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.

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96 Global Health NOW: COVID-19 Research Canceled; Chikungunya Vaccines En Route to Réunion; and DOGE Cuts Harm Vulnerable Vets View this email in your browser March 26, 2025 Forward Share Post Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (blue) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (green), isolated from a patient sample. NIH/NAID/IMAGE.FR/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty COVID-19 Research Canceled
The NIH and CDC have begun widespread terminations of grants related to COVID-19 research and public health outreach, saying “the grant funds are no longer necessary,” per an internal NIH document, reports Nature. 

The large-scale grant terminations, amounting to billions, are unprecedented and “dangerous for future pandemic preparedness,” said virologist Jason McLellan at the University of Texas, Austin, who was leading one of the canceled projects. 

• The virus has killed 7 million+ people globally, including 1.2+ million people in the U.S. Hundreds of people still die every week, and millions suffer debilitating long COVID symptoms. 

On the chopping block, per Science:

• A program designing antiviral drugs for a range of pandemic-potential viruses. 


• Research to develop improved COVID-19 vaccines and to address long COVID.


• At least two Serological Sciences Centers of Excellence set up to study virus transmission and immune response.

Cuts to health departments: Meanwhile, the CDC is axing ~$11 billion in COVID-related funding for health departments, reports NBC News—with HHS communications chief Andrew Nixon calling COVID a “non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

• The funds were largely being used for testing, surveillance, vaccination, modernizing disease data systems, and addressing disparities.

Related: Vaccination cuts the risk of long COVID 27%, review suggests – CIDRAP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Deaths of children under 5 and stillbirths declined globally in 2023, to 4.8 million and ~1.9 million, respectively, continuing a trend of decreases since 2000; but progress has slowed in recent years—a pattern that experts worry new global funding cuts may exacerbate. WHO

UK parenting charities and support groups are criticizing new guidance for postpartum women issued in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which recommended exercise and reduced screen time at night to improve physical and mental health; the parents’ groups say the guidance is “wildly optimistic” and could become “another stick to beat new mums with.” The Guardian

Healthy aging has been linked to a midlife diet rich in plant-based foods and low intake of ultra-processed foods, per a new study published in Nature Medicine that found that such a diet leads to higher likelihood of reaching age 70 without chronic disease. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (news release) Thanks for the tip, Xiaodong Cai!

New FDA and NIH leaders have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate; Marty Makary will lead the FDA, while Jay Bhattacharya will head the NIH; both gained prominence for criticizing the U.S. COVID-19 response, and both were confirmed along party lines. CBS Trump Administration News Researchers in limbo as Columbia bows to Trump’s demands in bid to restore $400M federal funding – AP

Vaccine skeptic hired to head federal study of immunizations and autism – The Washington Post (gift link)

5 high-level officials leave CDC – The Hill

Remedy Supported by Kennedy Leaves Some Measles Patients More Ill – The New York Times (gift link)

FDA commissioner's abortion pill minefield – Axios CHIKUNGUNYA OUTBREAK Vaccines En Route to Réunion  
Chikungunya vaccines are being rushed to France’s Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, where an outbreak has killed two, hospitalized dozens, and infected thousands of people over the last few weeks.
 
40,000 doses of Ixchiq, a Valneva-produced vaccine, will be aimed at the most vulnerable—including those ages 65+, with severe comorbidities, or working in vector control.

• Chikungunya, spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, is rarely fatal but causes symptoms including fever, headaches, and debilitating joint pain.


• No specific antibody treatments exist, but the vaccine is highly effective at preventing infection.

Climate connection? Cyclones, like the one that hit Réunion late last month, can leave standing water that increases populations of outbreak-fueling mosquitoes.  

The Telegraph GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES MENTAL HEALTH DOGE Cuts Harm Vulnerable Vets
Veterans’ mental health services are in disarray amid sweeping changes ordered by President Trump and implemented by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Significant shifts: Thousands of mental health providers, including many fully remote employees, must work full-time from federal office space that often cannot accommodate their numbers or ensure patient privacy. 

• Clinicians say the changes, as well as the layoffs of ~2,000 probationary employees, will degrade mental health treatment at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which was already experiencing severe staffing shortages. 

Some providers predict a mass exodus of specialists, like psychiatrists and psychologists. They also expect wait times to increase, and veterans to seek treatment outside the agency—or withdraw from treatment altogether.

The New York Times (gift article) OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Thousands of women and girls in the West Bank exposed to gender based violence – The Telegraph

Guillain–Barré syndrome outbreak in Pune: a health emergency – The Lancet (commentary)

The toxic storm brewing in Soweto’s Snake Park – Bhekisisa

Botswana reports surge in malaria cases – Xinhua

Navigating US global health aid cuts: What can past donor exits teach us? – Brookings Institution (commentary)

‘Life and death’: Beshear vetoes GOP ‘clarification’ of Kentucky’s abortion ban – Kentucky Lantern

Can generative AI tackle global health problems? – Stanford Medicine’s SCOPE

As opposition to fluoride grows, rural America risks a new surge of tooth decay – NPR

The Liverpool team preparing for future pandemics – BBC

‘Huge brown eyes’: Irish farmer comes up with alpaca therapy for elderly patients, special-needs children – The Telegraph India Issue No. 2697
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: What Do American Kids Learn About Sex? It Depends Who You Ask.; ‘Flying Blind’ on Measles; and Museum Medication View this email in your browser March 25, 2025 Forward Share Post GLOBAL HEALTH NOW EXCLUSIVE Klaus Vedfelt, Getty Creative What Do American Kids Learn About Sex? It Depends Who You Ask.
The U.S. has no national requirements for teaching sex education in schools—leading to a patchwork of policies and teachings across states, districts, and even individual schools.
 
Popular but scarce: Over 90% of parents and guardians in the U.S. support their children receiving comprehensive sexuality education (CSE)—which incorporates complete and age-appropriate information about sexuality, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United Status (SIECUS). 

However, only 38% of all high schools and 14% of middle schools in the U.S. cover all of the CDCʼs priority sexual health topics, which include CSE topics like condom use and STD prevention.
 
Despite the lack of requirements, federal grants still play an important—and sometimes paradoxical role in sex ed teachings. Federal funding is available for programs rooted in CSE—and abstinence-only teachings. This can result in both approaches being taught in the same school, Allison Macklin, policy director of SIECUS.
 
“Itʼs the students that suffer from this confusion in information,” she says.
 
ʼChilling effectʼ: While there have not been direct attacks on sex education, policy recommendations that target DEI, gender identity, and restroom access for trans people have raised concerns about the future of funding for CSE providers, says Macklin.
 
But advocates remain determined to broaden access to CSE across the country. “The urgency that people feel to make sure their kids have vital, lifesaving information—that is driving a real commitment to making sure kids get this information,” says Emily Cabral of Wholly Informed Sex Ed (WISE), a nonprofit that provides CSE. 
 
Annalies Winny, Global Health NOW
  READ THE FULL STORY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Lab tests have confirmed that the cause of a mysterious illness that killed 53 people and sickened 943 in the northwest DRC was malaria, per the National Public Health Institute; health officials are still waiting on results from water, food, and other samples sent abroad for testing. Reuters via Deccan Herald
 
Avoidable deaths increased in all U.S. states from 2009 to 2021, while such deaths decreased in other high-income countries. JAMA Internal Medicine

MIT engineers have devised a new, less painful way to deliver certain drugs, such as long-lasting contraceptives, in higher doses by injecting them as a suspension of tiny crystals, administered through a narrow needle. News Medical
 
Parisians voted in a referendum to close 500 more city streets to cars and remove 10% of the current parking spots as part of a push by Mayor Anne Hidalgo to make the city friendlier to pedestrians, bikers, and greenery. Bloomberg CityLab Trump Administration News Trump nominates Susan Monarez for CDC director, elevating from acting role – CBS
Trump administration cancels at least 68 grants focused on LGBTQ health questions – AP

NIH ends future funding to study the health effects of climate change – ProPublica

Don’t take scientific progress for granted – The Baltimore Sun (commentary)

USAID cuts have disastrous consequences for global push to end TB – Context (commentary)

What RFK Jr.’s plans for baby formula mean for parents – The 19th MEASLES ‘Flying Blind’ Without Surveillance    The U.S. decision to stop funding the global measles surveillance infrastructure could have dire consequences at a time when the disease is rapidly gaining ground, reports NPR Goats and Soda.

Background: The Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network is comprised of 700+ labs in 150+ countries. 

• The network plays a key role in identifying and tracking measles strains worldwide.


• It also mobilizes an early outbreak response in affected communities.

While it is run by the WHO, it has been funded by the CDC since its inception 25 years ago. The Trump administration’s exit from the WHO means the network now "faces imminent shutdown,” while growing outbreaks are being reported across the globe. 

• “This network is a backbone of health defense,” says Tom Frieden, former CDC director and president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. “If it collapses, the U.S. and the rest of the world will be flying blind.”

Meanwhile, in Australia: Public health leaders warn the country could be “fertile ground” for measles after five cases were confirmed in Victoria; Australia is below the WHO-recommended 95% vaccination rate, reports The Guardian.

Related:

Should You Get a Measles Vaccine Booster? – Yale Medicine

'I'm worried it's getting worse': Texas measles outbreak grows as families resist vaccination – NBC GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES MENTAL HEALTH Museum Medication
A Swiss town is launching a new medical intervention for its residents: Free tickets to the museum.

The town of Neuchâtel has initiated a two-year pilot project covering the costs of “museum prescriptions” ordered by doctors who believe patients could benefit from a jaunt in the town’s four museums.

Fact-based (and artifact-based) medicine: The project is based on a 2019 WHO report that found the arts can bolster mental health and lower the risk of cognitive decline.

• There are also physical benefits, say doctors who have issued scripts to patients who need more physical activity out of the house. 

So far: ~500 prescriptions have been distributed in the town of 46,000, and town leaders hope to expand the program.

AP OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS A war within the war: Ukraine's ill children – The New York Times (gift link)

Despite progress, HIV stigma and discrimination continue to bubble beneath the surface in Thailand – UNAIDS

23andMe bankruptcy underscores health privacy gaps – Axios

World's first case of bird flu in sheep detected in England - The Guardian

South Sudan: Delivering baby on the road at 2am just another day for midwife – The Irish Examiner

Public health on the ground at Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp – UC Berkeley School of Public Health

Why IUD insertions are painful for many patients and what can be done better – PBS NewsHour

Reducing traffic in Barcelona by 25% would prevent around 200 premature deaths a year linked to pollution – ISGlobal - Barcelona Institute for Global Health Issue No. 2696
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: How to Keep Traction in the TB Fight?; Fewer Eyes on Food Safety; and Preschool Parasite Prevention View this email in your browser March 24, 2025 Forward Share Post A tuberculosis patient at a government-run tuberculosis hospital. Allahabad, India, November 6, 2019. Ritesh Shukla/NurPhoto via Getty How to Keep Traction in the TB Fight?
World TB Day arrives at a critical juncture for the world’s most fatal infectious disease. 

• Despite gains in some countries against the disease, that “progress remains fragile,” said Hans Henri Kluge, the WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, per Reuters—and U.S. cuts to global TB interventions could undo decades-long efforts.
   
• In South Africa, a “tsunami” of NIH grant cuts is gutting anti-TB efforts, with termination letters sent out over the weekend, reports Science. Up to 70% of the country’s HIV and TB research is funded through NIH, per Bhekisisa. 

Today, a statement from the WHO Regional Office for Africa called for “renewed commitment” to the TB fight, including increased funding. 

A global uptick: 

• Europe saw a 10% rise in child TB infections in 2023. 


• In the U.S., TB cases rose by over 15% from 2022 to 2023, and an outbreak in Kansas City continues to perplex officials, reports PBS News.

Good news: TB treatment continues to evolve as four new studies show major innovations, per News Medical, including rapid diagnostics and a nasal spray for tuberculous meningitis.

Related:

A Late-Stage Tuberculosis Vaccine is Making its Way Through Clinical Trials – Contagion Live

A roadmap for integrating nutritional assessment, counselling, and support into the care of people with tuberculosis – The Lancet Global Health

Everything Is Tuberculosis: A Conversation With John Green – Public Health On Call GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   UNICEF condemned the looting of supplies from Khartoum’s Al Bashair Hospital—including 2,200 cartons of ready-to-use therapeutic food for children suffering from malnutrition; iron and folic acid supplements for pregnant and lactating women; and midwife kits and other supplies meant for mothers, newborns, and children. UN News
 
Ohio, Maryland, and Alabama are among the U.S. states reporting new measles cases, with 378 cases—including 309 in Texas—confirmed in the first few months of 2025; 11 other states have also confirmed cases. The Guardian

A fake CDC webpage alleging that vaccines cause autism has been removed from the website of the Children’s Health Defense—an anti-vaccine nonprofit started by now-U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ordered the page’s removal following outcry over the weekend. The New York Times (gift link)

Safety nets installed on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge reduced suicides by 73% and increased third-party interventions when someone was at imminent risk of jumping from the bridge, per a study published in Injury Prevention. The Washington Post (gift link) DATA POINT REGULATION Fewer Eyes on Food Safety 
Food safety advocates are raising alarms about vulnerabilities in the U.S. food system as budget cuts hit an already underfunded system. 

Cuts on the table: A $34 million cut to the FDA could reduce the number of employees and labs devoted to product safety. Already, freezes on government spending have kept staff from purchasing food to perform routine tests for bacteria and PFAS.

Key committees shut down: Committees overseeing meat and poultry inspection and microbiological criteria for foods have been issued stop-work orders—upending in-progress initiatives to prevent pathogens. 

Stakes: Last year, ~500 people were hospitalized and 19 died from foodborne illnesses with a known cause—2X more than in 2023. 

The Quote: “It’s as if someone, without enough information, has said, What’s a good way to save money on our automobiles? Let’s just take out the seatbelts and airbags, because do we really need them?” said Darin Detwiler, a food safety consultant. 

The New York Times (gift link)  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NEGLECTED DISEASES Preschool Parasite Prevention
Earlier this month, nearly 3,000 preschoolers in Uganda received the first preventive treatment tailored for their age group for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease affecting ~240 million people worldwide. 

• ~50 million preschool-age children globally are at risk of getting schistosomiasis. 


• Untreated, the disease can affect cognitive development and cause malnutrition, anemia, and organ damage or death. 

The treatment, derived from a well-established drug used to treat the disease in school-age children and adults, was made available through the ADOPT pilot program from the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium.

More pilots are planned throughout Uganda and in other countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya in the coming months, with discussions underway on piloting the drug in Senegal and Tanzania.

Devex OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Study finds foreign aid sanctions set back decades of progress on maternal and child mortality – Stanford Report

‘Chaos and Confusion’ at the Crown Jewel of American Science – The New York Times (gift link)

Global AIDS program teetering after Trump admin’s shock-and-awe – Politico

The COVID Mistake No One Talks Enough About – The Atlantic

New friction surfaces over replicating research – Axios

Lawsuits Against Diversity Initiatives in Science Multiply – Undark

Reporter's notebook: 8 theories why fentanyl deaths are plummeting – NPR Issue No. 2695
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: How a ‘Safer’ Opioid Caused a New Devastation; How to Keep Doing Global Health; and Rootsy Music German drugmaker Grünenthal promoted tapentadol as “less addictive” than other opioids. View this email in your browser March 20, 2025 Forward Share Post A building on the premises of the pharmaceutical company Grünenthal in Aachen, Germany, on December 10, 2020. Oliver Berg/picture alliance via Getty How a ‘Safer’ Opioid Caused a New Devastation 
Across the globe, prescriptions of the painkiller tapentadol have spiked over the last five years—eclipsing oxycodone in some countries—as the drug’s German maker Grünenthal promotes the drug as a “less addictive” option to other opioids.

But as prescriptions have increased, so have reports of addiction, overdose, and death. And the claims the company has made about the drug’s safety have “no convincing evidence,” finds an investigation by The Examination and journalistic partners in 10+ countries. 

Background: Grünenthal’s efforts to promote tapentadol have involved:

• Funding studies in medical journals to support its claim of relative safety

• Paying millions to doctors, medical organizations, and patient groups across Latin America and Europe

• Educational messaging about the drug’s “minimum potential of abuse” that downplayed respiratory side effects, and marketing the drug as “highly effective” for chronic pain—a tactic that flouts safety guidelines from the WHO, US, and UK

Global impact: 

• In Australia: Coroners have reported dozens of tapentadol-related overdose deaths.

• In India: Psychiatrists are seeing a trend of teenage boys injecting tapentadol.

• In the U.S.: Addiction doctors warn of an uptick in tapentadol dependency.

Blind spot: Many countries are not tracking tapentadol-related dependency, meaning the true scope of the problem remains largely unknown. 

The Examination 

Related: Trump administration extends opioid emergency as fentanyl deaths drop – NPR  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Extreme heat last year has “reshaped the planet,” inflicting permanent damage on glaciers, oceans, and ecosystems, and signaling a near future filled with devastating heat waves, details from the World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate report show. The Independent

As bird flu spreads on commercial poultry farms, the USDA today announced two new biosecurity assessment programs—one offering onsite surveying of wildlife hazards and the other reviewing farms’ biosecurity plans; meanwhile, the agency provided more details about “highly pathogenic” H7N9 avian flu detected at a Mississippi farm. CIDRAP

Uganda’s Ministry of Health has started a 42-day countdown to declare the country Ebola-free after two more patients recovered from the virus and were discharged from treatment facilities; of 12 patients with confirmed cases, 10 have recovered and two have died. NilePost

The Jynneos mpox vaccine was 58% effective against mpox infection overall after one dose, and 84% effective in people without HIV—but was only 35% effective in those with HIV, per an observational combined study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. CIDRAP GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY Sunitha, an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), checks on a pregnant woman outside her house on May 18, 2021, in Mysuru, India. Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty How to Keep Doing Global Health: Tips from the Global South
In the face of U.S. cuts to global health initiatives, two global health researchers from India share three experience-based strategies in a GHN commentary. 

Change who you work for. 

• At times, global health researchers can forget who they should work for because of a system and a culture that forces researchers to think about “fundable” ideas, write Siddhesh Zadey and Dhananjaya Sharma.

• “If you’re in global health, you work for the underprivileged, underserved people … [not] the funders,” they write.

Change what you work on. 

• When you do not have money, you have to be creative about what you work on. Researchers should ask themselves, do we truly need another randomized controlled trial to answer the question?

Walk the talk. 

• “Perhaps, the crisis is an opportunity for the ‘topmost’ to rekindle their volunteering spirit by lending their expertise and time to those most adversely affected by the defunding initiatives,” write Zadey and Sharma.

Siddhesh Zadey and Dhananjaya Sharma for Global Health NOW GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NEUROLOGICAL ILLNESSES A Mysterious ALS Cluster 
A decade ago, neurologists were startled when they discovered a cluster of 16 ALS cases around the tiny mountain village of Montchavin in France. 

Elusive origin: ALS is rare, and its underlying causes are still being researched. Hereditary genetic factors figure in 10-15% of cases—but none of the Montchavin patients had a family history of ALS. 

• Researchers have also looked into environmental factors like industrial chemicals and air pollution, but found no links. 

Focus on fungi: One researcher eventually found that all of the patients had eaten false morels, a toxic mushroom sometimes sought and eaten as a delicacy. 

• While some scientists say the theory needs further study, others say it is similar to a cluster in Guam, which was linked to ingestion of a cycad plant. 

El País ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Rootsy Music
We all did some wacky things during pandemic lockdown days. So it’s not exactly surprising to hear that in 2020 biologist-turned-musician Tarun Nayar connected his synthesizer to a salmonberry bush. What is surprising: The plant was alive with the sound of music.

“I could actually ‘listen’ to the salmonberry bush,” says the Montreal-based Nayar—who describes the process of converting natural (and non-audible to human ears) bioelectric signals into hypnotic electronic music as “biodata sonification,” per Atlas Obscura. 

Mic check: In the past five years, Nayar has tuned into the everyday symphonies emitting from plants and fungi—enjoyed by his growing audience across YouTube and TikTok—with mushrooms like chanterelles and amanitas serving as especially compelling muses.

And the fandom goes both ways: Mushrooms, apparently, make for an enthusiastic audience, finds a study published last year in Biology Letters: Researchers found that playing sound to a green microscopic fungus, Trichoderma harzianum, led to growth rates 7X faster than fungus grown in silence, reports The New York Times (gift link).  QUICK HITS Trump administration weighing future of CDC's HIV prevention division – Reuters

US evangelical groups urge Trump to spare HIV/Aids program from aid cuts – The Guardian

Toxic ‘sea foam’ kills animals and leaves surfers with breathing problems and blurred vision – The Telegraph

Popular ADHD TikTok videos often do not accurately reflect symptoms, experts say – Euronews

How will ‘Little Scandinavia’ experiment play out in U.S. prisons? – Science Issue No. 2694
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: Strategies Diverge as Bird Flu Spreads; Interrupted Agent Orange Cleanup; and Factory Farms and the Rise of Superbugs Bird flu is a “transboundary threat,” says UN View this email in your browser March 19, 2025 Forward Share Post Lohmann Brown chickens stand outside a barn at Meadow Haven Farm, in Sheffield, Illinois, on August 4, 2015. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Strategies Diverge as Bird Flu Spreads 
As bird flu continues to ravage U.S. poultry farms, UN officials warn that the virus has reached “unprecedented” scale and requires a coordinated global response, reports The Hill. 

• In a briefing held yesterday, UN Food and Agriculture Organization leaders outlined H5N1’s mounting toll: hundreds of millions of lost poultry, ~300 newly affected wild bird species in the last four years, increasing spillover into mammals, and food security risk, per UN News.

Call to action: Describing the virus as a “transboundary threat,” the agency called on countries to improve surveillance, expand lab capacity, consider vaccination plans, and promote risk management through biosecurity.

Kennedy’s tack: Meanwhile, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has floated a strategy to let H5N1 “run through the flock” to identify immune birds, reports The New York Times (gift link)—which veterinary scientists say would pose a wide range of hazards: 

• Every infection is an opportunity for H5N1 to evolve into a more virulent form dangerous to mammals and humans. 

• Farmed poultry have low genetic diversity and weak immune systems, resulting in painful deaths in ~100% of infected flocks. 

• Such a strategy would also mean longer quarantines and lost revenue.

The Quote: “It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
The measles outbreak in western Texas has grown to 279 cases—nearly reaching the total number confirmed for all of 2024 (285 cases), according to new state data published yesterday, ABC News reports; Texas public health officials say the outbreak could take a year to contain, according to STAT.

Ongoing dengue transmission in parts of the U.S. led the CDC to issue a Health Alert Network notice yesterday with updated testing guidance; infections have been increasing globally for the past five years, with the Americas region seeing pronounced surges. CIDRAP

Smoking rates have risen in some regions of England for the first time since 2006, finds a new study published in the journal Addiction; researchers found that smoking increased 10% in southern England between 2020 and 2024. The Guardian

Climate change is accelerating, finds the new State of the Global Climate report—with global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions, and sea levels reaching record highs in 2024, reports CBS News; meanwhile, researchers say heart disease could double or triple in the next 25 years if current heat trends continue, per a study published in the European Heart Journal, reports Al Jazeera. FOREIGN AID CUTS Interrupted Agent Orange Cleanup
Efforts to clean up an enormous chemical spill at an air base in Vietnam have been halted by USAID cuts—putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of poisoning, U.S. diplomats and human rights groups say. 

Background: Remediation efforts at the Bien Hoa air base were started in 2019, when the U.S. government committed $430 million+ to help clean up widespread dioxin contamination that dates back to the Vietnam War—when the U.S. brought the toxin to the country. 

Halted work: The sudden USAID shutdown meant work immediately stopped, leaving pits with dioxin-contaminated soil exposed at the cusp of the country’s rainy season. 

High risk: With enough rain, dioxin could flood into nearby communities’ food supply and contaminate a major river flowing into Ho Chi Minh City. 

ProPublica GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE Factory Farms and the Rise of Superbugs
Conditions at factory farms across Europe “paint a bleak picture of animal welfare,” with animals living in cramped grassless pens coated with filth.

Such farming practices are also fueling the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs on the continent, including MRSA.

How? Animals in poor feedlot conditions are more likely to contract infections, which has led to a decades-long overdependence on antibiotics. Now, once easily treatable illnesses don’t respond to drugs. 

• The meat industry is responsible for 73% of global antibiotic use.

The stakes: ~700,000 people globally die every year from infections caused by resistant bacteria. By 2050, this number could rise to 10 million.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Related: The Many Costs of Cheap Chicken – Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health magazine OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS What will happen if Trump cuts the US’s Global Fund contributions? We work it out – Bhekisisa

‘It’s back to drug rationing’: the end of HIV was in sight. Then came the cuts – The Guardian

Trump dministration considers plan to eliminate CDC's HIV prevention division – NBC

Private equity ‘gobbling’ up care facilities for people with disabilities – STAT

What’s in store for US science as funding bill averts government shutdown – Nature

Epilepsy Patients in Africa Fight Stigma and Neglect – IPS Issue No. 2693
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: Tedros Details Human Costs of U.S. Cuts; Moving Beyond Stigma in Mexico; and The Bureaucrat Bridging Gaps View this email in your browser March 18, 2025 Forward Share Post A woman and her child attend a medical consultation at a mobile clinic operated in partnership with USAID. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 29, 2024. Clarens Siffroy SIFFROY/AFP via Getty Tedros Details Human Costs of U.S. Cuts  
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had a request yesterday for the U.S.: reconsider its cancellation of global health support or withdraw the funds slowly giving countries time to prepare, STAT reports.

• “The U.S. administration [is] within its rights to decide what it supports and to what extent,” Tedros said at a news conference. “But the U.S. also has a responsibility to ensure that if it withdraws direct funding for countries, it’s done in an orderly and humane way that allows them to find alternative sources of funding.”

Impact of U.S. cuts:

• Malaria: An additional 15 million cases and 100,000+ deaths are possible this year because of stockouts or supply chain problems with malaria diagnostics, medications, and insecticide-treated bed nets.


• HIV: Eight countries are experiencing “substantial disruptions” to antiretroviral supplies and will run out of medicines within months, Health Policy Watch reports.


• TB: 27 countries in Africa and Asia are dealing with disruptions to diagnosis and treatment as well as “collapsing” surveillance systems, Tedros said.

Don’t ask Bill: Philanthropist Bill Gates has been lobbying the U.S. administration to continue funding vital global health programs and warned that no foundation could fill in the gap left by U.S. funding cuts, Reuters reports.

Related:
 
UK aid cuts will undermine global health and pose a risk to children's lives – The BMJ
 
Eighty percent of WHO-supported facilities in Afghanistan risk shutdown by June – WHO GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   The U.S. reported its first outbreak of H7N9 bird flu since 2017, on a farm of 47,654 commercial broiler breeder chickens in Noxubee, Mississippi; H7N9 has a higher death rate—killing 40% of people infected since 2013—than the H5N1 strain that killed one person in the U.S. earlier this year. CBC

A midwife and one of her employees were arrested and charged with performing illegal abortions at a health clinic near Houston; they are the first to be criminally charged under the state’s strict abortion ban. The Texas Tribune

Gender-affirming hormone therapy was associated with lower rates of moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms among 3,592 trans and nonbinary people prescribed the treatment compared to those who didn’t receive the treatment, finds a study spanning 48 months of follow-up. JAMA Network Open
 
The Trump administration removed a 2024 surgeon general's advisory on the public health impacts of gun violence and a related webpage from the Health and Human Services website (still available here); guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. Axios More Trump Administration News ____________________________________________________________As bird flu continues to spread, Trump administration sidelines key pandemic preparedness office – CNN

Trump administration cuts funding to long-term diabetes study: Report – The Independent

Scientists Say NIH Officials Told Them To Scrub mRNA References on Grants – Cancer Health

The VA will deny gender dysphoria treatment to new patients – NPR

Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm – The New York Times (gift article)

Overseas universities see opportunity in U.S. ‘brain drain’ – Science DATA POINT HARM REDUCTION 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. 

The Quote: “The best way to reduce your risks is not to consume at all. But if you have made the decision to consume, we want you to have as much information as possible so you can take care of yourself,” said Zara Snapp, director of drug policy advocacy organization Instituto RIA.

AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES DISEASE DETECTIVES The Bureaucrat Bridging Gaps
Consider this maddening prospect: A 5-year-old girl in Texas is diagnosed with a rare brain-eating amoeba—and none of her doctors know the cure.

Meanwhile, in California, researchers had recently discovered an effective antibiotic remedy. But that paper never reached the doctors in Texas. 

This tragic disconnect all too frequently leads to preventable suffering and death. But in a must-read narrative, 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.

Despite the database’s lifesaving potential, the question remains: Will anyone use it? 

The Washington Post (gift link)  RESOURCES QUICK HITS Afghanistan: Security Council renews UN mission as WHO warns of health catastrophe – UN News

Mexican president pledges stronger missing persons efforts after mass grave found – Reuters

With measles on the rise, two-dose vaccine strategy is 'more important than ever' Northwestern Now – Northwestern University (news release)

Injectable PrEP use leads to zero new HIV infections among gay, trans and non-binary Brazilians – aidsmap

The Silent Struggle: MamaCare360 Pushes to Prioritize Maternal Mental Health in Nigeria – Global Citizen

Nearly 50 million people sign up call for clean air action for better health – WHO

Why We Don’t Want to Talk About the COVID-19 Pandemic – Georgetown University

An Old Drug With A Hidden Talent – Bloomberg Issue No. 2692
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: Cholera Deepens Ethiopia's Health Crisis; India’s Off Its Elimination Target; and The Rise of New Nicotine View this email in your browser March 17, 2025 Forward Share Post Two women carry a patient at the emergency ward of the Suhul General Hospital. Shire, Ethiopia, October 11, 2024. Michele Spatari/AFP via Getty Cholera Deepens Ethiopia's Health Crisis 
A swiftly-spreading cholera outbreak poses a new threat to Ethiopia, which is already coping with a broken health system in its war-scarred northern Tigray region, reports Al Jazeera. 

Cholera outbreak: ~31 people have died from a cholera outbreak that has sickened 1,500+ people over the past month, per Médecins Sans Frontières.

• The scope of the outbreak is widening as more people arrive in Ethiopia after fleeing violence in neighboring South Sudan. 

Cut aid: Meanwhile, over 1 million people in the Tigray region face hunger and mounting health threats as USAID-funded programs are frozen and dismantled, reports the AP. 

• Food deliveries have been halted to a camp of 20,000+ people in Tigray. While USAID waivers to continue distributing U.S. grain have been granted, the payments system is still nonfunctional. 


• Also halted: HIV medication programs, vaccination efforts, and care for women who were raped during the civil war. 

The Quote: “We will just die in silence,” said Haile Tsege, a 76-year-old displaced man. 

Another “alarming” outbreak: In the DRC, a “catastrophic deterioration of health services” amid conflict is contributing to a cholera outbreak in North and South Kivu, where cases have increased by ~40% since last week, warns the IRC (news release). 

Related: Namibia's cholera-free decade ends with one confirmed case – Reuters GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Tanzania declared its Marburg virus outbreak over late last week after 42 days with no new cases since the death of the last confirmed case; the outbreak—the country’s second known brush with the virus—led to two confirmed and eight probable cases (all deceased). WHO Regional Office for Africa (news release)
 
Saudi Arabia has reported four MERS infections, including two deaths, over the past few months from the Hail, Riyadh, and Eastern provinces; all four of the infected men had underlying medical conditions, and only one had indirect contact with dromedary camels and their raw (unpasteurized) milk. CIDRAP

An oral antiviral successfully protected monkeys from Ebola infections, per a new study published in Science Advances; researchers determined the drug, Obeldesivir, protected 100% of rhesus macaques exposed to a highly potent variant of Ebola. The Independent

A rise of laughing gas usage and injuries in the U.S. has led the FDA to issue a warning about nitrous oxide—which is being sold in colorful packaging and fruity flavors; inhaling the gas can cause dangerously low blood pressure, leading to loss of consciousness and injuries. AP Cuts to Health & Science ____________________________________________________________ Fear spreads that NIH will terminate grants involving South Africa – Science

Young scientists see career pathways vanish as schools adapt to federal funding cuts – AP

In wake of federal funding cuts, Johns Hopkins scales back USAID-supported work around the globe – The Hub

‘My career is over’: Columbia University scientists hit hard by Trump team’s cuts – Nature

Can NIH overturn a court order blocking it from slashing overhead payments? Unlikely, one expert says – Science

‘Fund research not Tesla trucks’: The HIV casualties of Trump’s war on science – Bhekisisa

Her research grant mentioned ‘hesitancy.’ Now her funding is gone – The Washington Post (gift article) TUBERCULOSIS India’s Off Its Elimination Target 
In 2018, India’s leaders vowed to eliminate TB by 2025. But the goal remains out of reach due to a confluence of factors, including: 

Spending: While spending on TB care and prevention has increased, the government allocated only two-thirds of the money needed, as per its own National Strategic Plan, for ending TB, data show. 

Shortages: Providers frequently run out of critical medications, especially for drug-resistant TB. There were several instances of nationwide shortages in 2024, advocates say. 

• The nation’s TB program is also coping with manpower and infrastructure shortages. 

Deficient diagnostics: The government has spent well below its budget on testing.

Catastrophic expense: 45%+ of patient families suffer “catastrophic expenses” while seeking care for TB in India, per a 2024 paper.

IndiaSpend

Related: The World’s Deadliest Infectious Disease Is About to Get Worse – The Atlantic GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES TOBACCO The Rise of New Nicotine
White snus—pure nicotine mixed with filling agents, wrapped into cellulose pouches—was originally designed to help Swedish women quit smoking.

But marketed in the U.S. under brand names like Zyn, it’s found a foothold with men, thanks to “manosphere” champions like Joe Rogan. And business is booming.

• Zyn’s producer, Swedish Match, says ~70% of canisters in the U.S. are purchased by men. 


• In the first quarter of 2024, Philip Morris International shipped 131.6 million Zyn canisters to the U.S.—an 80% increase from the same period in 2023. 

Cigarette alternatives like Zyn present an opportunity for Big Tobacco to expand their business in the “new nicotine” market. And, despite nicotine’s negative health effects, addiction researchers are acknowledging the importance of smokeless tobacco products in the fight against cigarettes.  

The New Yorker

Related: What We Know (and Don’t) About Nicotine Pouches – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Accounts of child survivors shed light on surge of rape and sexual violence in conflict-torn DRC – CNN

Measles remains a danger to health even years after an infection – NPR Shots

Keeping With Kennedy’s Advice, Measles Patients Turn to Unproven Treatments – The New York Times (gift article)

Africa's defining moment: the time to lead the HIV response is now – The Lancet Global Health (commentary)

All creatures great and culled: inside the global bird flu poultry slaughter – The Telegraph

KFF Poll Finds Most Republicans Do Not Trust CDC on Bird Flu – KFF Health News

As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back – AP

The Unequal Impacts of Abortion Bans – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Giving blood linked to lower risk of pre-cancer gene – BBC Issue No. 2692
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: ‘Systematic’ Attacks on Gaza’s Reproductive Care; WHO Top Ranks Swell; and Send in the Clowns! UN report: “Genocidal acts” at Gaza women’s health facilities View this email in your browser March 13, 2025 Forward Share Post People inspect the damage caused by an artillery shell that hit the maternity hospital inside the Nasser Medical Complex, on December 17, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty ‘Systematic’ Attacks on Gaza’s Reproductive Care
  Attacks on women’s health facilities and reproductive care in Gaza have amounted to “genocidal acts,” a UN commission said in a report issued today. 

The report, issued after public hearings in Geneva this week, states that "Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group” through targeted acts categorized as genocidal by the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention, per Reuters.

• Israel refuted the report, describing its allegations as not credible and biased. 

Details: The commission described “systematic” destruction of reproductive care, including the shelling of Gaza’s main fertility center; the destruction of maternity hospitals and wards; and a lack of access to medicine for pregnancies, deliveries, and neonatal care—resulting in a surge of maternal deaths, reports Al Jazeera.

Sexual violence: The report also accused Israel's security forces of using forced public stripping and sexual assault as “standard operating procedures” to punish Palestinians. 

What’s next? Former UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator Martin Griffiths said the report is significant, as the UN has “been very careful” about using the term genocide—but added that it is unlikely that international courts will take action at this time. 

Related: On the brink: Women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory – OHCHR GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Measles cases in Europe doubled in 2024 to a 25+ year-high, per a report by UNICEF; children under 5 accounted for 40% of the 127,350 cases. Reuters

A daily pill for endometriosis has been approved by the NHS for use across England; the medication, relugolix-estradiol-norethisterone works by blocking hormones that contribute to endometriosis while providing necessary hormone replacement. The Guardian 

A new meningitis vaccine that protects against five strains has shown effectiveness in babies and toddlers, per results published in The Lancet from a phase 3 randomized clinical trial conducted in Mali. CIDRAP

U.S. federal agriculture officials have axed two programs that provided $1 billion+ for schools and food banks to buy food from local farmers and producers. AP 

A new treatment for snakebite that involves using oral doses of unithiol—used for heavy metal poisoning—has shown promise as a “field-ready treatment” to neutralize venom, per a new study published in The Lancet eBioMedicine. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine WHO As Top Ranks Swell, So Do Costs
The number of WHO’s top-ranked directors has nearly doubled since 2017, when Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took office. And costs for this tier have swelled, too, with ~$92 million spent on 226 staff, per an analysis of available data by Health Policy Watch. 

A critical juncture: The revelations come as the WHO faces drastic budget cuts in light of the promised withdrawal of the organization’s top contributor—the U.S. The agency has said it faces a $175 million budget deficit in 2025—though it is unclear whether that includes lost U.S. dues. 

• Tedros has already announced a range of cost-cutting, including a worldwide recruitment freeze. 

Call for reform: As the WHO’s budget is reshaped, Health Policy Watch is calling for greater transparency from the WHO about the true costs of staff positions. 

Health Policy Watch GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CONFLICT Drones Complicate Battlefield Medicine in Ukraine
Russian drones that maim soldiers by causing complex shrapnel wounds are overwhelming Ukrainian medics, as drone warfare in the conflict intensifies. 

The newer FPV drones explode on impact, and can cause burns and injuries with dozens of tiny pieces of shrapnel, which are more difficult to treat than injuries from conventional shelling. Russia ramped up its usage of such drones late last year.

• Battlefield surgeons say the drones are now responsible for the majority of battlefield casualties. 

Shortages in medical equipment like tourniquets and painkillers exacerbate the problem, and the intricate wounds mean the soldiers require prolonged hospital stays. 

The Telegraph POLICY Mental Health Care on the Line 
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the largest providers of mental health care in the country. But that key component of care is in jeopardy as providers brace themselves for deepened cuts to the agency. 

The VA has promised 80,000 job cuts in coming days, and providers report that their patients’ mental care—and their own—are suffering. 

Fears for LGBTQ patients: Therapists say they are especially concerned for LGBTQ+ patients who fear being targeted in the wake of an executive order directing federal employees to recognize only two sexes. 

Research at risk: VA trials in mental health care that include suicide mitigation and substance use disorder treatments could be threatened under the extensive cuts. 

NPR Shots

Related: The Office That Investigates Disparities in Veterans’ Care Is Being “Liquidated” – ProPublica ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Send in the Clowns!  
Would taunts from a clown temper or trigger your road rage? If you lived in Bogotá in the 1990s, you had the chance to find out.
 
In a literal act of political theater, a quirky professor-turned-mayor Antanas Mockus—perhaps inspired by the messaging in his own last name—replaced hordes of aggressive traffic cops with mimes who theatrically lampooned lawbreakers and praised the compliant, Atlas Obscura reports.  
 
It was all part of Mockusʼ plan to turn his city into “a 6.5 million person classroom.” While we have concerns about the student:teacher ratio, we admire any system where class clowns rule.
 
And they werenʼt just clowning around. The empowered mimes helped shift civic culture, and traffic violence in the city dropped 50% under Mockus. Thatʼs no joke-us.

Alas, the show did not go on. The mimesʼ blockbuster run ended in 1998, but inspired spinoffs in several other cities. QUICK HITS With drug war, Duterte long courted global condemnation – The Washington Post (gift link)

Sugar-free slushies can make young kids seriously sick, new study suggests – ABC News

Study finds 'alarming' levels of drug-resistant Salmonella in Pakistan – CIDRAP

Kashmir Hospitals Battle Power Cuts as Neglect and Climate Change Affect Infrastructure – Health Policy Watch

Federal Agency Dedicated to Mental Illness and Addiction Faces Huge Cuts – The New York Times (gift link) 

Africa’s unique gut microbiome could guide new medicines – SciDev.net

India's frontline health workers fight for better pay and recognition – BBC

Lessons learned from 20 years of snakebites – Medical Xpress Issue No. 2691
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: Violence Upends Mpox Fight in the DRC; Reform, Don’t Eliminate, PEPFAR; and Lifesaving Ultrasounds View this email in your browser March 12, 2025 Forward Share Post Hospital workers carry an injured man at Bukavu Provincial Hospital. Bukavu, DRC, February 27. AFP via Getty Violence Upends Mpox Fight in the DRC
Hospitals and health workers battling mpox across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing new disruptions as Rwanda-backed rebels advance in the region, reports the AP.

Patients flee, cases spread: 600+ mpox patients have fled the escalating violence despite incomplete treatment. 

• The disruption also means incomplete data: Just seven of the 26 provinces reported cases last week. Those that did report saw a 31% weekly increase in cases, per the Africa CDC. 

Hospitals under attack: Only two of the four treatment centers in the zone are currently functional. Vaccines and other medical supplies are running low. 

Other outbreaks: The DRC continues to battle cholera, measles, and mysterious illnesses in the northwestern region.

• Meanwhile, the WHO is seeking to widen vaccination coverage for polio, measles, and other diseases in remote regions by equipping health workers with a fleet of boats and motorcycles, per UN News. 

Prevention work resumes: Last week, community health workers in the DRC’s capital Kinshasa were able to resume their posts, per the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, after a USAID waiver was granted. 

Related:

Thousands risk crocodile-infested river to escape Rwanda’s savage M23 militia ​​– The Telegraph

Brazil reports its first clade 1b mpox case – CIDRAP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   The number of Rohingya refugee children needing emergency treatment for severe acute nutrition has surged 27% as families face “life-threatening hunger” amid deteriorating conditions in Bangladesh’s largest refugee camp. UNICEF (news release)

A once-yearly PrEP injection could be in the works after Gilead's twice-yearly lenacapavir showed promise being dosed once a year, trial results published in The Lancet show. Fierce Pharma 

The U.S. has landed on a global human rights watchlist amid the Trump administration’s “assault on democratic norms and global cooperation,” per CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society groups. TIME

As USAID is dismantled, workers have been ordered to destroy classified documents—a move being challenged in court as unions say it will destroy materials relevant in ongoing lawsuits regarding the targeted agency. AP More U.S. Policy News National Cancer Institute employees can't publish information on these topics without special approval. – ProPublica

Tuberculosis Resurgent as Trump Funding Cut Disrupts Treatment Globally – The New York Times (gift article)

Countries, global health groups band together as US aid gaps threaten lives – Reuters

Caribbean leaders oppose US policy targeting Cuban medical missions, saying they’re critical – AP

RFK Jr. weighing FDA crackdown on food additives under Trump – CBS

Federal science hamstrung by DOGE's credit card spending limit – Undark GHN EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY Kruish Mubiru, executive director of Uganda Young Positives, walks amid the organization's empty facilities, on February 12, 2025, in Kampala, Uganda. Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty Reform, Don’t Eliminate, PEPFAR
The turmoil that has recently enveloped global HIV programs may be just a preview of a deeper, longer-lasting global health crisis to come, writes Jirair Ratevosian in a GHN commentary.

• If the U.S. Congress fails to reauthorize PEPFAR by its March 25 deadline, the crisis could begin within weeks.


• It is unclear whether there is political support to sustain the program in its current form, writes Ratevosian, a former PEPFAR interim chief of staff and current Hock Research Fellow at the Duke Global Health Institute.

Rather than eliminating a program that has saved an estimated 26 million lives, Ratevosian and Duke University colleagues have proposed strategic reforms to preserve PEPFAR and modernize its strategy and operations.

• They estimate this could reduce program costs by 20% in five years.


• They also introduce new frameworks for countries to gradually assume financial responsibility for HIV prevention and treatment programs, allowing PEPFAR to “strategically bridge resources” to regions where HIV rates continue to rise.

The Quote: “With HIV infection rates still alarmingly high among vulnerable groups and rising in many regions of the world, it is becoming clear we need to rethink and refresh global HIV strategy, and PEPFAR needs to be part of that conversation,” Ratevosian writes. READ THE FULL COMMENTARY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES TECH & INNOVATION 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. 

Point-of-care ultrasound devices are a more portable version of an ultrasound machine, 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. 

• A follow-up evaluation conducted by Kenyatta University found that 90% of health care workers used the machines to identify high-risk conditions such as placenta previa or multiple gestations within one month of training. 

MedCity News QUICK HITS How not to be deported: India’s nurses seeking work abroad learn how to migrate safely – The Guardian

His daughter was America's first measles death in a decade – The Atlantic 

A Health System Is Fighting Idaho’s Abortion Ban. It’s Not Its First Controversial Stance. – ProPublica

5 years since the pandemic started, long COVID patients are still hoping for a cure – NPR Shots

How Grocery Workers Are Still Bearing The Scars Of Covid-19 – Forbes

Alcohol and cancer risk: what you need to know – Nature

Study Discovers Tuberculosis Genes Necessary for Airborne Transmission – Weill Cornell Medicine (news release)

Microplastics contribute to evolution of antimicrobial resistance, study finds – CIDRAP Issue No. 2690
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, 5 Years On and On and On…; How Undetected Problems Put Mothers at Risk; and The Role of Circumcision in the AIDS Fight View this email in your browser March 11, 2025 Forward Share Post Joseph Varon, MD, comforts a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit during Thanksgiving at the United Memorial Medical Center. November 26, 2020, Houston, Texas. Go Nakamura/Getty COVID-19, 5 Years On and On and On…  
On March 11, 2020, the WHO confirmed what everyone already knew: The novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 had spawned a pandemic.
 
7 million+ deaths have been reported to the WHO, but the COVID-19 pandemic likely claimed 20 million+ lives, WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said earlier this year, and noted the pandemic:

• Cost $16 trillion.


• Prevented 1.6 billion children from attending school.


• Caused ~130 million people to fall into poverty.

Never-ending pandemic:

• ~ 3,600 Americans were hospitalized due to COVID in the four weeks before Feb. 16, per the WHO.


• ~Six in 100 people who have COVID-19 develop long COVID, WHO reports.


• ~One in five people hospitalized with COVID reported severe depression two to three years later, according to a Lancet Psychiatry article based on a UK study with 475 participants. 

Science mistrust persists: 39% of Americans say they know someone who died because of COVID, but just 62% and 57% say they trust the CDC or the NIH, respectively, per an Axios-Ipsos survey released today.
 
Must-read opinion: “As the pandemic rose, I saw my patients get sick and in some cases die, including a 42-year-old mother of two young children whose loss is seared into my soul. As it receded … the overwhelming public sentiment was: never again. Today, it seems: never what?” writes physician and author Siddhartha Mukherjee in The New York Times (gift article).
 
Related:
 
Canadians reflect on COVID-19 pandemic 5 years later: 'How did we survive?' – Globalnews.ca
 
Federal government no longer accepting orders for free Covid-19 tests – CNN GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Chad and Bangladesh were the world’s most polluted countries in 2024, with average smog levels more than 15X WHO guidelines, per air quality data from the Swiss firm IQAir; just seven countries—Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Estonia, and Iceland—met the standards. Reuters
 
NHS England will cut half of its workforce—from 13,000 to ~6,500—eliminating entire teams and dismissing “a huge swathe” of senior leaders as part of a sweeping restructuring led by new health secretary Wes Streeting. The Guardian
 
The U.S. NIH will cancel or limit dozens of research grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake, according to an internal email obtained by The Washington Post yesterday. The Washington Post (gift article)
 
Utah will become the first U.S. state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, over warnings from dentists and national health organizations who say fluoridation is safe and the most cost-effective way to prevent tooth decay—particularly for low-income residents without access to other forms of preventive dental care. AP Global Health Cuts Rubio announces that 83% of USAID contracts will be canceled – NPR Goats and Soda 

WHO warns difficult decisions 'unavoidable' as it slims down recruitment – Reuters

‘Utterly devastating’: Global health groups left reeling as European countries slash foreign aid – Euronews

‘Unlawful’ suspension of USAID funding likely violated Constitution, judge says – The Washington Post (gift article)

Explainer: Why US health funding cuts are rattling Swiss science – swiss.info.ch

How the NIH dominates the world’s health research – in charts – Nature MATERNAL HEALTH How Undetected Problems Put Mothers at Risk
Tens of thousands of women have died during pregnancy and after birth due to undetected complications, finds a new WHO study on global causes of maternal mortality published in The Lancet Global Health, which analyzed ~287,000 maternal deaths that occurred in 2020—the last year of available data.

Leading causes of death: Hemorrhage led to 80,000 deaths that year, or ~27% of fatalities; hypertensive disorders like preeclampsia led to 50,000 deaths, or ~16% of fatalities. 

Other findings: Health conditions like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and diabetes contributed to ~23% of maternal deaths. 

Needed interventions: Improved antenatal services to detect risks and complications early in pregnancy; and more postnatal care, since around a third of women still do not receive essential postnatal checks after birth. 

WHO

Related: 

Cameroon Prepares to Launch National Strategy on Maternal Health – Africa CDC

Stillbirth rates are highest in the US South, research finds – Medical Xpress GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HIV/AIDS The Role of Circumcision in the AIDS Fight
Defending his administration’s USAID cuts, U.S. President Donald Trump last week listed agency line items he described as “appalling waste”—including $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. 

Key treatment: But voluntary male circumcision has played a “highly effective” role in AIDS prevention, and programs facilitating elective circumcision have become a standard part of PEPFAR-funded HIV/AIDS programs in southern and eastern Africa. 

• Circumcision became a “gold standard” for HIV prevention after studies from the NIH and the French National Agency for Research on AIDS showed that African countries with higher rates of male circumcision had lower rates of HIV infections, and that men who opted for circumcision could reduce their risk by up to 60%. 

Reasons are unclear, but research posits that male foreskin has a larger number of HIV-vulnerable cells. 

NPR Goats and Soda

Related: Kenya HIV patients live in fear as US aid freeze strands drugs in warehouse – Reuters OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Syria: Horrific killings of civilians on northwest coast must be investigated – Amnesty International

Time to Act on New Bird Flu Spillovers – Think Global Health (commentary)

Less than half of parents think they have accurate information about bird flu – Michigan Medicine

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of Colorado's ban on conversion therapy. – NBC

Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories – The New York Times (gift article)

Sleep debt, night work tied to higher risk of some common infections in nurses – CIDRAP

New STI impacts 1 in 3 women: landmark study reveals men are the missing link – Monash University (news release)

On board with the Top Gun pilots fighting pollution from the air – The Telegraph Issue No. 2689
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: MAHA Puts Vaccines Under New Scrutiny; Pandemic-Era Repression in North Korea; and Amid a Texas Oil Boom, an Eruption of Hazards View this email in your browser March 10, 2025 Forward Share Post Signs point the way to measles testing in the parking lot of the Seminole Hospital District on February 27, in Seminole, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty MAHA Puts Vaccines Under New Scrutiny 
The CDC will launch a study to reexamine whether there is a connection between vaccines and autism—despite dozens of studies that found no such link, reports The New York Times (gift article). 

The move fulfills pledges made by new Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose “Make America Healthy Again” platform included promises to review the childhood vaccination schedule. 

Kennedy’s early moves are already undermining trust in vaccines, reports CNBC: “Within the next couple of years, we could see major drops in childhood vaccination rates,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of public health law at Georgetown University.

States target mRNA: Meanwhile, conservative legislators in Iowa, Montana, and Idaho have introduced laws this year aimed at cutting the use of mRNA vaccine technology, reports Axios.

Measles marches on: Kennedy’s announcement comes as the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico has spread to ~230 people and killed two, and as doctors report an “uphill battle” trying to convince some parents about the safety of vaccines and the inefficacy of supplements, reports Reuters. 

• But in some Texas cities, pharmacies are struggling to keep the measles vaccine stocked, reports The Guardian.

Related:

Maryland resident confirmed to have measles after international travel – CBS

America Is Botching Measles – The Atlantic

Expanding Measles Outbreak in the United States and Guidance for the Upcoming Travel Season – CDC Health Advisory GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Almost 1,000 civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured in military drone attacks across Africa in the last several years, per a report by Drone Wars UK on the escalating use of cheap imported drones across the continent. The Guardian
 
7% of 10,000 U.S. adults surveyed reported having been present on the scene of a mass shooting (defined as four or more people shot); the groups most likely to have witnessed a shooting include younger generations, males, and Black respondents. JAMA Network Open

New Tanzanian law aims to expand HIV testing by lowering the age of consent for testing from 18 to 15 years and by legalizing self-testing for HIV; health officials say the strategy will “significantly accelerate” efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. UNAIDS

Israel will debate exiting the WHO today, per a Knesset bulletin; far-right leaders have been pushing for a departure amid the WHO’s criticism of Israeli attacks on health care in Gaza. The Times of Israel  U.S. Policy News ____________________________________________________________
  No disease is deadlier in Africa than malaria. Trump's US aid cuts weaken the fight against it – AP

NIH will eliminate many peer review panels and lay off some scientists overseeing them – Science

CDC asks researchers to assess how their projects align with Trump administration priorities – ABC 

Trump Administration Sends Politically Charged Survey to Researchers – The New York Times (gift article)

HHS sends employees a $25K voluntary buyout offer – The Hill HUMAN RIGHTS Pandemic-Era Repression in North Korea 
North Korea’s government has grown more repressive since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—eliminating already sparse freedoms and creating a “grave human rights situation,” per Human Rights Watch, which interviewed recent escapees. 
 
Restrictions include: 

• Limitations on movement enforced by “shoot on sight” orders for border guards. 


• Border closures that limit access to food, medicine, and essential goods like soap and batteries. 


• Ideological control and surveillance, including an uptick in public executions, including those targeting people who consumed foreign media. 

The Quote: “Finding medicine was like picking a star from the sky,” said Hye Kyung, a fruit trader who escaped. 

Human Rights Watch GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Amid a Texas Oil Boom, an Eruption of Hazards
Fossil fuel production is surging in West Texas—and so are the dangers faced by workers and residents. 

• ~30 Texas workers die of explosions, poison gas, blunt force trauma, or vehicle crashes each year. 

Danger on the roads: A surge in oil-related traffic has led to a growing death toll on regional roads, say first responders. 

• In 2023, 365 people died on highways in the region, resulting from 73 crashes per day. 


• In 2023, over 1,000 people died on the highways of all of Texas’s oil-producing regions, per state data. 

Deregulation impact: As the Trump administration plans to allow for increased production in the region, “the result of that is just going to be a horrendous amount of vehicular activity,” said personal injury attorney Kent Buckingham. 

Pulitzer Center and The Hill  LETTER TO THE EDITOR Nuance Missed  
I was disappointed by the March 4 lead summary titled “Obesity Threatens Global Surge by 2050.” While you emphasize the urgency of projected rising obesity rates, the piece makes no mention of why obesity is concerning.
 
Like all public health issues, obesity is highly nuanced. Simply stating that more people will be obese does not, in itself, explain why that matters. What are the underlying drivers of obesity? What role do structural and social determinants of health play? Your coverage fails to engage with these essential questions and may perpetuate the simplistic and harmful notion that thinness equates to health.
 
Readers deserve reporting that is thoughtful and evidence-based, rather than an incomplete snapshot of a trend. I hope future coverage will provide greater depth, offering a more complete and informed perspective. —Anisha Verma OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Transforming the humanitarian system, not destroying it – The Lancet (commentary)
 
A fair pandemic treaty is unlikely, but poorer countries have healthy options – Chatham House

Doctors are still burned out five years after COVID exposed systemic failures – Axios

Deadliest phase of fentanyl crisis eases, as all states see recovery – NPR

‘There’s no other solution’: Polish abortion centre opens in challenge to strict laws – The Guardian

Women are poorly represented in clinical trials. That's problematic – Nature (commentary)

Scientists’ suit against top academic publishers lays bare deep frustration over unpaid peer review – STAT

Maasai girls take up self-defense as protection from sexual abuse and early marriage – AP Issue No. 2688
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: TB Services ‘Collapsing’; Demand Grows For Out-Of-State Abortion Care—And So Do Threats; and Germany’s Crusty Cele-bready Drastic U.S. cuts to foreign funding threaten to undo decades of progress in the global fight against tuberculosis View this email in your browser March 6, 2025 Forward Share Post A tuberculous patient takes medicine at Curicica Hospital, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 13, 2019. Stefano Figalo/Brazil Photos/LightRocket via Getty Tuberculosis Services ‘Collapsing’ 
Drastic U.S. cuts to foreign funding threaten to undo decades of progress in the global fight against tuberculosis—and could have “fatal consequences for millions worldwide,” the WHO is warning. 

Historically: The U.S. has been the largest international donor in the anti-TB fight, contributing ~$200-$250 million annually, reports Reuters. 

• USAID funding helped avert ~3.65 million deaths last year alone. 

Hardest hit regions: Programs could be dismantled in ~18 high-burden countries, mostly across Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific, and especially in Africa—where treatment disruptions and program stoppages could “exponentially increase TB transmission rates.”

Fallout: Already, funding constraints are leading to layoffs, supply chain breakdowns, and shuttered surveillance programs in TB-affected areas. 

Lingering limbo: Some organizations like Stop TB have been granted waivers to continue their work; but they do not know when funding will be restored, reports Devex.

• And while the U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Trump administration could not withhold already-owed payments to foreign aid organizations, a timeline on potential restoration of those funds remains unclear, per The Hill. 

Related: Huge Risk Of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis In Wake Of Abrupt US Funding Cuts  – Health Policy Watch GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
Uganda's Ebola outbreak likely led to the deaths of two additional people, say investigators who have been looking into the death of a 4-year-old boy who died of the Ebola Sudan strain this past week; investigators say the boy’s mother and newborn sibling died a few weeks earlier without being tested. CIDRAP

The forced return of Eritrean refugees from Ethiopia should be condemned by the UN Human Rights Council, urges Amnesty International—which said the “human rights situation of Eritrean refugees remains dire” for the ~600 people forcibly returned to their home country. Addis Standard

Florida regulators are demanding “unusually intrusive” data on millions of prescriptions filled in the last year, including the names of patients taking medications, and doctors they’ve seen—sparking concerns about government overreach. The New York Times (gift link)

Resistance to standard antibiotics such as ampicillin, tetracyclines, and sulfonamides remains high in humans and animals, per a joint summary report issued by European health and food safety officials that includes surveillance data from 33 European countries. Food Safety News U.S. Policy News   US judge bars Trump administration from cutting NIH research funding – Reuters via U.S. News & World Report (free registration required)

CDC Calls Nearly 200 Fired Workers Back, Apologizes for 'Disruption' – Newsweek

US stops sharing air quality data from embassies worldwide. Scientists say that cuts out a vital resource for global health – CNN 

KFF poll reveals support for USAID, misconceptions on aid for global health – CIDRAP  REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Demand Grows For Out-Of-State Abortion Care—And So Do Threats
As more people cross state lines to seek abortion care in the U.S., destination clinics are fighting to keep up the pace, reports USA Today. 

• In Illinois—which borders states with abortion restrictions—clinics have reported a surge of out-of-state patients since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with one clinic reporting a 3X increase. 

Unsustainable model? Advocates say that even in protective states, the current health infrastructure is under strain—as people have fewer health centers to turn to and are forced to travel greater distances. 

Meanwhile, in Alabama: Advocacy groups are closely watching court hearings this week in a “bellwether” Alabama case that addresses whether the state can prosecute people over abortions that took place across state lines, reports The Guardian. 

• In Yellowhammer Fund v. Marshall, an abortion fund argues that State Attorney General Steve Marshall’s threats to prosecute activists who help people cross state lines for care won’t hold up in court.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HEALTH POLICY Mass Firings Undercut Tobacco Control Efforts
The U.S. FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), which reviews thousands of new products coming onto the market, took a major blow on February 15 when the Trump administration fired around 100 probationary workers. 

• The Center, which is not taxpayer-funded, was already struggling to regulate products that kill nearly half a million Americans each year—with only about 1,000 employees. CTP is also tasked with educating the public about tobacco’s health risks.

The staffing cuts come as the FDA is embroiled in battle with the tobacco industry over the rules governing emerging tobacco and nicotine products. CTP has faced criticism from both the industry and public health groups over its regulations, and lawsuits from companies challenging its decisions. 

The Examination

Related: He Fought Claims of Harm From Infant Formula. Now He Regulates It. – The New York Times (gift article) ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Germany’s Crusty and Grumpy Cele-bready  
Itʼs his birthday and heʼll sulk if he wants to.

A melancholy loaf of bread is celebrating… nay, reluctantly acknowledging, its 25th anniversary as a German TV star, but heʼd rather be home staring at the walls.
 
Nothing to proof: The puppet Bernd das Brot—Bernd the Bread—has become beloved by adults as well as children, and received prestigious awards for embracing “the right to be in a bad mood,” AP reports.
 
Thereʼs a multitude of good reasons for Bernd to be ticked off, not least the unrequited love of a baguette who rejected him in favor of a “run-of-the-mill multigrain.”
 
But our favorite detail is a heartening one: Bernd, and his signature grimace, was originally conceived by one co-creator sketching the other on the back of a napkin. Instead of their relationship going stale, they created an icon of ennui.
 
So if this team can survive such brutal honesty, and their curmudgeonly creation can be besties with a sheep and a flower bush … then why canʼt the rest of us just get along? QUICK HITS UN to halve Rohingya food aid in Bangladesh amid funding crunch – Al Jazeera

Cases of Parkinson's disease set to reach 25 million worldwide by 2050, study suggests – Medical Xpress

Wastewater sampling could be key to early warning of new disease outbreaks – The Guardian

"Identity fraud": Proposed Texas state law would make identifying as transgender a felony – Salon

More women doctors than men for first time in UK – BBC Issue No. 2687
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: Inside the Disarray at the NIH; Retinol’s Ugly History; and U.S. Organ Transplant System in Turmoil View this email in your browser March 5, 2025 Forward Share Post People gather on the University of Illinois Chicago campus to voice concerns about the potential loss of federal funding for medical research on February 19. Scott Olson/Getty Inside the Disarray at the NIH
Over six weeks, the NIH—the world’s largest sponsor of biomedical research—has been thrown into chaos after the Trump administration's orders for vast funding cuts and a suspension of grant reviews, reports The Washington Post (gift link).

• Despite federal rulings declaring the cuts unconstitutional, funding remains frozen as NIH employees fear violating executive orders.


• Leadership has been overturned, and ~1,200 probationary staff have been cut.

The result: “The longer the pause on NIH funding has dragged on, the more the American research community has descended into disarray,” reports Katherine Wu for The Atlantic.

• Universities have paused graduate admissions; labs are planning staff cuts; clinical trials risk being shut down; and biomedical internships are canceled, per STAT.

A “Plan B” to cut funds: Even if courts reject the funding cuts, the Trump administration could negotiate individual university payments in a “cat-and-mouse game,” reports Politico. 

Deeper fears: The remaking of the agency could end biomedical research in America “as we know it,” said Monica Bertagnolli, former NIH director.

Such concerns will be in play during today’s confirmation hearings for Jay Bhattacharya, the Trump administration’s pick to lead the agency.

• A Stanford professor and critic of COVID-19 shutdowns and vaccine policies, Bhattacharya is a physician who has never completed clinical training or practiced medicine. His research focuses on health economics and policy, reports NBC. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   The Americas region is at risk of losing its hard-won measles elimination status, PAHO warns, pointing to a 4.5X rise in reported cases compared to the same period last year; the U.S. and Canada account for over 97% of the region’s cases so far, but Mexico and Argentina have also reported cases. CBS
 
42% of people surveyed in Ohio State University–led research mistakenly believed that human papillomavirus (HPV) is more common in women than men, and 45% did not know if HPV was linked to cancers beyond cervical, per a survey of 1,005 people. CIDRAP
  
More than 60% of Americans expect that USAID’s dissolution will lead to more humanitarian and health crises globally, while 47% think the move will significantly reduce the U.S. budget deficit, according to a new poll that also shows Americans largely overestimate U.S. spending on foreign aid. KFF

Pregnant women and newborns in Beijing carry blood lithium levels up to 20X higher than those in a comparable industrial city, Changsha, according to a new study that raises “urgent” questions about an unidentified source of lithium pollution in the Chinese capital and details related health risks. South China Morning Post via MSN U.S. Policy News Medicaid cuts put adult dental care on the chopping block – Axios

Trump vowed to end surprise medical bills. The office working on that just got slashed – KFF Health News

Trump’s data deletions pose a stark threat to public health – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

CDC rescinds some staff firings – NPR

Trump administration expected to seek to let Idaho enforce its strict abortion ban, in drastic reversal from Biden White House's stand – CBS

‘Omg, did PubMed go dark?’ Blackout stokes fears about database’s future – Nature HUMAN RIGHTS Retinol’s Ugly History 
Retinol has become a standard ingredient in skincare products. But its little-known origin story involves decades of medical abuse. 

• Before Retin-A’s FDA approval in 1971, it was tested on hundreds of incarcerated people in Philadelphia’s now-closed Holmesburg Prison in experiments led by University of Pennsylvania dermatologist Albert Kligman. 


• The mostly Black male test subjects had high-dosage chemicals applied to their skin, along with other medical procedures that left wounds and scars.

Calls for justice: The University of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia have issued formal apologies. But survivors and their families are calling for reparations, as retinol now generates billions of dollars in sales. 

• “My daddy’s skin is in those jars,” said Adrianne Jones-Alston, whose father underwent the experiments. 

Teen Vogue GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ORGAN DONATION ETHICS U.S. Transplant System in Turmoil 
Organ transplants in the U.S. have long been governed by a national registry: a consistent ranking system that aims to pair donated organs to patients who need them most. 

But a troubling new trend has emerged, where the registry order is regularly ignored, with officials “leapfrogging over hundreds or even thousands of people” to decide matches, finds a must-read investigation by the New York Times. 

By the numbers: Last year, officials skipped patients on the waiting lists for ~20% of transplants from deceased donors—6X more often than a few years earlier.

Impact: 1,200+ people have died over the last five years after being skipped while nearing the top of a waiting list. 

The New York Times (gift link) 

ICYMI: Myanmar villagers reveal ‘desperate’ illegal kidney sales – BBC FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY Calling All Changemakers!
  The application for the 2026 Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity cohort is now open! If you’re passionate about tackling health disparities and creating a more just world, this is your chance to join a global community of leaders dedicated to health equity.
 
Early- to mid-career professionals engaged in health-related work located in all parts of the world are encouraged to apply for this one-year, non-residential fellowship offered by George Washington University.   

• Sign up for a March 13 informational webinar
• Read the recruitment prospectus
• Learn more
• Deadline to apply: April 10

QUICK HITS CDC says it is on the ground in Texas to aid in measles outbreak response – The Hill

Humanitarian aid’s extreme donor dependency problem in five charts – The New Humanitarian

Breaking taboos about contraception in Benin – Médecins Sans Frontières

She’s a Foot Soldier in America’s Losing War With Chronic Disease – The New York Times (gift article)

USAID Helped Me Become the Scientist I Am Today – Med Page Today (commentary)

Smartwatches could end the next pandemic – Aalto University via ScienceDaily

Sperm quality linked to living longer, study finds – CNN Issue No. 2686
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: Obesity Threatens Global Surge by 2050; Girls Denied Surgery in Afghanistan; and Vaccine Resisters Double Down View this email in your browser March 4, 2025 Forward Share Post Customers sit at a window-facing table inside a McDonald's restaurant, eating and using their phones. February 12, Chongqing, China. K Cheng Xin/Getty Obesity Threatens Global Surge by 2050
Urgent action needs to be taken now to confront the soaring global obesity epidemic, according to authors of a Lancet study published yesterday that estimates more than half of adults and nearly a third of children and adolescents will be overweight or obese by 2050.

Projected problem: Without “multifaceted and multisectoral interventions and treatments,” 3.8 billion adults 25 and older and 746 million children and young people ages five to 24 will be overweight or obese.

Current numbers: 2.11 billion and 493 million, respectively, are obese or overweight, The Guardian reports.

Accelerated worry: 522 million adults and 200 million children and young people in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to be obese by 2050—a 250% increase (though some of the increase is due to population growth), per Reuters.

The Quote: “The unprecedented global epidemic of overweight and obesity is a profound tragedy and a monumental societal failure,” said lead author Emmanuela Gakidou, of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Study background: Team members from the Global Burden of Disease Study BMI Collaborators based their estimates of what could happen without future interventions (such as widespread availability of new obesity drugs) and drew on data from 204 countries and territories.

Related: China, India obesity problems driving global surge, study says – Bloomberg via The Edge Malaysia GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A new mpox strain—a mutation of clade 1a that carries the APOBEC3 mutation, which enhances transmissibility—has been identified in the DRC; the WHO extended its declaration of a public health emergency of international concern over mpox late last week. The Telegraph

China’s highest court has called for a crackdown on paper mills churning out fraudulent manuscripts and selling authorships, as part of a broader push to curb research misconduct cases. Nature
 
Rates for precancerous lesions fell about 80% among 20- to 24-year-old women in the U.S. screened for cervical cancer between 2008 to 2022—bolstering evidence that the HPV vaccine is preventing cervical cancer, per a CDC report published late last week; however, a new JAMA Research Letter details a rise in cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates in rural U.S. counties with lower access to vaccination and screening.
 
A new swab test, dubbed the WID-easy test, is as accurate as an ultrasound scan in detecting uterine cancer and could help UK women avoid invasive ultrasound checks if adopted by the NHS, the developers say; the test is in use already by private medical clinics and in Austria and Switzerland. The Guardian Cuts to Science and Health The Global Fund will roll out the twice-yearly anti-HIV jab — with or without Pepfar – Bhekisisa

Devex Newswire: USAID employees and partners tell us what they think – Devex

NIH announces some key grant-review meetings will restart in late March – Science

US science is under threat ― now scientists are fighting back – Nature SURGERY Girls Denied Access in Afghanistan
Discriminatory Taliban restrictions are preventing Afghan girls from getting lifesaving surgical procedures, new medical data and personal testimonies show. 

Disparity by the numbers: While roughly half of Afghan children are girls, 80%+ of all surgical procedures performed by a charity-run pediatric unit in Kabul were performed on boys, per a survey published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Barred from care: Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, female medical professionals have been increasingly excluded from health institutions. And yet in many areas, male doctors are banned from treating women—forcing women to rely on faith healers and traditional medicine. 

The Telegraph GHN EXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY We Hope to See You Tomorrow!
Due to high demand we’ve released more tickets for this sold-out event co-hosted by GHN and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health. We look forward to seeing you all for this special evening of storytelling. 

For those not in the D.C. area, you can watch the livestream on Global Health NOW; the link is now available on the event page. If you registered and can no longer make it, please release your Eventbrite ticket to allow someone else to attend. —Annalies Winny MEASLES Vaccine Resisters Double Down
As measles cases continue to spread in West Texas, many parents with anti-vaccine views still refuse to get their children vaccinated, claiming that the shot’s side effects are more dangerous than the disease itself, reports The Washington Post (gift link).

And yet silence: Neither Gov. Greg Abbott nor lawmakers from the hardest-hit areas have publicly addressed the outbreak or advocated for vaccinations, reports The Texas Tribune. 

COVID-19 ghosts: The response is being shaped by the pandemic, experts say—with politicians unwilling or reluctant to push public health interventions like vaccination and quarantine.

• “Texas is such an independent state. People don’t want to be told what to do, forgetting that what they do can affect others,” said Catherine Troisi, an epidemiologist at UTHealth Houston.

Related: 

Measles cases reported in Philadelphia area and in Texas traveler – CIDRAP

As RFK Jr. delivers his message on measles, public health experts hear a familiar tune – STAT

Can you still get measles even if you’ve been vaccinated? – Vox

US health official quits after reported clashes with RFK Jr over measles – The Guardian

RFK Jr.’s focus on vitamin A for measles worries health experts – The Washington Post (gift article) GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CANCER Breast Cancer Cases Expected to Climb
Breast cancer diagnoses are projected to rise 38% globally by 2050—with annual deaths expected to increase by 68%, reports UN News.

• What that means: 3.2 million new breast cancer cases and 1.1 million related deaths each year by mid-century, per research published in Nature Medicine.

Contributing factors: A growing and aging global population, a higher prevalence of known risk factors for the disease, and improvements in detection and diagnosis, reports The Guardian. 

LMICs disproportionately affected: 

• In high-income countries, 83% of diagnosed women survive. In low-income countries, more than half of women diagnosed with breast cancer die from it.


• Death rates were highest in Melanesia, Polynesia, and west Africa.

QUICK HITS Children as young as 1 raped during Sudan's civil war, U.N. says – NBC

‘Rapid expansion’ of synthetic drugs reshaping illicit markets, UN anti-narcotics body warns – UN News

Dysentery cases on the rise in the Portland area: 40 new cases reported in January alone – USA Today

COVID 2024-25 vaccines 33% protective against emergency room or urgent care visits, data reveal – CIDRAP

Cancer Interception: The First HPV Antiviral Treatment Fights Pre-Cancers – University of New Mexico Newsroom Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe! 

Four ways to help beat health inequities in the face of USAID cuts – Nature

Extreme heat can age you as fast as a smoking habit – Grist

‘Man with the golden arm’: Grandfather whose rare blood saved millions of babies dies aged 88 – The Independent Issue No. 2685
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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SUPPORT US
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  CONTACT US
  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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96 Global Health NOW: February Recap Funding cuts to AIDS programs amount to a ‘death sentence,’ plus a round-up of GHN's must-read news from February. View this email in your browser March 3, 2025 Forward Share Post Client files are seen stacked on a table during an HIV clinic day at TASO Mulago service center. February 17, Kampala, Uganda. Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty A ‘Death Sentence’ for AIDS Programs—and Patients
Organizations working with HIV and AIDS across Africa are laying off staff and shuttering services this week—a sea change that could translate to “a death sentence” for hundreds of thousands of people over the next decade, reports The Guardian. 

Desperate attempts, dire end: There had been some hope that global HIV/AIDS efforts would be spared USAID cuts as part of waivers offered to “life-saving” projects. 

• But last week the State Department terminated 90% of foreign aid contracts issued by USAID—a death knell for many programs. 

Quantifying a catastrophe: In South Africa alone, eliminating PEPFAR is projected to lead to 601,000 HIV-related deaths over 10 years, finds a sobering study conducted before the cuts, per a STAT commentary. 

• At a press conference last week, clinicians and researchers in South Africa said programs were “being pushed off a cliff,” reports Science. 


• “This will be a bloodbath. Millions will suffer as a result of these actions, and global health—and the very notion of solidarity—will be unrecognizable,” said Jirair Ratevosian, former chief of staff at PEPFAR. 

Other human costs include hundreds of thousands of deaths from malaria, malnutrition, and other diseases, per a new memo drawn up by departing USAID officials, per The New York Times (gift link).   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Uganda’s second Ebola death, a 4-year-old who was being treated at the main referral facility in Kampala, was confirmed on Saturday, raising concerns that the outbreak declared on Jan. 30 has not been contained; the WHO says efforts are underway to boost contract tracing and surveillance. The Independent

Water contamination could be the cause of illness in northwestern Congo, which has caused the death of 60 people and sickened 1,000+ others, WHO officials say. PBS

As measles cases increase in Texas, U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged people to get vaccinated—while also emphasizing the “personal” nature of the choice, reports Axios; meanwhile, the case count grew to 146 people last week, per the AP.  

States are easing licensing requirements for internationally trained physicians, meaning they may not have to repeat residencies in the U.S.; the shift could help alleviate physician shortages in rural areas. NPR Shots FEBRUARY MUST-READS Twice Bitten: Two Snakebite Deep Dives
The ‘Wild West’ of Antivenoms in Africa: In sub-Saharan Africa, a venomous snakebite is too often a death sentence: ~20,000 people in the region are killed each year, with rural populations especially impacted by severe antivenom shortages.

But even getting an antivenom is no guarantee of survival, as diluted and fraudulent antivenoms have flooded the poorly regulated market, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) reported.

U.S. foreign aid freeze imperils Eswatini’s hard-won success, according to another in-depth TBIJ report:

• Eswatini reported zero snakebite deaths last summer—an important first, as snakebites caused, at one point, more than 60 deaths a year in the country.


• But aid cuts forced the Luke Commission, a destination hospital for people with serious snakebites that led that progress, to close earlier this month to most patients. 

Gun Violence: Tales From Two Countries
Sweden’s Influx of Firearms: On February 4, Sweden suffered its worst mass shooting in history, at an adult education campus in Orebro that killed 11—forcing the country to reckon with a growing gun violence scourge, The Times reports.

• The shooting highlights Sweden’s shift from a “peaceful, high-trust society” to one struggling with gang-related crime, right-wing nationalism, and easier firearm access as illegal firearms are being trafficked in from the Balkans. 

In the U.S., Profile of a Forever Teacher: It’s been seven years since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people. The Parkland, Florida, school building was bulldozed last year. But former teacher Ivy Schamis remains deeply connected to her old classroom and the 30 surviving students who were with her on that day, reports The New York Times (gift link).

• In a must-read profile of Schamis, reporter Emily Baumgaertner Nunn recounts the ongoing toll the trauma has taken on the teacher and her students, and how Schamis continues to be a lifeline for her students—all while struggling with her own grief.

FEBRUARY EXCLUSIVES A nurse takes care of a dengue fever patient at the Sergio Bernales National Hospital, in the outskirts of Lima, Peru, on April 17, 2024. K Juan Carlos CISNEROS/AFP via Getty Why Latin America Needs Its Own CDC—Now More Than Ever  
When COVID-19 swept through Latin America, it exposed the region’s lack of coordinated public health response mechanisms—accounting for 10% of global COVID-19 cases and 25% of deaths, despite making up just 8.2% of the global population.
 
Today, Latin America remains structurally vulnerable to the next pandemic, write a trio of public health leaders from Mexico and Peru. Pointing to the Africa CDC Model, they argue that Latin America needs a similar regional agency that would work alongside PAHO to ensure faster, more efficient responses to health emergencies–-and detail what it would take to make the Latin America CDC a reality—a message they also brought to the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, February 20-23 in Atlanta, Georgia.
 
Patricia J. García, Jorge Saavedra, and Ariel García for Global Health NOW

Nota del editor: GHN ha publicado una versión en español del comentario.

CUGH exclusive coverage by Brian W. Simpson:

• The Topic Everyone Was Talking About at CUGH 2025

• The Macro Impacts of Microplastics

FEBRUARY'S BEST NEWS How Guinea Stopped Sleeping Sickness   
Twenty years ago, Guinea had the highest number of sleeping sickness cases in West Africa. But as of this year, the country managed to eliminate the NTD transmitted by the Trypanosoma parasite and spread by tsetse flies, the WHO announced.

What did it take? After elimination efforts including mass screening and treatment proved ineffective, the focus shifted to vector control.

• Researchers discovered that tsetse flies are attracted to the color blue, so they developed tiny blue fabric screens coated with insecticide to attract and kill tsetse—a so-called “tiny targets” approach that has made a massive dent in cases.

El País

Related: Niger’s historic triumph over river blindness is a beacon of hope for Africa – The Telegraph GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES POPULATIONS A Future With Fewer Children 
Declining fertility is a “near-universal phenomenon”—affecting countries across a wide spectrum of incomes and cultural backgrounds. 

• 2023 may have been the first year ever the world’s population dipped below the replacement threshold.

“Harbingers of potential futures”: Reporter Gideon Lewis-Kraus considers the real-world effects of population decline across South Korea—which has the lowest fertility rate in the world at 0.7—where dwindling numbers of children have already led to closed schools, redesigned public spaces, and economic uncertainty. 

Still, long-term impacts remain a topic of debate, and government-led efforts to reverse the trend have proven elusive: 

• “A theory of fertility is necessarily a theory of everything—gender, money, politics, culture, evolution,” writes Lewis-Kraus. 

The New Yorker QUICK HITS As measles cases mount in the US, what's the situation worldwide? – Al Arabiya

RFK Jr. moves to eliminate public comment on HHS decisions – STAT
 
CDC Staff Prohibited From Co-Authoring Papers With World Health Organization Personnel – HuffPost
 
Renowned geneticist Francis Collins retires from NIH, urging ‘respect’ for embattled workers – AP

Iowa has high cancer rates. Trump's cuts to CDC and NIH are already hitting the state - NPR Shots

A Study of Mint Plants. A Device to Stop Bleeding. This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.” – ProPublica

Scented products cause indoor air pollution on par with car exhaust – New Atlas Thanks for the tip, Xiaodong Cai! Issue No. 2684
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

Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. -->
ABOUT
SUPPORT US
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
  CONTACT US
  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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You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

96 Global Health NOW: A ‘Death Sentence’ for AIDS Programs—and Patients; February Recap; and A Future With Fewer Children View this email in your browser March 3, 2025 Forward Share Post Client files are seen stacked on a table during an HIV clinic day at TASO Mulago service center. February 17, Kampala, Uganda. Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty A ‘Death Sentence’ for AIDS Programs—and Patients
Organizations working with HIV and AIDS across Africa are laying off staff and shuttering services this week—a sea change that could translate to “a death sentence” for hundreds of thousands of people over the next decade, reports The Guardian. 

Desperate attempts, dire end: There had been some hope that global HIV/AIDS efforts would be spared USAID cuts as part of waivers offered to “life-saving” projects. 

• But last week the State Department terminated 90% of foreign aid contracts issued by USAID—a death knell for many programs. 

Quantifying a catastrophe: In South Africa alone, eliminating PEPFAR is projected to lead to 601,000 HIV-related deaths over 10 years, finds a sobering study conducted before the cuts, per a STAT commentary. 

• At a press conference last week, clinicians and researchers in South Africa said programs were “being pushed off a cliff,” reports Science. 


• “This will be a bloodbath. Millions will suffer as a result of these actions, and global health—and the very notion of solidarity—will be unrecognizable,” said Jirair Ratevosian, former chief of staff at PEPFAR. 

Other human costs include hundreds of thousands of deaths from malaria, malnutrition, and other diseases, per a new memo drawn up by departing USAID officials, per The New York Times (gift link).   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Uganda’s second Ebola death, a 4-year-old who was being treated at the main referral facility in Kampala, was confirmed on Saturday, raising concerns that the outbreak declared on Jan. 30 has not been contained; the WHO says efforts are underway to boost contract tracing and surveillance. The Independent

Water contamination could be the cause of illness in northwestern Congo, which has caused the death of 60 people and sickened 1,000+ others, WHO officials say. PBS

As measles cases increase in Texas, U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged people to get vaccinated—while also emphasizing the “personal” nature of the choice, reports Axios; meanwhile, the case count grew to 146 people last week, per the AP.  

States are easing licensing requirements for internationally trained physicians, meaning they may not have to repeat residencies in the U.S.; the shift could help alleviate physician shortages in rural areas. NPR Shots FEBRUARY MUST-READS Twice Bitten: Two Snakebite Deep Dives
The ‘Wild West’ of Antivenoms in Africa: In sub-Saharan Africa, a venomous snakebite is too often a death sentence: ~20,000 people in the region are killed each year, with rural populations especially impacted by severe antivenom shortages.

But even getting an antivenom is no guarantee of survival, as diluted and fraudulent antivenoms have flooded the poorly regulated market, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) reported.

U.S. foreign aid freeze imperils Eswatini’s hard-won success, according to another in-depth TBIJ report:

• Eswatini reported zero snakebite deaths last summer—an important first, as snakebites caused, at one point, more than 60 deaths a year in the country.


• But aid cuts forced the Luke Commission, a destination hospital for people with serious snakebites that led that progress, to close earlier this month to most patients. 

Gun Violence: Tales From Two Countries
Sweden’s Influx of Firearms: On February 4, Sweden suffered its worst mass shooting in history, at an adult education campus in Orebro that killed 11—forcing the country to reckon with a growing gun violence scourge, The Times reports.

• The shooting highlights Sweden’s shift from a “peaceful, high-trust society” to one struggling with gang-related crime, right-wing nationalism, and easier firearm access as illegal firearms are being trafficked in from the Balkans. 

In the U.S., Profile of a Forever Teacher: It’s been seven years since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people. The Parkland, Florida, school building was bulldozed last year. But former teacher Ivy Schamis remains deeply connected to her old classroom and the 30 surviving students who were with her on that day, reports The New York Times (gift link).

• In a must-read profile of Schamis, reporter Emily Baumgaertner Nunn recounts the ongoing toll the trauma has taken on the teacher and her students, and how Schamis continues to be a lifeline for her students—all while struggling with her own grief.

FEBRUARY EXCLUSIVES A nurse takes care of a dengue fever patient at the Sergio Bernales National Hospital, in the outskirts of Lima, Peru, on April 17, 2024. K Juan Carlos CISNEROS/AFP via Getty Why Latin America Needs Its Own CDC—Now More Than Ever  
When COVID-19 swept through Latin America, it exposed the region’s lack of coordinated public health response mechanisms—accounting for 10% of global COVID-19 cases and 25% of deaths, despite making up just 8.2% of the global population.
 
Today, Latin America remains structurally vulnerable to the next pandemic, write a trio of public health leaders from Mexico and Peru. Pointing to the Africa CDC Model, they argue that Latin America needs a similar regional agency that would work alongside PAHO to ensure faster, more efficient responses to health emergencies–-and detail what it would take to make the Latin America CDC a reality—a message they also brought to the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, February 20-23 in Atlanta, Georgia.
 
Patricia J. García, Jorge Saavedra, and Ariel García for Global Health NOW

Nota del editor: GHN ha publicado una versión en español del comentario.

CUGH exclusive coverage by Brian W. Simpson:

• The Topic Everyone Was Talking About at CUGH 2025

• The Macro Impacts of Microplastics

FEBRUARY'S BEST NEWS How Guinea Stopped Sleeping Sickness   
Twenty years ago, Guinea had the highest number of sleeping sickness cases in West Africa. But as of this year, the country managed to eliminate the NTD transmitted by the Trypanosoma parasite and spread by tsetse flies, the WHO announced.

What did it take? After elimination efforts including mass screening and treatment proved ineffective, the focus shifted to vector control.

• Researchers discovered that tsetse flies are attracted to the color blue, so they developed tiny blue fabric screens coated with insecticide to attract and kill tsetse—a so-called “tiny targets” approach that has made a massive dent in cases.

El País

Related: Niger’s historic triumph over river blindness is a beacon of hope for Africa – The Telegraph GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES POPULATIONS A Future With Fewer Children 
Declining fertility is a “near-universal phenomenon”—affecting countries across a wide spectrum of incomes and cultural backgrounds. 

• 2023 may have been the first year ever the world’s population dipped below the replacement threshold.

“Harbingers of potential futures”: Reporter Gideon Lewis-Kraus considers the real-world effects of population decline across South Korea—which has the lowest fertility rate in the world at 0.7—where dwindling numbers of children have already led to closed schools, redesigned public spaces, and economic uncertainty. 

Still, long-term impacts remain a topic of debate, and government-led efforts to reverse the trend have proven elusive: 

• “A theory of fertility is necessarily a theory of everything—gender, money, politics, culture, evolution,” writes Lewis-Kraus. 

The New Yorker QUICK HITS As measles cases mount in the US, what's the situation worldwide? – Al Arabiya

RFK Jr. moves to eliminate public comment on HHS decisions – STAT
 
CDC Staff Prohibited From Co-Authoring Papers With World Health Organization Personnel – HuffPost
 
Renowned geneticist Francis Collins retires from NIH, urging ‘respect’ for embattled workers – AP

Iowa has high cancer rates. Trump's cuts to CDC and NIH are already hitting the state - NPR Shots

A Study of Mint Plants. A Device to Stop Bleeding. This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.” – ProPublica

Scented products cause indoor air pollution on par with car exhaust – New Atlas Thanks for the tip, Xiaodong Cai! Issue No. 2684
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

Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. -->
ABOUT
SUPPORT US
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
  CONTACT US
  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.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

96 Global Health NOW: The Macro Impacts of Microplastics; The Closure of a ‘Critical’ Global Health Data Resource; and Birkenstocks Arenʼt Art “There are at least 16,000 chemicals in plastics. Nobody really knows.” View this email in your browser February 27, 2025 Forward Share Post Volunteers remove plastic and other debris from a beach in Kedonganan, Indonesia, on December 31, 2024. Keyza Widiatmika/NurPhoto via Getty  The Macro Impacts of Microplastics
ATLANTA—Inexpensive and convenient, plastics have become the building blocks of modern life, but they’re also a threat to human health.

• About 75% of 8–10 billion tons of plastics produced since the mid-20th century are circulating in the environment, Philip Landrigan, director of Boston College’s Global Observatory on Planetary Health, told attendees at a Consortium of Universities for Global Health session last week.  

• “There are at least 16,000 chemicals in plastics. Nobody really knows,” Landrigan said. “And the real kicker is that more than 80% of the chemicals in plastic have never been tested for toxicity.”

 
Tiny threats: Microplastics—plastic bits less than 5 millimeters long—are found across the globe from the snows of the Himalayas to the interior of individual human cells.

• Italian scientists discovered that heart disease patients who had microplastics in their carotid plaque had a 450% increased risk of heart attack, stroke, or death, according to a March 2024 New England Journal of Medicine article. 

The Quote: “We’re literally becoming part plastic,” Amelia Meyer, a Stanford University research program manager, said in an interview with GHN. “We’re only just discovering what could happen to people who have been exposed to plastics their whole lives.”
 
Read the story for possible solutions.
 
Brian W. Simpson for Global Health NOW GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Influencers are “fearmongering” on social media to promote health tests like genetic testing, MRIs, gut microbiome tests, and egg count tests, finds a study published in JAMA Network Open; such posts can be “overwhelmingly misleading” and carry a risk for overdiagnosis, researchers say. The Guardian 

Satellite imagery of Sudan is providing researchers with clues about the scope of devastation in the Darfur region, as large parts of the country are inaccessible to humanitarian and data-gathering efforts amid intense conflict; data show “more people are dying of starvation and disease than bullets and bombs.” Science

The CDC is investigating the hospitalizations of five people who received the chikungunya virus vaccine IXCHIQ, per a notice posted Tuesday; the people are all aged 65+ and were hospitalized for cardiac or neurologic events following recent vaccination. CNN

Children with long COVID can experience “significant” lung injuries stemming from loss of blood flow in the lungs, per new findings published in Radiology; the condition can lead to severe chronic fatigue. CIDRAP Trump Administration News   Musk claims DOGE ‘restored’ Ebola prevention effort. Officials disagree. – The Washington Post (gift article)

C.D.C. Suggests Terms Like ‘Race’ and ‘Health Equity’ Are Off-Limits, Then Backtracks – The New York Times (gift article)

U.S. will spend up to $1 billion to combat bird flu, USDA secretary says – NBC News

Trump Team Weighs Pulling Funds for Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine – Bloomberg via Yahoo! News

FDA cancels pivotal advisory meeting about next season's flu vaccine – ABC News

RFK Jr. Dismisses Measles Outbreak As ‘Not Unusual’ After Child's Death – HuffPost

Title 42 Isn’t About Public Health — It’s About Keeping Immigrants Out – The Intercept FOREIGN AID FREEZE The Closure of a ‘Critical’ Global Health Data Resource
A data collection program that provided “indispensable” public health information to about half of the world’s nations will be shuttered following the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze. 

The Demographic and Health Surveys have collected data in 90 low- and middle-income nations since 1984, and helped leaders to set health benchmarks at the local, national, and global levels—including the UN’s 2030 SDGs. 

• The surveys recorded “critical aspects” of household health—including mortality data, nutrition status, reproductive health and HIV status, as well as access to clean water.

• They were the only sources of information many countries had about some health indicators.

On Tuesday, the program’s administrators were told it was being “terminated for the convenience of the U.S. Government.” It remains unclear what will happen with the research collected in ongoing surveys—or what will happen with what has already been collected. 

The New York Times (gift link) GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ORGAN DONATION A Kidney Black Market Takes Hold in Burma
An illegal kidney market has a growing list of Burmese sellers, as the country’s civil war has forced half of the nation’s population into poverty, a BBC investigation has found. 

One story: Reporters followed one Burmese man through the kidney sale process, which included using a broker to oversee medical testing, link him to a Burmese buyer, and forge documents that claimed the two were family members. 

• The seller explained he “chose this desperate way” as he was struggling with debt. 

India a transplant hub: The “donor” and the “recipient” underwent the transplant in India—where concern around kidney sales has been rising. Last spring, a senior health ministry official wrote to Indian states warning of a surge in transplants among foreigners. 

BBC

Related: How Much Is Your Kidney Worth? – Noēma GUN VIOLENCE A Forever Teacher
It’s been seven years since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people. The Parkland, Florida, school building was bulldozed last year. 

But former teacher Ivy Schamis remains deeply connected to her old classroom—Room 1214—and the 30 surviving students who were with her on that day. 

In a must-read profile of Schamis, reporter Emily Baumgaertner Nunn recounts the ongoing toll the trauma has taken on the teacher and her students, and lengths to which Schamis continues to be a lifeline for her students: from connecting them with mental health resources to coaching them through life transitions. 

All the while, she has struggled with her own grief. 

• “Everyone talks about how the students feel, but no one really pays attention to the teachers,” said former student Hannah Carbocci. 

The New York Times (gift link) EVENT Join GHN in D.C. … Or Online
For those in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area, we hope youʼll join GHN in person for a special live storytelling event spotlighting the remarkable experiences of refugees working in global health. But if you canʼt attend in person, GHN will be livestreaming the event!

Bloomberg School graduates from Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria will share firsthand accounts of living and working amid humanitarian crises, fleeing conflict, and shaping impactful roles in public health. 

All are welcome for this evening of inspiring stories, hosted by the Center for Humanitarian Health and Global Health NOW, at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C.

Register here to attend the event or watch the livestream here. ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Birk Is It Art?  
No!
 
It took years of litigation—during which copycat Birkenstocks multiplied across the globe—but a German federal court has put its (probably cork-clad) foot down: Birkenstocks are not “copyright-protected works of applied art.”
 
The German shoemaker figured that if such status could be granted to Le Corbusier furniture and Bauhaus lighting, why not your Dadʼs favorite bunion-proof sandals cum fashion item?
 
But Birkenstockʼs loss is our win. The makers of the iconic yet divisive sandals sued three unnamed competitors and asked that knockoffs be recalled and destroyed—a request that, if enforced, would require an all-feet-on-deck, global seizure of counterfeit corkware. But fear not, your Target two-straps are safe!
 
Now that that matter is settled in court, we can return to the core question—not whether Birks should be displayed in a gallery, but whether they deserve to be placed on a human foot.

ArtNews QUICK HITS Life in the shadow of a toxic mountain of plastic waste – The Telegraph 

Tricky to spot and cumbersome to treat, visceral leishmaniasis turns deadly in arid east Africa – Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance

You need to start taking airborne fungal outbreaks seriously – Vox

South Korea birthrate rises for first time in nine years amid surge in marriages – The Guardian 

Epigenetic echoes: Violence can leave genetic marks on future generations – Medical Xpress

"Power of Joy": New Film on Childbirth During Ethiopia's Civil War – Think Global Health Issue No. 2683
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: A Medical Ground Zero; As Sports Betting Grows, So Do Addiction Concerns; and Could Labels Curb Canada’s Drinking Risks? View this email in your browser February 26, 2025 Forward Share Post A composite image showing al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on December 27, 2023 (left), and January 19, 2025 (right). Abed Zagout, Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty A Medical Ground Zero 
As Palestinians return to their homes amid a fragile ceasefire with Israel, they face a “decimated health system”—unable to find basic medical care or help for emergencies like heart attacks, per a new report by The BMJ.  

Infectious diseases “continue to run rampant” in the overcrowded, malnourished communities, which have little access to water and hygiene and no waste disposal. 

• “We don’t count the people who have died as a result of the lack of medical services,” said Médecins Sans Frontières’ Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb. “A lot of people who had cardiac problems died. A lot of people with renal failure died. A lot of people with cancer—children and adults—died because of a lack of treatment and services.”

But there is nowhere to turn for medical help—with nearly all hospitals and clinics destroyed, along with most medical equipment. 1,000+ health care workers have been killed, and remaining workers are “beyond burned out.”

Meanwhile, cold conditions in the enclave have led to hypothermia deaths of 15 children, including six infants, reports the AP. 

The ceasefire’s first phase ends on Saturday. If fighting resumes, the flow of humanitarian aid is expected to drop.

Related: Israelis bid farewell to a mother and her two young sons killed in captivity in Gaza – AP GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
6,000+ people in Haiti have been displaced by “a wave of extreme brutality” by gangs over the course of a month, and the violence is also obstructing humanitarian efforts. UN News

Kids vaccinated against COVID-19 had a 57%–73% lower risk of long COVID symptoms, suggests a new CDC-led study published in JAMA Network Open. CIDRAP

A U.S. federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to resume USAID payments by tomorrow; the funding was ordered to be reopened Feb. 13, but so far there is no evidence that the administration has complied, the judge said. NPR Goats and Soda

1.1 million people with HIV in South Africa will be put on treatment as a part of the country’s efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. UNAIDS (news release) BEHAVIORAL HEALTH As Sports Betting Grows, So Do Addiction Concerns
A growing number of people in the U.S. are seeking help for gambling addiction, a study published last week in JAMA Internal Medicine has found.

Background: Researchers sought to track the impact of the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that eliminated a prohibition on online sports betting, which in 2024 was legal in 38 states.

• Sports wagers soared from $4.9 billion in 2017 to more than $121 billion in 2023. 

Study details: Researchers looked at internet search terms that indicated people are struggling with gambling disorder—such as “help me find help with gambling addiction”—and found that such terms increased ~23% nationally since the 2018 ruling. 

NPR Shots GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ALCOHOL Could Labels Curb Canada’s Drinking Risks?
Canadian health officials are watching the effect of the warnings about alcohol use and cancer risk voiced by the former U.S. surgeon general—and mulling the potential effect of stronger deterrents in their own country. 

Only about half of adults in Canada are aware of the link between alcohol and cancer.

• But a 2017 study showed that after two months of labeling, public knowledge of the link increased 10%—and that newly aware consumers were ~2X as likely to support alcohol taxation policies.

Legislative efforts: A bill to require warning labels on alcohol was introduced in 2022 but was paused in committee. The bill’s sponsor says “growing momentum” could lead to greater traction if it is reintroduced. 

The Toronto Star (commentary) OPPORTUNITY Calling All Filmmakers and Reviewers!  
The APHA 2025 Public Health Film Festival, which showcases local, national, and global public health films, is now accepting submissions and reviewers.
 
Criteria for films: Independent, community-created, or youth-created films from all disciplines of public health will be considered, but films related to the APHA 2025 theme “Making the Public’s Health a National Priority” are highly encouraged.
 
Reviewers: APHA is also seeking volunteers to serve as film reviewers. Become a reviewer for a chance to win one of 10 complimentary registrations to APHA 2025 (November 2–5, 2025, in Washington, D.C.).

• Deadline to submit films: April 7, 2025
• Submit a film   
• Become a reviewer 

QUICK HITS China eyes opportunities as US scales back humanitarian aid – The Christian Science Monitor

Can we unplug global health education from The Matrix? – PLOS Global Public Health (commentary)

South Africa faces HIV crisis as Trump’s aid freeze halts treatment and research – RFI

What RFK Jr. has said about the ongoing measles outbreak – Vox

CDC will no longer process transgender data – ​STAT

Flu vaccine this season may be poorly matched, early CDC data suggests – CBS

Researchers Study How Corporate Manipulation Impacts Health – Undark

New paper examines why COVID-19 mortality was higher in the U.S. than in some East Asian countries – Stanford Report

How Cairo’s “Garbage City” became the envy of the world – African Arguments Issue No. 2682
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: The Topic Everyone Was Talking About at CUGH 2025; A Setback For Eswatini's Success; and Community Health Workers Forced to Adapt View this email in your browser February 25, 2025 Forward Share Post Hundreds of CUGH 2025 attendees gather on Feb. 22 for the annual great global health debate. Brian W. Simpson The Topic Everyone Was Talking About at CUGH 2025
ATLANTA—In hallways, sessions, keynotes, and receptions, one topic dominated last week’s 2025 Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference.
 
No surprise: It was the rapid change in U.S. government research funding and support for keystone global health programs like PEPFAR.
 
Worry, wariness, and uncertainty mixed with resilient commitments to the global health mission as the 1,300+ conference attendees from 61 nations gathered to share the latest knowledge gleaned from research worldwide.
 
“When many people feel bereft and are fearful of what the future may hold, CUGH 2025 provided an opportunity to provide a positive path forward [and] show that we have a robust community that will stick together, will support each other,” said Keith Martin, CUGH executive director.
 
Related topics included:

• Viewing the funding crisis as an opportunity to improve an already “shaky” global public health system.


• Doing more to engage with politicians.


• Fulfilling the moral imperative of continuing to deliver lifesaving antiretrovirals.

Timely debate: Nelson Sewankambo, former dean of Makerere Medical School in Uganda, and Judd Walson, chair of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, debated whether academia should engage in politics.
 
Brian W. Simpson, Global Health NOW READ THE FULL STORY GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   At least 160 health care workers from Gaza, including more than 20 doctors, are believed to be still imprisoned in Israel; the WHO expressed concern for their safety after previously detained doctors claimed they were subjected to abuse in Israeli facilities. The Guardian
 
More than 50 people in northwestern Congo have died since January 21 of an undetermined illness that has progressed from onset of hemorrhagic fever symptoms to death within two days in many cases; tests have been negative for Ebola and Marburg, but some tests were positive for malaria. AP
 
Brewing tea naturally removes heavy metals like lead and cadmium from drinks, per new research published in ACS Food Science & Technology that showed the heavy metal ions stick to the surface of tea leaves; the researchers found that cellulose bags work best—and don't release microplastics. Northwestern University via ScienceDaily

Swedish researchers found an association between the use of certain antidepressants and increased cognitive impairment in people with dementia, per a new study of 18,740 patients, though more research is needed; some experts cautioned that because the severity of depression in dementia patients wasn’t fully accounted for, it could bias the results. Newsweek NEGLECTED DISEASES A Setback For Eswatini's Success
While snakebite is a lethal threat in many sub-Saharan countries, Eswatini has been an “extraordinary success story”: 

• At its peak snakebites caused ~60+ deaths a year in the country. But last summer, zero snakebite deaths were recorded for the first time.

Those gains are now imperiled with the U.S. freeze to foreign aid:

• Leading Eswatini’s progress has been the Luke Commission—a destination hospital for people with serious snakebites, which has treated 1,000+ patients over the past six years.


• Earlier this month, the Luke Commission closed its doors to most patients following sudden USAID cuts, which had supported the hospital for 15 years. 

The Quote: “We’re at risk of going back to the dark ages,” said Thea Litschka-Koen, a snakebite expert in Eswatini.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism  GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CLIMATE CHANGE Community Health Workers Forced to Adapt
Bolivia is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, which is disrupting health care access and hampering the efforts of promotores—or community health workers—in rural areas. 

• “When the weather is bad, we can’t do our job. Patients won’t visit our headquarters in heavy rain, and it’s also unsafe for us to visit people’s homes,” said María, a Bolivian promotora. 

Extreme measures in extreme weather: One clinic in the Amazon Basin created a zipline system to ensure that patients can reach it during times of flooding. 

Safeguarding care: CHWs need to be better equipped for climate resilience, advocates say—including disaster preparedness training. They also need a seat at the table when it comes to shaping health care systems of the future. 

Think Global Health (commentary) FUNDING OPPORTUNITY Attention LMIC Researchers
Cures Within Reach has reopened its ReGRoW funding opportunity for clinical repurposing trials led by underresourced researchers based in low- and lower-middle income countries.

• Researchers with eligible clinical repurposing trials may submit a brief Letter of Intent (LOI); select researchers will be invited to submit a full proposal.


• Proposed budgets of up to $65,000 are accepted from LMIC researchers (per the World Bank); CWR will provide up to $7,500 in additional funding for required community engagement.

Eligibility: 

• Projects can be related to any unsolved disease and must repurpose an existing off-patent drug, nutraceutical and/or Indigenous medicine in a new indication. 


• Projects that address a high disease burden are preferred.


• Eligible institutions must be “research ready” and have received previous external, third-party clinical research funding.

How to apply: To submit an LOI, visit https://proposalcentral.com, search for Cures Within Reach and submit using the “Repurposing Research in LMICs” program.

• Deadline: LOI submissions due by March 28, 2025.
• More info

QUICK HITS Children as young as four among victims of gang-rape and ethnic cleansing in war-torn Sudan – The Telegraph

U.S. joins WHO-led flu vaccine meeting, despite planned withdrawal from agency – STAT

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia confirms US $500 million commitment to global polio eradication effort – Global Polio Eradication Initiative

Two people in US hospitalized with bird flu, CDC reports – The Guardian

Utah close to fully banning fluoride in water, stripping cities’ ability to decide – AP
 
Dozens sickened and 12 dead in Listeria outbreak linked to frozen shakes – Live Science

Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science – Nature

During pandemic, ivermectin use rose 10-fold, hydroxychloroquine use doubled, study reveals – CIDRAP

A farewell to HPH readers – Harvard Public Health Magazine

A breath of fresh air: How Kigali’s car-free Sundays keep people moving – Bhekisisa Issue No. 2681
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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