96 Global Health NOW: Climate Report Frozen; Phthalates May Contribute to Heart Disease; and The Human Toll of Meta Moderation View this email in your browser April 30, 2025 Forward Share Post A view of a flipped tractor trailer in Asheville, North Carolina, after heavy rains and flooding from Hurricane Helene. September 30, 2024. Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Climate Report Frozen
Scientists working on the U.S.’s flagship climate report were dismissed this week by the Trump administration, which researchers say could impede critical planning and mitigation efforts at the national and community level, reports NPR.

The National Climate Assessment, mandated by Congress and produced by ~400 volunteer authors, is a comprehensive source of information about how climate change affects the U.S.—from how quickly sea levels are rising near cities to how to cope with wildfire smoke exposure.

The report covers public health impacts and recommendations for addressing them, including planning for extreme heat in urban areas and bolstering food and water security. 

• “If I care about food or water or transportation or insurance or my health, this is what climate change means to me,” Texas Tech University climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe told The New York Times (gift link).

Mounting toll: The past 10 years have been the hottest on record, and last year alone, the U.S. experienced 27 weather and climate-related disasters costing the country $185 billion, reports the Los Angeles Times.

What’s next? The Trump administration said the scope of the report “is currently being reevaluated.” Researchers worry that a report that downplays risks or contradicts climate science could be published instead, reports Grist. 

Related: 

UK is not ready for coming climate ‘disaster,’ government advisers warn – The Independent

Trump’s first 100 days: US walks away from global climate action – Climate Home News

From subs to bases, "climate change crap" has consequences for U.S. military – Axios GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners  

One HPV vaccine dose provides similar protection to two doses in preventing infection, per data from an efficacy trial involving 20,000 girls, presented ahead of the June meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. MedPage Today (free registration required)

Florida is poised to ban fluoride in public drinking water after state lawmakers approved the measure Tuesday; the bill now goes to Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration has supported ending fluoridation despite warnings from dentists and public health advocates. AP

In an Alzheimer’s breakthrough, U.K. scientists have used living human brain tissue to mimic the early stages of the disease, exposing healthy brain tissue from NHS patients to a toxic form of a protein linked to Alzheimer’s to demonstrate damage to brain cell connections in real time. The Guardian

Low emission zones in London significantly reduced harmful pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, per a new study that documented measurable public health and economic benefits, including an 18.5% drop in sick leave, following LEZ implementation. University of Bath via ScienceDaily

U.S. Health and Science Policy News CDC reinstates workers who screen coal miners for black lung disease – The Washington Post (gift link)

Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Could Hurt U.S. Economy, Study Shows – The New York Times (gift link)

Exclusive: In conversation with FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary – Inside Medicine

RFK Jr.'s not-so-secret weapon: the moms – Axios

Here's how the Trump administration has changed health policy in its first 100 days – NPR’s Short Wave (audio) ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Phthalates May Contribute to Heart Disease
Daily exposure to di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), a chemical used to make household plastic items, could be linked to more than 10% of all global mortality from heart disease in 2018, a new analysis of population surveys published in eBioMedicine shows.

While DEHP is used globally, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East saw a much larger share of the more than 365,000 global deaths than other populations—nearly half the total.

• India had the highest death count at 39,677 deaths, followed by Pakistan and Egypt.

Consistent contact with DEHP has been shown to cause inflammation in the heart's arteries, which, over time, is associated with an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

The study’s authors say the resulting economic burden from the deaths was ~$510 billion.

Medical Xpress GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES MENTAL HEALTH The Human Toll of Meta Moderation
The people tasked with sifting through the most disturbing images flagged on Facebook and Instagram are underpaid and work in grueling conditions, a new report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism finds. 

Background: Meta keeps the identities of its content-moderation subcontractors a closely guarded secret, but TBIJ identified one as a French multinational company, Teleperformance, which operates out of Accra, Ghana. 

The toll: Moderators say they are held to strict performance targets, work under surveillance, and receive no psychological support for the difficult work, which involves reviewing images of extreme violence and abuse. 

• As a result, many are coping with depression and substance abuse; some have even attempted suicide. 

TBIJ

Related: How to keep violent porn out of your home and away from your kids – NPR OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Plague of rats and insects provide latest challenge for war-shattered Gazans – UN News

The Disappeared: Mexico’s Industrial-Scale Human Rights Crisis – IPS (commentary)

Winnie Byanyimax: Three ways to help the developing world survive the end of aid – The Guardian (commentary)

More and more older Americans want to know their Alzheimer's status, survey finds – NPR Shots

Top ten research priorities in global burns care: findings from the James Lind Alliance Global Burns Research Priority Setting Partnership – The Lancet Global Health

COVID vaccine works faster with both doses in the same arm – Nature 

‘Smart insoles’ could help diagnose dementia, other health problems – The Washington Post (gift link) Issue No. 2717
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: Peru’s Illegal Mining Surges… and Destroys; Autism Database Debate; and The Lingering Legacy of Agent Orange View this email in your browser April 29, 2025 Forward Share Post GHN EXCLUSIVE REPORT Illegal gold mining in Peru’s Madre de Dios department has destroyed an average of 21,000 hectares of rainforest per year. May 31, 2024. Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Peru’s Illegal Mining Surges… and Destroys  
LIMA, Peru—Soaring gold prices and plunging U.S. government funds are pushing Peru’s southeastern jungle into a public health crisis.

• A longtime problem in the department of Madre de Dios, which borders Bolivia and Brazil, illegal mining is booming as gold prices top $3,000 per ounce.


• The gold rush requires a massive influx of workers and large amounts of mercury, which is used to extract gold from ore.

The result: Destroyed forests, mercury poisoning, and fast-spreading infectious diseases, says Juan Pablo Murillo, an infectious disease specialist with the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
 
U.S. cuts: Canceled U.S.-supported projects had reforested devastated areas, traced how mercury poisoned people, and worked with communities on ways to avoid fish species with the highest mercury levels, says tropical ecologist Luis Fernández, who directs Wake Forest University’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation.

The Quote: “We need to understand much more about [mercury’s] impact because it is so contaminating,” says Eusebio Ríos, a leader of the Harakmbut Indigenous people. “It is a silent threat because you do not see it. We are consuming it without knowing it or how it will affect us in the future.”

Ed Note: This article was produced in collaboration with Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health magazine and is the first in a series that examines front-line impacts of cuts in U.S. funding. READ THE FULL STORY BY LUCIEN CHAUVIN GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Measles is surging in Europe and the Americas; the ECDC reports a 10-fold rise in Europe—with 87% of the cases in Romania—between 2023 and 2024, and the WHO reports an 11-fold increase in the Americas so far this year compared to the same period last year, with all related deaths (3) and the highest case count (900) in the U.S. CIDRAP

130+ pregnant women, new mothers, and children who fled Haiti to seek health care in the Dominican Republic were rounded up in hospitals and deported as part of a new crackdown on undocumented migrants. The Guardian

100 days into the Trump administration, 44% of Americans say they expect to lose trust in public health under new leadership, compared with 28% expecting greater trust, per a new poll of 3,000+ Americans that reflects a partisan divide, with 76% of Democrats reporting waning trust, and 57% of Republicans expressing more optimism. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and de Beaumont Foundation

The FDA confirmed yesterday that it will require Novavax to run a new clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine, which was previously updated annually to target current strains without the need for new clinical trials, prompting concern from former health officials that it’s part of an effort to weaken vaccine efforts. NBC U.S. Health Cuts and Policy News ‘No one can do what America does’: Sudanese refugees bear the brunt as US aid dries up – The Telegraph

Will US science survive Trump 2.0? – Nature

Reproductive health groups, ACLU sue Trump administration for withholding family planning grants – Fierce Health Care

Health of mothers and children at risk from loss of CDC data program, expert says – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

How this Limpopo NGO prepared itself for Trump funding cuts – Bhekisisa AUTISM Database Debate
Autism advocates and health privacy experts are raising concerns after the Trump administration announced plans to pursue wide-scale data collection in an effort to expedite autism research, reports The Washington Post (gift link). 

Pivot from initial plan: The administration initially announced it would create a new registry of people with autism, but retreated from the plan after intense backlash and privacy concerns.

• Still, the administration plans to collect and consolidate autism-related data, combining federal health data, medical records, insurance claims, and readouts from wearable devices to create a “real-world data platform,” reports Axios. 

Reactions: While some scientists have long pushed for a more comprehensive data source to improve research and treatments, others say it could lead to cherrypicking data to promote the view that vaccines cause autism. 

• Some health providers are reporting an uptick in patient requests to remove personal information from charts over privacy concerns. 

Related:

A severe autism advocate responds to RFK Jr.'s research initiative – NPR

‘This Is Not How We Do Science, Ever’ – The Atlantic

Fact-checking RFK Jr.’s claim that environmental toxins cause autism – PBS NewsHour

These autistic people struggled to make sense of others. Then they found AI. – The Washington Post (gift link) DATA POINT CONFLICT The Lingering Legacy of Agent Orange
The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago, but the fallout from the Agent Orange supply used in the country by U.S. troops continues to affect new Vietnamese generations.

• At Da Nang, the site of a U.S. air base, soil remains highly toxic, with dangerous chemicals like dioxin leaching into food and water supplies. 

The toll: Today, ~3 million people, including many children, still suffer serious health issues associated with exposure, ranging from cancer to birth defects. 

Clean-up in jeopardy: Vietnam continues decades-long, painstaking remediation efforts, but U.S. funds allocated for the effort have been called into question with the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid. 

AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES QUICK HITS Climate change could increase global levels of antimicrobial resistance, study finds – CIDRAP 

U.S. maternal deaths doubled during COVID-19 pandemic, among other findings in new study – Brown University

The Disaster of School Closures Should Have Been Foreseen – The Atlantic

Eliminating Malaria in ASEAN: Lessons From Egypt – Think Global Health (commentary)

As a diversity grant dies, young scientists fear it will haunt their careers – NPR Shots

Weight loss pills could help tackle obesity in poorer countries, experts say – The Guardian

He had 2 months to live. Cancer research "that seemed like science fiction" saved his life. – CBS Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!

How bugs and beet juice could play roles in the race to replace artificial dyes in food – AP Issue No. 2716
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: Gaza Aid at a ‘Breaking Point’; The Struggle for Inclusive Care in Nigeria and Kenya; and Japan’s Regenerative Medicine Revolution View this email in your browser April 28, 2025 Forward Share Post Palestinians, mostly children, wait in long lines for food aid distributed by charity organizations at Nuseirat Refugee Camp, near Deir al-Balah, Gaza. April 28. Hassan Jedi/Anadolu via Getty Gaza Aid at a ‘Breaking Point’ 
  Food and medical aid are nearing total collapse in Gaza, as a blockade by Israel stretches into a second month, humanitarian groups are warning. The increasingly dire alerts come as hearings begin at the UN's top court in The Hague, with a Palestinian envoy accusing Israel of destroying the “fundamentals of life in Palestine,” reports The Guardian.

International hearings begin: In The Hague, Palestinian Ambassador to the Netherlands Ammar Hijazi accused Israel of breaching international law by blocking critical aid, attacking aid workers, and displacing citizens, reports the AP.

• Israel has criticized the case as “systematic persecution and delegitimization” and denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff. The court will likely take months to rule.

‘Brink of catastrophe’: Aid groups say that food and critical supplies are nearly out and that essential bakeries and kitchens have shuttered across the enclave, per another report by The Guardian.

• The World Food Programme announced last week its stocks in Gaza are depleted, saying that since the ceasefire, conditions have “once again reached a breaking point,” per UN News. 

Meanwhile, pregnant women face growing dangers in Gaza, with miscarriages, premature births, complications, and deaths in childbirth all rising, per another report by the AP.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Yellow fever poses a growing threat in the Asia-Pacific region due to expanded mosquito habitats, accelerated urbanization, and increased international travel, a new study published in npj Viruses posits. News Medical

Uganda declared the end of its Ebola outbreak last Friday, with the last patient discharged March 14; ring vaccination, Remdesivir treatment, and border health measures were among the components of the country’s “fast, coordinated, and effective response.” WHO

Mpox cases have declined in Africa over the past six weeks due to an “intensification” of public health measures including increased surveillance and contact tracing, Africa CDC officials said last week; however, 17 of 24 countries still report active transmission, and the virus continues to show up in new countries. CIDRAP

The Trump administration is restoring funding to a major NIH-led women’s health research study; the reversal of last week’s defunding decision drew relief from scientists involved in the decades-long project, though they said they haven’t yet received official confirmation. Axios U.S. and Global Health Cuts and Policy News: WHO, WFP announce cuts and layoffs after US withholds funding – Semafor

Aid groups are erasing climate change from their websites – The New Humanitarian

Health program for 9/11 illnesses faces uncertain future after federal staffing cuts – NBC

USDA withdraws a plan to limit salmonella levels in raw poultry – AP

Researcher of 1918 flu virus takes over NIAID – Science

Trump-appointed National Science Foundation leader resigns – Politico INCLUSION The Struggle for Inclusive Care in Nigeria and Kenya 
Despite Nigeria’s and Kenya’s commitment to health care accessibility for people with disabilities and national laws for inclusive health care, these rights have not been fully realized, and many of those affected are not aware of their primary care rights.

• 17% of Nigeria’s population, or 35 million people, have disabilities.


• 57% of the 6 million people with disabilities in Kenya are women.

Overlooked: While both Nigeria and Kenya allow at least one disabled person to sit on committees for community health, accessibility is often neglected. It is often difficult to confirm if people with disabilities sit on some committees, and some say their abilities are frequently underestimated. 

Nigeria Health Watch

Related:

Disability Protection Groups in Two States Pause Services After Missing Federal Funds – Mother Jones

Supreme Court to hear school disability discrimination case – NPR GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING Japan’s Regenerative Medicine Revolution 
Across Japan, biotechnology labs are proliferating as the country’s government continues to bet big on the future of regenerative medicine. 

Background: In 2006, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka discovered that adult cells could be reprogrammed into an embryonic-like state known as induced pluripotent stem cells (or iPS cells), allowing them to become any kind of tissue, from retinas to cardiac muscle. 

Since then, the Japanese government has poured $760 million (110 billion yen) into regenerative medicine development.

•  Of the 60+ iPS-cell clinical trials worldwide, nearly one-third are in Japan.

Now, Japan is on the cusp of becoming the first country to approve iPS-cell-based treatments for diseases like Parkinson’s. 

Nature OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Sudan war: People eating charcoal and leaves to survive, aid agency warns – BBC

‘Killer Robots’ Threaten Human Rights During War, Peace: Urgent Need for Treaty on Autonomous Weapon Systems – Human Rights Watch

More US adults willing to receive mpox vaccine now than in 2022 – CIDRAP

HMC launches first clinical study to help shisha smokers quit – Doha News 

WHO issues new recommendations to end the rise in “medicalized” female genital mutilation and support survivors – WHO

Huge reproducibility project fails to validate dozens of biomedical studies – Nature

Whooping cough cases are rising again in the US – AP

Angie Murimirwa: From hiding in the bathroom to Time's most influential people list – NPR Goats and Soda Issue No. 2715
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: Global Vaccinations in Jeopardy; Kenya’s Push to Improve HIV Testing During Pregnancy; and Run, Run, Robots! UN: Global aid funding cuts upend vaccination efforts almost as much as the pandemic did View this email in your browser April 24, 2025 Forward Share Post A child receives a vaccination from a health care worker during national vaccination day in Vianí, Colombia, on September 25, 2021. Yair Suarez Salazar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Global Vaccinations in Jeopardy
Vaccine-preventable diseases are thriving in a global environment of health funding cuts, misinformation, and humanitarian crises, UN agencies and others are warning during World Immunization Week.

• The UN reports that global aid funding cuts are upending vaccination efforts almost as much as the pandemic did, per Reuters.

• The cuts are “severely limiting” UNICEF’s efforts to vaccinate 15 million children against measles.

Latest cut: The Global Vaccine Data Network, which has done the largest safety studies of COVID-19 vaccines, was terminated 13 months short of its end date by the U.S., The Guardian reports.
 
Disease updates:

• Measles cases topped 10.3 million cases in 2023, a 20% surge over the previous year, WHO notes.

• 5,500 cases of meningitis have been reported in 22 countries in the first three months of 2025.

• WHO’s Americas region has seen 131 cases of yellow fever in four countries already this year.

Mood update: The World Vaccine Congress is meeting this week in Washington, D.C., in a “political environment [that] has perhaps never been more fraught for attendees,” Politico reports.
 
The Quote: “Vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past five decades,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Funding cuts to global health have put these hard-won gains in jeopardy.” GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Nearly a third of antibiotics consumed by people end up in rivers, per a PNAS modeling study from McGill University and One Health Trust researchers that estimates the distribution of chemical pollutants from untreated wastewater and wastewater treatment plants. CIDRAP
 
AI models outperformed PhD-level virologists in lab problem-solving, reveals a study from MIT’s Media Lab, Brazil’s UFABC, and other groups, raising fears that non-experts could weaponize AI models to create bioweapons. TIME
 
A trial of 21 adults with peanut allergy offers evidence that the same micro-dosing approach approved in the U.S. for children with the allergy could work for adults as well, according to early-stage trial results published in Allergy. NewScientist (free registration required)
 
The Research Council of Norway launched a 100 million kroner ($9.6 million) fund to attract top U.S. researchers yesterday, in response to the escalating pressure on academic freedom in America; the council will issue a call for proposals next month focused on topics including climate, health, energy, and AI. The Guardian MATERNAL HEALTH Pregnant Women 2X Likelier to Die in Abortion-Ban States  
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, pregnant people living in states with abortion bans were nearly twice as likely to suffer pregnancy-related deaths compared to their counterparts in states without restrictions, per a new Gender Policy Equity Institute study.

• Black women face the highest risk and are 3.3X more likely to die than white women in states with bans. 

• Maternal mortality fell 21% in states that preserved abortion access post-Dobbs. 

Risky waits: Abortion bans do offer narrow exceptions if a mother's life is in danger, but confusing language leaves many providers unable to intervene until a patient is approaching death. 
 
The 19th GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HIV/AIDS Kenya’s Push to Improve HIV Testing During Pregnancy 
A high number of women in Kenya who are missing HIV screenings during pregnancy is contributing to a persistently high number of babies with the virus, researchers say. 

A closer look: In 2023, 200,000+ pregnant women missed HIV screenings—“a major challenge to eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV,” said Joab Khasewa, an officer with the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council, which conducted the research. 

• That same year, 3,742 babies contracted the virus—7.3% of all births by women with HIV. The council says that rate needs to be brought below 5%. 

Power of preventative screening: Early screening and antiretroviral treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women can lower the risk of transmission from mother to baby to less than 5%. 

The Star ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Run, Run, Robots!  
Thereʼs long been concerns that robots could one day replace humans. But when it comes to running, weʼre still beating the bots. 

Running side-by-side half-marathons in Beijing recently, the fastest human beat the fastest humanoid robot by well over an hour. Of 21 robot competitors, only six finished the race, The Guardian reports.  
 
But rather than showcasing the limits of their development … their struggles in the race only underscore how very human robots have become.
 
Like so many whoʼve tried to take up running, many were “falling, trembling and struggling to stay upright,” according to the South China Morning Post. One “walked a short distance and fell,” Asia Times reports. Another overheated and needed water to cool down.
 
And, as in the human world, some are just annoyingly good athletes. One robot that was “more like a gymnast” also turned out to be a great runner.
 
Given all that androids have learned from us, thereʼs some traits weʼd happily take from them. Like the ability to swap out a battery to regain our strength. Or to keep running when our head falls off. QUICK HITS In China, trade war with U.S. taking a toll on research labs – Science

WHO launches new guidelines to tackle adolescent pregnancy and related health complications – News-Medical

Bowel cancer in young people is on the rise. Childhood toxin exposure could be the cause – The Independent

Studies zoom in on clues to why Lyme disease persists and which antibiotic to prescribe – STAT

US fertility rate hovers near record low as Trump administration pushes for a baby boom – CNN

2025 State of the Air report: 46% of Americans breathe polluted, unhealthy air – Healio

Superbug-fighting paint promises cleaner hospitals and safer public spaces – Phys.org Issue No. 2714
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: Measles and the ‘Malleable Middleʼ; New Efforts to Boost Turkey's Birth Rate; and Science Cuts Leave Researchers Looking Abroad View this email in your browser April 23, 2025 Forward Share Post A measles vaccinations information booth offered by Harris Public Health on April 5, in Houston, Texas. Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty The Rise of Measles, Misinformation, and the ‘Malleable Middleʼ  
As measles cases climb across the U.S., Americans are encountering pervasive false claims about the disease and its vaccine—and many are unsure what to believe, according to a KFF poll taken earlier this month.
 
The poll examined false claims that:

• Autism is linked to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.


• The MMR vaccine is more dangerous than measles.


• Vitamin A can prevent measles infections.

It found that at least half of Americans fall into the “malleable middle” when it comes to measles misinformation, describing each of these claims as “probably true” or “probably false,” The Washington Post reports (gift link).
 
Other key findings:

• Despite rising misinformation, 78% of parents expressed confidence in the safety of the MMR vaccine.


• Parents who believed or were open to believing measles misinformation were more likely to delay or forgo vaccines for their children.


• Republicans and independents were at least twice as likely as Democrats to believe or lean toward believing the false claims. 

Growing outbreak: As U.S. measles cases top 800 nationwide, CDC officials now view cases across Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico as a single outbreak, making it the countryʼs largest since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, The New York Times reports (gift link).
 
But amid deep cuts to local public health funding, the agency is “scraping to find the resources” to support states that are fighting outbreaks, said CDC senior scientist David Sugerman.

Related:

Montana has a measles outbreak with its first cases in 35 years. Here’s what you should know – AP

Track the spread of measles in Texas – Texas Tribune GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Dialysis patients in Gaza are struggling to get treatment under the blockade; Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 400+ patients, representing around 40% of all dialysis cases in the territory, have died over the last 18 months because of lack of proper treatment. AP

U.S. health officials announced plans to urge food makers to phase out petroleum-based artificial colors by the end of 2026—but stopped short of promising a formal ban, largely relying on voluntary efforts from the industry. ABC
 
The NIH has canceled the Women’s Health Initiative—its first and largest project centered on women’s health, which enrolled tens of thousands in clinical trials of hormones and other medications and tracked the health of thousands more over three decades, yielding influential findings on disease prevention, aging, and cognitive decline. Science

Teenagers who went to bed earliest, slept the longest, and had the lowest sleeping heart rates outperformed others on cognitive tests, per a study of 3,222 adolescents in China; researchers found the impact of even small differences in sleep “surprising.” The Guardian DEMOGRAPHICS A New Effort to Boost Turkey's Birth Rate
Turkey’s government has announced a raft of incentives designed to boost the nation’s flagging birth rate, reports The New Arab. 

The “Year of the Family” initiative includes:

• Financial support based on a household’s number of children.


• More flexible work policies, expanded childcare services, housing support, and enhanced medical services. 

The measures are a response to demographic shifts that could have major social and economic consequences: 

• Turkey’s fertility rates have fallen from 2.38 children per woman in 2001 to 1.51 today, “well below” the 2.1 replacement rate. 


• People are marrying and starting families later in life as living costs rise. 


• The country’s older population has reached 10% for the first time, and the median age is now 34.

Meanwhile: Turkey has banned elective c-sections at private health facilities without a medical justification. The move has “sparked fury” from women’s rights groups, doctors, and politicians, reports AFP via France24. 

Related: The push for women to have more children has a powerful ally: Trump – Axios GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES BRAIN DRAIN Researchers Look Abroad Amid Science Cuts
U.S. researchers are seeking careers abroad as the Trump administration cuts science funding and workforce numbers, per an analysis of Nature’s jobs-board data.

Comparing January–March 2025 to the same period last year:

• U.S. scientists submitted 32% more applications for jobs abroad–—and views for positions abroad rose by 68% last month compared with March 2024.


• Applications from U.S. scientists seeking careers in Canada rose 41%.

Some European institutions are rolling out a welcome mat—including Aix-Marseille University in France.

The Quote: “We felt it was our duty to do what we could to show scientists there was a little light in the south of France where they could do their research, be a lot freer and where they were wanted,” said Aix-Marseille’s president, Éric Berton.

Nature QUICK HITS HHS Plans to Cut the National Suicide Hotline’s Program for LGBTQ Youth – Mother Jones

‘Taking the Side of Cancer’: The War on Medical Research Is Being Fought Through Contracts – Splinter

New agreement geared toward universal avian flu vaccine – CIDRAP

RFK Jr.’s autism study to amass medical records of many Americans – CBS

Hearing loss in older adults linked to nearly one-third of dementia cases – Medical Xpress

Researchers find immune system proteins involved in severe cases of schistosomiasis – News Medical

The wholegrain revolution! How Denmark changed the diet – and health – of their entire nation – The Guardian Issue No. 2713
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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96 Global Health NOW: U.S. Cancer Death Rates Falling; Students Forced to Take Pregnancy Tests; and Promoting Mines, While Undermining Protections View this email in your browser April 22, 2025 Forward Share Post Claudia Tellez, MD, helps Nataly Arboleda off the exam table at the Lurie Cancer Center, in Chicago, on November 2, 2023. Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty U.S. Cancer Death Rates Falling
Cancer death rates in the U.S. decreased steadily from 2001–2021, although rates of new cancer diagnoses have increased for women, according to a new study in the journal Cancer.

Takeaways:

• Cancer death rates decreased by 1.5% per year (2018–2022), representing a slowdown from the previous 2.1% average annual decline.
   
• Cancer incidence rates remained stable from 2013–2021 for men but increased 0.3% per year from 2003–2021 among women.
   
• Cancer incidence in 2020 fell compared to pre-pandemic levels across all demographic groups.

Details:

• Increases in breast cancer among women are likely driven by obesity, alcohol use, and increased age for giving birth for the first time, per CNN.
   
• Racial disparities persist: Black women experience a 40% higher death rate from breast cancer and twice the death rate from uterine cancer, compared with white women.

Pandemic impact: Many Americans postponed cancer screenings for several months in 2020, but there wasn’t a major increase in late-stage diagnoses, which are typically harder to treat, the AP reports.

Late-stage diagnoses in 2021 returned to prepandemic levels for most cancer types.

Meanwhile in the U.K.: Cancer patients are not getting access to lifesaving drugs or clinical trials because of post-Brexit cost increases and red tape, according to The Guardian.
 

Related: Top cancer experts ‘being put off UK by politicians’ messaging on immigration’ – The Guardian

DATA POINT The Latest One-Liners   Réunion health officials are calling for urgent reinforcements to manage a chikungunya virus outbreak on the French Indian Ocean Island—with six deaths and 5,000+ cases since January—that is overwhelming hospitals. France24
 

Intensive efforts to reduce high blood pressure—e.g., through medication and health coaching—could reduce the risk of dementia by 15%, according to a study in Nature Medicine involving 33,995+ people with uncontrolled high blood pressure in 326 villages in rural China. The Guardian
 

Traditional risk models used by regulators likely underestimate air pollution health impacts, per Johns Hopkins University and Aerodyne Research Inc. research, measuring risk of simultaneous exposures to multiple chemicals on different parts of the body—and found increased risks missed by traditional methods. Environmental Health News
 

Health care worker burnout is starting to drop from peak levels at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but remains elevated compared to prepandemic times, per a six-year survey in JAMA Network Open assessing burnout and stress among Veterans Health Administration health care workers. McKnights Long-Term Care News

U.S. Policy and Science Cuts News: NIH moving to ban grants to universities with DEI programs, Israeli boycotts – CNN

New NIH director defends grant cuts as part of shift to support MAHA vision – Science

Trump Laid Off Nearly All the Federal Workers Who Investigate Firefighter Deaths – ProPublica

National Science Foundation cancels research grants related to misinformation and disinformation – Nieman Lab 

Trump Administration's HHS Cuts: Creating Waste And Inefficiency, Not Eliminating Them – Health Affairs (commentary)

Gawande: Federal cuts could mean loss of life, harm to U.S. science enterprise – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (commentary)

As Trump administration champions IVF, it cuts key CDC staff – Axios REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS When Students are Forced to Take Pregnancy Tests
Across east Africa, girls are routinely subjected to pregnancy tests at school—a “humiliating, invasive and potentially unlawful” process that can also result in expulsion if the girls are found to be pregnant, per a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. 

While laws have been updated recently in countries like Uganda and Tanzania to prohibit such tests and expulsions as a violation of children’s rights, a number of schools in those countries continue the practice in breach of national guidelines.  

• “What the teachers did, it was torturing her,” said one Ugandan father, David Wafula, whose pregnant daughter was examined by teachers in front of her classmates. 

Context: Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of adolescent pregnancies of any region in the world, per UN data.
 

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES COAL Promoting Mines, While Undermining Protections
While President Donald Trump has vowed to revitalize and expand coal mining in the U.S., advocates say they are dismayed by the administration’s simultaneous decision to gut the health protections in place for miners, reports The Washington Post (gift link). 

Included in cuts: The federal division that provides free black lung screenings for coal miners fired roughly two-thirds of the staff this month, and there are now no employees left to run the screening program in the agency’s West Virginia office, or analyze x-rays already taken.

• The cut in services could have fatal consequences, a spokesperson for the Mine Workers of America explained to The Guardian: “There’s not going to be anyone to work in the mines you are apparently reopening.” 

Plus: The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has delayed enforcement of a rule imposed last year to limit miners’ exposure to toxic crystalline silica dust—prompting multiple miners’ groups to file litigation against the agency, per Gizmodo. 

QUICK HITS Wave of Earth Day protests as Americans mobilize against Trump – The Guardian 

China's Integrated Policies on Climate Change and Health – Think Global Health (commentary)

Asia’s megacities at a crossroads as climate and population challenges grow – UN News

Vietnam reports H5N1 avian flu case with encephalitis – CIDRAP 

U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to uphold ACA preventive care coverage mandate – AP

The awful working conditions of factories that slaughter bird-flu-infected chickens – Japan Today (commentary)

Why cameras are popping up in eldercare facilities – KFF Health News

Melinda French Gates on what billionaires with 'absurd' wealth owe back to society ​​– NPR’s Fresh Air Issue No. 2712
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: COVID-19 Information Page Overhauled; Another Deadly Fireworks Factory Explosion in India; and Adolescent Girls Need Our Support View this email in your browser April 21, 2025 Forward Share Post COVID-19 Information Page Overhauled
Federal websites once used for sharing information on vaccines, testing, and treatments for COVID-19 now focus on the theory that the pandemic originated in a Wuhan lab and criticize the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic, reports the AP. 

The websites covid.gov and Covidtests.gov redirect to a White House page entitled “Lab Leak: The True Origins of COVID-19,” which includes:

• A five-point breakdown making the case for lab leak origins.


• Accusations that federal officials like former NIAID director Anthony Fauci engaged in “obstruction” of information.


• Criticisms of the Biden administration, the WHO, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for the pandemic response, including masks, lockdowns, and social distancing.

An unsettled question: Some federal agencies have said research supports a spillover event that likely occurred at a Wuhan market, while others say a laboratory accident is possible. Most scientists say key data remains missing, reports NPR Shots.

Scientists react: COVID researchers studying both theories said the new website includes inaccurate, oversimplified, and misleading information, with one virologist describing the page as “pure propaganda.” 

• The overhaul reflects “a broader practice of officials recently scrapping health websites that do not align with their views,” reports The New York Times (gift link). 

Related: 

CDC considers narrowing its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations – CNN via ABC Boston

I Was There: A Public Health Worker's Response to the COVID.gov Rewrite – Infection Control Today (commentary) GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Children in Burkina Faso have faced 2,483 documented rights violations amid escalating conflict in the country between 2022 and 2024, a UN report finds; violations include abductions, injuries from explosive devices, and recruitment into armed groups. APA News

Mercury emissions near small-scale gold mines can be measured in wild fig trees’ growth rings, finds a new study in Frontiers in Environmental Science, the first to show hardwoods’ potential as a biomonitor of gaseous elemental mercury. The Washington Post via MSN

Receipt paper from many U.S. retailers contains high levels of bisphenol S, a chemical linked to cancer and reproductive problems; even brief contact with some receipts can result in enough chemical absorption to exceed safety standards laid out in California’s Proposition 65. Environmental Health News

A U.S. attorney has sent letters to at least three medical journals accusing them of political bias and suggesting that the journals mislead readers, in a move scientists and doctors say could have a “chilling effect” on research publications. The New York Times (gift link) U.S. Health and Science Policy News Count the Dead by the Millions – Rolling Stone

Activists pile 200 coffins outside State Department to protest cuts to global AIDS relief – The 19th

‘Ripple effect:’ In US, anti-immigrant policy strains child and eldercare – Al Jazeera

USAID cuts halt Yale-led efforts to build global health infrastructure – Yale Daily News

NIH freezes funds to Harvard and four other universities, but can’t tell them – Science

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More – ProPublica GHN EXCLUSIVE UPDATE Another Deadly Fireworks Factory Explosion in India
A large fireworks factory explosion in southern India on April 13 killed eight people and injured seven others in Kailasapatnam village in Andhra Pradesh, per The Times of India.

GHN Series: The GHN team learned of the explosion after publishing a two-part series on the dangerous conditions in fireworks factories in the southern Indian city of Sivakasi by freelance journalist Kamala Thiagarajan:

• ‘Invisible Suffering’: Deadly Risks in India’s Fireworks Factories


• Fireworks and Heartbreak in a Hard-Hit Indian Village

Follow-up: Thiagarajan reports that the articles were included in a formal petition last week to an Indian court seeking legal action supporting the victims of fireworks factory explosions.

She also notes that a local charity has contributed to the purchase of a prosthetic leg for factory worker Muthukutti, whose story was shared in the series’ second article. His left leg had to be amputated after a February 12, 2021, explosion at Sree Mariyammal Fireworks Factory near Sivakasi. GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY Wajir girls reading together. 2021. icon (be one) K / Nicholas Oreyo The World’s Adolescent Girls Need Our Support   
As global funding cuts and policy shifts disrupt health and development programs around the world, “teenagers—particularly teenage girls—are especially vulnerable,” write Evalin Karijo and Karen Austrian, who lead the Population Council’s Girl Innovation, Research, and Learning Center.

• The U.S. foreign assistance freeze could deny access to contraceptive care for ~11.7 million women and girls this year—upping the risk of unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths.

“The ripple effects will be devastating,” they say—leading to “more child marriages, school dropouts, and economic hardships that will persist for generations.”

Yet investing in teen girls pays off, making girls more likely to stay in school, secure stable jobs, and contribute to household income. 

• Every dollar invested in adolescent girls’ empowerment in Africa by 2040, a recent report estimates, can generate more than a tenfold return in economic impact.

Karijo and Austrian see a clear pathway to achieving these economic gains. They point to evidence backing a girl-centered approach and offer models, including a program in Kenya that helped girls stay in school and delayed marriage and pregnancy for years after the program’s end. READ THE FULL COMMENTARY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS Seeking Abortion Training in Mexico
In the years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, more than a dozen U.S. states have banned virtually all abortions, and more than 100 abortion clinics have closed. 

To get training in providing abortions, a small but growing number of providers have sought opportunities in Mexico. 

• In 2023, Fundación MSI trained nine American doctors to perform abortions at Mexican clinics.


• This year, it is on track to train more than 50—and has the capacity to train up to 300 doctors a year, says MSI Latin America’s managing director.

Every abortion ban in the U.S. permits abortions to save a patient’s life. But without adequate training, doctors may not be skilled enough to perform abortions even in those dire circumstances.

The Guardian OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Haiti ‘awash’ with guns leaving population ‘absolutely terrified’ – UN News

Why is tuberculosis, the world's deadliest infectious disease, on the rise in the UK? – Euronews

ACA preventive care case reaches Supreme Court – Axios

What the Newest mRNA Vaccines Could Do Beyond COVID – News Medical

Relieve the suffering: palliative care for the next decade – The Lancet (commentary)

Rapid geographic expansion of local dengue community transmission in Peru – PLOS

Nitrogen-fertilised grassland more likely to trigger hay fever, study suggests – The Telegraph

A horse therapy program in Namibia brings joy to children with learning disabilities – AP Issue No. 2711
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: Global Health NOW: Fireworks and Heartbreak in an Indian Village; U.S. Administration Seeks Data and Deep Cuts; and Moose See TV “For most people, fireworks mean joy.” View this email in your browser April 17, 2025 Forward Share Post Muthukutti, 23, endured the amputation of his left leg after the 2021 Sree Mariyammal Fireworks Factory explosion outside Sivakasi, India. Kamala Thiagarajan Fireworks and Heartbreak in a Hard-Hit Indian Village  
SIVAKASI, India—Of the 650 families who live in Surangudi village, most have lost either a limb or a loved one to fireworks, says social activist Vijay Kumar.

Tens of thousands of workers in Sivakasi produce 50,000 tons of firecrackers annually—most of India's fireworks.
 
But they also risk deadly fires and explosions in their work. 
 
Deadly blast: A February 12, 2021, explosion killed 27 workers at the Sree Mariyammal Fireworks Factory and injured dozens more.

• Many of the killed and injured were from Surangudi village, including Muthukutti, 23, whose left leg had to be amputated.

• His aunt, Shanmugavadivu, also worked in the factory and had third-degree burns on her chest, stomach, arms, and legs.

Waiting for compensation: While both received $1,160 in compensation from the Tamil Nadu state government, they are still waiting for much larger compensation payments from the factory owners.
 
The Quote: “For most people, fireworks mean joy,” says Kumar, director of the Human Resource Foundation, which aids fireworks factory victims in the Sivakasi area. “But for those whose lives are so closely associated with it, it’s a source of sorrow and heartbreak.”
 
Kamala Thiagarajan for Global Health NOW
 
Ed. Note: Our thanks go to Padmavathy Krishna Kumar who shared the idea for this topic and received an honorable mention in the 2025 Untold Global Health Stories contest, co-sponsored by Global Health NOW and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. READ THE FULL STORY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on measles is coming into focus, with a new analysis published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases showing a steady decline in disease incidence over 30 years—but a stark drop in vaccination in 2021. CIDRAP 

The Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab has been approved for use in the EU; however, only a “very small portion” of patients will be eligible for the drug, which is sold under the brand name Leqembi and is authorized in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. DW

Arsenic levels in paddy rice could significantly rise with climate change, finds a new study that showed increased temperatures coupled with rising carbon dioxide levels could lead to higher concentrations of inorganic arsenic in rice, potentially raising lifetime health risks for populations in Asia, where rice is a staple food, by 2050. Phys.org

Limiting PPE to just N95 respirators late in the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore health facilities was effective in keeping staff safe while also lowering costs and curbing medical-related waste, finds a study published in JAMA Network Open. CIDRAP U.S. POLICY Administration Seeks Data and Deep Cuts
As U.S. federal health agencies continue to see seismic shifts under the Trump administration, two key developments reported by The Washington Post give insight into some of the administration’s imminent objectives: 

Deeper health cuts: A preliminary draft of the 2026 fiscal year budget obtained by the Post (gift link) reveals the Trump administration is seeking a $40 billion cut to HHS’s discretionary budget, roughly one-third of the agency’s discretionary spending, and is planning major reorganization and consolidation of agencies within the administration. 

ICE seeks Medicare data: U.S. immigration officials and Elon Musk’s DOGE team are seeking “unprecedented” access to sensitive Medicare databases as a way to track down undocumented immigrants, the Post has found (gift link), despite the fact that undocumented immigrants are barred from Medicare benefits. 

Related:

In the middle of a hepatitis outbreak, U.S. shutters the one CDC lab that could help – NPR

RFK Jr. contradicts CDC on causes of autism – Axios
 
Top NIH nutrition researcher studying ultraprocessed foods departs, citing censorship under Kennedy – CNN

Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards – The Washington Post

Exclusive: US consumer safety agency to stop collecting swaths of data after CDC cuts – Reuters GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CAMBODIA Fifty Years After ‘Year Zero’ 
Five decades have now passed since the declaration of “Year Zero,” when Pol Pot and the brutal Khmer Rouge regime seized power in Cambodia. 

• From 1975 to 1979, 2 million+ people were killed in a wave of racial genocide, widespread famine, forced labor, and executions.

Those atrocities continue to shape Cambodian life today, writes Sophal Ear in a commentary for The Conversation: “It’s etched into every Cambodian’s bones.”

A legacy of trauma: Research has found elevated rates of PTSD among survivors and their descendants. 

Ongoing need for justice: While a tribunal convicted three Khmer Rouge senior leaders for crimes against humanity in 2018, per the International Bar Association, critics say many key perpetrators were never held to account. 

The next generation: The majority of Cambodia’s population is under 30—“with no more than an inkling” of the genocide, leading survivors to start a storytelling initiative, reports AFP via France24. 

Related: 

Unsung No More, Cambodia’s Malaria Hero – USAID via Medium (from August 2024) 

Q&A: Patrick Heuveline on the Khmer Rouge’s long-term impact on Cambodia – UCLA Newsroom ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Moose See TV  
Forget high-octane car chases and whodunnit cliffhangers. The real formula for suspense TV? Not knowing when a moose might show up.
 
The megahit Swedish TV show “Den stora älgvandringen” (“The Great Elk Trek”) began airing this Tuesday, serving up a must-see livestream of mostly nature scenery, occasionally punctuated by moose crossing the Ångerman River.
 
More than binge-worthy, some fans canʼt seem to focus on anything else. But how does one consume 20 days of round-the-clock content? By rearranging their entire lives.

• Kids are missing school during the migration. And “Sleep? Forget it. I don’t sleep,” said one viewer.  

The “slow TV” sensation is stress-relieving even for those who work on it—but itʼs complicated, said superfan William Garp Liljefors.
 
“I feel relaxed, but at the same time I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s a moose. Oh, what if there’s a moose? I can’t go to the toilet!’”
 
AP QUICK HITS Haiti: Escalating Violence Puts Population at Grave Risk –  Human Rights Watch

Colombia declares health emergency after dozens die of yellow fever – BBC

Rising temperatures could cancel most outdoor school sports in summer by 2060s – Japan Times

Reconsidering Ebola virus nomenclature: a call for a stigma-free and precise terminology – The Lancet (commentary)

CDC advisors broaden RSV vaccine recommendations to at-risk adults in their 50s – Endpoints News

Immune system proteins involved in severe parasitic disease identified – Medical Xpress

What impact will driving at 17 have on road safety? –  Euronews

AI-boosted cameras help blind people to navigate – Nature Issue No. 2710
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: Pandemic Agreement Reached; A Brain Bank Hangs in the Balance; and Spore-Driven Threats 190 countries agree to working draft of global pandemic treaty View this email in your browser April 16, 2025 Forward Share Post Pandemic agreement negotiations co-chair Anne-Claire Amprou and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus after a consensus on the pandemic treaty at the WHO headquarters, Geneva, on April 16. Christopher Black/WHO/AFP via Getty Pandemic Agreement Reached 
Around 2 a.m. today at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters—after 3+ years of back-and-forth between 190 countries—the 32-page working draft of a global pandemic treaty was finally highlighted in one color: green. 

“It's adopted,” negotiations co-chair Anne-Claire Amprou said, “to thundering applause,” reports France24. 

The approved pact sets guidelines for international collaboration in a future global health crisis, and is a victory for the WHO at a moment of geopolitical upheaval, reports the AP. 

• The agreement signals that “in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground and a shared response,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Key provisions include giving the WHO an overview of global medical supply chains; compelling manufacturers to allocate medical supplies to the WHO during a pandemic; and paving the way for more local vaccine and drug production, reports Reuters.

Final sticking points related to the technology transfer clause, which governs how drug and vaccine manufacturers share information and tools for medicine and vaccine production. 

• Such information will be shared on a “mutually agreed upon” rather than mandatory basis, per Euronews. 

Still being ironed out: the creation of a new pathogen access and benefit sharing system—in which countries would share pathogen samples with drugmakers in return for access to vaccines and medicine.

Notably absent: The U.S., which was barred from participating following President Trump’s January decision to withdraw from the WHO, and which is not expected to sign the treaty.

What’s next: Final adoption is pending approval by the World Health Assembly in May. 

Related: WHO tests pandemic response with Arctic ‘mammothpox’ outbreak – The Telegraph GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
The UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law, a landmark decision following years of debate that could have significant implications for how sex-based rights and services apply across Scotland, England, and Wales. BBC

A new antibiotic is effective against gonorrhea, finds a new study published in The Lancet; if approved, it could become the first new class of antibiotic for the STI in 20+ years—a key tool as antibiotic resistance grows. NBC News

Children’s mattresses can emit toxic chemicals linked with developmental and hormonal disorders, two new studies have found; high levels of chemicals like phthalates and flame retardants were found near children’s beds, found a study published in Environmental Science & Technology, and a companion study identified mattresses as a key source of exposure. CNN

The autism diagnosis rate among U.S. 8-year-olds increased from 1 in 36 in 2020 to 1 in 31 in 2022, a new CDC report shows; rates among boys remained higher than among girls, and, as in 2020, were higher among Asian, Black, and Hispanic children than among white children. CNN ALZHEIMERʼS A Brain Bank Hangs in the Balance
An NIH funding pause has disrupted one of the most expansive Alzheimer’s research programs in the U.S., with researchers especially worried about the fate of 4,000 donated brains being preserved for research. 

• The Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Washington—one of the public universities hardest hit by the freeze—is home to a range of decades-long studies, including one following 450 people until death.

A critical hub: The brain bank, which provided researchers with ~11,000 tissue samples last year alone, requires special facilities and staffing. 

• Even the temporary pause could upend long-term trials, therapy pipelines, and current patient care, researchers say. 

NBC

Related: As dementia rates increase, experts warn hospital emergency rooms are underprepared – AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES FUNGAL INFECTIONS Spore-Driven Threats
In the wake of the WHO’s warning of the need for more treatments and diagnostics for fungal pathogens, scientists are laying out evidence of a growing fungal threat:

• Perennial maladies like vaginal yeast infections and athlete’s foot are getting harder to treat, and antifungal-resistant pathogens like Candida auris have become a “silent pandemic” in hospitals.

• Invasive fungal infections are killing ~2.5 million people each year—twice the global fatalities of tuberculosis.

Because of global warming, more fungi are adapting to temperatures that could lead to invasive infections in humans. 

• It also means an increase in disruptive weather events like dust storms, which lead to the spread of spore-driven diseases like Valley fever. 

The Telegraph QUICK HITS After delays, first vaccine advisory meeting under RFK Jr. is underway – NPR Shots

5% of US cancers may be caused by medical imaging radiation – DW 

Emergency rooms treat a gunshot wound every half-hour – UPI

Oropouche virus ‘massively underdiagnosed’ in Latin America, new study suggests – The Telegraph

Paris air pollution is down 50% after its radical bike-friendly transformation – Fast Company

We’re on the verge of a universal allergy cure – Vox

Africa needs innovative financing solutions to prevent health systems from collapsing, say experts – Semafor (commentary) Thanks for the tip, Dave Cundiff!

Exclusive: the most-cited papers of the twenty-first century – Nature Issue No. 2709
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: Deadly Risks in India’s Fireworks Factories; Keeping Warm Can Be Toxic in Mongolia; and An Extra Coat of Coolness in Cape Town View this email in your browser April 15, 2025 Forward Share Post Millions of Indians celebrate the Diwali Festival with fireworks—without realizing the dangerous conditions factory workers in Sivakasi endure. Gurugram, India, October 31, 2024. Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty ‘Invisible Suffering’: Deadly Risks In India’s Fireworks Factories
SIVAKASI, India—The explosion shook the ground beneath the fireworks factory and threw him into the air.

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

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

Fireworks’ Toll:

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


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


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

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

Kamala Thiagarajan for Global Health NOW

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

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

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

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

Trump eyes huge climate research cuts at NOAA – Axios

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starved in jail – The New Yorker

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

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

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

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

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

Europe deplores America's 'chlorinated chicken.' How safe is our poultry? – NPR Issue No. 2708
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Related: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A closer look: 

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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

Science

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recent hospital violence fuels effort to create workplace protections – Axios

Dogs could help predict valley fever spread in humans – University of California, Davis via ScienceDaily Issue No. 2707
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The New York Times (gift link) 

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

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

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

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

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

The Guardian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A biotech company says it has bred three pups with traits of the extinct dire wolf – NPR Issue No. 2706
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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96 Global Health NOW: Breakthrough Clues in an Mpox Mystery; Afghanistan’s Escort Rules Fuel Maternal Deaths; and San Francisco Rethinks Harm Reduction View this email in your browser April 9, 2025 Forward Share Post A fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus) in southern Mali, in 2010. Laurent Granjon/Jean-Marc Duplantier via iNaturalist Breakthrough Clues in an Mpox Mystery 
Researchers have been trying to unravel one of the “great mysteries” of mpox: What are its animal reservoir hosts?

Now, a team of scientists say they have landed on a key culprit: a squirrel. And their preprint research could have significant implications for tracking and preventing future spillovers, reports Nature. 

Background: The name “monkeypox” comes from the 1958 discovery of the virus in lab monkeys. But researchers have long suspected small mammals of being sources for cross-species spillover.

Surveillance sleuthing: The latest discovery started with an mpox outbreak in sooty mangabey monkeys in Taï National Park in Côte d’Ivoire, reports Science.

• Scientists then located the identical virus in a sample from a fire-footed rope squirrel found dead three months before the outbreak started. 


• Researchers pinpointed the squirrel DNA in fecal samples from the mangabeys, suggesting the monkeys became infected after eating the squirrels. 

Implications: “This study is a landmark contribution to understanding mpox dynamics and guiding proactive prevention efforts across Africa and beyond,” said Yap Boum, a biologist at the Africa CDC.

More work needed: More evidence is needed to determine whether the squirrels can carry and shed the virus long-term without getting sick—a key feature of a reservoir host, scientists say. 

Related: 

Fears new mpox strain spreading in UK after case with no travel history – The Telegraph 

China’s first monkeypox vaccine enters phase I clinical trials, planning to recruit volunteers – Global Times GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Cholera cases in Kenya have risen to nearly 100, with six reported fatalities, per the nation’s health ministry, which is redoubling its surveillance efforts. The Nation

Teen gun license applicants in Canada spiked 11% between 2023 and 2024—raising concerns that as teens reach voting age, there will be greater calls for loosening gun restrictions. CBC

Floods in Queensland have led to 10 new infections of melioidosis, a soil-borne bacterial disease that has killed 26 people in the Australian state this year; more infections are expected, health experts say. ABC Australia

Invasive Streptococcus A infections more than doubled in the U.S. between 2013 and 2022, per a surveillance study of 10 states published in JAMA that linked the rise to “increasing prevalence of underlying health conditions,” and found growing levels of antibiotic resistance. CIDRAP U.S. Policy News NSF slashes prestigious PhD fellowship awards by half – Nature

Trump has blown a massive hole in global health funding—and no one can fill it – Science

Dr. Oz Pushed for AI Health Care in First Medicare Agency Town Hall – Wired

What do Americans think of Trump's foreign policies? – BBC

It's sexual assault awareness month and HHS just gutted its rape prevention unit – NPR

Trump administration says it cut funding to some life-saving UN food programs by mistake – AP

A closer look at the nationwide impact of NIH cuts – Axios MATERNAL MORTALITY Escort Rules Lead to Maternal Deaths 
Under the Taliban in Afghanistan, women and girls are prevented from accessing medical care without a male escort, leading to rising mortality rates for women and infants.

• Before the Taliban took power, maternal mortality was already 3X higher than the world average.


• By 2026, a woman’s estimated risk of death during childbirth will rise by 50%.


• Every day, 24 mothers and 167 infants die in Afghanistan. 

Barriers: In December 2024, the Taliban also stopped medical training for women. Poor access to health care, a shortage of doctors and midwives, and rising rates of early marriage also contribute to increased risks.

The Guardian 

Related: USAID enabled 208 Afghan women to defy the Taliban ban on college — until now – NPR Goats and Soda GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HARM REDUCTION A Policy Shift in San Francisco
San Francisco has long prioritized harm reduction in its drug policies, such as with programs to distribute on the streets free, clean paraphernalia for fentanyl smoking, no questions asked.

But the city’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, says the city’s policies have become too permissive and will scale them back in an effort to steer more people into treatment.

• “We are no longer going to sit by and allow people to kill themselves on the streets,” said Lurie. 

New rules starting April 30:

• Paraphernalia can be distributed only to people who undergo lengthy counseling sessions.


• Nonprofits will be able to distribute smoking supplies only in city-sanctioned buildings. 

Clean needles can still be provided on the street, and naloxone distribution will not be affected. 

The New York Times (gift link) QUICK HITS Ontario's measles outbreak is so big, even New York health officials are taking notice – CBC

Man whose blood helped develop measles vaccine weighs in on recent outbreak – PBS NewsHour (video)

State lawmakers are weighing bills that would treat abortion as homicide ​​– The 19th

Achieving gender justice for global health equity: the Lancet Commission on gender and global health – The Lancet

Menopause makes it on the policy map – Axios

Improving the Global Health Workforce Is a Bipartisan Imperative – Newsweek (commentary)

How the Alcohol Industry Steers Governments Away From Effective Strategies to Curb Drink Driving – Vital Strategies 

A new BEACON for global health set to launch in Boston – The Daily Free Press

Meet Siku, the itchy polar bear: How allergies are affecting animals – BBC Thanks for the tip, Xiaodong Cai! Issue No. 2705
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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96 Global Health NOW: High Costs for Kids of PEPFAR’s Demise; China’s Older HIV Population; and South Africa’s Struggle to Protect Women View this email in your browser April 8, 2025 Forward Share Post Sister Sally Naidoo administers an HIV test on a young boy at the Right To Care AIDS clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa, on January 27, 2012. Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty High Costs for Kids of PEPFAR’s Demise  
If PEPFAR programs do not continue, an additional 1 million children will become infected with HIV, 500,000 additional children will die of AIDS, and another 2.8 million children will become orphans because of AIDS by 2030, according to models in a Lancet study published today.
 
The authors, from African countries and elsewhere, argue for a five-year transition to country-led sustainability, noting that PEPFAR-supported countries had already increased their share of support from $13.7 billion per year in 2004 to $42.6 billion in 2021.
 
Benefits of the successful transition of PEPFAR programs include better health security for both African countries and the U.S. by:

• Cutting forced migration.


• Boosting control of emerging infectious disease threats.

Currently: AIDS is estimated to kill one child under 15 every 7 minutes.

Bleak future: As part of the reorganization of HHS in the U.S., CDC officials responsible for the care of 500,000+ children and 600,000+ pregnant women with HIV in low-income countries have been fired or reassigned, The New York Times reports (gift link).

• Their programs sought to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and to deliver treatment for children living with HIV.


• The officials had been helping direct medications to areas where stocks were running low.

Related: 
 
UCLA professor loses millions in funding for HIV research project – ABC7 / Los Angeles
 
Is This the End of Progress on H.I.V.? – The New York Times (commentary)
 
The global fight against HIV/AIDS, in chaos – The Washington Post (podcast) GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   U.S. health secretary RFK Jr. called for an end to adding fluoride to public drinking water supplies, saying "It makes no sense to have it in our water supply,” and praising Utah’s plans for a ban; the EPA has now launched a new review of fluoride's health effects. CBS 
 
Health systems implementing the “Zero Suicide Model” saw a fall in suicides and attempts, per a study published in JAMA Network Open; the model, developed by Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, emphasizes patient screening, safety planning, and mental health counseling. AP
 
Children born to mothers with diabetes in pregnancy showed a 28% higher risk of having any neurodevelopmental disorder compared to children born to mothers without the condition, according to a large meta-analysis in The Lancet led by Chinese researchers who cautioned that while more research is needed, diligent monitoring of blood sugar levels in pregnancy is merited. The Independent
 
A newly developed blood test for Alzheimer’s disease can help diagnose the condition with up to 83% accuracy—and indicate how far it has progressed—years before symptoms begin, according to a study in Nature Medicine led by Swedish researchers. Medical Xpress U.S. Policy News How will the deep cuts at the Centers for Disease Control affect global programs? – NPR Goats and Soda

Long COVID activists fought Trump team’s research cuts and won ― for now – Nature

Trump Said Cuts Wouldn’t Affect Public Safety. Then He Fired Hundreds of Workers Who Help Fight Wildfires. – ProPublica

Transfer to Alaska? Offer to health leaders called 'insult' to Indian Health Service – NPR Shots EDUCATION 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 released this morning by U.S. News & World Report.  
 
This year’s top 10 schools: 
 
1. Johns Hopkins University 
2. Emory University 
2. Harvard University  
2. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor 
2. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 
6. Columbia University 
7. Boston University 
8. University of California - Berkeley 
8. University of California - Los Angeles 
10. Tulane University 
 
This year’s rankings include 219 schools and programs of public health accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health. 
  
U.S. News & World Report 

VIOLENCE South Africa’s Struggle to Protect Women
Over three decades, South Africa has seen significant progress in curbing femicide and violence against women.

• Between 1999 and 2017, the intimate partner femicide rate fell from 9.5 per 100,000 women in 1999 to 4.9, with researchers pointing to women’s economic empowerment and a groundswell of vocal anti-violence advocacy contributing to the shift. 

But rates remain the highest reported in the world, and a recent uptick of violence has been described as a “national crisis” by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

• Femicide has increased 30%+ since 2021. 


• Last year, 36% of South African women reported experiencing physical or sexual violence at some time.

Reasons include pervasive misogynist beliefs among men, a failure to enforce gun policy, and a lack of judicial accountability, advocates say. 

The Telegraph RESOURCES How to Introduce Kids to Health Policy
Policy Wisdom’s collection of Athena’s Adventures in Health Policy—all 15 books—is now available online for free.
 
The series aims to inspire the next generation of public health professionals and show them the importance and impact of health policies. These engaging books bring health policy to life, making complex topics accessible and thought-provoking for young readers.
 
Download the complete collection now—for free! 
 
Prefer a printed copy? The books are also available to purchase on Amazon. $1 from the sale of each book is donated to Global Health NOW. HIV/AIDS China’s Older HIV Population
In China, a growing number of studies are signaling an impending health crisis: Older people are quickly becoming a high-risk group for HIV infection.

• Some studies have predicted that by 2035, nearly 33% of HIV-positive people in China will be aged 60+. 

Risk factors: 

• Because HIV prevention and testing campaigns are focused on young people, older patients usually don’t find out they’re HIV positive until the disease is “very advanced,” said Chinese AIDS expert Wan Yanhai. 


• A growing number of older men across China are engaging in commercial sex, research shows. 


• Little is being done to address seniors’ sexual health, with surveys revealing a pervasive cultural assumption that seniors have little if any sex—a belief that does not bear out in research. 

Radio Free Asia OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Ukraine: Mine contamination is lethal legacy of Russia’s invasion – UN News

Scientists identify Nigeria hotspots where malaria, STH overlap, indicating high co-morbidity – DownToEarth

Court tosses Biden nursing home staffing standard – Axios

In Final Days of Pandemic Talks, Countries Urged to Budget for ‘Both Bombs and Bugs’ – Health Policy Watch

From the hospital to the lab: How we reported the snakebite scandal – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Transparency in government is good for global health – The Current /UC Santa Barbara 

Public Health in the Age of AI and Climate Change – Department of Medicine News / Stanford University

AI for research: the ultimate guide to choosing the right tool – Nature Issue No. 2704
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 Crossroads for Maternal Mortality; March Recap; and Insurance Executives Pull Back the Curtain View this email in your browser April 7, 2025 Forward Share Post A health worker performs an ultrasound on a pregnant woman at a health center in the Ramechhap district, east of Kathmandu, Nepal, on June 8, 2018. Bikram Rai/AFP via Getty A Crossroads for Maternal Mortality
More women face risk of death in pregnancy and childbirth, as drastic U.S. aid cuts threaten hard-won gains in maternal survival, and could have “pandemic-like effects” on maternal services worldwide, the WHO is warning, per The Guardian.

“Fragile” progress: Deaths due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth declined 40% globally between 2000 and 2023, but gains have slowed since 2016, per the WHO. And rates are off track to meet 2030 maternal survival targets. 

• ~260,000 women died in 2023 from pregnancy-related causes, a new UN report has found—a reality that one WHO official described as a “real travesty of justice.” 


• Most vulnerable: Pregnant women in conflict zones, who already face a 5X greater risk of death than elsewhere. 


• Poor countries reported a maternal mortality rate nearly 35X the rate in rich countries.

“Increasing headwinds”: U.S. funding cuts have quickly led to shuttered clinics, reductions in health workers, and disrupted supplies of critical medications for conditions like preeclampsia and hemorrhage.

Pandemic preview: Maternal deaths rose by 40,000 in 2021 due to pandemic-related disruptions, new data in the report show. 

• This year’s funding cuts could cause a similar “acute shock to the system”—especially as countries didn’t have time to prepare for the cuts. 

Related: 

World Health Day: Focusing on women’s physical and mental health around the world – UN News

Trump administration eviscerates maternal and child health programs – The Guardian GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES More Measles News RFK: MMR vaccine is the "most effective way" to prevent measles spread – Axios

RFK Jr. visits epicenter of Texas measles outbreak after death of second child who was infected – AP

U.S. may be reverting to a time when measles deaths were not very rare, experts warn – STAT

As measles spreads, some doctors are seeing the virus for the first time – The New York Times The Latest One-Liners   The NIH may not cap funding for indirect costs associated with its grants at 15%, a U.S. federal judge ruled Friday, making permanent a temporary order issued in February; the Trump administration had asked for this verdict so it could move forward with an appeal. The New York Times (gift link)

350,000+ U.S. health workers face a risk of deportation in the country’s immigration crackdown, per new research published in JAMA, which found that ensuing worker shortages could affect hospitals and other clinical settings. MedPage Today

Mobile health care units providing ART and PrEP medications reduced the risk for death by ~70% among people who inject drugs, per a study presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Healio

Unsanitary practices continue at Abbott Laboratories, one of the largest baby formula factories in the U.S., workers report; the factory’s 2022 shutdown led to severe formula shortages, and now oversight is in question due to mass FDA layoffs. ProPublica MARCH MUST-READS Moving Beyond Stigma in Mexico
For years, Mexico has taken a “prohibitionist, hardline approach” to drug use, reinforcing a stigma that ties drug use to other criminal activities. But recently, health advocates have been taking a different tack—toward harm reduction. 

• One example: Checa tu Sustanciae (Check Your Substance) provides a way for people at events like music festivals to test drugs for fentanyl and other adulterants, and also equips those people with naloxone and practical information. 

AP
Interrupted Agent Orange Cleanup
USAID cuts abruptly halted efforts to clean up an enormous chemical spill at Vietnam’s Bien Hoa air base—leaving pits with dioxin-contaminated soil exposed at the cusp of the country’s rainy season and putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of poisoning. 

• A $430 million+ U.S. government remediation effort had begun in 2019 to clean up widespread dioxin contamination that dates back to the Vietnam War—when the U.S. brought the toxin to the country.

 ProPublica  
The Bureaucrat Bridging Gaps
Consider this maddening prospect: A 5-year-old girl in Texas is diagnosed with a rare, brain-eating amoeba, but her doctors haven’t heard about an effective antibiotic remedy discovered by California researchers—a tragic disconnect that all too frequently leads to preventable suffering and death. 

• Michael Lewis examines the mission of an FDA worker “buried under six layers on an agency organizational chart” who is seeking to solve the problem by creating a database for rare diseases and treatments, called CURE ID. A big question: Will anyone use it? 

The Washington Post (gift link)  MARCH EXCLUSIVES Adolescents in a classroom raising their hands, photographed from behind. Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Creative What Do American Kids Learn About Sex? It Depends Who You Ask.  
Over 90% of U.S. parents and guardians support their children receiving comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in school—but there is no national requirement, and only 38% of all high schools and 14% of middle schools in the U.S. cover all of the CDCʼs priority sexual health topics, including condom use and STD prevention.
 
Compare that to the Netherlands, where sex ed is mandated in primary through lower secondary schools. And, at 2.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15–19, the Netherlandsʼ teen birth rate is the lowest in the EU—and far lower than the U.S. teen birth rate of 13.2 births per 1,000.
 
“Chilling effect”: While there haven't been direct attacks on U.S. sex education, policy recommendations targeting DEI, gender identity, and restroom access for trans people raise concerns about the funding future for CSE providers—but advocates remain determined to broaden access to CSE.
 
Annalies Winny, Global Health NOW
March Commentaries:

• It’s Time for PEPFAR to Embrace Reform – Jirair Ratevosian


• How to Keep Doing Global Health: Tips From the Global South – Siddhesh Zadey and Dhananjaya Sharma

Revisiting Extraordinary Journeys
If you werenʼt able to join GHN in March for Extraordinary Journeys: Stories of Refugees Fleeing Conflict and Shaping Global Health, you can now view recordings of each story from this special event, co-hosted by GHN and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, spotlighting the remarkable experiences of public health practitioners from Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria with lived experience as refugees. WATCH HERE MARCH'S BEST NEWS Lifesaving Ultrasounds 
New ultrasound technology is reshaping prenatal care in sub-Saharan Africa, allowing improved access to the critical scan at hundreds of health facilities.

• Portable point-of-care ultrasound devices are designed specifically for providers in low-resource areas who may not have access to radiology equipment.

Instant impact: In 2022, 500 such devices were deployed to providers across Kenya—and a Kenyatta University follow-up study found that within one month of training, 90% of health care workers used the machines to identify high-risk conditions such as placenta previa or multiple gestations. 

MedCity News  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HEALTH POLICY Insurance Executives Pull Back the Curtain  
Amid sharper public criticism of the U.S. health insurance system, former industry executives turned whistleblowers are speaking out about unethical practices they say are baked into the for-profit system. 

Some of the industry tenets they described: 

Patients are the lowest priority, as their needs are “fundamentally at odds” with Wall Street demands and financial incentives. 

“Execute a few hostages” mentality: One executive described decisions to arbitrarily terminate doctors out of network without cause “to show them who’s boss.” 

Champagne during COVID-19: Another executive described how his company had champagne delivered to leaders’ homes during the lockdown to celebrate financial gains accrued while people were forced to forgo elective care. 

Intelligencer OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mexico confirms country's first human case of bird flu in a 3-year-old girl – Medical Xpress

'I could live 30 years but plan to die': How assisted dying law is dividing Canadians – BBC

Major endometriosis study reveals impact of gluten, coffee, dairy and alcohol – The Guardian

In banning ‘Glock switches,’ red and blue states find common ground on gun law – The Washington Post (gift link)

Understanding the resurgence of mpox: key drivers and lessons from recent outbreaks in Africa – Tropical Medicine and Health / BioMed Central

Tariffs hit science labs: Trump levies raise cost of supplies – Nature

Behind the Plate: Keeping Our Food Safe – Contagious Conversations (CDC Foundation podcast)

An antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission – University of Pennsylvania via ScienceDaily Issue No. 2703
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: Taking Cuts to Court; Beijing+30: A New Generation Needed to Advance Women’s Rights; and Minding the Lexical Gap View this email in your browser April 3, 2025 Forward Share Post Demonstrators protest funding cuts outside of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on March 8. Michael Mathes/AFP via Getty Taking Cuts to Court 
The Trump administration is facing a new wave of litigation from scientists, unions, and health advocacy groups, alleging that the administration’s cuts to research are illegal—and that the “ideological purge” behind them poses an existential threat to American scientific enterprise, reports the AP. 

Details: The latest lawsuit filed by the ACLU argues that NIH grant cuts were not guided by federal funding rules, which include a science-based review process designed to insulate the grant process from politicization. Such cuts have been “extremely rare” in previous administrations. 

• “To have it undermined in this way is really to give ourselves a black eye as a country,” said plaintiff Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, per CNN.


• The suit also argues that ending projects midstream could put patients undergoing NIH-funded treatment at risk, and waste taxpayer money. 

Meanwhile, the reckoning over widespread cuts to federal health offices is ongoing:

• The Trump administration is demanding the CDC—which has laid off one-fifth of its workforce—to now cut $2.9 billion of contract spending, per The New York Times (gift link)—a move one CDC scientist described as “cutting off our arms and legs.”

Related: 

Trump’s cruel calculus on public health is slashing lifelines for the most vulnerable – Salon (commentary)

C.D.C. Cuts Threaten to Set Back the Nation’s Health, Critics Say – The New York Times (gift link)

The USAID List of Terminated Global Health Awards – What Does it Tell Us? – KFF Global Health Policy

Doctor Behind Award-Winning Parkinson’s Research Among Scientists Purged From NIH – WIRED

Slashing the public health workforce hurts the U.S. economy – The Washington Post (commentary and gift link) GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   More than half of the world’s pediatric cancer deaths occur in war-torn countries, which St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Duke researchers tied to disruptions in diagnosis and treatment in a new study in The Lancet Oncology that analyzed three decades of data. Duke Global Health Institute

A two-year-old girl in Andhra Pradesh, India, died after contracting H5N1, marking India’s first death from the virus since 2021; the child, whose family members all tested negative for the virus, may have been infected by consuming raw chicken. Times of India

The latest COVID variant on the rise is LP.8.1, an offshoot of Omicron that features genetic changes allowing it to spread more easily; it is swiftly becoming dominant in the U.K. The Independent

The shingles vaccine is linked to reduced dementia risk, finds a study in Nature that analyzed health records of 280,000+ older adults in Wales; those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine. CBC GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY A Marie Stopes International mobile clinical outreach team on a site visit to Laniar health center in Senegal. August 14, 2014. Jonathan Torgovnik for The Hewlett Foundation/Reportage by Getty Beijing+30: A New Generation Needed to Advance Women’s Rights
Despite notable advances in women’s rights in the last 30 years since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, gender-based violence, maternal mortality, and other issues still need to be addressed, writes Consolata Chikoti, a lawyer and global health scholar from Tanzania.
 
Successes include:

• A +30% reduction in maternal mortality.


• 162 countries have criminalized gender-based violence (GBV).


• A significant increase in access to modern family planning methods.

But:

• 800 women lose their lives every day to preventable maternal causes.


• GBV continues to be a critical concern, with one in three women having experienced physical or sexual violence, often by an intimate partner. 

Chikoti calls for a “commitment to mentoring and empowering young women to [foster] a new generation of leaders who will continue to challenge systemic barriers and drive transformative change for all women.” READ CONSOLATA CHIKOTI’S FULL COMMENTARY REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH India’s Push to End Cervical Cancer
Tens of thousands of doctors across India are being trained to promote the HPV vaccine, in an effort to eliminate cervical cancer in the country.

• One in five cervical cancer cases worldwide occur in India—nearly all of which are caused by HPV.

Health care providers will encourage mothers attending medical appointments to vaccinate their children, and will visit schools and community centers to counter vaccine disinformation.

• HPV vaccination has been privately available in India since 2008, but uptake has been low: Until recently, imported vaccines were expensive and misinformation surrounding deaths during an HPV vaccine trial left citizens distrustful.


• India recently started manufacturing its own HPV vaccine, with plans to make it part of the national vaccination program by early 2026.

The Guardian GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES OPPORTUNITY Atlantic Fellows: One Week Left to Apply!
George Washington University’s Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity program is a one-year, non-residential program that allows early- to mid-career professionals to develop their leadership skills and build their capacity through support for a health equity project to be completed at a fellow’s professional organization.

Fellows benefit from in-person and virtual training opportunities, coaching and mentoring from health equity experts, and integration into a lifelong senior fellowship network.

• Deadline: April 10, 2025
• Learn more and apply  

ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Minding the Lexical Gap  
It can easily take a dozen English words—and frantic gesturing of clenched hands and gritted teeth—to describe the sensation of “cute aggression” toward, say, an adorable kitten.
 
Tagalog has it boiled down to one word: gigil (ghee-gill). Itʼs among dozens of non-English words now inducted into the Oxford English Dictionary, helping to fill a “lexical gap” with untranslatable words found in one language but not others, per BBC.
 
Lost for words no more! Thanks to the new additions, one neednʼt clutch at verbal straws trying to evoke the joy of drinking a beer outside (utepils, thanks Norway!), or seeing sunlight dappling through leaves (komorebi, h/t Japan).
 
In-kind donation: As a gesture of thanks, might we offer up some choice English words in exchange? Surely acersecomicke—“one whose hair was never cut”—deserves broader use. Or what about flingee, a handy term to describe “one at whom anything is flung”—be it a snowball, or a barrage of new words. QUICK HITS They were forced to scam others worldwide. Now thousands are detained on the Myanmar border – AP 

Africa's Quiet Response to U.S. Realignment of Foreign Aid – Think Global Health (commentary)

Farm workers avoiding bird flu testing because of deportation threat, officials fear – The Telegraph

World is ‘failing’ people with disabilities: UN deputy chief – UN News

Two infants die of whooping cough in Louisiana as cases climb nationally – CNN

Supreme Court rules in favor of FDA in dispute over flavored vapes – The Hill

Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health? – Nature

Why we study shrimp on treadmills: The case for curiosity-driven research – STAT (commentary) Issue No. 2702
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: Deep, ‘Degrading’ Cuts to U.S. Health Offices; Sierra Leone Weighs Abortion Bill; and Zambia’s ‘Most Contaminated Site’ View this email in your browser April 2, 2025 Forward Share Post Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services stand in line to enter the Mary E. Switzer Memorial Building yesterday in Washington, D.C. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Deep, ‘Degrading’ Cuts to U.S. Health Offices 
Mass layoffs are underway in America’s federal health offices, with thousands of positions cut yesterday in a chaotic process described by one FDA employee as a “bloodbath,” reports CNN. 

Included in the layoffs were thousands of scientists, doctors, senior leaders, and support staff—including entire teams that track disease outbreaks, conduct medical research, work to reduce injuries, monitor food and medicine safety, and administer health insurance programs for nearly half of the U.S. population, reports STAT. 

Scope of the cuts, per the AP:

• The CDC will eliminate ~ 2,400 workers, slashing divisions focused on workplace safety, violence and injury prevention, drug use, and asthma. 


• The FDA is set to lose ~3,500 staffers, including those who set policy for tobacco products and who review new drugs.


• The NIH will cut ~1,200 additional employees, including scientists, computer specialists, and nearly the entire communications staff.


• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will lay off ~300 staffers.

“Humiliating and degrading” day: The layoffs were haphazardly administered, with many workers finding out they had been fired when their key cards did not work, per Federal News Network. The elimination of support staff in some cases meant offices could not operate. 

• “This is a sad and inhumane way to treat people,” said former FDA commissioner Robert Califf, who described the agency as “finished.”

Impact: The cuts will “leave our country less safe, less prepared and without the necessary talent and resources to respond to health threats,” said Mandy Cohen, former CDC director. 

Related:

RFK Jr. purges CDC and FDA's public records teams, despite "transparency" promises – CBS 

States sue Trump administration for rescinding billions in health funding –  AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Middle East and North Africa HIV cases more than doubled over the last decade amid ongoing conflicts, displacement, and high levels of stigma for vulnerable populations, per a new Frontline AIDS report; infections in Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, and Lebanon soared by 116% since 2010 and are expected to keep rising. The Telegraph

Mpox presents a growing epidemic and pandemic risk, as human interaction with the virus reshapes its “entire endemic range” and as knowledge gaps on its biologic makeup hamper virus control. Nature Medicine (commentary)

A dearth of antifungal treatments is making invasive fungal diseases a greater threat, especially as they become more drug-resistant, per a WHO analysis released yesterday that described “an urgent need for innovative research and development.” Health Policy Watch

Family planning grants have been paused in the U.S., with the federal government withholding $27.5 million from organizations that provide contraception, cancer screenings, and STI services as officials investigate whether they’re complying with laws and executive orders. AP REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Sierra Leone Weighs Abortion Bill
Sierra Leone could soon decriminalize abortion in some cases pending a parliamentary vote in the coming weeks. If passed, it would make Sierra Leone the second West African country (after Benin) to legalize the procedure.
 
Sierra Leone’s numbers:

• An estimated 90,000 abortions are performed each year.


• Tens of thousands of women and girls attempt to self-terminate pregnancies each year.


• Over 20% of girls ages 15–19 become pregnant.


• Unsafe abortions account for ~10% of the country’s maternal deaths; health workers say that’s likely a vast undercount.

A long battle: Following opposition from religious groups and some government officials, the initial bill has been amended to allow abortion only in cases of rape, incest, life-threatening risk, and fatal fetal abnormalities. 
 
AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The Future of Zambia’s ‘Most Contaminated Site’ 
For decades, residents of Kabwe, Zambia, have grown severely sick—especially children. Many have died far too young. 

Hundreds of blood samples from residents over the decades have clearly identified the problem: severe lead poisoning. 

Behind the pollution: From 1906 to 1994, Kabwe was home to one of the world's largest lead and zinc mines. Lead particles infiltrated soil and waterways, and the pervasive dust continues to affect residents. 

• A 2022 U.N. report identified the site as a “sacrifice zone”—one of the most polluted places on the planet. 

Zambia received a World Bank loan to support cleanup efforts—but human rights groups say little has been done and that efforts have not addressed the former mine itself. 

NPR Goats and Soda DEMENTIA Lack of Deep Sleep Increases Alzheimer’s Risk
One in three American adults don’t get enough sleep—and according to a new study, a lack of REM sleep may speed the decline in parts of the brain associated with Alzheimer’s.

• Adults need an average of 7–8 hours of sleep. 


• 20%–25% should be spent in deep sleep and the same amount in REM sleep.

The two deep stages of sleep, slow-wave and REM, are vital to brain function, as toxins and dead cells are cleared and memories and other information are processed and consolidated. Without adequate slow-wave and REM sleep, the inferior parietal region of the brain shrunk, according to the study.

CNN

Related: 

Latest Alzheimer's lab tests focus on memory loss, not brain plaques – NPR Shots

Lowering bad cholesterol may cut risk of dementia by 26%, study suggests – The Guardian

WHO calls for urgent action on dementia among refugees and migrants – WHO

European committee says Lilly Alzheimer’s drug shouldn’t get marketing approval – AP OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Guterres calls for greater equality and inclusion as world marks Autism Awareness Day – UN News

Communities in crisis: The collapse of HIV lifelines in Eastern Europe and Central Asia – UNAIDS

A Prison Death Highlights an L.G.B.T.Q. Crackdown in Russia – The New York Times (gift link)

How Houston's mayor kept Texas prisons hot as 'living hell,' – Chron

Analysis: Tariffs on Canadian drugs will strain US supply chain – CIDRAP

Long COVID Showed Me the Bottom of American Health Care – The Atlantic

The Role of Clinicians in the Climate Crisis – JAMA Network Open (commentary)

How Dating Apps Could Unlock At-Home HIV Testing – Think Global Health (commentary)

The Sound of Science – The Hub / Johns Hopkins Magazine Issue No. 2701
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: Fast-Spreading Measles and Misinformation; Inside the Plans to Dismantle USAID; and Finding Hope for Fistula Survivors in Nigeria View this email in your browser April 1, 2025 Forward Share Post Priscilla Luna and her 3-year-old daughter Avery read a book about immunizations at a Lubbock Public Health Department vaccine clinic. March 1, Lubbock, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Fast-Spreading Measles and Misinformation
Measles continues to spread across under-vaccinated West Texas and is causing outbreaks in four other U.S. states—spreading as quickly as misinformation.

• The Texas outbreak has topped 400 cases and may continue for months. It has also been linked to new cases in Mexico, AP reports.


• The U.S. has had more cases in the first three months of the year than all of last year.

Misinformation:

• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has recommended vitamin A as treatment, Axios reports. But experts warn that high doses of vitamin A can be dangerous.


• A hospital in Lubbock, Texas, reported last week it was treating 10 children “suffering from complications caused by measles and exacerbated by abnormal liver function caused by elevated levels of Vitamin A,” per Texas Public Radio.

The takeaway: Public health practitioners are having difficulty explaining the benefits of vaccination to some parents, Al Jazeera reports.

• Public health officials “have to get people to understand the … value of getting vaccinated, but battling information warfare is not what we’re taught in public health school,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center.

Don’t Mess with Measles: Measles can be lethal, can cause brain damage, and harm the lungs and immune system, per a commentary in The Conversation.
            
Related:

Colorado measles case reported in Pueblo adult who traveled internationally – Colorado Public Radio
 
Texas Never Wanted RFK Jr.’s Unproven Measles Treatment – The Atlantic GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A cholera outbreak in Angola has spread to 16 of the country’s 21 provinces so far this year, rising to 329 deaths and 8,500+ cases as of March 25, according to the WHO, with children and young adults particularly hard hit. CIDRAP
 
A deadly antibiotic-resistant superbug bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii, for which there is little research, is spreading in a Malaysian hospital, per a new study that found high resistance to multiple antibiotics, especially carbapenems—the drugs of choice for the treatment of A. baumannii infections. Medical Xpress

A U.S. federal judge ruled that Alabama can’t prosecute people who help to facilitate out-of-state abortions where the procedure is legal, saying it would violate the constitution and the right to travel. The Appeal

Deforestation is a leading indicator of Ebola virus spillover from animals to humans in a new CDC-led study; the model could help identify patterns that could guide prevention efforts. Emerging Infectious Diseases U.S. Health Policy News: The head of Africa CDC thought news of a U.S. aid freeze must be 'a joke.' Now what? – NPR Goats and Soda

‘The lives of individuals in the US are at stake,’ researchers warn after HHS cancels hundreds of vaccine grants – CNN

FDA’s top tobacco official is removed from post in latest blow to health agency’s leadership – AP

Trump wants to ‘defund’ Planned Parenthood. The Supreme Court will hear a case aimed at that. – The 19th

Public health under Trump 2.0: the first 50 days – The Lancet Public Health (commentary)

How the MAHA Commission Can Improve U.S. Life Expectancy – Think Global Health (commentary) FOREIGN AID Inside the Plans to Dismantle USAID
The Trump administration’s plans to break down USAID and shift its surviving operations to the State Department have been outlined in a congressional notification.

The basics: The agency will be abolished “as an independent establishment” for fiscal year 2026, and all staff will be laid off. 

Reordering: Remaining parts of the agency, including food security and global health programs, will be run by the State Department. 

• Programs will be housed within State Department regional bureaus—a move that could make aid programs “more fragmented,” warn international development experts. 


• As the State Department hires staff for its programs, some USAID staff could be rehired, though it is unclear how the agency will respond to crises like the Burma earthquakes while the transition is ongoing. 

Is this legal? Congressional approval is required before the agency is shut down. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will wait for congressional authorization before moving forward.

Devex

Related:

The USAID awards the Trump administration killed — and kept – Devex

A Youth Friendly Drop-In Centre is Staying Committed to HIV Prevention Amidst USAID Funding Cuts in Kenya – Nigeria Health Watch

A midwife says of the aid cuts in Afghanistan: 'No one prioritizes women's lives.' – NPR Goats and Soda GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CLIMATE POLICY The High Impact of Stemming ‘Super Pollutants’
In climate policy, mitigating CO2 emissions is the perennial priority. But scientists say addressing a small group of “super pollutants” could have a swift, meaningful influence on slowing rising temperatures and improving health outcomes. 

• Black carbon, methane, and ozone are responsible for nearly half of global temperature increases to date, and also have wide-ranging impacts on food security and respiratory health.

Rapid results: Reducing these emissions could serve as an “emergency brake” on climate change, say climate scientists, who raised the matter at the WHO Second Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in Cartagena, Colombia, last week. 

• “If you reduce them today, we’ll see impacts in our lifetimes,” said Claire Henly, executive director of the Super Pollutant Field Catalyst.

Health Policy Watch

Related: Exposure to Air Pollution in Childhood Is Associated with Reduced Brain Connectivity – ISGlobal, The Barcelona Institute for Global Health SURGERY Finding Hope for Fistula Survivors in Nigeria
Free fistula repair surgery will soon be available at clinics throughout Nigeria, health officials announced earlier this month—a “groundbreaking move” in a country where ~12,000 new fistula cases are reported each year. 

Background: Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) is a condition where an opening forms between the bladder and the vagina. Root causes: Prolonged or obstructed labor and female genital mutilation.

• The condition can be debilitating and highly stigmatizing: In 2022, ~626 women with VVF were abandoned by their families in the state of Borno.

More than surgery needed: Advocates say comprehensive counseling services are essential to support VVF survivors amid the psychological trauma associated with the condition. 

Nigeria Health Watch OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS ‘It’s beyond description’: Bodies pile up in mass graves as Myanmar grapples with quake toll – The Guardian

Gas fire in Malaysia injures more than 100 people and damages 49 houses – AP via ABC

An RSF atrocity, a mass evacuation, and another side to mutual aid in Sudan – The New Humanitarian

Epilepsy: The neglected disease eating up families – Daily Monitor

Who's stockpiling abortion pills amid bans – Axios

Scientists scramble to track LA wildfires’ long-term health impacts – Science

Is breastfeeding ‘exclusive’? Barriers facing global health professionals and proposed solutions – PLOS Global Public Health (commentary)

How to buy a year of happiness, explained in one chart – Vox Issue No. 2700
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 Rocky Response to Burma’s Earthquake; Revisiting Extraordinary Journeys; and The Dangerous Blights of Skin Bleaching View this email in your browser March 31, 2025 Forward Share Post A Buddhist monk walking near a collapsed pagoda after an earthquake in Mandalay, central Burma (Myanmar), on March 30. AP Photo/Thein Zaw shared via a Facebook post The Rocky Response to Burma’s Earthquake 
As the death toll in Burma rises from a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Friday, the difficulty of the disaster response is coming into focus, with the country’s ongoing civil war and recent upheaval in global aid complicating basic recovery efforts, reports the AP.

The latest: ~2,000 people have died in the earthquake devastation; “countless” remain buried under rubble as civilian-led efforts to dig out survivors—largely by hand—continue. 

• A UN assessment found that many health facilities had been damaged and warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts.”

“Already dire”: 

• The country’s civil war has displaced over 3 million people and has left many regions dangerous for aid groups to reach. 


• The quake is “compounding an already dire humanitarian situation” for millions of children, warned UNICEF. 

A reshaped aid landscape: China, Russia, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, and other countries have dispatched emergency teams and funds, reports Reuters via Irish Independent.

• But U.S. aid operations remain in chaos amid Trump administration cuts, reports The New York Times (gift link), as many of the systems needed to funnel American aid to Myanmar “have been shattered.” 

Building safety fears: Meanwhile, the collapse of a high-rise under construction in Bangkok that killed 11 has residents concerned about buildings’ earthquake resilience, reports The New York Times (gift link). 

• A Thai watchdog had previously flagged concerns about the building, reports The Straits Times. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Eight Palestine Red Crescent Society medics were killed when Israel’s military fired on ambulances they identified as “suspicious vehicles”—marking the single deadliest attack on Red Cross members anywhere in the world since 2017 and bringing to 30 the number of PRCS workers killed since October 2023. The Guardian

South Korea’s deadly fire that killed 30 people and destroyed ~4,000 structures is under investigation; a man is suspected of starting the fire while performing an ancestral rite by a family grave. BBC

The WHO, citing a $600 million budget gap for 2025, has proposed slashing its 2026–27 budget by 21%, to $4.2 billion, and signaled that job cuts are imminent; unconfirmed reports estimate that 20%–40% of the agency’s 9,000+ jobs globally could be eliminated. Geneva Health Files

Mexico will ban junk food in schools as a part of its redoubled efforts to mitigate its childhood obesity epidemic, with the guidelines forbidding sugary fruit drinks, packaged chips, and other processed snacks taking effect this week. AP U.S. Global Health Policy News The NIH’s Most Reckless Cuts Yet: Ending clinical trials with no warning can put patients at risk. – The Atlantic

The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations – ProPublica

Tuberculosis is the world’s top infectious killer. Aid groups say Trump’s funding freezes will cause more deaths – CNN

‘We should have been hammered a long time ago’: African countries thank Trump for aid wake-up call – The Telegraph

RFK Jr. Expected To Lay Off Entire Office Of Infectious Disease And HIV/AIDS Policy – Forbes

How Trump is following Project 2025’s radical roadmap to defund science – Nature

Trump Slashed International Aid. Geneva Is Feeling the Impact. – Bloomberg CityLab GHN EXCLUSIVE Revisiting Extraordinary Journeys
If you werenʼt able to join GHN earlier this month for Extraordinary Journeys: Stories of Refugees Fleeing Conflict and Shaping Global Health, you can now view recordings of each story.

• This special event, co-hosted by GHN and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, spotlighted the remarkable experiences of public health practitioners with lived experience as refugees.


• Storytellers from Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria shared firsthand accounts of living and working amid humanitarian crises, fleeing conflict, and shaping impactful roles in public health.

WATCH HERE GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH The Dangerous Blights of Skin Bleaching 
More urgent warnings are needed about skin lightening’s dangers, say physicians in Nigeria, as more people are being treated for skin damage and other health problems, and as more children are being harmed by bleaching products, reports NPR Goats and Soda. 

Surging popularity: Sales of skin-lightening products across Africa are projected to nearly double to $15.7 billion by 2030. The practice is especially prevalent in Nigeria, where 77% of women use skin-lightening products, per the WHO. 

Bodily toll: The ingredients in the products, which include acids and steroids, not only damage skin—they can “wreak havoc and damage internal organs,” said Lagos dermatologist Vivian Oputa. 

Children at risk: Doctors say they are seeing more children—even babies—with burning and discoloration after their parents used bleaching products on them, often under social pressure, reports the BBC. 

Calls for regulation: Doctors say government regulation is needed to limit access to potent pharmaceutical creams that should require prescriptions. QUICK HITS Israel-Gaza war: Wounded Palestinians dying for lack of supplies, surgeon says – BBC

WHO alert on US measles outbreak adds new genetic details – CIDRAP 

How can Africa sustain its HIV response amid US aid cuts? – The Lancet HIV (commentary) Thanks for the tip, Elizabeth S. Rose! 

Boosting advanced-stage clinical trial capacity in East and Central Africa to combat regional epidemic threats – CEPI

Morning-after pill to be made free in England pharmacies – Medical Xpress

How a ban on food dye in West Virginia has forged an unlikely alliance – The Guardian

New 3D technology could soon bring surgeons closer to patients in Africa’s most remote regions – AP Issue No. 2699
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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

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96 Global Health NOW: Gutting the Global Vaccine Effort; PEPFAR’s Precarious Future; and The Dog Days of Cinema Documents reveal plans to withdraw U.S. funding for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance View this email in your browser March 27, 2025 Forward Share Post A Somali mother holding a medical card waits for her baby to be given a pentavalent vaccine injection provided by Gavi, UNICEF, and WHO, at a medical clinic in Mogadishu, on April 24, 2013. Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Gutting the Global Vaccine Effort
The Trump administration has released its plans to withdraw U.S. funding for Gavi, the global alliance that helps provide essential vaccines for children in low-income countries, reports The New York Times (gift link).

Overview: Vaccinations via Gavi have saved ~19 million children’s lives over the past 25 years. The U.S. contributes 13% of its budget.

• Loss of U.S. support could mean 75 million children do not get routine vaccinations in the next five years; and that 1.2 million+ children die as a result, per Gavi’s estimations.

• “This is not just a bureaucratic decision, there are children’s lives at stake, global health security will be at stake,” said Austin Demby, the health minister of Sierra Leone. 

Other cuts: The Gavi termination was included in a USAID memo submitted to Congress this week delineating foreign aid programs on the chopping block—including major programs that combat malaria and funding for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which tracks zoonotic diseases like bird flu.

• It is unclear whether the Trump administration can legally end the programs unilaterally, reports The Guardian.  

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
10,000 HHS employees will be cut from various U.S. health agencies, as part of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s continued overhauls, reports NBC News; meanwhile, health departments will see already-disbursed funding pulled back from their COVID- and infectious disease-related programs, reports the AP

A garden soil sample from a lab technician’s garden has led to a new antibiotic capable of killing drug-resistant bacteria by targeting the ribosome, while leaving human cells unharmed, per a new study published in Nature.

Influenza A antibodies have been detected in U.S. cattle, finds a large study published in the Journal of Virology—showing that cattle are susceptible to human seasonal flu strains as well as swine influenza viruses. CIDRAP

Male birth control that is hormone-free is slated to enter clinical trials after research published in Nature Communications found that the new drug, YCT-529, effectively lowered sperm count in male mice, and was 99% effective in preventing pregnancies. Medical Xpress HIV/AIDS PEPFAR’s Precarious Future
Congressional authorization for PEPFAR expired on Tuesday, further shrouding the global HIV/AIDS program’s future, reports Devex. 

Technically still alive: PEPFAR has been allocated some funding through the end of the fiscal year. But its long-term survival remains in question with the dismantling of USAID—which administered the majority of PEPFAR services. 

Immediate impact: Clinics are closing, prescriptions are not being refilled, per Health Policy Watch. 

• Burkina Faso, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Ukraine will likely run out of antiretroviral medicine within weeks, per the WHO. 

• Studies on an HIV vaccine, long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis, and tuberculosis have been halted. 

Overhaul on the horizon? Conservative advocates have been calling for a scaled-down program, and one that prioritizes abstinence and education. 

Further research cuts: Meanwhile, the NIH has eliminated funding for dozens of HIV-related research grants in the U.S., reports CNN—a move that will cause the country to “slide back on decades of progress,” said one researcher.  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES FUNGUS How Cats, Spores, and Pollution are Driving an Epidemic
Brazil is currently facing the world’s largest and “most persistent” epidemic of sporotrichosis, a fungal infection spread primarily through cats. And recent research sheds new light on how pollution is contributing to the spread.  

Background: Sporotrichosis is a chronic disease that primarily affects the skin and lymphatic system and can spread to humans from animals. 

New insights: A study published in Mycology revealed an “alarming genetic diversity” in the fungus, and found indicators to suggest that exposure to urban pollutants may be driving rapid adaptations.

Looking for solutions: Researchers also identified molecular markers that could enhance diagnostics and treatments, and pointed to an “urgent” need for enhanced fungal surveillance.

SciTechDaily ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION The Dog Days of Cinema  
People seem to know everything about their dogs. Their DNA makeup. Their favorite treat, scratch, and spot to relieve themselves.
 
But what about their favorite movie? If you donʼt know … itʼs probably Flow, a Latvian film that took home an Oscar and won the hearts of pets everywhere.
 
The animated feature is a heartening tale of interspecies collaboration in a postapocalyptic world—and pets canʼt get enough. One TikTok video shows not one, but four cats rapt at the film. They donʼt even mind if itʼs on a tiny laptop screen.
 
Producer Matiss Kaza admits he hadnʼt considered pets “as a potential target audience,” according to The New York Times (gift article), but was amused when he heard folks were taking their cats to the theater to see the film, he told NPR. 
 
But the movieʼs pet popularity also raises a question: While we canʼt get enough of animal videos, our petsʼ favorite film features no humans. Should we take that as a hint? QUICK HITS SA research grants potentially on hold, says leaked memo – Bhekisisa
 
Colorado is poised to pass some of the toughest gun laws in the country – NPR   Surgeons transplant genetically modified pig liver into Chinese patient – The Guardian

Kansas measles cases double to 23 and new Ohio outbreak sickens 10 – AP

Zooming in on the structure of the lethal Ebola virus – Phys.org

FDA approves first new antibiotic for uncomplicated UTIs in nearly 30 years – Healio

'Grandpas' got together to help kids. Scientists say it boosts the elders' health, too – NPR Shots Issue No. 2698
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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

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  Copyright 2025 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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