96 Global Health NOW: Missouri H5N1: More Questions Than Answers; Compounding Crisis in the Darién Gap; and The (Gorilla) Doctor Is In View this email in your browser September 16, 2024 Forward Share Post University of Massachusetts Boston assistant professor Nichola Hill, who studies infectious diseases, including bird flu, on May 7, in Boston. Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Missouri H5N1: More Questions Than Answers
The source of a human H5 avian flu case in Missouri is still unknown—though initial genetic testing suggests it's related to the strain of virus currently affecting dairy cattle in the U.S., CDC officials have said, per CIDRAP. 

• The investigation has shown no evidence of human-to-human spread and no link to raw dairy products. So far, there has been no unusual rise in Missouri’s flu activity.


• But: The CDC announced Friday that a household contact of the H5-positive Missouri patient also became ill on the same day—though the second person was not tested, and the cause of the illness is unknown, reports The New York Times (gift link). 

More coordination needed: Meanwhile, a WHO official said the situation in the U.S. points to a need for better collaboration between the agricultural sector and public health organizations to establish “a complete picture,” reports STAT.

• A lack of universal testing of dairy farms means scientists still don’t know the true scope of the spread, reports NPR.

Among animals: California reported two more H5N1 outbreaks in dairy cows. Since March, the USDA has confirmed H5N1 in 203 herds across 14 states. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES EDITOR'S NOTE Beyond Back-to-School   GHN is a great tool for students and professors—but the career-boosting benefits last long after graduation. Our community of 50,000+ readers from 170+ countries includes many “lifelong learners” fascinated by global health.
 
If you’re one of them, the best way you can show your support is by sharing our free subscribe page. Let colleagues and friends know that GHN can help them:

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We love hearing from you, too! Let me know what topics you think deserve more attention. Thanks for sharing! —Dayna SHARE GHN'S SUBSCRIBE LINK The Latest One-Liners   A Nipah virus death in Kerala, India, is the region’s second reported since July; five other people have developed primary symptoms of the virus, and 151 contacts are being monitored. Reuters

A wild poliovirus case has been detected in Pakistan, and 15 additional positive environmental samples were reported in the country—suggesting “widespread circulation” of the virus and that Pakistan is “not on track” to interrupt transmission. CIDRAP

The WHO prequalified its first mpox vaccine, MVA-BN, and established an “access and allocation mechanism” to ensure that countermeasures including vaccines, treatments, and tests are distributed “effectively and equitably.” WHO (news release)

An Austrian court has found a 54-year-old woman guilty of grossly negligent homicide after infecting her neighbor with a fatal case of COVID-19. AP ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Compounding Crisis in the Darién Gap
The dense rainforest of the Darién Gap has long been considered inaccessible, shielding Indigenous communities and the region’s rich biodiversity from outside impact. 

But the surge of migration through the region over the last five years has brought unprecedented pollution to the rainforest—threatening the local ecosystem and the health of people who depend on it, community leaders say.

• “Suddenly we found ourselves flooded with trash. It’s worrying because we depend on our local ecosystem for everything. It’s our source of life,” said Yenairo Aji, a community leader in the village of Nueva Vigía. 

Not just trash: Critical waterways have become contaminated with human waste and gasoline—which could take decades to remediate.  

The Guardian GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CLIMATE Trees as Treatment   
Planting trees in urban areas has known climate benefits: cooling, pollution control, and stormwater absorption. 

But what does it do for human health? 

University of Louisville researchers are starting to answer that question, with the recently released Green Heart Louisville project—“a clinical trial where trees are the medicine.”

• Researchers followed 700+ residents across a four-square-mile area where ~8,000 trees and shrubs were planted. 


• Residents of greened neighborhoods had 13%–20% lower levels of a blood marker of general inflammation compared to residents of neighborhoods without new greenery.

Up next: This fall, researchers will plant a “microforest” downtown that will serve as a field site to investigate a variety of health and environmental metrics.

Bloomberg PHARMACEUTICALS The (Gorilla) Doctor Is In   
Plants consumed by “self-medicating” gorillas in Gabon have antibacterial and antioxidant properties and may yield promising clues to developing new drugs, according to a new PLOS One study. 

• The researchers focused on four trees consumed by western lowland gorillas that local healers highlighted for potential medicinal benefits. 


• All four trees showed antibacterial activity against E. coli strains, as well as high levels of antioxidants. 

Biodiversity lessons: The research demonstrates how scientists might learn from these critically endangered gorillas as well as other under-studied animals and plants in Central Africa’s richly diverse, little-explored forests.
 
BBC QUICK HITS Nurses working in fear: BBC visits mpox epicentre – BBC 

Breaking the conformity of global health – The Lancet (commentary)

1 in 7 moms in SA are teens. We dive into the numbers – Bhekisisa

New Report Highlights U.S. 2022 Gun-Related Deaths: Firearms Remain Leading Cause of Death for Children and Teens, and Disproportionately Affect People of Color – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad Just Before Giving Birth. Then They Took Her Baby Away. – Reveal Thanks for the tip, Cecilia Meisner!

Gas stoves may soon come with a tobacco-style health warning label in California – NPR

HHS updates rules for probing research misconduct – Axios

New Version of Rethé Project to Promote African Scientific Writing – Boston University

Barcelona children find safety in numbers as they bike to school in herds – The World (audio) Issue No. 2780
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, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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Overcrowded shelters in Gaza, a lack of running water and the constant threat of disease are making conditions worse by the day for people in the enclave, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, warned on Monday.

The civil war in Sudan has brought to country’s health system to its knees. UN mobile health teams are attempting to plug the gaps, crossing conflict zones to help pregnant women to give birth in safety.

Around 560,000 children under ten have been successfully vaccinated against polio during the first round of an emergency campaign in the Gaza Strip, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Friday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the use of an mpox vaccine for the first time, which it says should facilitate “timely and increased access” for millions at risk in Africa where the latest outbreak has infected more than 20,000 so far this year.

96 Global Health NOW: Pesticide Bans Slow Suicides in Nepal; New Tickborne Virus Discovered in China; and Nacho Average Side Effect View this email in your browser September 12, 2024 Forward Share Post Pesticide Bans Slow Suicides in Nepal
A few years ago, pesticides—or “plant medicines,” as the locals called them—were used in roughly a third of Nepal’s suicides.
 
“What if the pesticide had not been on the market?” wondered one doctor, Rakesh Ghimire, recognizing that most suicides are impulsive, and the chemicals were too easily available.
 
The eye-opening turning point: Ghimire helped launch a ban on the sale and import of eight pesticides in 2019. Deaths began to fall—by as much as 30% by 2023.
 
It’s not just Nepal: Globally, pesticide consumption is linked to ~140,000 suicide deaths each year—most in LMICs, “where the toxins can still be bought in small bottles for just a few pence in local shops.”

• After phasing out or banning dangerous pesticides, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and South Korea all saw suicides linked to the hazardous products fall dramatically—without damaging agricultural yields.


• Most countries in the West—where most pesticide manufacturers are based—have already banned or restricted use of potentially lethal pesticides.

But “bans alone will not solve the problem,” Ghimire says.

• Ghimire and others developed the country’s first treatment guidelines, which led to Nepal’s first Poison Information Center—a Brown University-funded effort that provides a 24/7 advice hotline for health workers across Nepal.


• Also needed: more mental health services—and erasing stigma.

The Telegraph GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A quarter of those injured in Gaza by July 23—about 22,500 people—are estimated to have life-changing injuries that require rehabilitation services, per a new WHO analysis. WHO
 
More women opted for tubal ligations after the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, per research in JAMA based on insurance claims data—and states that banned abortion showed the largest rise in the procedure, 3% each month. AP

India’s expanded health coverage will provide people 70 and older with annual coverage of $6,000 per family—a plan expected to benefit 60 million citizens. Reuters

An NIH-funded database is slated to shut down this weekend, cutting off access to molecular information on parasites and fungi that cause a range of infectious diseases, from malaria to Chagas disease; parasitologists and vector biologists say planned replacements are inadequate and critical research will suffer. Science TICKBORNE ILLNESSES New Tickborne Virus Discovered in China
In June 2019, a patient with a fever and organ dysfunction reported being bitten by a tick in a wetland park in Inner Mongolia, in northeastern China.
 
Researchers conducted next-generation sequencing to determine the origin, revealing a new tickborne illness called Wetland virus (WELV), reported in The New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month.

• People infected with WELV most commonly “presented with nonspecific symptoms, including fever, dizziness, headache, malaise, myalgia, arthritis, and back pain,” the researchers report, per LiveScience.

• Since identifying the new virus, researchers have collected and analyzed thousands of ticks and tested hundreds of animals and people for the virus.

Experiments in mice lead researchers to believe WELV can also infect the brain and cause serious nervous system infections.

Thanks for the tip, Cecilia Meisner! GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES MATERNAL HEALTH Delivering with Dignity ... for All
Despite policies to safeguard the rights of people with disabilities in Malawi, pregnant women with disabilities suffer extra challenges—with mistreatment, miscommunication, and discrimination affecting their access to care.

• Myths, such as women with disabilities having different biology, perpetuate false stereotypes.

• Patients with disabilities—especially speech and hearing impairments—often must rely on friends and guardians to communicate due to a lack of medical professionals trained to meet their needs.

• Infrastructure such as bathrooms, ambulances, and labor wards are not special needs-friendly, providing little privacy. 

“This is a serious problem in Africa … It can lead to risks of complications, maternal morbidity and mortality for pregnant women with disabilities,” says Mussa Chiwaula, director general of the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled, an organization lobbying for an inclusive health care system. 

Health Policy Watch

Related: I'm Embarrassed to Admit I Have No Idea How to Care for Patients With Disabilities – MedPage Today (commentary) ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Nacho Average Side Effect
The magical powers of Doritos dust are well-known to those of us who have polished off a bag’s finger-licking orange remnants—but “x-ray vision” has not typically been on the list. 

Until now: In a head-spinning (and stomach-spinning) new study published in Science, scientists demonstrated how the same dye used in Doritos and other snacks—Yellow No. 5, also known as tartrazine—can render mice skin temporarily transparent, giving scientists a window into pulsing vessels and organs beneath.

• “It’s not magic, but it’s still very powerful,” said biophotonics researcher Christopher Rowlands. 

How does it work? While the clarifying phenomenon may sound preposterous to all parents who have laundered their children’s post-picnic t-shirts, it works because of optical physics.

• When skin absorbs the dye, it changes how blue wavelengths are refracted by the animal tissues.

Something to chew on: The discovery of such a simple, reversible, and potentially non-toxic tool could transform medical and scientific imaging, researchers say.

Popular Science Thanks for the tip, Xiaodong Cai!

Related: US cave system’s bats and insects face existential threat: discarded Cheetos — The Guardian QUICK HITS The midwives who stopped murdering girls and started saving them – BBC

How a Maine County Jail Helped Prisoners Blunt Opioid Cravings – The New York Times (gift link)

How a Video Game Community Became a Mental Health Support System for Military Veterans – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  Estimate: COVID vaccines saved up to 2.6 million lives in Latin America, Caribbean – CIDRAP

Suspicious phrases in peer reviews point to referees gaming the system – Science

The clown doctor will see you now – and you’ll get better, quicker – Cosmos Issue No. 2779
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, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is stepping up lifesaving support to the Congolese Government to protect children under 15 from mpox, who account for around 60 per cent of suspected cases and 80 per cent of deaths in the African nation so far this year.

More than 22,500 people – a quarter of those wounded in Gaza since Israel’s offensive began – have life-changing injuries, requiring rehabilitation services “now and for years to come”, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Thursday.

96 Global Health NOW: Abortion Takes Center Stage in U.S. Presidential Debate; Tragic Consequences of ‘The Switch’; and Baaa-d Lettuce to Blame View this email in your browser September 11, 2024 Forward Share Post Former U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at last night's presidential debate in Philadelphia. Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Abortion Takes Center Stage in U.S. Presidential Debate
Reproductive rights were a central—and incendiary—topic at the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump Tuesday night, reports TIME. 

Harris roundly criticized Trump for his role in overturning Roe v. Wade and condemned state-level abortion bans, sharing stories of pregnant women unable to access critical care, reports the AP.

• She pledged that if Congress passed a bill reviving abortion protections, she would “proudly sign it into law” if elected president. 

Trump refused to answer whether he would veto a federal abortion ban—insisting it wasn’t an issue because Congress would not pass such a bill.

• He falsely claimed that most legal scholars wanted Roe overturned.

Key context: 10 states are set to vote on abortion rights on Nov. 5, and a range of polls show that Americans largely support access to abortion. 

Other health points: 

On the Affordable Care Act: While Trump again expressed interest in overturning the health law, he described having only “concepts of a plan” to replace it, reports The Hill.

• Harris, meanwhile, pledged to expand drug pricing reforms and to “maintain and grow the Affordable Care Act,” reports STAT. 

On the pandemic: COVID-19 got brief attention as Trump said his administration “did a phenomenal job with the pandemic,” and Harris said the former president “left us the worst public health epidemic in a century,” per Politico. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   U.S. maternity care deserts are growing, according to a new March of Dimes report; half of all U.S. counties lack a hospital equipped to offer obstetric care, and more than a third do not have a single obstetric clinician. Axios

Healthy Black women in the U.S. were ~20% more likely to receive unnecessary, unscheduled C-sections than white women with similar medical histories—especially when operating rooms were unbooked—per a new report based on 1 million births in New Jersey hospitals. The New York Times (gift link)

Most people over age 70—even those without a history of cardiovascular disease—should consider taking statins, according to new U.K. research that linked the cost-effective treatment to better health outcomes for that age group. The Guardian

Early puberty in girls may be triggered by an endocrine-disrupting chemical compound found in a wide variety of cosmetic and cleaning products, according to new research published in Endocrinology. NBC News POLIO Tragic Consequences of ‘The Switch’ 
The polio outbreak now prompting an emergency vaccination campaign in Gaza stemmed from “a fateful decision” in 2016 by global health organizations to change the oral polio vaccine. 

The intent: The move, dubbed “the switch,” involved removing the Type 2 virus from the vaccine to prevent the rare risk of vaccine-derived polio.

How it backfired: Problems in the execution of the vaccine’s rollout left more children vulnerable to poliovirus Type 2. Cases of vaccine-derived Type 2 polio have increased 10X since before 2016, affecting dozens of countries and paralyzing 3,300+ children.

A formal evaluation has now called the move “an unqualified failure.”

The New York Times (gift link) 

Related: Polio vaccination starts in north Gaza despite obstacles – Reuters GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES CANCER Tribes Seek Answers 
As cancer cases proliferate on the remote Duck Valley Indian Reservation, leaders of the Shoshone-Paiute tribes living there are demanding answers from the U.S. government about chemicals that could have contributed to “widespread illness.”

Questions About Agent Orange: Toxins have been found in the reservation’s soil, and petroleum is in the groundwater. But the recent discovery of a decades-old document has raised more fears:

• In the 1997 document, government officials mention using Agent Orange chemicals to clear foliage along widely used reservation canals. 

While federal agencies have promised an investigation, details remain scarce. 

Meanwhile: The tribal health clinic has logged 500+ illnesses since 1992 that could be cancer. 

AP CLIMATE CRISIS & FOOD SAFETY Baaa-d Lettuce to Blame
Lettuce contaminated by sheep feces was the likely source of a 2022 outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, U.K. public health officials say.

A Eurosurveillance investigation found that climate change–related heavy rainfall and flooding washed the feces into lettuce fields. Investigators found no failures by the lettuce grower.

• The tainted lettuce sickened 259 people, 75 of them requiring hospitalization, in August and September 2022.

The investigation’s authors wrote that climate change will fuel more outbreaks like this one, but added:

• “New techniques could help to predict and prevent future outbreaks and inform risk assessments and risk management for farmers growing fresh produce for people to eat.”

CIDRAP OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS

Bird Flu Is Quietly Getting Scarier – The Atlantic

Deadlier drugs, younger addiction and no help in sight – Seattle Times

White House announces rule that would cut insurance red tape over mental health and substance use disorder care – CNN

Perceptions of HIV self-testing promotion in black barbershop businesses: implications for equitable engagement of black-owned small businesses for public health programs – BMC Public Health

Diabetes drug helps the immune system recognize reservoirs of HIV, study discovers – Medical Xpress

Apple Will Sell Air Pods With Hearing Aids Built In – U.S. News & World Report

Whatever happened to ... the Brazilian besties creating an mRNA vaccine as a gift to the world – NPR Goats and Soda

Issue No. 2778
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, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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Six staff members with the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, were killed in Gaza on Wednesday when two Israeli airstrikes hit a school-turned-shelter and its surroundings.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, appealed on Wednesday for $21.4 million to urgently scale up health services for forcibly displaced people in African countries impacted by mpox. 

96 Global Health NOW: Lockdowns’ Effects on Teenage Brain Development; ‘Deadliest Year’ for Aid Workers; and Dangers Percolating at Fur Farms View this email in your browser September 10, 2024 Forward Share Post A teenager unable to attend school because of COVID-19 tries to entertain herself on April 11, 2020, in New Canaan, CT. Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Lockdowns’ Effects on Teenage Brain Development
During pandemic lockdowns, teenage brains—especially girls’ brains—aged much faster than expected, per a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study published yesterday.

• University of Washington researchers used MRI scans from 160 nine- to 17-year-olds to measure cortical thinning—known to accelerate in stressful times, and linked to depression and anxiety, reports The New York Times (gift link).


• Comparing 2018 scans to follow-up scans from the same cohort in 2021 and 2022, boys showed cortical thinning 1.4 years faster than expected—but girls were 4.2 years ahead of expectations, per The Guardian.

Behind the difference: Girls may be more dependent on social groups and interaction for their well-being, senior author Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington theorizes.
 
Caveats and questions: The study size was small. And, the accelerated thinning could have been caused by many other conditions during that time—a rise in screen time, social media usage, less physical activity, and more family stress, Bradley S. Peterson, a Children’s Hospital Los Angeles psychiatrist and brain researcher not involved in the study, told the NYT. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Abortion policies and legislation in states with the most severe restrictions on the procedure also have the least access to reproductive health care and support programs for pregnant women, a new report finds; Northwestern University School of Medicine researchers analyzed insurance data for the study. EurekAlert (news release)

A South Korean commission surfaced new evidence that hospitals, maternity wards, and adoption agencies in the country colluded to coerce parents—mostly single mothers—into giving up their children for adoption to Australia, Denmark, and the U.S., among other countries. The Guardian
 
COVID survivors with disabilities experienced 2X the rates of long COVID compared to those without disabilities—over 40% compared to 19%, per a 2022 survey by University of Kansas researchers in the American Journal of Public Health. CIDRAP
 
More Americans are inclined to believe COVID-19 vaccination misinformation, and are less willing to vaccinate, according to a new Annenberg Public Policy Center health survey that found over 20% of Americans incorrectly believe that getting a COVID-19 infection is safer than getting the vaccine—up from 10% in April 2021. Penn Today / University of Pennsylvania ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE Nobody Is Safe
Deaths from drug-resistant infections are predicted to number over 10 million a year by 2050. 

In most immediate danger: The ill, young, elderly, and those living in poverty.

But everyone is at risk, as a troubling set of profiles reveals:

• In Pakistan, 25-year-old Naveed contracted a hospital-acquired infection following  emergency surgery; and 47-year-old Malik faced amputation after a roadside cut on his foot left him with an infection that would not heal. 


• In Nigeria, 9-day-old Ahamba fought a life-threatening infection that started hours after birth. 


• In the U.S., 39-year-old Tamara developed a series of urinary tract infections that no longer responded to antibiotics. 

Such infections are “a preventable burden of disease that is a consequence of a misuse of resources,” said the WHO’s Yvan Hutin.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES ATTACKS ON AID WORKERS ‘Deadliest Year’ for Humanitarian Workers
An ambulance driver in Ethiopia, shot while driving to the hospital. 

A volunteer in Sudan gunned down while collecting data. 

A paramedic killed while evacuating wounded civilians from the West Bank.

These workers are among the 187 aid workers killed globally in 2024 in what is tracking toward the “deadliest year ever for aid workers” amid growing disregard for international protections.

• 101 aid workers have been wounded and 68 have been kidnapped. 

Most vulnerable: Local aid workers—who often do not have the same level of security and training as international staff—are the most likely victims.

Areas of high risk: Gaza, Sudan, and South Sudan accounted for most of the deaths.

The Guardian SPILLOVER Dangers Percolating at Fur Farms 
A host of novel viruses have been detected at fur farms in China—including a “concerning” new bat coronavirus, a new study published in Nature finds.

A closer look: After analyzing samples from 461 dead animals, including raccoon dogs, mink, and guinea pigs.

• The scientists identified 125 different virus species, including 36 new pathogens. 


• Of the viruses detected, 39 were deemed to have “high spillover potential.”


• Among those: A dangerous new bat coronavirus called HKU5, found in a mink. 

The Quote: “Fur farms represent a far richer zoonotic soup than we thought,” said the study’s co-author Eddie Holmes, of the University of Sydney—who added that such farms present “a clear epidemic or pandemic risk.”
 
The Telegraph OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Polio vaccination starts in north Gaza despite obstacles – Reuters

Poliovirus that infected a Chinese child in 2014 may have leaked from a lab – Science

More support is needed for more than 4.2 million refugees and migrants who seek safety and stability in the Americas – IOM via ReliefWeb

Officials await testing clues from Missouri H5 avian flu case as Michigan reports more affected cows – CIDRAP

Dobbs Has Fundamentally Changed Obstetric Care, Study Finds – MedPage Today

Native-led suicide prevention program focuses on building community strengths – NPR Issue No. 2777
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, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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The UN Middle East envoy has strongly condemned deadly airstrikes by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday on a densely populated area in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Gaza.

96 Global Health NOW: Sudan’s Widening ‘Nightmare’; No Known Animal Contact in Missouri Bird Flu Case; and Bat Declines Linked to Infant Mortality View this email in your browser September 9, 2024 Forward Share Post Sudanese families carrying their belongings arrive at a transit center for refugees in Renk, South Sudan, on February 14. Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Sudan’s Widening ‘Nightmare’
Eighteen months of brutal civil war in Sudan have left the nation trapped in a “nightmare of conflict” that the world continues to ignore, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday, per UN News. 

Additionally, a new report from the latest UN fact-finding mission cataloged “harrowing” human rights abuses committed by both sides of the conflict and called for independent peacekeepers to intervene, reports The Guardian.

The toll 500 days in:

• 20,000+ people have been killed; 12+ million people have been displaced.


• The nation’s health system is “near collapse,” with 70%–80% of facilities affected.


• ~25 million people are “in dire need of humanitarian aid.”

Ongoing atrocities: Both Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have attacked civilians, committed torture and rape, and made arbitrary arrests, the UN’s fact-finding mission found.

• But: Sudan’s government said it “rejects in their entirety” the UN’s recommendations, demanding that the body support its “national process,” per Al Monitor. 

On top of this:

• 25.6 million people—half the population—are facing acute food insecurity. 


• Outbreaks of cholera are on the rise, reports ABC. 


• Disease surveillance has been impossible in areas under RSF control, per Radio Dabanga. 


• Floods have destabilized infrastructure. 

Renewed call to action: UN officials are calling for more protection for health workers and facilities, an expanded arms embargo, more humanitarian funding—and an immediate ceasefire. 

“The best medicine is peace,” said Tedros. GHN FOR FREE Share GHN With a Student   What do global health students need? I mean, besides coffee.
 
They need to know what’s going on in global health—practical examples of global health issues and solutions IRL. There’s no better source than Global Health NOW. 

Please share GHN’s free subscribe link with students you know. It will help them:

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Seal the deal: GHN’s smartly curated global health news is still every student’s favorite price: free. —Brian SHARE GHN'S SUBSCRIBE LINK GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   The African CDC and the WHO launched a $600 million continental plan Friday to boost the mpox outbreak response amid an escalation of cases—including in DRC, which now has 20,000+ cases; Guinea’s report of a confirmed case brings the total number of African countries affected to 14. CIDRAP

Texas is suing the Biden administration to overturn a federal rule that protects the medical records of women from criminal investigation if they cross state lines to seek legal abortion. U.S. News & World Report 

Hair and skin care products expose kids to endocrine-disrupting chemicals called phthalates, per a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, which found that Black children had the highest levels of phthalates in their urine. NPR Shots

Teen vaping has dropped to a 10-year low, CDC officials have reported—attributing the “monumental public health win” to recent age restrictions and aggressive enforcement against retailers and manufacturers. AP RADAR: AVIAN FLU Missouri’s First Case
The CDC has confirmed the first case of H5 bird flu in a person with no known animal contact, The Hill reports.

• The case, in Missouri, was detected through the state’s seasonal flu surveillance system.


• The patient, who was hospitalized in August and has been released, had underlying medical conditions.


• At least 13 other people in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu this year, but all had occupational exposure to infected animals.

Missouri has not reported any H5 outbreaks in dairy cattle, STAT noted, adding that additional testing will be important to confirm whether this is the same strain of the H5 virus causing the cattle outbreak.

• The CDC said the risk to the general public remains low.

Related: 5 burning questions about Missouri’s mysterious H5 bird flu case: Could raw milk — or a cat — help explain how a person who had no contact with animals caught the virus? – STAT GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES BIODIVERSITY Bat Declines Linked to Infant Mortality
A “groundbreaking” study showing the connection between bats’ decline in the U.S. and infant mortality is the latest to demonstrate the stark toll of imbalanced ecosystems. 

According to the research, published last week in Science, a decline in bat populations due to a fungal disease led farmers in 245 counties to increase their use of insecticides by 31% to combat an increase in insect activity.

• In those same counties, infant mortality rose by ~8%—accounting for 1,334 infant deaths—from 2006 to 2017. 

“It is a sobering result,” said environmental economist Eli Fenichel. 

Other possible factors—like unemployment and drug use—were ruled out as causes. 

A warning: 52% of bat species in North America are at risk of severe declines over the next 15 years. 

The New York Times (gift link) CORRECTION Not ‘Jabbed’
Our Sept. 3 lead summary on the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza incorrectly said that 161,000+ children under 10 had been “jabbed” during the drive’s first two days. The campaign is distributing the oral polio vaccine. We regret the error. Thanks, Alexandra Brown for pointing out our mistake! OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Hundreds of thousands of parents died from drugs. Their kids need more help, advocates say. – The Daily Montanan

US is beefing up mpox testing, vaccine access against new strain, officials say – Reuters

India records first suspected mpox case, male patient in isolation – Al Jazeera

Determinants of the desire to avoid pregnancy after the disaster of the century in Türkiye – BMC Women’s Health

Strengthening surgical systems in LMICs: data-driven approaches ​​– The Lancet Global Health (commentary)

New polio strain threatens setback to eradication in Nigeria – New Delhi Times

Light pollution at night may increase risk of Alzheimer’s, study finds – The Guardian

Off-Broadway musical warns of deadly threat of antibiotic resistance – PIX11 Issue No. 2776
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, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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Monday would have marked the start of the new school year in Gaza, but the ongoing war continues to deprive hundreds of thousands of children of this fundamental right, UN agencies have warned.

Sudan’s health system is “near collapse” after 16 months of war have left the country and its people facing what the UN’s top health official described on Sunday as the “perfect storm of crises”, which the world is largely ignoring.

The UN Secretary-General is marking ‘Clean Air Day’ with a call for global investment in solutions that tackle climate change and the increasing public health, environmental, and economic harm caused by air pollution. 

As African countries grapple with a deadly mpox outbreak, the UN independent expert on the right to health on Friday stressed that equitable access to vaccines is crucial in the race to save lives.

More than 160,000 children were vaccinated in southern Gaza on Thursday, the first day of a polio vaccination campaign there, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said on Friday.

96 Global Health NOW: Deaths from Cholera Up Sharply; Paraguay’s Sex Ed Controversy; and If You Like Piña Coladas, and Getting Caught in Aisle 9 View this email in your browser September 5, 2024 Forward Share Post A health care worker tends to a new patient at a temporary cholera treatment centre at Bwaila District hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, on February 21, 2023. Fredrik Lerneryd/AFP via Getty Global Cholera Deaths Up Sharply 
Cholera deaths shot up 71% last year, according to WHO figures shared yesterday—amounting to 4,000+ deaths last year from a disease that is preventable and treatable, VOA reports.

• Cases were up 13% in the same period (2022-2023), with 45 countries reporting cases last year.


• 38% of the reported cases were among children under 5.


• 32% less cases reported in the Middle East and Asia and a 125% increase in Africa; top hot spots included Afghanistan, the DRC, Malawi, and Somalia.

Reasons for the rise: Conflict, climate change, and a lack of safe water and sanitation.
 
A new monitoring metric: Many African countries reported a high proportion of community deaths—those that occurred outside hospitals—an indication of “serious gaps in access to treatment,” per the WHO.
 
Vaccines: The cholera vaccine supply hasn’t been able to keep up with demand; WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has asked other vaccine manufacturers to help boost the supply. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners  
Moderna’s mRNA mpox vaccine candidate proved more effective at preventing severe disease in monkeys than the dominant Jynneos vaccine, according to a new study; in lab tests researchers found that the vaccine also neutralizes other orthopox viruses, like camelpox, rabbitpox and multiple mpox strains. Fierce Biotech

The DRC is set to receive its first batch of 100,000 mpox vaccines—manufactured by Bavarian Nordic—from the European Union today, and a second delivery should arrive soon. Reuters
 
Men aged 30 to 45 exposed to air pollution over ~five years had a 24% higher risk of being diagnosed with infertility, per a large new Danish study published in the BMJ yesterday that also found a previously unknown association between road traffic noise pollution and infertility among women aged 35 to 45. HealthDay
 
YouTube plans to restrict teenagers’ exposure to videos about weight and fitness, tweaking its algorithms to stop pushing 13-17-year-olds down “rabbit holes” of related content after they view an initial video. The Guardian DATA POINT GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES FAMILY PLANNING Paraguay’s Sex Ed Curriculum Stirs Controversy
“Men conquer, not seduce.” “Girls have smaller and lighter brains.” “Boys don’t cry easily.” “Girls don’t like taking risks.”
 
Those phrases are lifted from Paraguay’s first national sex ed curriculum—endorsed by the Ministry of Education, which left-leaning senator Esperanza Martínez called “an affront to science.”

• The text promotes abstinence, deems sex “God’s invention for married people,” discourages condom use, and ignores sexual orientation or identity, to the approval of conservative forces and dismay of sexual health educators.


• Many mothers in the country—which has South America’s highest rate of teenage pregnancy—blame their teen pregnancies on norms that kept them in the dark about sex.

AP ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION If You Like Piña Coladas, and Getting Caught in Aisle 9
Police were recently called to a grocery store in Bilbao, northern Spain, after it became "overwhelmed" with young people emptying the produce shelves. 

Their crime? Looking for love. And hijacking pineapples for the purpose, reports the BBC. 

The pine-apple of your eye: According to the TikTok-driven rules of engagement, hopeful romantics are to arrive at the Mercadona grocery store between 7–8 p.m.—“la hora de ligar” (the hour of flirting)—then place an upside-down pineapple in their cart and head to the wine section. 

A-peel-ing prospects?: Instead of swiping right, potential matches bump carts, per Sky News. 

Pineapples > apps: The trend’s popularity tracks with Gen Z’s growing frustration with dating apps, explains The Telegraph. 

A fruitless search: One Telegraph columnist flew from England to Spain to try her luck—but left empty-carted and brokenhearted, writing in her dispatch: “Surely there’s no sadder sight than a woman, at the end of la hora de ligar, returning her pineapple. Alone.” QUICK HITS Doctors grapple with how to save women’s lives amid ‘confusion and angst’ over new Louisiana law – Louisiana Illuminator

It Matters If It’s COVID – The Atlantic

Alarming HIV/AIDS rates among Black people in Georgia – The Atlanta Voice

Preventing the next ‘Fukushima’ – High Country News

Russia's Growing Footprint on the African Health Landscape – Think Global Health (commentary)

Fake Ozempic: How batch numbers help criminal groups spread dangerous drugs – Reuters

In a rural small town, a group of locals steps up to support senior health – NPR Issue No. 2776
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, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @globalhealth.now and X @GHN_News.

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

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  Copyright 2024 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 Bloomberg School.


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