96
Global Health NOW: HIV Patients in Darkness as Aid Cuts Take Hold; Schools as Abortion Rights Battlegrounds; and The Brawl of the Wild
August 7, 2025
Mosele Mothibi, 40, an unemployed textile factory worker, sits on her bed inside her one-room flat on July 4. Maseru, Lesotho. Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty
HIV Patients in Darkness as Aid Cuts Take Hold
In the nearly eight months since the U.S. abruptly cut global aid funding, the fallout for HIV patients throughout Africa is widening as more people drop out of treatment and go without critical testingand lose hope that such programs will be restored.
In South Africa, thousands of vulnerable HIV patients are falling out of antiretroviral therapy after U.S.-funded clinics shuttered, a potential harbinger of rising infections and deaths to come, advocates fear.
Elton John AIDS Foundation plugging gaps in HIV funding
The triple whammy: HIV, migration and climate change
ICYMI: U.S. Funding Cuts Stop Crucial HIV Research Work in Its Tracks GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
1,500+ Sudanese civilians may have been massacred in Sudans Zamzam refugee camp during the RSFs attack in April, per an investigation by The Guardian that found repeated testimony of mass executions and large-scale abductions.
Replenishing lithium in the brain may protect against and even reverse Alzheimers disease, that found a specific type of lithium supplement reversed neurological changes and memory loss in mice.
Indonesia will treat wounded Gazans at a medical facility on Galang Island in an initiative to provide medical care to 2,000 people from the enclave, who are expected to return to Gaza after treatment.
The Maui and LA fires have taken an ongoing toll on residents health, per a series of studies published yesterday showing effects including lung damage, depression, suicide, overdose, and interruptions of care. DATA POINT
1.4 million
漍漍漍漍漍
African women and girls denied essential care by the U.S.s destruction of $9.7 million in contraceptives earmarked for DRC, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, and Zambia; the supplies could have prevented ~174,000 unintended pregnancies and ~56,000 unsafe abortions, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Schools as Abortion Rights Battlegrounds
A growing number of American students taking sex education classes this fall will be required to watch videos of fetuses growing in the womba result of new fetal development laws passed in state legislatures nationwide.
ICYMI: What Do American Kids Learn About Sex? It Depends Who You Ask. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CORRECTION We Botched a Link
In our U.S. and Global Health Policy news section yesterday, we linked a KFF Health News article to the wrong story. Heres the correct link: . Thanks to multiple GHN readers who alerted us to the error! ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION The Brawl of the Wild
Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word
unless it is one of the bone-rattling insults hurled by Adam Drivers and Scarlett Johanssons characters during their in the divorce drama Marriage Story.
QUICK HITS STDs are rampant in Mississippi. This one is now considered an epidemic.
With $1K in cash aid, he built a life-changing barbershop. Now cash aid is under fire
Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn
Anah穩 Ruderman: Feeding Community When Government Aid Runs Dry
Americans get more than half their calories from ultra-processed foods, CDC report says
Medical students must be able to voice ethical concerns during clinical rotations
Giant virus with record-long tail discovered in Pacific Ocean Issue No. 2771
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
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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.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can or .
In the nearly eight months since the U.S. abruptly cut global aid funding, the fallout for HIV patients throughout Africa is widening as more people drop out of treatment and go without critical testingand lose hope that such programs will be restored.
In South Africa, thousands of vulnerable HIV patients are falling out of antiretroviral therapy after U.S.-funded clinics shuttered, a potential harbinger of rising infections and deaths to come, advocates fear.
- Clinics serving especially high-risk groups including sex workers, people who use drugs, and trans people closed suddenly, forcing patients to shift to public clinics.
- But a Cape Town audit found only 10 of 400 tracked patients made the switch.
- Many women say they do not know their or their childrens HIV statusmeaning that even if lifesaving preventative medications are available, they cannot access them.
- We are in darkness, said Matebello Khoahli, an HIV-positive mother who fears for the life of her 23-month-old.
Elton John AIDS Foundation plugging gaps in HIV funding
The triple whammy: HIV, migration and climate change
ICYMI: U.S. Funding Cuts Stop Crucial HIV Research Work in Its Tracks GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
1,500+ Sudanese civilians may have been massacred in Sudans Zamzam refugee camp during the RSFs attack in April, per an investigation by The Guardian that found repeated testimony of mass executions and large-scale abductions.
Replenishing lithium in the brain may protect against and even reverse Alzheimers disease, that found a specific type of lithium supplement reversed neurological changes and memory loss in mice.
Indonesia will treat wounded Gazans at a medical facility on Galang Island in an initiative to provide medical care to 2,000 people from the enclave, who are expected to return to Gaza after treatment.
The Maui and LA fires have taken an ongoing toll on residents health, per a series of studies published yesterday showing effects including lung damage, depression, suicide, overdose, and interruptions of care. DATA POINT
1.4 million
漍漍漍漍漍
African women and girls denied essential care by the U.S.s destruction of $9.7 million in contraceptives earmarked for DRC, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, and Zambia; the supplies could have prevented ~174,000 unintended pregnancies and ~56,000 unsafe abortions, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Schools as Abortion Rights Battlegrounds
A growing number of American students taking sex education classes this fall will be required to watch videos of fetuses growing in the womba result of new fetal development laws passed in state legislatures nationwide.
- Six states now require such videos to be shown in sex ed; nearly 4 million students will see them this fall.
- 20+ states have proposed similar bills since 2023.
- Its main tool: Meet Baby Olivia, a 3-minute video depicting the development of a fetus in utero, which has been frequently recommended in state legislation.
- But medical experts say the video is misleading about development and is emotionally manipulative rather than educational.
ICYMI: What Do American Kids Learn About Sex? It Depends Who You Ask. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CORRECTION We Botched a Link
In our U.S. and Global Health Policy news section yesterday, we linked a KFF Health News article to the wrong story. Heres the correct link: . Thanks to multiple GHN readers who alerted us to the error! ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION The Brawl of the Wild
Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word
unless it is one of the bone-rattling insults hurled by Adam Drivers and Scarlett Johanssons characters during their in the divorce drama Marriage Story.
- The Oscar-nominated actors emotionally devastating (and spat is now a tool in USDA-supervised wolf hazinga tactic deployed in Oregon to protect livestock without culling the endangered canines.
- I need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad, explained an Oregon-based USDA district supervisor.
QUICK HITS STDs are rampant in Mississippi. This one is now considered an epidemic.
With $1K in cash aid, he built a life-changing barbershop. Now cash aid is under fire
Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn
Anah穩 Ruderman: Feeding Community When Government Aid Runs Dry
Americans get more than half their calories from ultra-processed foods, CDC report says
Medical students must be able to voice ethical concerns during clinical rotations
Giant virus with record-long tail discovered in Pacific Ocean Issue No. 2771
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
泭
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Human instruction with artificial intelligence guidance provided best results in neurosurgical training
Study has implications beyond medical education, suggesting other fields could benefit from AI-enhanced training
泭
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful new tool in training and education, including in the field of neurosurgery. Yet a new study suggests that AI tutoring provides better results when paired with human instruction.
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: Chinas Patriotic Public Health War on Chikungunya; HHS Halts mRNA Development; and Rural Romania Battles Vaccine Mistrust
August 6, 2025
A worker sprays insecticide at a residential community on July 29, in Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. VCG via Getty
China Fights Chikungunya with Patriotic Public Health
To fight a chikungunya outbreak that has sickened thousands, Chinese authorities have launched an all-out assault on mosquitoesdeploying soldiers spraying clouds of disinfectant and drones to track down their breeding grounds, and threatening fines for people who fail to disperse standing water, .
The Quote: Its fundamentally no different from the Maoist-style public health campaigns. It involves the mass mobilization of the people. Its targeting a particular threat to public health and potentially could lead to unintentional consequences, says Yanzhong Huang, a Council on Foreign Relations senior global health fellow.
Related: What to know about chikungunya virus, as U.S. travel alerts issued GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners A gonorrhoea vaccination program has been launched in England as the country tries to reduce its soaring infection rates and curb the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant strains; gonorrhoea infections in the country reached a record ~85,000 cases in 2023.
Legionnaires' disease has killed three people in a New York cluster that has sickened ~70 people after it emerged in Harlem last week.
Raw milk consumption has been linked to 21 people in Florida being sickened by E. coli and campylobacter bacteria, including six children under the age of 10 and seven people who were hospitalized, of the risks of drinking unpasteurized milk.
E. coli can evolve antibiotic-resistance during treatment, , which tracked in real time how the bacteria quickly developed a mechanism to escape a drugs effects by amplifying a resistance gene it already carried. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Deep Staff Cuts at a Little-Known Federal Agency Pose Trouble for Droves of Local Health Programs Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!
Has NSF defied a court order by suspending 300 UCLA grants?
Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds
Does SA need a COVID-like ministerial advisory committee to deal with HIV funding cuts?
CDC to disburse delayed funds for fighting fentanyl and more, staffers say
Why Trump is targeting these programs that help keep drug users alive
The GOP is choosing pesticides over the MAHA moms RESEARCH HHS Pulls the Plug on mRNA Development
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced yesterday that HHS will cancel 22 federally funded mRNA vaccine development projects worth $500 milliona move infectious disease specialists and biosecurity experts warned was dangerous and short-sighted, .
Details: The contracts were between the federal emergency preparedness agency, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna to develop vaccines for respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flubuilding off the breakthroughs credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and saving millions of lives, .
Amid Europes worst measles outbreak in 25砰ears, Romania is the region's most affected country, with around 13,000 of the ~18,000 cases in the European Economic Area registered between June 2024 and May 2025.
Factors behind the crisis: poverty, an underfunded medical system, brain drain of health workers, and anti-vaccine rhetoric amplified by farright politicians and misinformation during the COVID19 pandemic.
OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Flesh-Eating Bacteria Cases Are on the Rise Along the Gulf Coast
Pregnant people in rural parts of the country are running out of places to give birth
Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs
As influencers spread toxic claims, what is the truth about sunscreen?
Many studies of air-cleaning tech say they curb viral spread, but new review raises questions
Scientific fraud has become an industry, alarming analysis finds
Kids in Pennsylvania Are Breathing (Much) Easier After a Coal Plant Shuttered Issue No. 2770
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
To fight a chikungunya outbreak that has sickened thousands, Chinese authorities have launched an all-out assault on mosquitoesdeploying soldiers spraying clouds of disinfectant and drones to track down their breeding grounds, and threatening fines for people who fail to disperse standing water, .
- The virus, transmitted by the bites of infected mosquitoes, has infected ~8,000 people in China in four weeks, mostly around Foshanmarking the countrys largest outbreak since 2008, .
- While rarely fatal, the disease can cause fevers and excruciating pain.
The Quote: Its fundamentally no different from the Maoist-style public health campaigns. It involves the mass mobilization of the people. Its targeting a particular threat to public health and potentially could lead to unintentional consequences, says Yanzhong Huang, a Council on Foreign Relations senior global health fellow.
Related: What to know about chikungunya virus, as U.S. travel alerts issued GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners A gonorrhoea vaccination program has been launched in England as the country tries to reduce its soaring infection rates and curb the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant strains; gonorrhoea infections in the country reached a record ~85,000 cases in 2023.
Legionnaires' disease has killed three people in a New York cluster that has sickened ~70 people after it emerged in Harlem last week.
Raw milk consumption has been linked to 21 people in Florida being sickened by E. coli and campylobacter bacteria, including six children under the age of 10 and seven people who were hospitalized, of the risks of drinking unpasteurized milk.
E. coli can evolve antibiotic-resistance during treatment, , which tracked in real time how the bacteria quickly developed a mechanism to escape a drugs effects by amplifying a resistance gene it already carried. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Deep Staff Cuts at a Little-Known Federal Agency Pose Trouble for Droves of Local Health Programs Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!
Has NSF defied a court order by suspending 300 UCLA grants?
Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds
Does SA need a COVID-like ministerial advisory committee to deal with HIV funding cuts?
CDC to disburse delayed funds for fighting fentanyl and more, staffers say
Why Trump is targeting these programs that help keep drug users alive
The GOP is choosing pesticides over the MAHA moms RESEARCH HHS Pulls the Plug on mRNA Development
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced yesterday that HHS will cancel 22 federally funded mRNA vaccine development projects worth $500 milliona move infectious disease specialists and biosecurity experts warned was dangerous and short-sighted, .
Details: The contracts were between the federal emergency preparedness agency, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna to develop vaccines for respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flubuilding off the breakthroughs credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and saving millions of lives, .
- , Kennedy claimed the mRNA vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections, and that funding will shift to safer, broader platforms like whole-virus vaccines.
- Some late-stage contracts will continue, but no new federal funding will support mRNA vaccine development.
- The HHS said other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement.
- Were weakening critical countermeasures at the very moment that global health risks are intensifying, .
Amid Europes worst measles outbreak in 25砰ears, Romania is the region's most affected country, with around 13,000 of the ~18,000 cases in the European Economic Area registered between June 2024 and May 2025.
- Romania has the EUs lowest vaccination rate (62%), falling short of the 95% the WHO says is needed for effective disease control.
Factors behind the crisis: poverty, an underfunded medical system, brain drain of health workers, and anti-vaccine rhetoric amplified by farright politicians and misinformation during the COVID19 pandemic.
OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Flesh-Eating Bacteria Cases Are on the Rise Along the Gulf Coast
Pregnant people in rural parts of the country are running out of places to give birth
Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs
As influencers spread toxic claims, what is the truth about sunscreen?
Many studies of air-cleaning tech say they curb viral spread, but new review raises questions
Scientific fraud has become an industry, alarming analysis finds
Kids in Pennsylvania Are Breathing (Much) Easier After a Coal Plant Shuttered Issue No. 2770
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: The Troubled Fight Against Polio; Plastics: A Grave, Growing Danger; and Wartime Russia is Losing the Battle Against HIV
August 5, 2025
A health worker administers polio drops to schoolchildren for vaccination during a door-to-door poliovirus eradication campaign. Lahore, Pakistan, April 21. Arif Ali/AFP via Getty
The Troubled Fight Against Polio
The WHO and its partners were close in 2021 to scoring a huge win against polio. They recorded just five cases of the natural virus that year. But the poliovirus eluded vaccination efforts and caused 99 cases last year.
In a deeply reported investigation, the AP blames misinformation, mismanagement, a flawed strategy, and the oral vaccine.
Challenges: Vaccinating children in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the only countries with uninterrupted polio transmission) is a difficult proposition.
WHOs response: Theres so many children being protected today because of the work that was done over the past 40 years, said Jamal Ahmed, WHOs polio director. Lets not overdramatize the challenges, because that leads to children getting paralyzed.
Polios end? Transmission is estimated to end within 18 months, and eradication reached by 2029, Ahmed said.
Related: Takeaways from APs report on problems in the worldwide campaign to eradicate polio GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Misuse of tourniquets is causing thousands of unnecessary amputations and deaths in Ukraine, surgeons say; one estimates that up to three quarters of the ~100,000 amputations performed on Ukrainian soldiers since 2022 were caused by improper use of tourniquets.
Adolescents in Rwanda aged 15 or older will be able to access family planning services without parental consent under a new law passed by the countrys parliament aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies.
An oral anti-COVID-19 treatment passed a clinical trial efficacy test, ; the drug, called CP-COV03 or Xafty, is based on niclosamide, a medication previously used to treat tapeworm infections.
About two-thirds (59%) of American adults polled will likely skip fall COVID-19 boosters heading into the cold and flu season; about six in ten Republicans say they will definitely not get the vaccine. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Plastics: A Grave, Growing Danger
The planet is awash in a plastics crisis that poses a threat to human and planetary health, .
Surge in production: Plastic output has grown 200X since 1950driven largely by single-use items.
Toll on health: Plastics are linked to disease and death across all ages, costing ~$1.5 trillion annually in health-related damages.
Related: UN races to close global deal that would curb virgin plastic and toxic additives GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HIV/AIDS Wartime Russia is Losing the Battle Against HIV
War has significantly disrupted HIV prevention and care in Russiadevelopments that could have long-lasting impacts.
By the numbers: In the first year of the war alone, the recorded incidence of HIV among military personnel soared by 40X+.
But war itself is a key factor in transmission, as blood transfusions and the reuse of syringes in field hospitals have increased risks.
HEAT As Temperatures Climb, So Do ER Visits
Emergency room visits increase with higher temperatures, especially among young children, and the maladies may be unexpected.
Related:
American Summers Are Starting to Feel Like Winter
Why certain medications can increase your risk in the heat TONIGHT: WEBINAR ON HEATWAVES QUICK HITS Gates Foundation promises $2.5B for sidelined womens health
Louisianas Cancer Alley Is More Deadly Than Previously Imagined
Chicago was supposed to warn residents about toxic lead pipes last year. Most still have no idea
Caffeine pouch craze: A teenage trend troubling some experts
Trump officials look to block abortion services at veterans affairs hospitals
White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge
Eating ultra-processed foods could make it harder to lose weight
More elderly Americans are choking to death. Are these devices the answer?
Unwanted pregnancies surge with alcohol, but not with cannabis, study finds Issue No. 2769
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
The WHO and its partners were close in 2021 to scoring a huge win against polio. They recorded just five cases of the natural virus that year. But the poliovirus eluded vaccination efforts and caused 99 cases last year.
In a deeply reported investigation, the AP blames misinformation, mismanagement, a flawed strategy, and the oral vaccine.
Challenges: Vaccinating children in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the only countries with uninterrupted polio transmission) is a difficult proposition.
- Some religious leaders tell people to avoid vaccinations, health systems are weak, and hundreds of vaccinators and security officers have been targeted and killed.
WHOs response: Theres so many children being protected today because of the work that was done over the past 40 years, said Jamal Ahmed, WHOs polio director. Lets not overdramatize the challenges, because that leads to children getting paralyzed.
Polios end? Transmission is estimated to end within 18 months, and eradication reached by 2029, Ahmed said.
- 45 million children in Pakistan and 11 million in Afghanistan need to be vaccinated this year.
- Full immunization requires four doses of two drops each.
Related: Takeaways from APs report on problems in the worldwide campaign to eradicate polio GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Misuse of tourniquets is causing thousands of unnecessary amputations and deaths in Ukraine, surgeons say; one estimates that up to three quarters of the ~100,000 amputations performed on Ukrainian soldiers since 2022 were caused by improper use of tourniquets.
Adolescents in Rwanda aged 15 or older will be able to access family planning services without parental consent under a new law passed by the countrys parliament aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies.
An oral anti-COVID-19 treatment passed a clinical trial efficacy test, ; the drug, called CP-COV03 or Xafty, is based on niclosamide, a medication previously used to treat tapeworm infections.
About two-thirds (59%) of American adults polled will likely skip fall COVID-19 boosters heading into the cold and flu season; about six in ten Republicans say they will definitely not get the vaccine. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Plastics: A Grave, Growing Danger
The planet is awash in a plastics crisis that poses a threat to human and planetary health, .
Surge in production: Plastic output has grown 200X since 1950driven largely by single-use items.
Toll on health: Plastics are linked to disease and death across all ages, costing ~$1.5 trillion annually in health-related damages.
- Infants and children are highly susceptible to toxins.
- <10% of plastic is recycled.
Related: UN races to close global deal that would curb virgin plastic and toxic additives GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HIV/AIDS Wartime Russia is Losing the Battle Against HIV
War has significantly disrupted HIV prevention and care in Russiadevelopments that could have long-lasting impacts.
By the numbers: In the first year of the war alone, the recorded incidence of HIV among military personnel soared by 40X+.
- And the proportion of Russian HIV patients receiving antiretroviral therapy has now fallen below 50% for the first time in many years.
But war itself is a key factor in transmission, as blood transfusions and the reuse of syringes in field hospitals have increased risks.
HEAT As Temperatures Climb, So Do ER Visits
Emergency room visits increase with higher temperatures, especially among young children, and the maladies may be unexpected.
- While the links between mortality rates and heatwaves have been long studied, heats impact on morbidityillness and poor healthhas been less understood.
- Data also showed that children under 5 visited ERs at higher rates than any other age group.
Related:
American Summers Are Starting to Feel Like Winter
Why certain medications can increase your risk in the heat TONIGHT: WEBINAR ON HEATWAVES QUICK HITS Gates Foundation promises $2.5B for sidelined womens health
Louisianas Cancer Alley Is More Deadly Than Previously Imagined
Chicago was supposed to warn residents about toxic lead pipes last year. Most still have no idea
Caffeine pouch craze: A teenage trend troubling some experts
Trump officials look to block abortion services at veterans affairs hospitals
White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge
Eating ultra-processed foods could make it harder to lose weight
More elderly Americans are choking to death. Are these devices the answer?
Unwanted pregnancies surge with alcohol, but not with cannabis, study finds Issue No. 2769
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: A Deadly Intersection of Crises in Sudan; The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazils North; and July Recap
August 4, 2025
People gather by the makeshift graves of those buried in Khartoum's southern suburb of al-Azhari, on August 2. Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty
A Deadly Intersection of Crises in Sudan
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attackeda part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 202425 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a potent immune response to the virus, ; the trialonly the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIVshowed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazils North
BOA VISTA, BrazilFrom Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazils frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe third in a serieswith support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
Hanois Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
Americas Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuriesyet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
SOKOTO, NigeriaIn the region surrounding Farfarus primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heatwith parametric payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinsons improve and maintain movement through capoeiraa blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations
Well, no, you dont have to have children: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life
What makes Finland the worlds happiest nation? In a word, simplicity. Issue No. 7-2025-July Monthly
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attackeda part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
- Bakeries have shut down and prices for any available food have skyrocketedleading many to rely on animal feed for sustenance, .
- Severe food shortages led to the deaths of 13 children last month at Lagawa displacement camp in East Darfur state, .
- Children are especially at risk as medical supplies run low and basic infrastructure deteriorates.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 202425 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a potent immune response to the virus, ; the trialonly the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIVshowed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazils North
BOA VISTA, BrazilFrom Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazils frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
- Mayra Figueiras started a nonprofit, Humanidade Mais que Fronteiras, and prevents human trafficking with vocational training, language classes, andwhen possiblefood baskets.
- Marcia Maria de Oliveira, a professor and sociologist at the Universidade Federal de Roraima, has led human trafficking investigations for more than two decades.
- Sister Ana Maria da Silva prevented machine gun-toting police from deporting dozens of women and children she was protecting from sexual exploitation. For her brave defiance, shes known as La Monja Loca (The Crazy Nun).
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe third in a serieswith support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
- Why? Childhood exposure to microbes such as those found in farm dust and farm animal exposure can contribute to the development of a healthy immune system. But researchers are still trying to pinpoint environmental factors unique to the Amish, who have fewer allergies than other traditional farming families worldwide.
Hanois Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
- Whats fueling the pollution? Urbanization in Vietnam has led to a rapid increase in development, which includes widespread use of concrete for highways, metro lines, and buildings; Vietnam uses more cement per capita than any country except China, and almost 2X than the U.S.
Americas Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuriesyet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
- The public and private sectors alike are barely doing a thing to address what is essentially a national health emergency, writes Jennifer Senior, who chronicles her own struggle and exhaustive efforts to find solutions and calls for broader cultural and structural changes to address the sleep crisis.
SOKOTO, NigeriaIn the region surrounding Farfarus primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
- That began to change with the 2014 introduction of the New Incentives cash rewards program, which spurred a surge in mothers bringing their children in for childhood immunizations to protect against diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis B, and polio.
- The clinic now sees ~3040 babies a day across 11 northern stateswhere vaccine hesitancy and misinformation run rampant and missed vaccinations contribute to rising infant mortality rates.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
- The diseasethe first eliminated neglected tropical disease in Burundi, and the second in Senegalcan lead to scarring, in-turned eyelids, and blindness, and primarily affects regions where clean water and sanitation are scarce, . 90% of the global trachoma burden is in Africa.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heatwith parametric payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinsons improve and maintain movement through capoeiraa blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations
Well, no, you dont have to have children: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life
What makes Finland the worlds happiest nation? In a word, simplicity. Issue No. 7-2025-July Monthly
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: A Deadly Intersection of Crises in Sudan; The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazils North; and July Recap
August 4, 2025
People gather by the makeshift graves of those buried in Khartoum's southern suburb of al-Azhari, on August 2. Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty
A Deadly Intersection of Crises in Sudan
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attackeda part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 202425 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a potent immune response to the virus, ; the trialonly the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIVshowed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazils North
BOA VISTA, BrazilFrom Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazils frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe third in a serieswith support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
Hanois Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
Americas Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuriesyet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
SOKOTO, NigeriaIn the region surrounding Farfarus primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heatwith parametric payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinsons improve and maintain movement through capoeiraa blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations
Well, no, you dont have to have children: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life
What makes Finland the worlds happiest nation? In a word, simplicity. Issue No. 2768
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Cemeteries in North Darfur in Sudan are expanding as hundreds of thousands of people trapped in conflict across the country face compounding humanitarian crises: relentless artillery attacks, deadly hunger, a growing cholera outbreak, destructive flooding, and perilous heat, .
Widespread hunger: Famine conditions across the region are intensifying as food supplies are blocked and aid convoys are attackeda part of the ongoing siege of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which seeks to cement its hold on the region in its conflict with the Sudanese military, now in its third year.
- Bakeries have shut down and prices for any available food have skyrocketedleading many to rely on animal feed for sustenance, .
- Severe food shortages led to the deaths of 13 children last month at Lagawa displacement camp in East Darfur state, .
- Children are especially at risk as medical supplies run low and basic infrastructure deteriorates.
U.S. childhood vaccination rates continue to decline , which show that vaccination coverage for all children entering kindergarten in the 202425 school year declined for all reported vaccines from the year before, and the vaccine exemption rate rose to 3.6%.
Two mRNA vaccines against HIV induced a potent immune response to the virus, ; the trialonly the third to test mRNA vaccines against HIVshowed 80% of participants who received either of the vaccines produced antibodies against viral proteins.
Teen suicidal behavior and thoughts declined between 2021 and 2024 in the U.S., , which found the prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts in teens fell from nearly 13% to 10%, and the prevalence of suicide attempts declined from 3.6% to 2.7%. GHN EXCLUSIVE Alba Marina Gonzalez Andrade stands outside an informal migrant settlement in Boa Vista, Brazil. Julianna Deutscher The Women Protecting Migrants in Brazils North
BOA VISTA, BrazilFrom Pacaraima on the border with Venezuela, to the state capital of Boa Vista, and all the way to Bonfim on Brazils frontier with Guyana, traffickers prey on vulnerable migrants.
They promise good jobs but ensnare them in sex work or forced labor with meager or even no pay.
:
- Mayra Figueiras started a nonprofit, Humanidade Mais que Fronteiras, and prevents human trafficking with vocational training, language classes, andwhen possiblefood baskets.
- Marcia Maria de Oliveira, a professor and sociologist at the Universidade Federal de Roraima, has led human trafficking investigations for more than two decades.
- Sister Ana Maria da Silva prevented machine gun-toting police from deporting dozens of women and children she was protecting from sexual exploitation. For her brave defiance, shes known as La Monja Loca (The Crazy Nun).
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe third in a serieswith support from the . Read the and articles here. JULY MUST-READS How Do the Amish Avoid Allergies?
As rates of allergic diseases increase worldwide, one group remains far less affected: the Amish.
- Why? Childhood exposure to microbes such as those found in farm dust and farm animal exposure can contribute to the development of a healthy immune system. But researchers are still trying to pinpoint environmental factors unique to the Amish, who have fewer allergies than other traditional farming families worldwide.
Hanois Concrete-Driven Air Quality Crisis
Over the last year, Hanoi repeatedly topped global air pollution charts as smog draped the city.
- Whats fueling the pollution? Urbanization in Vietnam has led to a rapid increase in development, which includes widespread use of concrete for highways, metro lines, and buildings; Vietnam uses more cement per capita than any country except China, and almost 2X than the U.S.
Americas Insomnia Epidemic
Insomnia can cause a cascade of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and injuriesyet it remains underdiagnosed, undertreated, and poorly understood.
- The public and private sectors alike are barely doing a thing to address what is essentially a national health emergency, writes Jennifer Senior, who chronicles her own struggle and exhaustive efforts to find solutions and calls for broader cultural and structural changes to address the sleep crisis.
SOKOTO, NigeriaIn the region surrounding Farfarus primary health care center, health workers often had to persuade women to vaccinate their children.
- That began to change with the 2014 introduction of the New Incentives cash rewards program, which spurred a surge in mothers bringing their children in for childhood immunizations to protect against diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis B, and polio.
- The clinic now sees ~3040 babies a day across 11 northern stateswhere vaccine hesitancy and misinformation run rampant and missed vaccinations contribute to rising infant mortality rates.
Trachoma has officially been eliminated in Burundi and Senegal, making them the eighth and ninth countries in the African region to reach that public health milestone.
- The diseasethe first eliminated neglected tropical disease in Burundi, and the second in Senegalcan lead to scarring, in-turned eyelids, and blindness, and primarily affects regions where clean water and sanitation are scarce, . 90% of the global trachoma burden is in Africa.
More Solutions News:
Tasteful solutions: A key drug to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is moxifloxacin, an extremely bitter medication that young children often refuse to take due to the taste. In trials, children reported that sweeter or flavored drugs were easier to take than the original.
Coverage when temperatures climb: As more regions face record heat waves, a heat insurance program in India is offering new financial relief for daily wage workers who lose income or are forced to stop working during extreme heatwith parametric payouts triggered by a measurable event, like temperature exceeding a set threshold.
Swinging toward mobility: A physical therapist in Rio de Janeiro has helped dozens of people with Parkinsons improve and maintain movement through capoeiraa blend of martial arts and a dance practiced for centuries by Afro-Brazilians that combines exercise, ritual, and music. OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Mpox testing initiative launched in Africa as outbreaks continue
AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups
Data vs. Doubt: Danish Scientist Responds to U.S. HHS Secretary Critique of Aluminum Vaccine Study
What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky. Here's what we found out
Their children can't eat, speak or walk - so forgotten Zika mothers raise them together
More than a dozen states sue to protect gender-affirming care from federal investigations
Well, no, you dont have to have children: what African women over the age of 60 have learned about life
What makes Finland the worlds happiest nation? In a word, simplicity. Issue No. 2768
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications
51勛圖厙 researchers have developed and are licensing a digital tool to help safely reduce patients use of medications that may be unnecessary or even harmful to them.
When clinicians review a patients file, flags potentially inappropriate medications. In a , the software helped deprescribe such medications in 36 per cent of long-term care residents, nearly triple as many as when reviews were done without the tool.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Cholera is ripping through North Darfur, Sudan, threatening thousands of children already weakened by hunger and displacement, UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) warned on Sunday, as aid convoys struggle to reach cut-off communities amid escalating conflict.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Sub-Saharan Africa has taken a cautious but critical step toward greater health self-reliance as locally produced HIV medicines and diagnostic tests begin reaching national programmes including, for the first time, procurement of African-made treatment for Mozambique.
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: CTE in the Spotlight; Inside Brazils Human-Trafficking Crisis; and Mercurys Toll on Mental Health
July 31, 2025
Flowers and a balloon reading "love one another" that were left outside the 345 Park Avenue building, the scene of a July 28 deadly shooting in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty
CTE in the Spotlight
The gunman who killed four people in a Manhattan office shooting this week said in a note that he believed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative disease that stems from repeated hits to the head.
It is unclear whether he had the condition, as it can only be diagnosed posthumously in an autopsy. But the violence has brought renewed attention to CTEalong with scrutiny about how the shooter was able to access a gun despite documented mental health hospitalizations, and deploy it in a city with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, .
Concerns about CTE and full-contact sports have been building for two decades, as more studies have shown how repeated blows to the head lead to the buildup of brain-damaging proteins, .
As deadly heat waves sweep East Asia, South Korea has recorded 13 heat-related deaths so far this year3X the same period last yearand Japan recorded its highest-ever temperature of 41.2 degrees Celsius in Tamba.
A large fungal meningitis outbreak in the U.S. that sickened 24 patients and killed 12 occurred among people who received epidural anesthesia for cosmetic surgeries in Matamoros, Mexico, in 2023, , which highlights the need for more rigorous diagnostic measures.
Dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs can be awakened by respiratory infections like COVID-19 or the flu, has found; the data could have implications for human cases, as SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection has been linked with a nearly 2X increase in cancer-related death. U.S. and Global Health Policy News The Role of International Aid in Supporting Ukraines Recovery Efforts
Abortion shield laws are under fire
Trump Prepares to Revoke Lifesaving Abortion Care for Veterans
Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned
Top FDA vaccine regulator under Trump ousted amid conservative criticism GHN EXCLUSIVE A sunset in January over the Branco River in Roraima, Brazil's capital city, Boa Vista (Good View). Julianna Deutscher From Displacement to Exploitation: Inside Brazils Human-Trafficking Crisis
BOA VISTA, BrazilThe capital of northern Brazils Roraima state is known for the placid Branco River, gorgeous sunsets, and beautiful landscapes.
Yet behind the attractive fa癟ade, desperate in drugs, weapons, gold, people, and organs.
Persistent risks: Many fall prey to Brazilian and Venezuelan criminal groups that lure migrants to the garimpos (illegal gold mines) with false promises but then trap them in modern slavery. Women are forced into sex work, often at the mines, posadas (motels), and restaurants.
Migrants are often bound not by physical captivity but by invisible chainsfear for a loved ones safety, dependence on shelter, language barriers, or the urgent need to feed their children.
Back story: A year after the contentious reelection of President Nicol獺s Maduro, hundreds of Venezuelans still arrive daily through a small Brazilian border town north of Boa Vista.
In this second part of a series on Venezuelan migrants experiences in Brazil, Julianna Deutscher describes the migrants plight and the policy and funding barriers to their protection.
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe second in a serieswith support from the . Read the first article . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Mercurys Toll on Mental Health
Widespread mercury poisoning has been linked to high attempted suicide rates among youth in the Indigenous Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario, .
Background: Mercury contamination in the region began in the 1960s70s, when a paper mill dumped ~10 tons of mercury into local rivers used for fishing.
The Quote: Our way of life has been totally destroyed, said Grassy Narrows First Nation Chief Rudy Turtle
ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Literary Tails
Bookshop pets have a pretty tough gig, considering their full-time job is to literally curl up with a good book.
And these days, they have even more responsibility thanks to social mediawhich has conferred main-character status upon the cockatiels, cats, and King Charles Spaniels inhabiting the stacks.
Safety of JN.1-Updated mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
The status of ownership and utilization of long-lasting insecticidal treated nets in war-torn Tigray, Ethiopia
U.S. Visa Bureaucracy and Its Burdens Among Early Career Scholars
Scientists just invented a safer non-stick coatingand its inspired by arrows
She ended up with a bat in her mouth and $21,000 in medical bills Issue No. 2767
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
The gunman who killed four people in a Manhattan office shooting this week said in a note that he believed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative disease that stems from repeated hits to the head.
It is unclear whether he had the condition, as it can only be diagnosed posthumously in an autopsy. But the violence has brought renewed attention to CTEalong with scrutiny about how the shooter was able to access a gun despite documented mental health hospitalizations, and deploy it in a city with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, .
Concerns about CTE and full-contact sports have been building for two decades, as more studies have shown how repeated blows to the head lead to the buildup of brain-damaging proteins, .
- A number of former football players who turned to violenceparticularly suicidewere found posthumously to have CTE, .
- But self-diagnosis comes with its own dangers, especially as links between CTE and high school football, which the gunman played, remain understudied.
- And the majority of people with CTE never engage in violence, Daniel H. Daneshvar, chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School : I would never draw a direct line between someones brain pathology and any specific violent act.
- And such laws may not have mattered: The NYPD has said the shooters AR-style rifle was likely assembled using parts.
As deadly heat waves sweep East Asia, South Korea has recorded 13 heat-related deaths so far this year3X the same period last yearand Japan recorded its highest-ever temperature of 41.2 degrees Celsius in Tamba.
A large fungal meningitis outbreak in the U.S. that sickened 24 patients and killed 12 occurred among people who received epidural anesthesia for cosmetic surgeries in Matamoros, Mexico, in 2023, , which highlights the need for more rigorous diagnostic measures.
Dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs can be awakened by respiratory infections like COVID-19 or the flu, has found; the data could have implications for human cases, as SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection has been linked with a nearly 2X increase in cancer-related death. U.S. and Global Health Policy News The Role of International Aid in Supporting Ukraines Recovery Efforts
Abortion shield laws are under fire
Trump Prepares to Revoke Lifesaving Abortion Care for Veterans
Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned
Top FDA vaccine regulator under Trump ousted amid conservative criticism GHN EXCLUSIVE A sunset in January over the Branco River in Roraima, Brazil's capital city, Boa Vista (Good View). Julianna Deutscher From Displacement to Exploitation: Inside Brazils Human-Trafficking Crisis
BOA VISTA, BrazilThe capital of northern Brazils Roraima state is known for the placid Branco River, gorgeous sunsets, and beautiful landscapes.
Yet behind the attractive fa癟ade, desperate in drugs, weapons, gold, people, and organs.
Persistent risks: Many fall prey to Brazilian and Venezuelan criminal groups that lure migrants to the garimpos (illegal gold mines) with false promises but then trap them in modern slavery. Women are forced into sex work, often at the mines, posadas (motels), and restaurants.
Migrants are often bound not by physical captivity but by invisible chainsfear for a loved ones safety, dependence on shelter, language barriers, or the urgent need to feed their children.
Back story: A year after the contentious reelection of President Nicol獺s Maduro, hundreds of Venezuelans still arrive daily through a small Brazilian border town north of Boa Vista.
In this second part of a series on Venezuelan migrants experiences in Brazil, Julianna Deutscher describes the migrants plight and the policy and funding barriers to their protection.
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe second in a serieswith support from the . Read the first article . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Mercurys Toll on Mental Health
Widespread mercury poisoning has been linked to high attempted suicide rates among youth in the Indigenous Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario, .
Background: Mercury contamination in the region began in the 1960s70s, when a paper mill dumped ~10 tons of mercury into local rivers used for fishing.
- Over the years, the Grassy Narrows First Nation community has seen suicide attempts increase dramatically3X higher than in other First Nation communities in Canada.
The Quote: Our way of life has been totally destroyed, said Grassy Narrows First Nation Chief Rudy Turtle
ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Literary Tails
Bookshop pets have a pretty tough gig, considering their full-time job is to literally curl up with a good book.
And these days, they have even more responsibility thanks to social mediawhich has conferred main-character status upon the cockatiels, cats, and King Charles Spaniels inhabiting the stacks.
- We get a whole bunch of readers, but people really come to see the animals, said Anna Hersh, a co-owner and animal care coordinator of Wild Rumpus in Minneapolisa mythic menagerie of birds, cats, fish, and a pair of chinchillas named Newbery and Caldecott.
- Bear Pond Books in Vermont is under the supervision of Veruca Salt, , who hosts an annual birthday party with cake and storiesnotably The Tortoise and the Hare.
- The Literary Cat Co. in Kansas partners with a local animal rescue to fostered at the shop.
- Scattered Books in New York hires booksellers based on their bunny expertiseand not just knowledge of the plotlines of Peter Rabbit or Watership Down:
- People come in and theyre like, I love to read. Im like, How are you with rabbits? said owner Laura Schaefer, whose have top shelf status (despite being confined to empty bottom shelves).
Safety of JN.1-Updated mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
The status of ownership and utilization of long-lasting insecticidal treated nets in war-torn Tigray, Ethiopia
U.S. Visa Bureaucracy and Its Burdens Among Early Career Scholars
Scientists just invented a safer non-stick coatingand its inspired by arrows
She ended up with a bat in her mouth and $21,000 in medical bills Issue No. 2767
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
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Categories: Global Health Feed
As Myanmar reels from deadly floods, renewed fighting and widespread displacement, the United Nations warned on Thursday that urgent humanitarian needs are going unmet due to escalating violence and blocked access.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Montreal researchers use AI and wearable sensors to detect inflammation before symptoms appear
Modern medicine is largely reactivetreating illness only after symptoms emerge. But a new study from the Research Institute of the 51勛圖厙 Health Centre (The Institute) and 51勛圖厙 points to a more proactive future: one where silent signs of infection are detected before we even feel sick.
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: Migration Response Done Right: Brazils Model; EPA Aims to Gut Key Climate Ruling; and Sierra Leone Ordered to Criminalize FGM
July 30, 2025
GHN EXCLUSIVE
Venezuelan refugees walk after crossing the border between Venezuela and Brazil in the city of Pacaraima, Roraima State, Brazil, on September 13, 2024. Alan Chaves/AFP via Getty
Migration Response Done Right: Brazils Model for a World in Crisis
PACARAIMA, BrazilMaria* steps out of a white truck on January 10 and walks toward a crowd of newly arrived Venezuelans.
*Marias name was changed to protect her privacy.
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe first in a series marking todays World Day Against Trafficking in Personswith support from the . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Cholera is a full-blown public health emergency in DRC six months into renewed fighting that has obliterated sanitation and water supply systems, per Oxfams DRC director, Manenji Mangunduwith ~35,000 suspected cases and at least 852 related deaths since January, a 62% increase compared to 2024.
Liver cancer cases are projected to doublefrom ~870,000 cases in 2022 to 1.52 million cases by 2050but at least 60% of those cancers could be preventable, published Monday.
Undocumented immigrants faced a much higher risk of death at the height of the COVID-19 pandemicwith Latino essential workers in particular showing a staggering 91% increase in deaths compared with 8% for the white U.S.-born subgroup.
All NIH research funding was temporarily halted Tuesday because of a footnote from an Office of Management and Budget document that limited NIH funding to staff salaries and expenses, not to research grants; the billions of funds were restored hours later in a turnabout NIH officials described as chaos. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Budget cuts knock down a pillar of public health, ending nutrition education
US placed on rights watchlist over health of its civil society under Trump
There's a major publishing slowdown at CDC's flagship journal
Susan Monarez confirmed as Trumps CDC director
Dozens of state laws take aim at food dyes, amid a wave support for MAHA CLIMATE CHANGE EPA Aims to Gut Key Climate Ruling
The U.S. EPA will seek to rescind a key scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfarea move that could dismantle the legal basis for much of the countrys climate policy, .
Background: In 2009, the EPA determined that CO2 and other greenhouse gases can be regulated under the Clean Air Act because they harm human health. That has since underpinned regulations on emissions standards for everything from factories to cars, .
Repeal: Yesterday while at a car dealership, EPA head Lee Zeldin announced to eliminate the standards, .
Meanwhile, the WHO is at a global climate and health conference in Bras穩liaas the lived reality of climate change threatens to undo decades of global health progress. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HUMAN RIGHTS Sierra Leones President Ordered to Ban FGM
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court of justice has ordered Sierra Leone to criminalize female genital mutilation (FGM), calling it one of the worst forms of violence against women.
Colombia Opens South America's First Safe Injection Sites
Kratom and 7-OH: What to know about the "legal morphine" compound
AMR surveillance project in Nigeria delivers life-saving impacts
In Uganda a new epidemic alert system is helping fight mpox
The Dutch Intersection Is Coming to Save Your Life Issue No. 2766
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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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PACARAIMA, BrazilMaria* steps out of a white truck on January 10 and walks toward a crowd of newly arrived Venezuelans.
- Alone and far from home, women and girls like Maria have faced gender-based violence and human trafficking as they fled Venezuelas political and economic collapse, in Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru.
- The Brazilian government launched the program in 2018, as a unique collaboration with UN agencies and NGOs. The partnership blends military logistical support with respect for humanitarian autonomy, a rare balance in crisis response.
- She can also get free transportation to be reunited with family or friends across Brazil and is connected with employment services.
*Marias name was changed to protect her privacy.
Editors note: Julianna Deutscher, MD, MPH, reported this articlethe first in a series marking todays World Day Against Trafficking in Personswith support from the . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Cholera is a full-blown public health emergency in DRC six months into renewed fighting that has obliterated sanitation and water supply systems, per Oxfams DRC director, Manenji Mangunduwith ~35,000 suspected cases and at least 852 related deaths since January, a 62% increase compared to 2024.
Liver cancer cases are projected to doublefrom ~870,000 cases in 2022 to 1.52 million cases by 2050but at least 60% of those cancers could be preventable, published Monday.
Undocumented immigrants faced a much higher risk of death at the height of the COVID-19 pandemicwith Latino essential workers in particular showing a staggering 91% increase in deaths compared with 8% for the white U.S.-born subgroup.
All NIH research funding was temporarily halted Tuesday because of a footnote from an Office of Management and Budget document that limited NIH funding to staff salaries and expenses, not to research grants; the billions of funds were restored hours later in a turnabout NIH officials described as chaos. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Budget cuts knock down a pillar of public health, ending nutrition education
US placed on rights watchlist over health of its civil society under Trump
There's a major publishing slowdown at CDC's flagship journal
Susan Monarez confirmed as Trumps CDC director
Dozens of state laws take aim at food dyes, amid a wave support for MAHA CLIMATE CHANGE EPA Aims to Gut Key Climate Ruling
The U.S. EPA will seek to rescind a key scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfarea move that could dismantle the legal basis for much of the countrys climate policy, .
Background: In 2009, the EPA determined that CO2 and other greenhouse gases can be regulated under the Clean Air Act because they harm human health. That has since underpinned regulations on emissions standards for everything from factories to cars, .
Repeal: Yesterday while at a car dealership, EPA head Lee Zeldin announced to eliminate the standards, .
- The move is the latest Trump administration effort to roll back climate initiatives, including the countrys withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, .
- One ecologist likened a repeal to a driver who is speeding towards a cliff taking his foot off the brake and instead pressing the accelerator.
Meanwhile, the WHO is at a global climate and health conference in Bras穩liaas the lived reality of climate change threatens to undo decades of global health progress. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES HUMAN RIGHTS Sierra Leones President Ordered to Ban FGM
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court of justice has ordered Sierra Leone to criminalize female genital mutilation (FGM), calling it one of the worst forms of violence against women.
- A 2019 survey found that 83% of women in Sierra Leone had undergone FGM71% of them before age 15.
- Despite recently becoming chair of ECOWAS, Bio has yet to publicly acknowledge the courts ruling.
Colombia Opens South America's First Safe Injection Sites
Kratom and 7-OH: What to know about the "legal morphine" compound
AMR surveillance project in Nigeria delivers life-saving impacts
In Uganda a new epidemic alert system is helping fight mpox
The Dutch Intersection Is Coming to Save Your Life Issue No. 2766
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
People in Haiti have expressed despair following the abrupt suspension of a wide range of humanitarian services, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, in the Caribbean country.
Categories: Global Health Feed
Some 80,000 children are estimated to be at high risk of cholera in West and Central Africa as the rainy season begins across the region, the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: A Temporary Dip in Global Hunger?; Why European Vaccine Policies Dont Fit the U.S.; and Remembering David Nabarro
July 29, 2025
A South Sudanese refugee carrying her child on her back works at her vegetable crops. Turkana County, Kenya, October 2, 2019. Luis Tato/AFP via Getty
A Temporary Dip in Global Hunger?
Global hunger decreased slightly last year, but rising food prices and falling aid contributions mean that momentum will be unlikely to continue in the coming years, according to the published yesterday.
Takeaways:
The Quote: These figures are alarming enough, but the worst may be yet to come, Kate Munro, of Action Against Hunger UK, told The Telegraph. Cuts in international aid will hit the most vulnerable populations hardest. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Danish researchers combed the records of 1.2 million+ children over a 24-year period and found no evidence that the use of aluminum salts in vaccines increased the risk of asthma, autism, and a wide range of conditions diagnosed in childhood, per .
Common pollutants like PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide, and soot are all linked to a significantly higher risk of dementia, per a sweeping review of studies that drew on data from nearly 30 million people.
Nearly a quarter of African American adults had eye disease that went undetected, ages 40 and older with eye conditions in a Los Angeles suburb; diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration were especially common. Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!
The Chinese government will offer parents a $500 subsidy per year for each child under the age of three, aimed at boosting the countrys slumping birth rate, but some economic analysts say the sums are too small to make an impact. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Odds of winning NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite
Group criticizes NIH over suspended funding for TB research
Judge blocks Trump administrations efforts to defund Planned Parenthood
Senate to vote on Trumps pick to lead the CDC THE QUOTE
"Venoms are evolutionary masterpieces, yet their antimicrobial potential has barely been explored. " 漍漍漍漍 C矇sar de la Fuente of the University of Pennsylvania, senior author of a research project that used AI to sift through global venom libraries and uncovered dozens of promising drug candidate莽.&紳莉莽梯; VACCINES Why European Immunization Policies Dont Fit the U.S.
As Trump administration health officials question the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule, they are pointing to European countries as a model for a more minimalist approach that requires fewer immunizations than U.S. guidelines call for.
Apples and oranges: But global health experts argue that differences in vaccine schedules are not due to disagreements about safety, but instead are shaped by local disease risks, demographics, and health systems.
OBIT Remembering David Nabarro, A Great Champion of Global Health
David Nabarro, a key figure in global health who helped lead the international response to health threats ranging from Ebola to the COVID-19 pandemic, died Friday at age 75.
RESOURCES QUICK HITS Cholera rampant among displaced and refugees in Darfur and eastern Chad
Measles Elimination Status: What It Is and How the U.S. Could Lose It
WHO urges action on hepatitis, announcing hepatitis D as carcinogenic
Preventing Firearm Suicide In Wyoming
PAHO/WHO convenes journalists to reshape how road safety is covered in Latin America
845,000 dead on U.S. highways. Why not address the main cause?
Michigan led on safe water after Flint, but mobile home parks are stubborn rough spot
Looking at a sick person in VR can rev up our bodies immune systems Issue No. 2765
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Global hunger decreased slightly last year, but rising food prices and falling aid contributions mean that momentum will be unlikely to continue in the coming years, according to the published yesterday.
Takeaways:
- 8.2% of people worldwide, or 673 million people, were estimated to have experienced hunger last year, a drop from 8.5% in 2023 and 8.7% in 2022.
- 22 million fewer people experienced hunger last year compared to 2022.
- 2.3 billion people were considered moderately or severely food insecure last year, according to the report from five UN agencies.
- Advances in Southeastern Asia, Southern Asia, and South America were largely responsible for the lower global hunger numbers.
- Hunger in much of Africa and Western Asia continues to rise.
- Global food inflation, driven by the pandemic, climate change, and the war in Ukraine, rocketed to almost 17% in early 2023 from 2% in late 2020, .
The Quote: These figures are alarming enough, but the worst may be yet to come, Kate Munro, of Action Against Hunger UK, told The Telegraph. Cuts in international aid will hit the most vulnerable populations hardest. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners Danish researchers combed the records of 1.2 million+ children over a 24-year period and found no evidence that the use of aluminum salts in vaccines increased the risk of asthma, autism, and a wide range of conditions diagnosed in childhood, per .
Common pollutants like PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide, and soot are all linked to a significantly higher risk of dementia, per a sweeping review of studies that drew on data from nearly 30 million people.
Nearly a quarter of African American adults had eye disease that went undetected, ages 40 and older with eye conditions in a Los Angeles suburb; diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration were especially common. Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!
The Chinese government will offer parents a $500 subsidy per year for each child under the age of three, aimed at boosting the countrys slumping birth rate, but some economic analysts say the sums are too small to make an impact. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Odds of winning NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite
Group criticizes NIH over suspended funding for TB research
Judge blocks Trump administrations efforts to defund Planned Parenthood
Senate to vote on Trumps pick to lead the CDC THE QUOTE
"Venoms are evolutionary masterpieces, yet their antimicrobial potential has barely been explored. " 漍漍漍漍 C矇sar de la Fuente of the University of Pennsylvania, senior author of a research project that used AI to sift through global venom libraries and uncovered dozens of promising drug candidate莽.&紳莉莽梯; VACCINES Why European Immunization Policies Dont Fit the U.S.
As Trump administration health officials question the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule, they are pointing to European countries as a model for a more minimalist approach that requires fewer immunizations than U.S. guidelines call for.
Apples and oranges: But global health experts argue that differences in vaccine schedules are not due to disagreements about safety, but instead are shaped by local disease risks, demographics, and health systems.
- In the U.S., a more fractured and inaccessible health system means a broader vaccine schedule allows for continuity and protection that might otherwise be lost.
OBIT Remembering David Nabarro, A Great Champion of Global Health
David Nabarro, a key figure in global health who helped lead the international response to health threats ranging from Ebola to the COVID-19 pandemic, died Friday at age 75.
- David was a great champion of global health and health equity, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus wrote.
- He also helped coordinate the WHOs response to the 2004 Indian earthquake, and took part in efforts to contain AIDS, malaria, bird flu, and the 2014 Ebola outbreak. He led the WHOs messaging during COVID-19a role that earned him a knighthood.
RESOURCES QUICK HITS Cholera rampant among displaced and refugees in Darfur and eastern Chad
Measles Elimination Status: What It Is and How the U.S. Could Lose It
WHO urges action on hepatitis, announcing hepatitis D as carcinogenic
Preventing Firearm Suicide In Wyoming
PAHO/WHO convenes journalists to reshape how road safety is covered in Latin America
845,000 dead on U.S. highways. Why not address the main cause?
Michigan led on safe water after Flint, but mobile home parks are stubborn rough spot
Looking at a sick person in VR can rev up our bodies immune systems Issue No. 2765
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
96
Global Health NOW: Instability in Syria; Ivermectin for Added Protection?; and Nigerias Human Flycatchers
July 28, 2025
Medical workers disinfect a hospital bed outside Sweida National Hospital, in southern Syria's predominantly Druze city of Sweida, on July 20. Shadi Al-Dubaisi/AFP via Getty
Instability in Syria
Deadly sectarian clashes in Syrias southern Sweida province have led to mass displacement, hundreds of deaths, and a paralyzed health systemthreatening the countrys tenuous postwar stability, .
Background: The violence was sparked earlier this month by kidnappings between Bedouin tribal fighters and armed factions of the Druze minority group, .
Related Webinar Tomorrow: Stabilizing Syria: Rehabilitating Syrias Public Health System in a Fragile Transition, hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies Middle East Program, featuring keynote remarks by Syrias Transitional Minister of Health Musaab Nazzal Al-Ali and a panel discussion with Syria experts Bachir Tajaldin, Lolwa Al-Abdulmalek, and Diana Rayes, moderated by Mona Yacoubian.
At least 300 peoplemainly children in Africa and Asiahave died since 2022 from cough and paracetamol syrups containing toxic industrial chemicals, that says criminal networks exploit weak regulations to use the chemicals as cheap substitutes for medicinal glycol.
A dengue outbreak in Samoa has led to a government-ordered closure of all schools in the country for a week, as children are most affected; 900+ cases were reported last week alone, , with 2,254 cases reported since January.
A Salmonella outbreak tied to raw milk from a California dairy farm sickened 171 people, including 120 children and adolescents, between October 2023 and March 2024, published last week. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Lesotho mothers fear passing HIV to their babies as US aid cuts halt testing
Rural Oklahoma kids were getting more counselors then federal cuts pulled funding
Trump targets supervised consumption of drugs and harm reduction in executive order
As the ADA turns 35, groups fighting for disability rights could see their federal dollars slashed
Congressional panels resist White House proposals for sharp cuts in indirect cost rates MALARIA Ivermectin for Added Protection?
A new malaria control strategy involving mass administration of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin is showing promise, per results from a large trial in Kenya .
Background: Ivermectin makes human blood toxic to mosquitoesallowing humans to target mosquitoes via their food source, .
Trial details: The trial, which targeted school-age children, involved 20,000+ participants across 84 communities who received ivermectin or a control drug during the rainy season.
Whats next: The WHO has said more evidence will be needed before it can endorse the approach. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NEGLECTED DISEASES Nigerias Human Flycatchers
In the battle against onchocerciasis, the parasitic disease that causes river blindness, researchers in Nigeria are relying on human landing catches to help them mark progress.
Why? The main strategy to curb transmission is mass drug administration to prevent the parasites spread. But researchers can only know how the effort is working by testing flies.
A push for alternatives? Using humans as bait has long raised ethical concerns. Researchers are currently testing other trap models to potentially use instead.
QUICK HITS Israel pauses attacks in some of Gaza to allow limited aid, as global criticism grows
Changed my life: hepatitis treatment offers hope but not enough receiving care, report finds
Native leaders push back on gender-affirming care restrictions for tribal citizens
E.U. regulator approves injectable HIV drug that experts say could help stop transmission
Coercive Care: Southern Europes Reliance on Elder Restraints
Other nations had a pandemic reckoning. Why hasnt the US?
America is in denial about its flood risks
WHO unveils health and environment scorecards for 194 countries
The Ghost in the Therapy Room Issue No. 2764
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Deadly sectarian clashes in Syrias southern Sweida province have led to mass displacement, hundreds of deaths, and a paralyzed health systemthreatening the countrys tenuous postwar stability, .
Background: The violence was sparked earlier this month by kidnappings between Bedouin tribal fighters and armed factions of the Druze minority group, .
- 800+ people have been killed, , and so far ~176,000 people have been displaced, .
- Syrian government forces have intervened and established a ceasefire, but they are accused of siding with the clans and targeting civilians.
- Hospital workers and patients described violence within wards and bodies piling up inside as the city morgue reached capacity.
- Hospitals are now under immense strain, said WHO representative Christina Bethkefacing severe shortages of personnel, water, electricity, and essential supplies.
Related Webinar Tomorrow: Stabilizing Syria: Rehabilitating Syrias Public Health System in a Fragile Transition, hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies Middle East Program, featuring keynote remarks by Syrias Transitional Minister of Health Musaab Nazzal Al-Ali and a panel discussion with Syria experts Bachir Tajaldin, Lolwa Al-Abdulmalek, and Diana Rayes, moderated by Mona Yacoubian.
- Tuesday, July 29, 11 a.m.12:15 p.m. EDT
At least 300 peoplemainly children in Africa and Asiahave died since 2022 from cough and paracetamol syrups containing toxic industrial chemicals, that says criminal networks exploit weak regulations to use the chemicals as cheap substitutes for medicinal glycol.
A dengue outbreak in Samoa has led to a government-ordered closure of all schools in the country for a week, as children are most affected; 900+ cases were reported last week alone, , with 2,254 cases reported since January.
A Salmonella outbreak tied to raw milk from a California dairy farm sickened 171 people, including 120 children and adolescents, between October 2023 and March 2024, published last week. U.S. and Global Health Policy News Lesotho mothers fear passing HIV to their babies as US aid cuts halt testing
Rural Oklahoma kids were getting more counselors then federal cuts pulled funding
Trump targets supervised consumption of drugs and harm reduction in executive order
As the ADA turns 35, groups fighting for disability rights could see their federal dollars slashed
Congressional panels resist White House proposals for sharp cuts in indirect cost rates MALARIA Ivermectin for Added Protection?
A new malaria control strategy involving mass administration of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin is showing promise, per results from a large trial in Kenya .
Background: Ivermectin makes human blood toxic to mosquitoesallowing humans to target mosquitoes via their food source, .
Trial details: The trial, which targeted school-age children, involved 20,000+ participants across 84 communities who received ivermectin or a control drug during the rainy season.
- The communities that administered ivermectin saw a 26% reduction in new malaria infections.
- The intervention showed added protection beyond existing bed net usemeaning it shows potential as a complementary tool, .
Whats next: The WHO has said more evidence will be needed before it can endorse the approach. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NEGLECTED DISEASES Nigerias Human Flycatchers
In the battle against onchocerciasis, the parasitic disease that causes river blindness, researchers in Nigeria are relying on human landing catches to help them mark progress.
- 40 million people are at risk of onchocerciasis in Nigeria, where there are 120,000 cases of related blindness.
Why? The main strategy to curb transmission is mass drug administration to prevent the parasites spread. But researchers can only know how the effort is working by testing flies.
A push for alternatives? Using humans as bait has long raised ethical concerns. Researchers are currently testing other trap models to potentially use instead.
QUICK HITS Israel pauses attacks in some of Gaza to allow limited aid, as global criticism grows
Changed my life: hepatitis treatment offers hope but not enough receiving care, report finds
Native leaders push back on gender-affirming care restrictions for tribal citizens
E.U. regulator approves injectable HIV drug that experts say could help stop transmission
Coercive Care: Southern Europes Reliance on Elder Restraints
Other nations had a pandemic reckoning. Why hasnt the US?
America is in denial about its flood risks
WHO unveils health and environment scorecards for 194 countries
The Ghost in the Therapy Room Issue No. 2764
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 and follow us on Instagram and X .
Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can or . -->
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 or .
Categories: Global Health Feed
UN Secretary-General Ant籀nio Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Cambodia and Thailand following days of deadly fighting over their mutual border.
Categories: Global Health Feed
An interagency group from the UN released the flagship 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report on Monday, estimating a global, yet uneven, decline in hunger since 2022.
Categories: Global Health Feed
