; officials believe the outbreak could have originated from a bird-watching excursion in Argentina, where hantavirus cases have been on the rise, France 24 reports. 
  Shootings at hospitals have increased steadily over 25 years, from 6 to 34 events per year—a 6.4% increase annually, finds a new study published in JAMA Network Open, which pointed to the need for "hospital-specific prevention strategies,” including improved weapons screening processes. MedPage Today    COVID-19 can lead to blood clots, heart attack, and stroke because of the virus’s impact on proteins in blood vessels, per new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study found that viral damage to thrombomodulin—a protein on the surface of blood vessel cells—creates clots, which then travel throughout the body and disrupt blood flow. CIDRAP 

Plant-based meat and dairy products in U.K. supermarkets contain a “prevalence” of mycotoxins, which are fungi-produced poisonous compounds, finds new research published in the journal Food Control; all 212 meat- and dairy-substitute products tested contained the toxins, which pose little risk in low quantities, but “could lead to a cumulative build-up” resulting in health problems, researchers said. The Independent
IN FOCUS A honeybee sits on a marigold flower to collect nectar. Kathmandu, Nepal, February 8, 2024. Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto via Getty The Health-Improving Power of Pollinators    Wild insect pollinators have a direct impact on human health and livelihoods through the critical role they play in food production and nutrition, finds new research published in Nature that quantifies those connections in precise and tangible ways.     Exploring the links in Nepal: To “understand and harness the pathways linking biodiversity to human health,” researchers spent a year inside 10 farming villages in Jumla District, Nepal, where three-quarters of the population depends directly on smallholder farming, reports NPR.  

• "That link between the biodiversity around them, and their health, their nutrition, their livelihoods is very, very direct,” explained lead author Thomas Timberlake.  

• Researchers tracked daily diets of 776 people and cataloged extensive activity between insects and crops across 500+ species—gauging the influence of insects on crops, and crops on humans.  

A vast web of connections: Pollinators were essential to crops that accounted for 44% of household farming income and 20%+ of vital nutrient intake, including vitamin A, folate, and vitamin E.     Interdependent losses: Some populations are drastically affected by the decline of pollinators like native honeybee populations, which are critical for pollinating multiple crops, and which have dropped by ~50% over ~10 years in some Nepalese regions due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change.  
Symbiotic gains: Researchers identified “relatively simple interventions” that significantly boost pollinators, including planting wildflowers, curbing pesticide use, and native beekeeping. 

• Active pollination management could increase household income by 15%–30% and raise 9% of the population out of a nutrient deficiency. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HEALTH DISPARITIES The Deep Disparities in Kenya’s AI-Driven Health Coverage    Kenya’s new health coverage program is facing backlash over its algorithm formula that is “systematically” driving up costs for the nation’s poorest.     Background: The Social Health Authority (SHA), launched in 2023, was meant to overhaul the country’s decades-old national insurance system and expand coverage. 

• To determine what households can afford to contribute, the government is using a predictive machine-learning algorithm that calculates incomes based on possessions and life circumstances. 

A flawed formula: The new system has overcharged more than half of poor households while underestimating wealthier ones, found an investigation by Africa Uncensored in collaboration with Lighthouse Reports and The Guardian.     Impact: Of 20 million+ people registered for SHA, ~5 million are paying their premiums, leading many to be denied care, and hospitals report large deficits as SHA reimbursements remain unpaid.     Africa Uncensored 

ICYMI: Rooting Out AI’s Biases – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health OPPORTUNITY Call for Abstracts     The International Conference for Urban Health (ICUH) invites abstracts for work addressing issues in global urban health to share in Mexico City this coming October 13–17, under the theme Healthy Cities by Design: Climate, Care, & Community from Latin America to the World.    Submissions are open across six thematic tracks spanning climate resilience, food and movement, mental health and belonging, lifecourse health, urban health systems, and a dedicated Latin America and Caribbean spotlight, with submissions in English, Spanish, and Portuguese welcome.  

• Register for the conference 

• Learn more and submit your abstract  

• Deadline: May 17 

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION No Divine Intervention for a Pope on Hold 
Nothing tests one’s faith quite like a soul-crushing call with customer service. And when it comes to escaping the purgatory of the hold line, it turns out even the Pope doesn’t have a prayer.     Like anyone shifting careers and houses, Robert Prevost-turned Pope Leo XIV had to make some calls updating his address and phone number, including a call he personally made to his bank in South Chicago, relayed his longtime friend.     The pontiff’s successful responses to security questions rivaling St. Peter’s at the Pearly Gates still weren’t enough to satisfy the customer service representative, who informed him that he needed to come to the bank in person, per the New York Times (gift link).     Even the patience of Job runs out at a point, and even the Holy Father resorted to pulling the ace up his vestments’ sleeve: “Would it matter to you if I told you I’m Pope Leo?” he purportedly said.    Click.     Could the Pope’s experience bring a little needed fire and brimstone to the $165 billion American “annoyance economy” of interminable customer service hassles and corporate sludge?    It would be a miracle worthy of canonization.  QUICK HITS One Million More Midwives: The Smartest Investment for Safer Births in a Shrinking Aid Landscape – Nigeria Health Watch    In a milestone for ALS, a treatment helps some patients improve – The New York Times (gift link)    Survey: Facing headwinds, early-career physician-scientists mull other options, jobs abroad – CIDRAP     Georgia officials knew chemicals from carpet mills were polluting local water. The people did not – AP     First AI tool to detect suspicious peer reviews rolled out by academic publisher – Nature    RFK Jr withdraws proposal banning teens from tanning beds as skin experts warn of cancer risks – The Independent  Issue No. 2912
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: Identifying ‘The Deadliest Company in the World’; and On the Front Lines of an Emerging Drug Crisis View this email in your browser May 6, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES 1 in 5 amputees in Gaza is a child, and it could take at least five years for the 6,600+ in Gaza who need prosthetics and rehabilitation care to receive it amid a severe shortage of specialists and ongoing restrictions on prosthetic supply shipments, the UN said this week. Anadolu Agency    20 years after the HPV vaccine’s U.S. approval, data show that the vaccine reduces the risk of cervical cancer by 80% in women vaccinated by age 16 and 66% in those vaccinated after 16, per a systematic review and meta-analysis published by the Vaccine Integrity Project; the vaccines aren’t associated with serious side effects, the research shows. CIDRAP     The FDA blocked the publication of multiple recent studies showing the safety and efficacy of widely used COVID-19 and shingles vaccines; the HHS said the studies drew “broad conclusions that were not supported by the underlying data,” even though the research was conducted by government scientists analyzing millions of patient records. The New York Times (gift link)      Londoners from Black African and Caribbean backgrounds are 2X as likely to suffer stroke as white counterparts and are less likely to receive timely care, found a large study presented at the European Stroke Organization conference that analyzed 30 years of stroke incidents from the South London Stroke Register. The Guardian   IN FOCUS The exterior of the China Tobacco Shanghai Cigarette Factory Building. Shanghai, China, March 28. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Identifying ‘The Deadliest Company in the World’    A handful of powerful industries play a major role in driving deaths from chronic diseases worldwide: tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, and fossil fuels, which together are responsible for at least one-third of global deaths, per a landmark Lancet study published in The Lancet in 2023.    Outsized impact: Among those industries, one company stands out as the single commercial entity linked to the most global deaths: China National Tobacco Corp., better known as China Tobacco—a state-owned company that for decades has controlled ~97% of China’s cigarette market in a country that consumes nearly half the world’s cigarettes.    Staggering toll: Tobacco use in China caused ~59–78 million deaths from 1990 to 2023, or 2 million people annually, per data from the Global Burden of Disease study run by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. 

• China Tobacco is tied to ~57 million of those deaths—a toll surpassing fatalities linked to war, drugs, or traffic worldwide, even adjusting for the highest plausible death estimates from those other industries.   

• The company also wields significant influence over China’s public health policy, systematically undercutting anti-smoking efforts. 

Intervention possible—and unlikely: Because of China Tobacco’s centralized role, direct policy change could avert millions of early deaths over decades.  

• But the government’s dependence on billions in tax revenue from the industry means the company “is likely to retain its spot as No. 1 in the world for years to come.” 

The Examination     Related:     FDA announces its first OK of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes for adults in major shift under Trump – AP    Can vaping cause cancer? The evidence suggests it might. – The Washington Post (gift link)     Hans Henri P. Kluge: Big Tobacco is No Longer Selling Cigarettes – It Is Engineering Addiction – Health Policy Watch (commentary)  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES OPIOIDS On the Front Lines of an Emerging Drug Crisis     In the swiftly shape-shifting opioid market, morgues and medical examiners are increasingly the first to flag new deadly drugs when typical detection methods fail.  

• Novel opioids like cychlorphine—a powerful synthetic opioid up to 10X stronger than fentanyl—often go undetected in labs.  

“Sentinels of public health”: A Knoxville, Tenn., medical examiner was key to alerting public health officials and law enforcement to the rise of cychlorphine—which she flagged after a long push for advanced testing in a suspicious overdose case.     Rapidly rising threat: In just six months, ~50 deaths in the region have been linked to cychlorphine, making it one of the leading local causes of overdose fatalities.     The New York Times (gift link)  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS ‘Spreading like wildfire’: Fiji grapples with soaring HIV cases – AFP via The Japan Times    Why rat virus patients could become super-spreaders – The Telegraph    Zambia blasts the US over a $2 billion health deal in exchange for critical minerals – AP     Can promises on gender equality made in Australia help a 16-year-old Indian cigarette maker with no toilet? – The Guardian    CDC leader calls for new journal to 'elevate scientific rigor' – Science     Health care costs outrank food, vaccine concerns for MAHA voters, poll shows – The Washington Post (gift link)     US woman moves to France and cuts annual asthma drug cost from $36,000 to $3,500 – The Connexion Thanks for the tip, Cecilia Meisner!  Issue No. 2911
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: Cruise Ship Hantavirus Investigation; and Delayed Visas, Looming Care Gaps View this email in your browser May 5, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Rescue efforts are ongoing in a fireworks factory explosion that killed 26 and injured at least 61 in central China yesterday; Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered an investigation into the disaster and “a far-reaching evaluation of workplace safety measures.” Al Jazeera
  Fossil-fuel derived methane emissions persisted at record high levels globally in 2025, making it unlikely that a 2030 target for reducing them by 30% will be met. Health Policy Watch
  Overburdened dialysis units across Australia and New Zealand are being forced to ration lifesaving care, with wait times lasting years in some cases, per a report from nephrology, dialysis and transplant registry experts in the two countries. They say the government needs to invest in more equipment and emphasize prevention to stop a “tsunami” of kidney disease. ABC Australia
Rates of antibiotic-resistant E. coli infections in the blood of newborns at a Kansas hospital are on the rise, per a study of 54 newborns with the infection, published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases; E. coli is a top cause of sepsis in newborns.  IN FOCUS The cruise ship MV Hondius off the port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, on May 3. AFP via Getty Cruise Ship Hantavirus Investigation    The WHO and international partners are investigating the cluster of seven cases of severe respiratory illness (including three deaths) tied to hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic, per the WHO.     What’s the latest?  

• “We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that is happening among the really close contacts,” said WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove, per France24.  

• The first person who fell ill may have been infected before boarding the MV Hondius in Ushuaia, Argentina, Van Kerkhove added. 

• Human infection commonly occurs via “aerosolized droplets of rodent faeces, urine or saliva containing the virus,” Nature reports. 

• The WHO says there’s low risk to the global population. 

• Two cases of the seven cases have been laboratory-confirmed. 

• The ship is moored off Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa.  

What’s next?  

• Results of genetic sequencing of the virus in sick passengers to determine the hantavirus strain should be available within a few days, University of Saskatchewan virologist Bryce Warner told Nature.   

Worth noting: South African experts did early lab testing that confirmed hantavirus infection in a patient, one of the seven, who remains critically ill.   

• “South Africa has very fast data, is home to some of the world’s best epidemiologists, and is a true team player in the world of global health,” per Your Local Epidemiologist.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES POLICY Delayed Visas, Looming Care Gaps    Hundreds of foreign doctors educated in the U.S. may be forced to leave the country within months due to a backlog of delayed visa waivers, potentially leaving vulnerable communities without care    Program in limbo: The HHS Exchange Visitor Program lets physicians educated in the U.S. remain in the country on J1 visas while they transition to temporary worker status if they practice in underserved areas. 

• But this year, applications have stalled for months across multiple agencies.  

Costly consequences: If doctors are forced to leave due to delays, rehiring them could cost employers ~$100,000 per visa—a prohibitive expense.     Patients bear the brunt: Such losses will especially impact rural and low-income areas, medical leaders warn. 

• “There’s going to be hundreds of places that are not going to have a physician that should have,” said one impacted psychiatrist.  

KFF Health News    Related: Immigration changes are driving foreign researchers to leave the U.S. — or not come to begin with – STAT   OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Abortion pill rulings cause whiplash and confusion – Axios

Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants – The New York Times (gift link)

Beauty Without Burden: Why Nigeria Must Keep Lead Out of Cosmetics – Nigeria Health Watch (commentary)

The Cost of ‘Natural’ Womanhood – The Atlantic (gift link)

‘Point of no return’: New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level, study finds – The Guardian

Telemedicine Visits Tied to Fewer Antibiotics for Respiratory Infections – MedPage Today Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!

The Bus That Brings Reproductive Care to Homeless Women – Reasons to Be Cheerful  Issue No. 2910
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 Growing Threat of ‘Hidden Hunger’; and Raw Milk Market Gains Ground View this email in your browser May 4, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES A suspected hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship has led to three deaths, while lab results confirm six cases, reports France24; WHO officials said the  “risk to the wider public remains low” as exposure to the virus is rare and typically linked to exposure to infected rodents, reports Reuters.     Ghana has rejected a bilateral health agreement with the U.S., as Ghana’s leaders resisted terms requiring the sharing of sensitive health data—the same issue that led Zimbabwe to reject a similar deal and that has also prompted a court to suspend implementation of Kenya’s agreement. Reuters via The Post and Courier    School phone bans in the U.S. have had mixed results so far, finds a large new study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research, which analyzed 40,000+ schools and found that test scores and attendance have not increased; however, the study found improved student well-being over time and said long-term impacts bear further study. The New York Times (gift link)     The U.S. identified 50 large TB outbreaks involving 10+ related cases between 2017 and 2023, per new CDC data published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which found that roughly two‑thirds of large outbreaks occurred within family or social networks. Newsweek IN FOCUS Farmers harvest potatoes in a field in Dalingzi Village of Daxinzhuang Town in the Fengnan District, Tangshan City, China, on July 9, 2025. Yang Shiyao/Xinhua via Getty The Growing Threat of ‘Hidden Hunger’
Staple foods like rice, wheat, legumes, and potatoes are steadily losing vital nutrients, as rising carbon dioxide levels from climate change deplete key minerals and vitamins from crops. The shift could lead to mounting health consequences, scientists say—especially in low-income countries.     What’s happening: Increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere alter plant development by speeding growth and boosting sugars while disrupting their ability to absorb key minerals, like zinc and iron.  

• In one paper published in Global Change Biology, scientists found that nutrients have already decreased by an average 3.2% across all plants since the late 1980s—a depletion already impacting diets worldwide.  

“The diets we eat today have less nutritional density than what our grandparents ate, even if we eat exactly the same thing,” said Kristie Ebi of the University of Washington’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.    The impact: Scientists warn of a future of “hidden hunger,” where people eat sufficient calories but face major deficiencies. While wealthy countries can offset losses with diet changes and supplements, poorer populations reliant on impacted crops could see “devastating” impacts.  

• By mid-century, over a billion women and children could face increased risk of iron-deficiency anemia, leading to pregnancy complications, developmental problems, and death.  

• And ~2 billion people across the globe already facing nutrient shortages could see exacerbated health problems.  

Strategies needed: Researchers emphasize the need for agricultural policy geared toward growing an array of nutritious crop variants—and the urgent need to cut carbon emissions.     The Washington Post (gift link)    ICYMI: Less Nutritious Crops: Another Result of Rising CO2 – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health  DATA POINT

40,000+
—————
The number of measles cases since March 15 in Bangladesh’s growing outbreak, according to health officials; nearly 300 deaths have been reported in that time frame. —Outbreak News Today   POLICY Raw Milk Market Gains Ground   
State legislators are pressing for wider access to raw milk in the U.S., as demand for the product grows despite its established health risks and links to ongoing outbreaks. 
 
More legal avenues: Currently 40+ proposed bills in 18 states are seeking to make it easier to buy, sell, or consume raw milk. 
 
Risks persist: The push for raw milk access has accelerated with promotion from social media and wellness influencers, despite five outbreaks linked to raw milk reported in the past year alone. 

• A CDC review identified 200+ outbreaks tied to raw milk that sickened 2,600+ people between 1998 and 2018, with children especially vulnerable.  

“Public health has lost the battle on raw milk,” said Mary McGonigle-Martin, co-chair of consumer advocacy group Stop Foodborne Illness. 
 
AP  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES QUICK HITS WHO delays pandemic treaty amid pathogen-sharing dispute – Reuters  
Court restricts abortion access across the US by blocking the mailing of mifepristone – AP     ‘Mothers won’t die, babies can survive’: new maternal hospital opens in world’s largest refugee camp – The Guardian 
Trump just replaced his surgeon general pick, and it could change what you’re told about your health – Fast Company    ‘A ghost that lives with us’: Death Cafes take the sting out of the inevitable end – CNN   Issue No. 2909
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 Turning Point in TB Testing; and A ‘Terrifying Medical Underworld’ Expands View this email in your browser April 30, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Endometriosis diagnosis could be dramatically improved with a new imaging tool that uses a molecular tracer to help physicians observe blood vessel growth and inflammation in the body; the new tool could significantly shorten the long wait time for a diagnosis, which averages 9+ years in the U.K. The Independent 

HIV patients in Senegal are forgoing treatment amid a surge of arrests targeting the LGBTQ community after the government’s decision to increase prison term lengths and fines for same-sex sexual acts and any promotion of homosexuality. Reuters    America's infant formula supply has been deemed safe by the FDA, which tested 300+ infant formula samples for contaminants including lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, pesticides, PFAs, and phthalates, and found "an overwhelming majority of samples had undetectable or very low levels of contaminants.” USA Today    World Cup health surveillance for the competition will be launched by global health academics at Georgetown University, who are providing a temporary surveillance hub to monitor disease risks like measles. The Telegraph  IN FOCUS Scanning electron micrograph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which cause TB. NIH//Universal Images Group via Getty Images A Turning Point in TB Testing    A new portable tuberculosis test could transform the diagnostic process for patients, making it more accessible and affordable for underserved populations, and leading to earlier treatment options, reports NPR.     The traditional method: For over a century, TB diagnosis has relied on examining a patient’s phlegm samples under a microscope—an often-unwieldy, imprecise method that can miss up to half of cases or produce false positives.  

• It’s also difficult for many patients, like children and older people, to provide phlegm samples. 

Circumventing phlegm: A new molecular test detects TB bacterium DNA via a simple tongue swab or phlegm, using technology similar to that used in hospital-based COVID tests to produce results in under 30 minutes, per Medical Xpress. 

• In a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers analyzed the tests of ~1,400 patients across Africa and Asia and found the diagnostic process met WHO accuracy standards, while proving easy to use in low-resource settings. 

• The device, MiniDock MTB, was developed by the Chinese company Pluslife, which designed it to be low-cost, battery-powered, and simple enough to use in clinics without microscopes or advanced labs. 

• Caveats: The test may miss very early infections and cannot identify drug-resistant TB without follow-up testing. 

Implications: Easier, more reliable diagnosis could reduce missed cases, expedite treatment, and slow transmission.  HEALTH SYSTEMS A ‘Terrifying Medical Underworld’ Expands     A crisis is growing in American hospitals as more facilities resort to patient “boarding”: the practice of holding admitted patients for hours or days in the emergency departments or other ill-equipped temporary locations while awaiting a hospital bed.     The reasons for the growing practice are complex, including hospital financial structures and staffing issues. But meaningful reforms have yet to be enacted.     In a deeply researched, and deeply personal report, journalist and former ER physician Elisabeth Rosenthal lays out the crisis through the lens of her late husband’s own agony in this “terrifying medical underworld” in his last days before dying of esophageal cancer.     The quote: “Everyone knows about this problem, and no one cares enough to do anything about it. It’s barbaric,” said Adrian Haimovich, an ED doctor in Boston.     KFF Health News  OPPORTUNITY Funding Opportunity for Disability Inclusion  
Borealis Philanthropy's Disability Inclusion Fund is seeking joint grant proposals from organizations led by and for disabled people.  
These grants support cross-movement collaborations advancing disability justice, including community organizing, advocacy, narrative change, arts, and policy work.  

• At least one partner must be disability-focused and disability-led.  

• Combined annual budgets must be under $3 million.  

• All organizations must be U.S.-based 501(c)(3)s or fiscally sponsored.  

Successful applicants can receive up to $150,000 over two years.  

• Learn more about the grants  

• Apply by May 20, 2026

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun    The frenzied squawks echoing from a pub in De Panne, Belgium, last weekend may have been alarming—if not downright annoying—to uninitiated passersby. But to the crowd inside, these were sacred hymns of homage.    The annual European Seagull Screeching Championship is, after all, more than a competition. Now in its sixth year, the event seeks to rehabilitate the much-derided sea scavengers’ reputation by “connecting gulls and people,” and reminding them that “a gull screeching brings back good memories,” explains the competition website.     The real memory-makers? The people with eerily good impressions of that unhinged cackle only a seagull can make as it divebombs your sandwich. This year, 70 contestants from 15 countries gave it their best go, Reuters reports, many donning feathers in an effort to further impress the five jury members (each “true seagull lovers,” assures the website).    And much like a seagull, organizer Claude Willaert has unapologetically bold aims for the competition, declaring to local station Focus WTV: “We are going to have more countries than at the Eurovision Song Contest.”  QUICK HITS RFK Jr. is holding up $600M in vaccines for poor countries – Politico     Australia becomes the 30th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem – WHO 
A cheap drug used by longevity enthusiasts may have a surprising impact on exercise – The Washington Post (gift link) 
J. Craig Venter, Scientist Who Decoded the Human Genome, Dies at 79 – The New York Times (gift link) 
Baby teeth hold clues to the harms of toxic metals for infants — and older kids – NPR  
Why you should ‘feed a cold’: eating primes immune cells for action – Nature  Issue No. 2908
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: When Policy Shapes Biology; and How Health Misinformation is Fueling Solar Farm Fears View this email in your browser April 29, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Aid groups are calling for a humanitarian corridor to be opened through the Strait of Hormuz as the war in Iran has led to the blockage of vital aid supplies, including critical medications. The Guardian    Viral hepatitis remains “a major global health challenge” despite notable gains, finds a new WHO report; while hepatitis C- and B-related deaths have declined significantly, current transmission rates of ~1.8 million infections annually show that2030 elimination goals are off-course. WHO    Disabled Americans who receive Supplemental Security Income and live with family members who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will see their monthly benefits cut or eliminated if a Trump administration rule change moves forward; the cuts would affect ~400,000 people with dementia, developmental disabilities, and other conditions. ProPublica    A former NIH aide has been indicted on obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges for allegedly using his personal email to conceal federal records about federally funded research into dangerous viruses like the one that caused COVID-19. Politico  IN FOCUS A view of houses in KwanGode, a rural area outside Hillcrest, South Africa. November 29, 2025. Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty When Policy Shapes Biology    The introduction of powerful anti-HIV drugs in regions like South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natale province has rewritten disease outcomes of the populations there. But the intervention has also reshaped the DNA of people in the region, finds a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—slowing evolutionary changes that were being driven by the epidemic, reports Science. 

• In KwaZulu-Natal, extreme AIDS mortality before 2005 drove measurable genetic change over a decade, rapidly reshaping immune system genes.  

• The inflow of antiretroviral drugs notably slowed this process.  

Deep, downstream effects: Abrupt funding cuts to programs like PEPFAR and those affecting programs backed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria risk undoing that progress, potentially allowing both the epidemic and its biological impacts to intensify again. 

• Such interruptions and reductions have eroded critical infrastructure needed to test, track, and treat the virus, impacting not only treatment but the ability to prevent it, reports The Guardian.  

• South Africa’s uptake of lenacapavir, for example, will be heavily affected by funding cuts, finds a new report from Physicians for Human Rights, per Bhekisisa.  

Seismic shifts on the horizon: South Africa is facing major upheaval to its HIV-fighting infrastructure: the Global Fund has notified the country that it has less than eight years before its funding wraps, per another Bhekisisa report.  
Related:     AIDS Creeps Back in Parts of Zambia, a Year After U.S. Cuts to H.I.V. Assistance – The New York Times (gift link)     We detected Aids through a federal early warning system. Trump has decimated it – The Guardian (commentary)  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES COMMUNICATION How Health Misinformation is Fueling Solar Farm Fears    The expansion of large solar farms is becoming a new battleground in public health policy: Critics point to health risks as a reason to restrict expansion, while researchers say such fears are grounded in misinformation.     A range of concerns: Critics of solar farms say health risks range from the impacts of electromagnetic fields to contamination, and such concerns have contributed to recent restrictions in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri. 

• But the purported public health risks are not grounded in credible evidence, say researchers and environmental lawyers.  

Energy goals at stake: The backlash threatens to stall solar energy transition targets even as demand grows. 
ProPublica  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS More of the same. Epic Fury’s impact on global health and humanitarian actions – King’s College London (commentary)    Former Tobacco Executive Takes CDC Role – Medical Professionals Reference    ‘America First’ aid policy reshapes how U.S. delivers global health assistance – PBS News (news lesson plan)     Ending Malaria Is Africa’s Smartest Investment: Here Is Why Leaders Are Acting Now – Africa.com (commentary)     In first meeting, federal autism committee focuses on ‘profound autism’ – STAT     GOP takes aim at hospital CEOs over affordability crisis – The Hill    A neuroscientist’s guide to reading the research yourself – The Washington Post  (commentary, gift link)  Issue No. 2907
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: UK Cuts Imperil Polio Eradication; and How One Sudanese Surgeon Held Back the Tide View this email in your browser April 28, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Ghana has rejected a U.S. proposal for a bilateral health aid deal because of a requirement that it share health data; Zimbabwe shot down a similar America First Global Health Strategy-based proposal for the same reason. Reuters via The Straits Times 

Hundreds of hepatitis B infections and more liver cancer cases will likely follow the Trump administration’s policy that canceled a recommendation that the hepatitis B vaccine be given to infants within 24 hours of birth, per a new modeling study published in JAMA Pediatrics. The Washington Post (gift link) 

Strict limits on girls’ education and women’s work opportunities in Afghanistan may cause a shortage of 25,000 women teachers and health workers by 2030, according to a new UNICEF analysis. UN News     48% of newborns infected with chikungunya during birth will experience severe neurological problems, including seizures, bleeding in the brain, and other issues, per a study published in eClinicalMedicine; babies who appear healthy at birth can experience fever, persistent crying, and feeding problems three to seven days later. CIDRAP   IN FOCUS: GHN EXCLUSIVE A health worker administers polio drops to a child on a nationwide week-long poliovirus eradication campaign. Karachi, Pakistan, September, 1, 2025. Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty UK Cuts Imperil Polio Eradication 
Anne Wafula Strike once proudly served as the U.K.’s “poster girl” for polio eradication. Today, the Kenyan-born paralympic athlete and polio survivor has a different message: “It feels we were running a group relay and just before the finish line, someone deliberately dropped the baton.” 
  Last month, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) lost its largest contributor when the U.K. cut its $67–$134 million in annual funding. The move is part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's sweeping 40% reduction in foreign aid, the largest percentage cut to development assistance by any government. 
  With the world on the cusp of eradicating the disease, “it’s the worst possible moment” to abandon funding, says Shahin Huseynov, WHO’s polio coordinator for Europe. Only two wild polio cases were reported globally in the first three months of 2026, and just two countries remain endemic—but poliovirus has been found in U.K. wastewater this year.  

• Without sustained funding, the WHO warns that 200,000 children could be paralyzed by polio each year within a decade. 

What it means on the ground: The cuts will likely mean prioritizing surveillance and vaccination campaigns in the highest-risk areas, and postponing the goal of eradicating polio by 2029, says Huseynov.  
With GPEI's budget already cut 30% from prior U.S. cuts, advocates are urging the U.K. to honor its legal obligation to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid. 

• Reinstating polio funding would cost just $134 million, a fraction of what's been cut. 

There’s hope that other countries will step in—such as Australia, Spain, Canada, and Korea—who are still “looking, kind of, to use their development assistance funds in a very positive way,” says Adrian Lovett of the ONE Campaign.    Nevertheless, a major concern is the signal the cuts send to other countries: “It’s not just about money. It’s about solidarity,” says Huseynov.
  READ THE FULL STORY BY ANNALIES WINNY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CONFLICT How One Sudanese Surgeon Held Back the Tide    Even as missiles hit Al Nao hospital, as electricity faltered, supplies dwindled and hospital staffers fled, orthopedic surgeon Jamal Eltaeb kept working.    Al Nao is one of the only functioning hospitals in the region outside Khartoum in civil war-torn Sudan—and Eltaeb knew it was a lifeline for hundreds of desperate patients.  

• For three years, he has found a way to keep caring for them—despite direct attacks on the hospital and amidst mass-casualty bomb strikes where 100+ wounded patients needed emergency care.  

• “We were working everywhere, in tents, outside, on the floor, doing everything to save patients’ lives,” said Eltaeb, who was just recognized with the $1 million Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.  

Dire, ongoing need: ~40% of Sudan’s hospitals no longer function as the war enters its fourth year.    AP

Related: Darfur: Two decades on, a new generation of children faces 'horrific violence' – UN News OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Can the U.S. handle another pandemic? – PBS News (video) 
The US CDC on the brink – The Lancet (commentary)    Bedilu Abebe: Why Malaria Still Persists in Ethiopia – The Reporter (Ethiopia)     Trump administration warns against using federal dollars on fentanyl test strips – STAT     Toxins plus climate harms likely cause of reduced fertility, study finds – The Guardian    CDC warns of drug-resistant salmonella infections linked to backyard poultry – AP

How to let go of grudges — and why it could be good for your health – The Washington Post (gift link)  Issue No. 2906
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 ‘Critical Phase’ in the Malaria Fight; and Solar Powering Maternal Survival in Nigeria View this email in your browser April 27, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Algeria has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem after a decades-long effort that was accelerated in 2013 with particular focus on 12 highly affected provinces and intensive door-to-door screening and management; it is the 29th country globally to have eliminated the infection, which can cause blindness. WHO    The first gene therapy for deafness has been approved by the FDA—a historic milestone in the treatment of hearing loss, though the treatment currently impacts only people born with a very rare form of genetic deafness; the manufacturer, Regeneron, will offer the treatment for free in the U.S. NPR    Living in pesticide-heavy environments could heighten the risk of cancer by up to 150%––even with chemicals considered “safe” on their own—per a Peru-based study that examined the impact of complex mixtures of chemicals in real-world conditions, in contrast to previous research that has focused mostly on individual chemicals in controlled environments. Institut Pasteur via ScienceDaily  
70%+ of people globally believe at least one false or unproven health claim, like that vaccine risks outweigh benefits or that fluoride in water is harmful, per new survey published by the Edelman Trust Institute—results that point to a potentially growing number of people questioning scientific evidence. Scientific American  IN FOCUS Midwife Sarah Atim speaks to expectant mothers about malaria vaccination during an antenatal care session at a hospital in Uganda's Apac district. April 8, 2025. Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty A ‘Critical Phase’ in the Malaria Fight    The global fight against malaria is at a pivotal juncture, as major scientific advances like vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics converge with rising threats like drug resistance and underfunded health systems—a set of opportunities and barriers “defining a critical phase for malaria control,” per Nature Africa as World Malaria Day 2026 is marked.     New tools, new hope: Artemether-lumefantrine, the first malaria treatment tailored for newborns and small infants, has been approved, closing a longstanding gap in care for “one of the most underserved patient groups,” which is also the most vulnerable, per the WHO.  

• Three new rapid diagnostic tests are also rolling out, designed to detect mutating parasite strains that previously slipped through standard testing. 

And new threats: There is increasing evidence that parasites are growing resistant to artemisinin—the “backbone” of lifesaving therapies—per Nature Africa. This shift, along with insecticide-resistant mosquitoes and expanding mosquito habitats, is making it difficult to build on hard-won gains like the vaccine rollouts.     Ongoing toll of disruption: Meanwhile, malaria programs throughout Africa are still seeing the effects of the sudden USAID cuts last year, reports CIDRAP. In Zambia, for example, malaria hospitalizations are now increasing—likely due to the lack of regular USAID-funded spraying, doctors say.  

• And even as bilateral agreements with the U.S. are formed to fund countries’ malaria programs, countries with high malaria burdens are struggling to regain lost traction.  

The Quote: “We’re just running all the time, and the malaria parasite is catching up with us all the time,” said Jane E. Carlton, director of the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.     Related:       How mosquitoes—and malaria—helped shape the whereabouts of early humankind – NPR    AI-powered drones slash malaria cases – GhanaWeb   Can you stop malaria crossing borders? One nation’s bid to wipe out the disease – The Guardian   Malaria rebound spurs AI-driven hunt for parasite genes linked to deadly cases – Phys.org DATA POINT

379 million
——————
Malaria cases averted across 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa attributable to the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative investment from 2005 to 2024, per new analysis from Imperial College London and the Malaria Atlas Project. ––Clinton Health Access Initiative
  TECH & INNOVATION Solar Powering Maternal Survival in Nigeria    Electricity can be the difference between life and death for many maternity ward patients in Nigeria, where ~40% of primary health care centers lack reliable power.  

• Power interruptions lead to delayed surgeries, stalled oxygen flow, and nonworking incubators, and also hamper routine procedures that require light, like suturing.  

Lifesaving solar energy: Since Gombe State Specialist Hospital installed a solar-hybrid system in 2020, maternal deaths have dropped from 15–20 per month to 1–2, and neonatal deaths have fallen from 50+ per month to 20–25.  

• “There is no interruption. We can suture, we can operate, we can do everything,” said Sarigamo Ibrahim, a nurse and midwife who manages the maternity unit. 

Nigeria Health Watch  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS South Carolina’s 200-day measles outbreak is over. What it cost. – The Post and Courier 
Measles Is Back. What Comes Next Will Be Worse. – The New York Times (commentary; gift link) Thanks for the tip, Dave Cundiff!  
What happened to Covid? – STAT  
The Next Global Health Crisis Is Already Here: Childhood Trauma from War – The Good Men Project 
Trump fires all 24 members of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s governing body – Science  

Untangling the complex relationship between HIV-exposure and tuberculosis in children: a narrative review – The Lancet Global Health  
So, you got bit by a tick. Here’s exactly what to do next. – The Washington Post (gift link)   Issue No. 2905
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: Europe’s ‘Narrowing Window’ for Climate Action; and Burkina Faso’s Psychiatric Care Deficit Plus: Your Photos May Be Bad—But Are They Bad Enough? View this email in your browser April 23, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES 21 African countries are battling measles outbreaks, and 493 deaths associated with the disease have been registered, reports the Africa CDC—which highlighted that 72% of all cases and 95% of the deaths have occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Independent (Uganda) 

The CDC will not publish a report showing the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines; sources familiar with the blocked report say it showed the vaccines reduced hospitalizations and emergency department visits ‌among ⁠healthy adults by about half this past winter. Reuters via Yahoo! News    A revamped suicide and crisis hotline, 988, has been associated with an 11% drop in suicides among adolescents and young adults in U.S. compared with projected rates since the shortened number was launched in 2022, finds a new study published in JAMA; states with the biggest increases in answered calls also saw the largest decline in suicide rates. STAT   A UK generational smoking ban passed this week in Parliament following a yearslong campaign; the directive means that children born after Dec. 31, 2008, will be banned from ever buying cigarettes. AP  IN FOCUS Locals and forest firefighters try to battle a wildfire in the village of Veiga das Meas, in northwestern Spain, on August 16, 2025. Miguel Riopa/AFP via Getty Europe’s ‘Narrowing Window’ for Climate Action
Extreme heat, drought, vector-borne illnesses, and other climate-driven health risks are rapidly escalating across Europe, finds the 2026 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change—which warns that political action and public will are not keeping pace with the need for urgent interventions, reports Euronews.  

• “The health impacts of climate change are intensifying faster than our response is keeping up,” said Joacim Rocklöv, co-director of the Lancet Countdown Europe. 

Heat-related harms: Compared with the 1990s, extreme heat alerts are up 318%, and nearly all monitored European regions saw an increase in deaths attributable to heat.  

• Heat is also exacerbating sleep disruption and complications in chronic diseases and birth outcomes. 

Accelerating disease: The overall average risk of dengue outbreaks in Europe has quadrupled over the last decade, and reported cases of West Nile virus, chikungunya, and Zika virus are also rising regionwide.  

Food insecurity: Meanwhile, drought is contributing to rising food prices, which pushed over a million more people into moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023 compared to past decades. 

Lagging political response: While Europe has been a global leader in climate policy progress, the report warns that political and public engagement are stalling, and urges further actions “need to be accelerated” including:  

• Swifter transition away from fossil fuels to other energy sources.  

• Implementing early warning systems for heat and other climate dangers into health care.  

• Targeted adaptation measures including expanded green spaces. 

Related: Heatwaves, floods and wildfires pose rising threat to democracy, report finds – The Guardian 

MENTAL HEALTH Burkina Faso’s Psychiatric Care Deficit     In Burkina Faso, access to mental health care is scarce, with just 11 psychiatrists available to a population of 20 million+ people.     Strained system: Mental health services were already fragile, but recent years of conflict and insecurity in the region have led to the withdrawal of NGOs that helped provide care.  

• Meanwhile, a key nurse training program has been suspended, and the country is dealing with an exodus of medical professionals to other countries.  

Cultural dynamics: A great deal of misinformation and stigma are still attached to mental health disorders, and families often turn to spiritual healers for help instead of medical care.    Hope on the horizon? The government has announced a plan to train and employ 60 psychiatrists over the next five years.    Bhekisisa  OPPORTUNITY Take a Load Off ... Your Eyes  
Prolonged screen use is a reality of daily life for many of us.     Students at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have launched a campaign—Take 60—to encourage 60-second hourly screen breaks to help reduce digital eye strain and support better focus and overall eye health.    We hope you’ll give it a try ... after scrolling down to read the Thursday Diversion!    Follow the campaign on social media ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Gullfoss, a waterfall on the Hvítá River, in southwest Iceland, in November 2023. This photo was taken by GHN's Morgan Coulson, who spent just 24 hours in Iceland on her way to Ireland, and couldn't find a bad shot. Your Photos May Be Bad—But Are They Bad Enough? 
Are you generally uninterested in photography, not good at it, and regularly disappointed with your own photos? Do you have no regard for composition and take portraits from below? Of people eating? Did you take this photo?
 
There’s a prize for that—and it comes with “possible worldwide recognition” and a trip to Iceland.
 
Icelandair is seeking the “world’s worst amateur photographer” to prove that this supermodel of a country has no bad angles—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where “a lack of skill makes you ideal for this task.”
 
We admire Icelandair’s optimism, but suspect there’s someone out there that can still make a glacier look like a murky pond, a majestic volcano resemble an anthill, and give the Geysir a double chin. And we hope it’s us.
 
Apply to the contest by April 30
 
Thanks for the tip, Lindsay Smith Rogers!  QUICK HITS Why these treatments for one of the deadliest cancers are stirring such hope – The Washington Post (gift link)     Residents in rural Sudan say the Iran war has made it harder to get medicines – AP    Pace of N.I.H. Funding Slows Further in Trump’s Second Year – The New York Times (gift link)    In hearings, RFK Jr claims no responsibility for measles spread – CIDRAP    Two common drugs may reverse fatty liver disease, study finds – University of Barcelona via Science Daily     Britain’s £8bn bet on the developing world – The Telegraph  Issue No. 2903
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 Civilian Impact of War in Iran; and A Disease-Busting House Design View this email in your browser April 22, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Human rights violations are on the rise internationally at the hands of both states and non-state actors who largely face no accountability, finds Amnesty International in its annual State of the World’s Human Rights report; despite the grim findings, the report praises the “masterful work” of diplomats and activists seeking to strengthen civil rights and liberties. DW    Nearly half of U.S. children breathe dangerous levels of air pollution, per the annual “State of the Air” American Lung Association report, which also warned that the Trump administration’s sweeping rollback of protections will worsen the outlook. The Guardian     A major mRNA vaccine trial will launch soon in Britain as the country seeks to prepare for a potential bird flu pandemic; the trial, led by Moderna and the U.K. Health Security Agency, will recruit 3,000 participants to test the human vaccine’s effectiveness. The Telegraph     WHO-recommended antibiotics for neonatal sepsis are largely ineffective in low-resource nations, finds new research from the BARNARDS II study of antibiotic resistance, which found that antibiotics like ampicillin and gentamicin were active against only 25% of cases in which they were used and had “limited coverage against locally prevalent, highly resistant pathogens.” CIDRAP  IN FOCUS A woman looks out over Resalat Square, where photos of civilians killed in recent U.S.-Israeli strikes are displayed. Tehran, Iran, April 20, Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty The Civilian Impact of War in Iran   The war in Iran is taking a deepening toll on civilian life as widespread damage to the country’s already-fragile natural resources, infrastructure, and health systems is “pushing one of the world’s most environmentally vulnerable regions toward catastrophe,” per a new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP).     So far, 1,700+ civilians—including at least 254 children—have been killed, per the latest figures from HRANA.  

• But the true toll is difficult to gauge due to restricted reporting, damage to hospitals, and widespread communications blackouts.  

Health systems hollowed out: Even before the war, Iran’s health care system was weakened by sanctions and violence from recent unrest. As of April 3, ~300 medical facilities had been damaged, further hampering care, per CAP.     Environmental emergency: Already strained by years of drought and climate impacts, the region now faces “compounding harms” from strikes on oil facilities and industrial sites—leading to long-term ecological risks from air, water, and soilcontamination.     Water scarcity, “food catastrophe”: Attacks on water infrastructure threaten access to drinking water across the region. Meanwhile, analysts say the conflict’s impact on global food prices could lead to “catastrophe,” as shipping disruptions lead to shortages in oil and fertilizer needed for agricultural production, reports Al Jazeera.  

• Such impacts will be most deeply felt by low-income countries in Africa and Asia.  

Call for humanitarian intervention: The report calls for urgent aid, but also long-term remediation centered on environmental harm—including surveillance for chronic disease, soil recovery, and investments in more resilient water systems. 

Related:  Geopolitics and Humanitarian Health in Iran, Cuba, and Ukraine – Public Health On Call (podcast) GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ARCHITECTURE A Disease-Busting House Design
Well-designed “Star Homes”—which promote airflow, block insects, and feature outdoor latrines and rainwater collection systems—can reduce child mortality, demonstrates a randomized controlled trial in southern Tanzania, published in Nature Medicine.    Per the research, led by Lorenz von Seidlein of the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit: 

• Children under 13 living in Star Homes were 44% less likely than those in the control group to suffer from malaria.

• Cases of diarrhea and respiratory infections were down by 30% and 18%, respectively.  

Drawbacks: The biggest barrier to broader application? The $8,800 price tag. But Seidlein says the goal wasn’t to prove that millions of Star Homes should be built. 

• The study showed that “if you use better principles in building, you can probably achieve a massive effect,” he said. 

Science  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS ‘It’s a powder keg’: Romania leads EU measles cases as vaccination rates collapse – The Guardian     As measles takes toll on kids, anti-vaxxers in US have change of heart – Bloomberg via The Straits Times     Pentagon ends mandatory flu vaccines for service members – Politico     ‘The next opioid epidemic’: Gambling legalization outpaces public health response to addiction – Fierce Healthcare Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!    Priya Pal: If pregnancy centers get public money, they should meet   medical standards – Missouri Independent (commentary)     French activists sue 'deceptive' laughing gas suppliers – Le Monde    A specialized tour at the Berlin Zoo brings joy to people living with dementia – AP  Issue No. 2903
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 Questions Surrounding Zambia’s Future HIV Fight; and Omaha’s Lag in Lead Testing View this email in your browser April 21, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES RSV vaccination of pregnant women lowered the risk of hospitalization of their infant children by 81%, per a study of 289,000+ babies born in England; the findings were shared at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases on April 18. The Telegraph        Blue monkeys, a crowned eagle, a Nile monitor lizard, a leopard, and six other species were caught on video eating Egyptian fruit bats—which carry the Marburg virus; the video from a cave in Uganda demonstrates how intermediate animals could acquire and spread the fatal virus. Nature      The Lancet is convening its first-ever commission focused on global skin health; the experts will set goals for reducing skin diseases, improving skin health, and training health workers. Healio      President Trump directed $50 million on April 18 to increase availability of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and ibogaine for mental health treatment and ordered the FDA to speed their review. NPR   IN FOCUS A man learns AIDS prevention know-how during an event marking World AIDS Day in Lusaka, Zambia, on December 1, 2022. Peng Lijun/Xinhua via Getty The Questions Surrounding Zambia’s Future HIV Fight
As Zambia has achieved dramatic HIV gains through PEPFAR-supported efforts, its Southern Province has spearheaded efforts to become less dependent on NGOs, reports Foreign Policy. 

• Since 2019, PEPFAR funds have been channeled directly to the provincial government, instead of being routed through NGOs.  

• These “cooperative agreements” allowed the public sector to gradually take ownership of the HIV response.  

The U.S. now points to this approach as a model for direct-to-government aid funding, and moving away from NGOs.    But this transition can’t be rushed, Zambian health leaders argue: The shift has been a long process that involved data-driven oversight and services integrated with NGO support.  

• “If you speed up change, chances are that you may actually end up with an outcome that you didn’t desire,” said Callistus Kaayunga, the health director of Southern Province.  

Meanwhile, Zambia is hesitating to agree to the new U.S. funding model, in which the U.S. is making aid contingent on access to Zambia’s mineral resources, reports DW.  

• The country reportedly has until May to decide whether to sign a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. or lose funding.  

Related: She used to run U.S. AIDS relief — now, foreign aid has changed – NPR  DATA POINT

90%
———
HPV vaccine uptake in girls in three European nations: Iceland, Norway, and Portugal, per ECDC; all EU countries now recommend HPV vaccination for both adolescent girls and boys, and report a decreased incidence of cervical cancer among vaccinated women since 2020. —CIDRAP  ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Omaha’s Lag in Lead Testing    The largest residential lead cleanup site in the U.S. is a 27-square-mile Superfund area in Omaha, Nebraska—a state that does not require lead testing during childhood. Instead, it is up to the doctor or a health system to test on a case-by-case basis.     The result: Currently, <50% of kids under age 7 who live in the area near the cleanup site are tested for lead, public health officials say. 
Elsewhere: 13 states have passed laws requiring all children to receive lead testing.    What’s next? The Douglas County Health Department plans to propose an ordinance requiring health workers to test all kids up to age 7 who live in the affected area.     Lasting stakes: If high blood lead levels go undetected, the federal government may not remediate tens of thousands of properties in Omaha.   ProPublica  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES QUICK HITS The real ‘nanny tax’? Not being able to breastfeed your own baby – Bhekisisa    After Decades of Quiet Rumbling, an Epidemic Is Erupting Among California Stoneworkers – In These Times    Where U.S. science has been hit hardest after Trump’s first year – The Washington Post (gift link)    Microplastics: Brain Study Confirms Health Risks, Challenges Kennedy’s Claims – Health Policy Watch    Democrats Demand Trump Administration Halt Plan To Collect Federal Workers’ Health Data – KFF Health News    There's new evidence for how loneliness affects memory in old age – Wired    ‘Oscar of science’ awarded to team behind gene therapy that restores lost vision – The Guardian  Issue No. 2902
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: Pakistan’s Infection Control Crisis; and The Hyperlocal Strategy to Curb Smoking View this email in your browser April 20, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES 9 out of 10 women in Liberia reported taking antibiotics monthly, per a survey of 109 women; many women said they used the antibiotics—which are available without prescription—to “cleanse” themselves after their menstrual cycle, a trend that has grown via widespread misinformation. FrontPage Africa    HIV testing in Russia should be expanded to one-third of the population each year in order to curb rapid rising infections, the nation’s health minister Mikhail Murashko said; the recommendation comes as Russia faces one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Europe at 890 cases per 100,000 people. The Moscow Times    A chikungunya therapy using monoclonal antibody technology has shown promise as both a treatment for the disease and as preexposure prophylaxis, say researchers who performed a first-in-human randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study presented at the ESCMID Global Congress. Healio    Cerebral malaria and severe malarial anemia are tied to long-term cognitive impairment in children under 5, found a new prospective cohort study of 600 Ugandan children evaluated for overall cognitive ability, attention, and associative memory a year after hospitalization for severe malaria and then followed for another four to 15 years. European Medical Journal IN FOCUS A Pakistani woman holds her HIV-positive child at a house at Wasayo village, in Rato Dero, in the southern Sindh province, on May 8, 2019. Rizwan Tabassum / Getty Pakistan’s Infection Control Crisis    At least nine people, including five newborns, have died in an mpox outbreak in Sindh province, Pakistan, as a burgeoning outbreak of the virus there tests a health system already failing to meet basic infection control standards, reports The Telegraph.     Mpox eruption: So far this year, health officials in the province have reported 122 suspected mpox cases. Until now, only sporadic, travel-related infections had been reported.  

• The deaths of infants in neonatal units have raised alarms about possible hospital-acquired transmission. 

Systemic lapses in safety: Health officials in Pakistan say health facilities across the country are failing to meet basic safety and hygiene standards, leading to further spread of HIV, typhoid, and other diseases, reports The Express Tribune. 

• Health officials reported that HIV spiked 200% over the last decade, from 16,000 cases in 2010 to 48,000 by 2020.  

• 39% of HIV infections are now found in traditionally low-risk populations, including women and children, reports Geo News. 

“Injection culture”: Much of the HIV outbreak is being driven by unsafe medical practices, including syringe reuse by health care providers and unregulated clinics. Pakistan has one of the highest rates of therapeutic injections, with people receiving 8–14 injections annually.    Related: San Francisco Reports Its First Clade I Mpox Case — What to Know and How to Find a Vaccine. – KQED  THE QUOTE
  Data released by the U.S. State Department last Friday “show us ... the deliberate unraveling of the elements of H.I.V. prevention and treatment service delivery that are essential to actually finish the job and defeat this pandemic,” says Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP.   ——————————— New PEPFAR Data Show Worrying Declines in Testing and Treatment for H.I.V. – The New York Times (gift link)
  TOBACCO The Hyperlocal Strategy to Curb Smoking     Taking on Big Tobacco may seem like an uphill battle. But in Massachusetts, small-town health advocates are up for the challenge.     Grassroots push: Generational bans on tobacco sales—which make it illegal for anyone born after a certain date to ever buy tobacco—are gaining traction in the state via local health ordinances that are harder for industry lobbyists to target.  

• In 2020, the city of Brookline passed such a ban, and similar ordinances have now spread to 21 towns, impacting 600,000+ residents.  

Massachusetts towns have a long history of pioneering anti-tobacco efforts: Brookline was among the first U.S. jurisdictions to ban smoking indoors, and Needham was the first U.S. town to raise the tobacco-buying age to 21.     Current target: Passing a statewide ban. “It’s a long game,” said longtime anti-tobacco advocate Maureen Buzby.     The Examination  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES Related: What Will Bring the Next Generation of Global Health Students Hope? – Science Politics  QUICK HITS Myanmar military regime widens sanitary towel ban, claiming rebels use them for first aid – The Guardian    Humans may already have some immunity to H5N1 bird flu, study suggests – The Telegraph     Trump's new pick for CDC leader may face “threat to follow ideology over evidence,” former surgeon general warns – CBS 
RFK Jr. defends his health agenda and Trump’s proposed budget cuts in hearing – NPR 
Politicians are using low teen birth rates to further restrict access to birth control, abortion – STAT (commentary)    Younger adult colon cancer deaths are concentrated in people with less education, study says – AP    The Great Ozempic Experiment – The New York Times (commentary; gift link) Thanks for the tip, Dave Cundiff!    KitKat, Gatorade or granola bars? What’s banned under new SNAP rules is mixed. – The Washington Post (gift link)  Issue No. 2901
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 Special Edition: Takeaways from CUGH In this special issue, we’re sharing some CUGH takeways that inspired us—including this year’s Untold Global Health Stories Contest winners! View this email in your browser April 17, 2026 Forward Share Post SPECIAL ISSUE: CUGH 2026 TAKEAWAYS Panelists at the closing plenary of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. Washington, D.C., April 12. Robb Cohen Photography & Video EDITORS’ NOTE A Memorable, and Inspiring, CUGH 
A big thank you to the Consortium of Universities for Global Health for an excellent conference last weekend in Washington, D.C. With this special edition of GHN, we’re sharing some of the takeways that inspired us—including this year’s Untold Global Health Stories Contest winners! We’ll be sharing interviews with our two grand prize winners soon, so keep an eye out for that.
 
We also want to thank all of the new readers who signed up at CUGH—let us know what you think, and if you find GHN useful, please share with your friends and colleagues. We always love to expand our circle.

—Dayna dkerecm1@jhu.edu 
—Brian bsimpso1@jhu.edu 
  SHARE GHN'S FREE SUBSCRIBE LINK IN FOCUS: GHN EXCLUSIVE From Rupture to Renaissance    If the global health order is broken, some global health leaders are primed to chart a new way forward.      Gathered last Sunday for the Consortium of Universities for Global Health annual meeting in Washington, D.C., they shared their concerns about the irrevocable changes in the structure, norms, and rules governing international relations—but devoted most of their time to discussing how to respond.     For Olusoji Adeyi, president of Resilient Health Systems and a senior associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, global health funding cuts and disruptions to the field are an overdue opening to self-determination. Now, he said, global health groups should “seize the opportunity and behave differently and do better.”     Key takeaways:      A vision anchored by an African renaissance: “There’s a huge opportunity here for Africa to take care of itself by raising resources, by strengthening the academic institutions on the continent, and by helping our government to plan better to prepare better for the future,” said Nelson Sewankambo, former dean of Makerere University School of Medicine in Kampala, Uganda.     Building political will: Former NIH director Francis Collins challenged CUGH to “become more of an activist organization,” serving as incubator for bold initiatives and nurturing the next generation of global health scholars. 
An invigorated role for universities: “Let’s step forward and present ourselves to our governments and act as thinkers and advisers,” Sewankambo said.

• Adeyi added that individual countries need to be encouraged to devise—and debate—their own plans. When global health experts “meet in Washington or London or Brussels or Seattle and package things and expect them to just happen cleanly in Tanzania and Nepal and Sierra Leone,” they deny those countries opportunities to shape their health systems.

As Teri Reynolds, the lead for the WHO’s Clinical Services and Systems Unit in the department of Integrated Health Services noted, “There’s a lot of condescension embedded in the word ‘help.’”     Dayna Kerecman Myers, Global Health NOW  UNTOLD STORIES CONTEST A young boy observes the entrance of the Tarajal beach, border between Morocco and Spanish territory of Ceuta. May 19, 2021. Diego Radames/Anadolu Agency via Getty A Banner Year for the Untold Global Health Stories Contest
Congrats to the winners of the Untold Global Health Stories contest, co-sponsored by CUGH and GHN! We’ll be publishing interviews with the two grand prize winners in upcoming editions of GHN. 
Grand Prize Winners     A mental health crisis facing unaccompanied Moroccan boys in Ceuta, Spain Audrey Claire Benson, Barcelona Institute of Global Health / University of Pompeu Fabra / No Name Kitchen, Barcelona, Spain      Health disparities in widowhood: A global health blind spot Jackline Odhiambo, Maseno University, Kisumu, Kenya       Honorable Mentions 
Judicial experts as guardians of occupational health in Mexico Shaira Gabriela Camacho

Gaza’s alarming surge in Guillain–Barré Syndrome Yara Ashour
 
Health care abandonment of trans communities in the South and Appalachia Beau Morgan
 
Health care barriers for U.S. refugees with disabilities Mustafa Rfat
 
Modernizing medical education in the Balkans Timothy Gaul
 
The silent crisis of dengue in rural Bangladesh Amit Banik
 
Toxic heavy metal exposure among auto mechanics in Accra, Ghana Anushka Peer
  Thank you to everyone who contributed. The judging was harder than ever, given the caliber of ideas submitted. All of the stories deserve to be told.
  LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WINNERS PULITZER CENTER – CUGH FILM FESTIVAL The Pulitzer Center upheld its tradition of hosting a film festival at CUGH, sharing a double feature of hard-hitting documentaries: An Atlanta News First documentary on a measles outbreak in Samoa, shared above, and a PBS NewsHour deep dive on the legacy of American foreign aid in central Kenya, by William Brangham and Molly Knight Raskin. THE QUOTE
  “What gives me hope is the fact that people are willing to come together. They’re willing to convene, they’re willing to put their best foot forward. They’re willing to take their knowledge, capabilities, passions, and desires to be able to improve the health of people and the health of our planet.” ——————————— Keith Martin, MD, PC, executive director, CUGH, interviewed at CUGH for The Havey Institute for Global Health's Explore Global Health Podcast  OPPORTUNITY Next Stop for CUGH: Lima, Peru
It’s an exciting first: Next year, the CUGH Annual Conference will be held outside the U.S.––in Lima, Peru, February 25–28, 2027. We hope you’ll be there!  Issue No. 2900
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: Africa’s Monumental Vaccination Gains; and South Korea’s Deadly ‘ER Runaround’ Plus: A Fandom for the Greatest Fans View this email in your browser April 16, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES $1.5 billion for humanitarian aid in Sudan was pledged this week as international leaders met in Berlin on the third anniversary of the country’s civil war; the meeting sought to increase aid support and revive negotiations to end the fighting. Al Jazeera   A review of Alzheimer’s drug studies spanning a decade concluded the drugs had negligible clinical benefit; but many Alzheimer’s experts criticized the analysis published by Cochrane, saying it unfairly put a range of dissimilar drugs—including failed drugs and two recently approved treatments—in one category. The New York Times (gift link)    Drug-resistant Shigella infections are on the rise in the U.S., per the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report; the bacterial infection, which causes diarrhea, increased 8.5% from 2011 to 2023 and is a “public health threat” due to its easy spread and lack of FDA-approved treatment. USA Today    Former Deputy U.S. Surgeon General Erica Schwartz has received HHS support to be the next CDC director, sources say; the CDC has been without a permanent director since August. NBC News  EDITORS' NOTE Tomorrow: A Special CUGH Takeaways Edition    We usually don’t publish on Fridays, but tomorrow we’ll be sending a special edition of GHN with exclusive coverage from the Consortium of Universities for Global Health meeting—including the announcement of this year’s Untold Global Health Stories contest winners! —The Editors   IN FOCUS A community health worker administers an oral vaccine during a door-to-door polio immunization campaign in Mbezi Makabe, Tanzania, on May 21, 2022. Ericky Boniphace/AFP via Getty Africa’s Monumental Vaccination Gains    The first-ever comprehensive analysis of immunization in Africa has found that 500 million+ children have accessed routine vaccination since 2000, preventing 4 million+ deaths each year, reports the AP. 
Key breakthroughs detailed in the analysis, which was published by the WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance:  

• Measles vaccinations halved deaths from the virus, saving ~20 million lives since 2000, per UN News. 

• The eradication of wild poliovirus in 2020 was a “historic milestone.” 

• Meningitis deaths have fallen by nearly 40%. 

• Maternal and neonatal tetanus have been eliminated in most countries.  

• In 2024 alone, vaccines saved ~2 million lives.  

But these advances are fragile, and threatened: “Progress is uneven, and even slowing, leaving too many children unprotected as key targets are still missed,” said Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa, per the WHO. 

• 10 countries account for 80% of children who haven’t received any vaccine in the region, said Janabi, calling it “a profound equity issue” in a press briefing, per the AP.  

• Meanwhile, health systems face growing vulnerability amid drastic funding cuts, particularly from the U.S; and global conflicts including the Iran war are disrupting critical supply chains. 

EMERGENCY CARE South Korea’s Deadly ‘ER Runaround’  
Patients seeking emergency services in South Korea increasingly struggle to access care amid stringent hospital entry policies, with fatal delays becoming more frequent.     Policy constrains paramedics: South Korean law requires first responders to gain hospital permission before transporting patients to an ER. But amid a shortage of ER doctors and overcrowding, paramedics must often call dozens of hospitals before finding a bed—a crisis dubbed “ER runaround” and “ambulance pingpong.” 

• In 1,000+ incidents last year, ambulances had to call 20+ hospitals before finding beds for their patients. 

• The average time for major trauma patients to be accepted by an ER has doubled since 2019.  

Officials have pushed for reforms, including giving paramedics more authority to designate emergency hospitals, but ER doctors worry about staffing and liability risks.    The New York Times (gift link)   Related: For Many Patients Leaving the ICU, the Struggle Has Only Just Begun – KFF Health News Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!   OPPORTUNITY Gain Skills to Respond to Humanitarian Emergencies 
Humanitarian workers and health professionals are invited to apply for the Health Emergencies in Large Populations (H.E.L.P.) course hosted virtually by the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.    The H.E.L.P. course equips participants with practical knowledge and skills to respond to the health needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises, whether conflict, natural disasters, or complex emergencies.    Key areas covered: 

• Epidemiology 

• Communicable and noncommunicable disease control 

• Nutrition 

• Water and sanitation 

• Mental health and health systems in crises 

The course combines prerecorded lectures with interactive sessions and practical exercises, including crisis simulations.

• July 13–24, 2026

• Learn more and apply for the online course

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic; Jacob Kupferman/Getty, Icon Sportswire/Getty, Ric Tapia/Getty, Nur Photo/Getty A Fandom for the Greatest Fans  
Mascots have a weighty job. Their fuzzy, begloved hands carry the agony and ecstasy of fandom.  
 
But who is cheering them on? This month, it seems everybody is. 

One intense U.S. high school mascot tournament pitted animal, vegetable, mineral, Frankfort Hot Dogs, and Webb Feet against each other in online voting, reports MLive.     A more scientific approach: To predict which March Madness mascot would dominate in a real-world encounter, The Athletic (gift link) consulted meteorologists, the staff of Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, and other experts to judge a pool including “a variety of dogs, Quakers, multiple birds, weather events, various historic military figures,” and more.     Meanwhile, in mascot-saturated Pennsylvania, the governor’s office courted chaos by launching a tournament won by the Phillie Phanatic, reports BillyPenn at WHYY, adding: “We are equal parts excited and terrified to see how Gritty responds to this result.”    Love to the moon and back: Leaving Artemis II’s beloved mini-moon plushie mascot behind was “not something I was going to do,” posted Commander Reid Wiseman. Flouting NASA’s post-splashdown checklist, he tucked the little guy in his pressure suit. The two have been inseparable since.  QUICK HITS Can you stop malaria crossing borders? One nation’s bid to wipe out the disease – The Guardian    Two to three cups of coffee a day linked to lower risk of mental health disorders, study finds – Euronews     Black maternal mortality gap still persists in U.S. – Axios     FDA to consider lifting restrictions on peptides touted by RFK Jr. – UPI     After 'unprecedented' results, SF researchers get closer to HIV cure – SFGate     Would you save more lives or more years of life? A global study reveals how people really think – Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance Issue No. 2899
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: Expanding Access to Lenacapavir; and Micromobility, and Major Injuries View this email in your browser April 15, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Antisemitic attacks killed 20 Jews in 2025, the highest number in 30 years, per the latest annual report from Tel Aviv University tracking global incidents; the report also found that the total number of antisemitic incidents in every Western country remained significantly higher than in 2022, the year before the war in Gaza began. CNN    The HPV vaccine can cut cancer risk in men by about half, finds a study published in JAMA Oncology, which involved 510,000 boys and men vaccinated between January 2016 and December 2024, per CIDRAP; the new findings support the case for widening sex-neutral HPV vaccination programs, which have historically prioritized protecting women and girls against cervical cancer, per another CIDRAP report.     Taking Tylenol during pregnancy has no effect on later autism diagnoses, finds a large new study published in JAMA Pediatrics, which tracked 1.5 million+ children ‌born between 1997 and 2022 in Denmark’s national health registry; autism was diagnosed in 1.8% of children exposed to acetaminophen and 3% of those who weren’t. The Guardian    UK emergency rooms are “being clogged” with women seeking emergency treatment after having to wait too long for routine procedures, as women still face “medical misogyny” and are deprioritized within the NHS, says the UK’s top gynecologist ahead of today’s release of a new government health plan for women. The Independent  IN FOCUS People march during the launch of lenacapavir, a long-acting HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drug in Nakuru, Kenya, on March 26. James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Expanding Access to Lenacapavir   The long-acting HIV prevention drug lenacapavir will reach 3 million people in 24 lower-income countries over the next three years, up 50% from earlier targets, reports Science.  

• “If we really want to make the most of this, we have to go bigger, and we have to go bigger faster,” said Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which detailed the rapid expansion in a joint announcement with the U.S. State Department.  

So far: ~135,000 people in nine African countries have received the twice-yearly injection.     Path to wider access: Twelve additional countries will also receive the medicine soon, per Health Policy Watch: Benin, Botswana, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Georgia, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, and Thailand.     Generics on the horizon: Lenacapavir’s maker, Gilead, has licensed six generic manufacturers to supply 120 low-income countries, with rollout by mid-2027.     But limits remain: Advocates warn that the drug has remained unavailable in many middle-income countries and in those experiencing humanitarian crises.  

• They also warn that the current U.S. focus on preventing mother-to-child transmission could overlook key populations, such as people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men.  

The stakes are high at this juncture, Friends of the Global Fight explains in a brief to the U.S. Congress. The advocacy group’s list of recommendations includes ensuring that appropriated funds for AIDS, TB, and malaria are spent for global health as Congress has specified, even as aid funding models shift.  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ROAD SAFETY Micromobility, and Major Injuries     As e-bikes and e-scooters proliferate on the streets of Canada’s large cities, emergency rooms are filling with patients being treated for concussions, fractures, and other traumatic injuries from crashes: 

• In Toronto, St. Michael’s Hospital saw e-scooter admissions rise 600% from 2020 to 2024, while SickKids pediatric hospital in treated 46 such cases in 2024, up from just one in 2020. 

• Montreal Children's Hospital reported a 10X increase in such injuries in one year. 

Outpacing regulation: The “micromobility revolution” has arrived more swiftly than lawmakers have been able to pass regulations for age limits, helmets, and traffic safety.     Maclean’s  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Idaho Cut Services for People With Schizophrenia. Then the Deaths Began. – The New York Times (gift link)     B.C. declared toxic drugs a public health emergency 10 years ago. Has it made a difference? – CBC   
Indonesia orders food companies to label products high in sugar, salt, fat – The Straits Times  
Vaccine skepticism now the norm for many Americans – CIDRAP    Trump's budget hawk is still trying to slash medical research. Congress is saying no. – Politico     How I harness research to inform humanitarian relief efforts – Nature

You should be more freaked out by shingles – Wired Issue No. 2898
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 Cancer Super Drug’s High Costs; and An Oil Company’s Lethal Legacy View this email in your browser April 14, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES 167 people have died in Nigeria’s Lassa fever outbreak so far in 2026, with 663 confirmed infections—and a 25.2% case fatality rate that marks a substantial rise from 18.5% in the same period in 2025, per the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention; however, new infections fell to 26 for the last week in March, compared with 51 the week prior. Nigerian Tribune via MSN    Dangerous injection practices continued at a government hospital in Taunsa, Pakistan, according to a BBC Eye investigation, despite a “massive crackdown” in March 2025 on unsafe practices linked to an HIV outbreak that infected 331 children between November 2024 and October 2025. BBC    The Iran war is disrupting water fluoridation for some U.S. water utilities, as Israel is one of the leading global exporters of fluorosilicic acid; the shortage is affecting hundreds of thousands of people in states, including Pennsylvania and Maryland, where fluoride is added in water systems to prevent tooth decay. AP    Human specialists with PhDs outperform even the best AI agents on scientific workflows, with AI counterparts scoring roughly half as well as the real deal, per an annual state-of-the-field report published by Stanford University that also notes a nearly 30-fold increase in AI mentions in natural sciences publications between 2010 to 2025. Nature  IN FOCUS Illustration of pembrolizumab (marketed under the name Keytruda), a drug that treats various types of cancers. Behnoush Hajian/Science Photo Library A Cancer Super Drug’s High Costs     An immunotherapy cancer drug is revolutionizing care, but the world’s bestselling medication is also draining coffers of the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), according to a new report by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, part of an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) investigation.  

• Keytruda hauls in $30 billion per year for U.S. pharma giant MSD (known as Merck in the U.S. and Canada). 

• NHS has been paying up to 5X more for the drug than it should, per the investigation. 

• While MSD said its medications deliver “cost-effective health benefits” in the U.K., the NHS is struggling to provide adequate care, with nearly 20,000 patients dying while waiting for treatment in 2024.   

Less means more: Researchers are questioning the standard dosage that MSD recommends, pointing to studies that have shown less Keytruda is needed. The WHO says $5 billion could be saved by 2040. 
Patent power: MSD “has built a fortress of patents,” securing 1,200+ patents across 50+ countries to shut out generic, less costly copies of the medication “for 14 years after its original patents expire in 2028,” per a separate ICIJ article. 
  “Almost like science fiction”: The explosive revelations come at a time when cancer immunotherapy drugs herald a new era for treatment. 

• Personalized immunotherapy is delivering long-term cancer remission with fewer side effects that come with chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments, the BBC reports. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENT An Oil Company’s Lethal Legacy     Why does a remote village in northern Kenya have a strikingly high rate of gastrointestinal cancer?  

• The cancer rate in the community was 3X the national average by the early 2000s.  

The answer appears to lie near oil wells dug by Amoco in the 1980s—piles of a residual white clay substance filled with heavy metals and carcinogens.  
  Locals believed the substance to be salt and used it in cooking. The oil wells were also left unsealed, and high levels of carcinogenic toxic chemicals have seeped into the surrounding water supply.
   Seeking recourse: In 2020, residents sued the Kenyan national and county governments, demanding clean water and blaming the country for failing to police Amoco’s work. The lawsuit is ongoing.     The Intercept  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Former CDC Director Shares the Hard Work Behind Outbreaks that Didn’t Happen – GW Today 
New report details safety issues that led to Miami organ recovery group’s closure – Miami Herald  
NSF names record number of graduate fellows, rebounding from 2025 dip – Science  
Mozambique approves law to curb tobacco use – Agence de Presse Africaine 
End of community-wide treatment linked to resurgence of parasitic worm infections in Malawi – Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine via Medical Xpress 
This detox may erase 10 years of social media brain damage, researchers say – The Washington Post (gift link) 
What on earth is ‘vaccine beer’ and could it possibly work? – The Independent     Issue No. 2897
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 Widespread Risks of the Wildlife Trade; and Cultivating Hope Amidst Climate Change View this email in your browser April 13, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Airstrike casualties in Lebanon are still buried under rubble, per health and humanitarian workers, who say that the 300+ count of people killed in the Israeli strikes last week will rise; they also decried threats of attacks on ambulances and warned of looming food shortages. UN News       Burundi health officials are investigating an illness that has caused five deaths and sickened 35 people in Mpanda district in the north of the country; so far lab analysis of the illness—which causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhea—has been negative for Ebola and Marburg viruses, Rift Valley fever, and others. WHO     A police officer assigned to guard polio vaccination workers was killed in northwestern Pakistan last week by suspected militants who opened fire on the vehicle carrying the officers; four others were wounded in the firefight, which occurred as Pakistan begins a weeklong vaccination drive that aims to reach more than 45 million children under 5. AP
  The UK government rolled out plans to remove deep-fried foods and sharply restrict junk food and sweets from school lunch menus—while boosting healthier options; the new guidelines, aimed at tackling childhood obesity and tooth decay, will be introduced incrementally between now and 2028. The Independent   EDITORS’ NOTE CUGH Shout Out!     We had an energizing and hopeful weekend in Washington, D.C., at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health conference.  
  It began with a fast-paced, daylong communications workshop led by the CUGH Research Committee, the Pulitzer Center, and Global Health NOW on Thursday, April 9.  
  Watch GHN this week for news and announcements from the conference––including this year’s Untold Global Health Stories contest winners!  
  We enjoyed making new friends and signing up new GHN readers. Huge thanks, also, to all the loyal readers who stopped by to share how valuable GHN is to them. We’re collecting testimonials for GHN. We’re especially interested in hearing from faculty who use GHN in their classes. Please send us a quick note! 
See you next year in Lima! 
  All best, 
  Brian bsimpso1@jhu.edu  Dayna dkerecm1@jhu.edu  SHARE GHN'S FREE SUBSCRIBE LINK IN FOCUS A Malayan pangolin is seen out of its cage after being confiscated by the Department of Wildlife and Natural Parks. Kuala Lumpur, August 8, 2002. Jimin Lai/AFP via Getty The Widespread Risks of the Wildlife Trade    Wild mammals that are sold in the wildlife trade are significantly more likely to spread disease to humans, finds a new landmark study published in Science, which provides some of the clearest data yet on the widespread zoonotic spillover risks the trade poses, reports NPR.     Comprehensive perspective: While scientists have long linked the wildlife trade to certain diseases like SARS, Ebola, mpox, and possibly COVID-19, the study provides the first quantitative analysis of its kind, as researchers created an “atlas” of pathogens based on 40 years-worth of data on the wildlife trade.  

• Of 2,000+ species analyzed, 41% of traded mammals carry at least one human pathogen, compared to 6.4% of non-traded species.  

• Overall, traded animals are about 1.5X more likely to share human pathogens. 

“It suggests that the trade is not just one of the things that promotes animal human pathogen transmission—but it’s one of the most important ones,” lead study author Jérôme Gippet told The Telegraph.     Behind the heightened risk: Close contact between animals in wildlife market settings—especially in unsanitary conditions—allows viruses to more easily jump between species. 

• The longer a species is traded, the greater the risk, with one new shared pathogen emerging every decade.  

Taking further steps: Researchers say the markets could be made safer through improved disease surveillance and regulated hygiene conditions; they caution that bans may push trade underground, increasing risks, reports Nature.  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Cultivating Hope Amidst Climate Change   Outside the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in northeast Nigeria, orchards full of papaya, banana, and plantain trees provide a green refuge—a recent public health intervention in a city grappling with rapidly rising heat.     Extreme temperatures surge: Maiduguri’s average temperature rose from 30.5°C/87°F to 37.1°C/98.7°F between 2014 and 2024. 

• And that rising heat is linked to dramatic health impacts, including dehydration, which now accounts for ~30% of daily clinic visits. 

Rooted resilience: The hospital’s 826 trees were selected for their ability to withstand extreme heat, and planted last year with the hope that they could provide much-needed shade, food, and mental respite for a community facing conflict and environmental stress.    The New Humanitarian  OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS What it takes to eat: new report reveals how war is cutting off access to food as hunger deepens in Sudan – Norwegian Refugee Council    AVAC: Abrupt shutdown of US global health supply chain raises risks for HIV, TB and malaria programs – European AIDS Treatment Group    Here’s how to make drug addiction a health issue, not a criminal one – Bhekisisa

Too young for the MMR shot, babies become ‘sitting ducks’ in measles outbreaks – AP     Are your symptoms caused by the flu or measles? What to do before going to the doctor – CIDRAP    GSK reports promising early results in ovarian and womb cancer drug trial – The Guardian     A dodgy drug-maker and corporate perks: how UK health aid is really being spent – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism  Issue No. 2896
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 Long Road to Rehabilitation for Gaza’s Amputees; and New Rules for Digital Accessibility Plus: Houston, We Have a Cobbler View this email in your browser April 9, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES CDC leadership has delayed the publication of a report showing the COVID-19 vaccine’s effectiveness, including how the vaccine cut the likelihood of hospital and emergency room visits for healthy adults last winter by about half; scientists say they fear the report is being downplayed because it conflicts with HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s criticism of the shot. The Washington Post (gift link)    The EU has cut its contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, as global contributions to global health aid continue to drop; the European Commission has pledged €700 million to the Fund between 2027–2029, a €15 million drop from what it provided from 2023 to 2025. Euronews    The U.S. teenage birth rate fell 7% in 2025, per a report published Thursday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, a drop the lead author described as “extraordinary,” continuing a decade of decline; potential contributing factors include higher use of contraception and lower sexual activity among youth. NPR    Maternal psychological stress driven by crises like natural disasters can affect fetal development and birth outcomes, finds a new study published in the Journal of Health Economics that examined the birth outcomes of babies born to mothers in Japan who faced widespread anxiety about radiation exposure in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. News Medical  IN FOCUS A young Palestinian amputee walks with a nurse outside the UAE Hospital Ship SSF Ania in the port of Arish, in northeastern Egypt, on February 5. AFP via Getty Images A Long Road to Rehabilitation for Gaza’s Amputees     For the hundreds of adults and children from Gaza who have undergone amputations since 2023, specialized prosthetic treatment remains a struggle to access—with many stranded in neighboring Egypt indefinitely as they seek to regain both physical and social mobility there. 

• ~6,000 Palestinians have faced limb amputation during the conflict with Israel, per WHO estimates; at the conflict’s height in 2023, 10+ children lost one or both legs every day, per Save the Children.  

Legal limbo: Egypt is the primary destination for Palestinians needing amputation care, but most Palestinians treated there are unable to access formal residency permits or refugee status.  

• As a result, patients often live in temporary housing like hostels, are unable to work or open bank accounts, and face constant pressures and uncertainty while requiring specialized care for months and years. 

Dependent on NGOs: Long-term, high-tech prosthetic rehabilitation is almost impossible without the support of medical charities.  

• Orthomedics in Cairo has treated ~300 Palestinian patients since October 2023, mostly through NGO funding from groups like the Turkish charity Sadakataşı.  

The Guardian  POLICY New Rules for Digital Accessibility
As colleges and universities increasingly rely on digital resources, the obstacles for students with disabilities have grown. 

• Many websites, apps, and digital learning materials have not been designed to accommodate people who are deaf or blind or have low vision.  

But revised regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act aim to change that. By the end of this month, large U.S. public institutions must meet updated accessibility standards for all digital materials––improvements that include captioned videos, color contrast, and more inclusive screen navigation.  

• Just as stairs can exclude people who use wheelchairs from accessing government buildings, inaccessible web content and mobile apps can exclude people with a range of disabilities, the rule states.  

• Institutions serving 50,000+ people have had two years to prepare; smaller institutions must comply by 2027. 

NPR     Related: Digital Accessibility: Teaching and Learning Resources – The Elm (The University of Maryland, Baltimore)  OPPORTUNITY Calling Current and Future Global Health Leaders
This month, join Unite For Sight—a nonprofit global health delivery organization committed to promoting high-quality care for all—for the 23rd annual Global Health & Innovation Conference in Connecticut.     The gathering brings together global health leaders and “dives deep into bold ideas, transformative innovation, and responsible global engagement.” 
 
Plenary panels include: 

• Defining Purpose in Global Health 

• Designing Better Solutions for Global Health 

• What Real Impact Looks Like  

• Local Leadership and Global Partnerships  

April 18–19, 2026; North Haven, CT 

Register for the conference. Sign up before April 10 for a reduced rate. 

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Houston, We Have a Cobbler
The crew of Artemis II may have boldly gone farther from Earth than any human, but they made sure the Nutella stayed within arm’s reach.     As the world watched a livestream of the crew hurtling towards that 252,752-mile record, the broadcast was interrupted by a full-sized jar of the chocolate hazelnut spread pirouetting in zero-G across the cabin, reports Futurism; a relatable reminder that snacks are the real highlight of any professional venture.     Nutella is just one of 189 NASA-approved items selected for the Artemis menu, which includes broccoli au gratin, cobbler, and barbecued beef brisket. 

• Meanwhile, the Canadian Space Agency ensured their astronaut Jeremy Hansen had his requisite maple syrup.   

The food must be shelf-stable and as crumb-less as possible for microgravity, hence the inclusion of 58 tortillas, reports Scientific American. Microgravity can also dull tastebuds, which is apparently why the space agency packed not one, but five different kinds of hot sauce.     Almost as important as oxygen?: 43 cups of coffee were allotted for the crew, reports National Geographic—a little more than 10 cups per astronaut over the 10-day mission. QUICK HITS Pesticides may wreak havoc on the gut microbiome – Science     Eye symptoms may signal higher-severity long COVID – CIDRAP  
Scientists Move Closer to Male Birth Control With No Hormones, No Snip – Gizmodo  

Patients scramble to find estrogen patches as shortage worsens after US FDA champions use – Reuters     Should’ve put a ring on it? Maybe! Marriage is linked to lower risk of cancer – CNN   Issue No. 2895
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 Better Solution for Sickle Cell Care in Africa Amid Aid Cuts?; and Immigration Raids Heightening Postpartum Isolation View this email in your browser April 8, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Telehealth abortion will remain available in the U.S. for now, after a federal judge in Louisiana ruled yesterday that mifepristone can remain accessible while the FDA completes its safety review of the drug, which has been used for 25+ years and is widely prescribed through telehealth appointments, which now account for more than 1 in 4 U.S. abortions. NPR    Decades-old canned Alaska salmon dissected by researchers contained levels of tiny parasitic worms that signal that the fishes’ ecosystems were stable or recovering over a 40+-year span, per findings published in Ecology & Evolution; researchers posited that the Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, and warming oceans may all have played a role in increasing parasite levels. ScienceDaily    AI chatbots spread misinformation about a fake disease called “bixonimania,” a skin condition invented by researchers in an experiment to see how false preprint studies can infiltrate medical literature and be treated as fact by AI—and by other researchers relying on AI without checking source material. Nature     Greece will ban social media access for children under 15 starting January 2027, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis saying the prohibition is health-driven and that “when a child is in front of screens for hours, their brain does not rest”; the country follows Australia and Indonesia in implementing such a ban and will pressure the EU to follow suit, Mitsotakis said. Le Monde  IN FOCUS: GHN EXCLUSIVE Catherine Nabaggala, MD, consoles Olivia Nansamba whose son Melvin had a blood transfusion to treat sickle cell disease. Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson A Better Solution for Sickle Cell Care in Africa Amid Aid Cuts?    KAMPALA, UGANDA—Olivia Nansamba sits on a narrow bed at Mulago National Referral Hospital, her 6-month-old son in her arms. Melvin, who has sickle cell disease, is pale, weak, and wailing. 
  “Sickle cell disease is a very terrible disease,” says Nansamba, lifting up her baby’s swollen, bandage-wrapped hand. “Sometimes there’s pain, pain, pain.” 
  A brutal killer: Sickle cell disease can cause extreme pain crises, strokes, and organ damage. It claims 376,000 lives every year worldwide. About 80% of cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. 
  Barrier to care: A clinical mindset that only specialized hematologists and expensive interventions can help still prevails.  

• But restricting care to specialists and costly treatments grossly limits the number of children who can be helped, notes Joseph Lubega, MD, MPH, director of Texas Children’s Global Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence program. 

A new approach: Lubega is seeking to radically boost access to treatment for sickle cell disease, per reporting in Uganda supported by the Pulitzer Center.  

• His project focuses on providing care in regular government clinics, where trained health care workers can screen and provide key meds to help children live longer, better lives. 

The Quote: “There are many fancy things you can do, but primary care can take care of the bulk of the issues––and at a very low cost,” Lubega says. “So that’s our mission.” 
Brian W. Simpson and Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson for Global Health NOW  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Immigration Raids Heightening Postpartum Isolation    In U.S. cities like Minneapolis that have faced intense immigration crackdowns, immigrant mothers have been forced into isolation, increasing risks to their physical and mental health and the well-being of their babies, advocates say.     A vulnerable time: Newly postpartum mothers are susceptible to a host of challenges, including postpartum depression as well as physical complications like hemorrhage, preeclampsia, or infection. Untreated, these can be deadly. 

• One-third of maternal deaths occur in the first year postpartum.  

The risks are even more acute for immigrant mothers, particularly Latinas, who are 2X as likely as white women to develop postpartum depression. 

• But many of these women are now forgoing the care of friends and family––and putting off important postpartum checkups—in an effort to avoid detention.  

The 19th  OPPORTUNITY Save the Date: World Immunization Week Webinar    Explore strategies and approaches to increase vaccination coverage and access across the life course, from infants and young children to adolescents, pregnant women, and adults, in a webinar featuring a distinguished panel of experts convened by the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

• April 20, 2–3 p.m. EDT 

• Register for the World Immunization Week Webinar

QUICK HITS “I Don’t Want to Die in India”: The Hidden Corridor of East African Sex Trafficking – More to Her Story    Srinidhi Polkampally and Bhav Jain: What American hospitals can learn from India about waste – STAT (commentary)    Idaho Cut Services for People With Schizophrenia. Then the Deaths Began. – The New York Times (gift link)    From misdiagnosis to medical bias: Why women are living longer but not better – UN Wire 
  Poll: Here’s what MAHA actually believes – Politico 
Study advances safe, reversible male contraceptive without hormones – News Medical   Issue No. 2894
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: Food, Fuel, and Fertilizer Shortages Follow Iran War; and Eswatini’s Limited Access to a Livesaving Drug View this email in your browser April 7, 2026 Forward Share Post TOP STORIES Nearly 1,000 refugees and migrants have died so far this year in Mediterranean shipwrecks—and while arrivals are down sharply, fatalities are rising compared to this period last year; the UN’s International Organization for Migration urges improved search and rescue capacity and expanded legal migration pathways to “reduce dangerous crossings.” IOM (news release)    UK doctors launched a six-day strike today, rejecting a government pay and staffing deal that the British Medical Association deems inadequate; the government withdrew ‌a ⁠commitment to cover 1,000 additional specialty training positions contingent on the deal’s acceptance. Reuters via The Hindu 
Mexico faces a “toxic crisis,” warns UN special rapporteur Marcos Orellana, who conducted an 11-day investigative mission last month and says Mexico has become the U.S.’s “garbage sink,” citing pollution threats ranging from imported waste to dangerous pesticides, as well as lax environmental standards and lack of oversight. The Guardian  
The California Bay Area is a rotavirus hotspot, per the WastewaterSCAN Dashboard, which tracks levels in 40 states; every region but the Midwest showed high levels of the gastrointestinal illness. The Independent  IN FOCUS The âSakrâ ship, carrying ~4,000 tons of food, shelter, medical, and humanitarian aid prepared by the UAE for delivery to Gaza, arrives at northeastern Egypt's Port of Al-Arish. February 5. Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Food, Fuel, and Fertilizer Shortages Follow Iran War     Critical humanitarian supplies needed in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia are not moving because of war-caused shipping limitations in the Strait of Hormuz, NPR Global Health reports.      Major humanitarian efforts are running low on basic medications, food, fuel, and fertilizers, according to the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children, and other organizations.  

• The Médecins Sans Frontières team in Yemen has procured 100 tons of special foods to treat severe malnutrition in young children, but the supplies are languishing in Dubai's Jebel Ali Port.  

• IV fluids, malaria tests, antibiotics, and other supplies in the field are already running low, per Save the Children in Sudan. 

The Quote: "It’s extremely serious in countries that have very little resilience to shocks like this,” the International Rescue Committee’s Bob Kitchen told NPR. “Whenever one piece of the puzzle is missing or delayed, the consequences are very, very severe.”      Disease risks: The WHO has already documented increases in chickenpox, shigellosis, and influenza, in affected countries, per Devex.     An even greater concern: Concentrated attacks on desalination plants that Iran, Israel, and other countries rely on for drinking water could threaten countries whose water reserves would last only days or weeks.   
Related:     Iran’s Pasteur medical research centre ‘heavily damaged’ in strike – The Telegraph    Karl Blanchet, Sultan Barakat, Bernadette Kumar, and Paul Spiegel: Iran's humanitarian crisis: war, legality, and the erosion of population health – The Lancet Regional Health Europe (commentary)  PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION The exterior of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, on Wolfe Street, in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins Tops Rankings of U.S. Public Health Schools    The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health again ranks #1 among public health schools and programs in the U.S., based on peer-assessment ratings unveiled this morning by U.S. News & World Report.      Rank/School   1  Johns Hopkins University   2  Emory University   2  University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill    4  Harvard University   4  University of Michigan—Ann Arbor    6  Columbia University   6  University of California—Berkeley    6  University of California—Los Angeles   9  Boston University    9  University of Washington      This year’s rankings include 224 schools and programs of public health accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.   
    U.S. News & World Report  DATA POINT

1 in 4
————
Black men in the UK will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives—2X the rate of white men—and 2,300+ men will die over the next decade of the disease, per Prostate Cancer UK; the UK government recently rejected proposals for a prostate cancer screening program for high-risk men, citing in part a lack of data on Black patients. —The Independent
  HIV/AIDS Eswatini’s Limited Access to a Livesaving Drug    The drug lenacapavir could make a huge difference in curbing HIV transmission in the small country of Eswatini—if clinics could get enough of the drug.     Background: Eswatini is home to one of the world’s highest prevalence rates of HIV, but in recent years it has steadily made progress in preventing new infections.     Game-changing drug: Lenacapavir injections began to arrive within the last few months, bringing fresh hope that the twice-yearly shots will make a major dent in transmission.     Limited supply: But only ~3,000 people have been able to start treatment, far below demand. With ~4,000 new infections annually, the supply is “not even a drop in the ocean,” said Nkululeko Dube, programme director for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Eswatini.     The Guardian   Related:     Our LEN is here. Now for quality checks in Ireland – Bhekisisa    Congress gave money for global HIV work. The Trump administration isn't spending it – NPR    ‘We fear the epidemic will return’: Senegal’s harsh anti-gay law puts decades of HIV progress in jeopardy – The Guardian QUICK HITS

WHO calls for action: “Together for health. Stand with science.” to mark World Health Day – WHO 

  Trump’s Foreign Aid Overhaul Sent Millions More Dollars to Big U.S.-Based Contractors – The New York Times (gift link)    Trump administration's secrecy on health deals alarms experts, governments – The Washington Post (gift link)    A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career – STAT    Iodised salt has become uncool but many of us need to eat more iodine – New Scientist  Issue No. 2893
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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