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Contributors to Global Health NOW include: Brian Simpson, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, and Jackie Powder.

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Global Health Now: Global Health NOW: Ongoing U.S. Vaccine Volatility; and Support Networks Take Root in Nigeria

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:34:24 -0400

Global Health NOW: Ongoing U.S. Vaccine Volatility; and Support Networks Take Root in Nigeria

July 29, 2026

NEWS IN BRIEF

An mpox outbreak has grown to 3,000+ cases and killed 20 in Madagascar, where the virus’s clade 1b strain has hit several coastal city commercial hubs; ~65% of mpox tests carried out in the country have been positive—a sign that many cases may be going undetected. The Telegraph

Europe is off-track from its 2030 target to eliminate viral hepatitis, with the European CDC pointing to “gaps in prevention”; the region has made steady progress, however, with hepatitis B prevalence now at near-zero levels among children under 5. News Medical

The WHO has updated leishmaniasis treatment guidelines for eastern Africa and South-East Asia, recommending new regimens that “significantly improve patient care,” including alternatives to the longstanding regional protocol that uses sodium stibogluconate, a drug that requires painful daily injections and causes severe side effects. WHO (news release)

The American Red Cross has declared a national blood supply crisis for the second time in its history as blood donations fell to a four-year summer low, the organization announced this week; worsened donor turnout has likely been driven by extreme heat, poor air quality, and outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, the Red Cross said. The Washington Post (gift link)

IN FOCUS

Callum Diaz-Cheng, 3 (left), and Aevin Lee, 2 (right), play while waiting for their vaccinations at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, with physicians Andrew Cheng and Jennifer Su nearby. June 21, 2022. Wesley Lapointe/Los Angeles Times via Getty

Ongoing U.S. Vaccine Volatility

The outlook for vaccine policy in the U.S. remains in flux as the White House pushes for sweeping changes even as state legislators, court rulings, congressional resistance, and polling indicate pushback against an anti-vaccination agenda.

International outlook: The State Department will release ~$600 million that Congress appropriated months ago for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Susan Collins announced yesterday, per Politico; the disbursement comes after Kennedy sought to delay the funding over criticisms of Gavi.

Federal outlook: After a federal judge paused the Trump administration’s efforts to narrow the routine childhood immunization schedule, recent reporting suggests that President Trump pushed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be more aggressive in rolling back vaccine requirements—despite polling showing vaccine cutbacks are politically risky ahead of the midterms, per The Guardian.

State outlook: Vaccine-related laws were a fixture in state legislative sessions this year, with ~400 bills introduced—including 200+ across 34 states that aimed to weaken vaccination rules or systems, per an analysis by The New York Times (gift link).

Playground outlook: Meanwhile, parents are proving to be some of the more vocal advocates for childhood vaccinations: A paper published last week in PLOS One found that 36% of U.S. parents in a nationally representative study reported advocating that other parents vaccinate their children, while 12% discouraged other parents from vaccinating, reports CIDRAP.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES

DISABILITY

Support Networks Take Root in Nigeria

In Nigeria, people with Down syndrome and other disabilities and their families have long endured isolation and discrimination, with few resources or cultural support.

But that is slowly changing, as advocates nurture growing peer support communities, which are also beginning to push for greater institutional change.

A 2024 national assessment of disability inclusion in Nigeria found that longstanding systemic barriers have prevented “full participation in national life” for many with disabilities.
And in many regions, beliefs that disabilities are caused by curses or witchcraft persist.

Strengthening supports: Groups formed in the last few years, including GlowingStar Empowerment Initiative and Development, aim to connect families, provide public education, and push for policy change like more inclusive schools, affordable healthcare, and bolstered caregiver support.

The Guardian

MINI POLL

How do you feel about the geographical balance in GHN?

Too much U.S.-focused news

Just the right balance

Not enough U.S.-focused news

QUICK HITS

Activists and leaders at global HIV meeting decry price of prevention drug – Science

Lancet Report Recommends Paradigm Shift in Care for Older Adults with HIV – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Six key issues we’re watching at Fauci’s hearing – STAT

FDA official says food supply is safe as cyclosporiasis cases climb – The New York Times (gift link)

Trump Has Quietly Throttled an Agency Devoted to the Safety of American Healthcare – KFF Health News

Temps are predicted to hit 106 in Egypt this week. How do people stay cool? – NPR (comic)

Issue No. 2598

Read the full Q&A by Brian W. Simpson

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World Health Organization: Hunger hampers Ebola response as cases top 3,200 in DR Congo

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400

The UN emergency food agency appealed for immediate funding on Wednesday, warning that deepening hunger is undermining the response to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has now infected more than 3,200 people.

Global Health Now: Global Health NOW: The New Normal of an Old Threat; and Vital Strategies’ Mary-Ann Etiebet on Global Health’s Fundamentals

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:50:38 -0400

Global Health NOW: The New Normal of an Old Threat; and Vital Strategies’ Mary-Ann Etiebet on Global Health’s Fundamentals

July 28, 2026

NEWS IN BRIEF

A severe drought in Eastern Uganda has caused crop failures that have led to 19 deaths from hunger; the government announced plans to distribute 9,400 tons of emergency food supplies over the next two months. The Guardian

A cheery Barclays research note recently advised investors on profit opportunities from the “super” El Niño weather cycle, which is predicted to cause extreme weather events that may leave 100 million people hungry. TBIJ

Fewer adolescent participants in a key U.S. mental health study reported using tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana last year—continuing a positive trend among 12- to 17-year-olds. AP

U.K. industrial farms that raise chickens have led to a dangerous increase in the Campylobacter bacterium—a common cause of diarrhea, according to a study published yesterday in PNAS; the crowded industrial conditions are fostering antimicrobial resistance. The Independent

IN FOCUS

Parkside Pediatrics provider, Nathan Heffington, preps in full PPE gear to asses a patient with measles symptoms. Spartanburg, South Carolina, January 30. The Washington Post

The New Normal of an Old Threat

As the U.S. marked its highest measles case count in 35 years last week, American doctors are voicing frustration as they grapple with the resurgence of a preventable virus, per Reuters via AOL.

The overview: 2,300+ cases have been confirmed so far this year, as of July 24—with nearly all of the confirmed cases in unvaccinated or undervaccinated people, per a July 22 analysis from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s International Vaccine Access Center.

That number already outpaces last year’s total measles cases—and jeopardizes the U.S.’s measles elimination status, to be determined later this year.
“The significance of reaching this milestone is that the US has not been able to stop measles virus transmission or outbreaks as it has in the past,” William Moss, IVAC’s executive director, told DW—adding that the virus is spreading between communities in the U.S., rather than being limited to infections brought in from abroad.

The frontline view: In a series of powerful interviews with Amy Maxmen for KFF Health News, six Utah doctors describe treating unvaccinated children hospitalized for measles, and the complexities of discussing the virus and vaccines with parents.

“I wish that people could see what I see,” says Nathan Money, a hospital pediatrician in Utah. “I see what happens when things go poorly… And the child is terrified, and the parents are scared that their child might die.”

The long view: With an unavoidable need for more therapeutic tools amid declining vaccination, researchers and biotech companies are stepping up efforts to develop measles-specific treatments, including monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs, reports WIRED.

GHN EXCLUSIVE Q&A

Vital Strategies CEO Mary-Ann Etiebet speaks to the UN General Assembly foreign policy panel in September 2025. Courtesy: Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies’ Mary-Ann Etiebet on Global Health’s Fundamentals

She calls it her “baptism by fire.”

Mary-Ann Etiebet took charge of the global public health organization Vital Strategies just months before the U.S. government upended global health last year. The CEO says the cuts have cost lives and livelihoods, and caused “tectonic plate shifting in global health and global health financing.”

They have also created an opportunity for global health “to move away from a scarcity mindset, where we’re all fighting over a slice of the pie.” Instead, she argues, it’s time to find ways to increase the pie.

Takeaways from her Q&A with GHN:

“If governments enact health taxes to increase the price of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary beverages by 50% globally, in five years, we could get $3.7 trillion. This could support up to 40% of national health budgets in low- and middle-income countries.”
Such health taxes have a “triple win effect: raising revenue, reducing healthcare burden, and saving lives.”
Investment in noncommunicable diseases is lacking because “most of the NCD data is all modeling and estimates.” Developing national data systems like birth and death registries would yield reliable data that would be “harder to ignore,” she says.

OPPORTUNITY

QUICK HITS

After PCOS became PMOS, there’s hope for new awareness among Black and Latina women – STAT

When spit hoods are used on children, troubling patterns emerge – The Seattle Times

Trump administration demands hospitals share emergency room records – KFF Health News

AI helps Stanford scientists discover “natural Ozempic” without the usual side effects – Stanford Medicine

Study links heavy TV watching to brain changes tied to Alzheimer’s – The Hill

International PhD students to face strict limits on time in the US – Nature

Issue No. 2597

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World Health Organization: HIV, hepatitis, STI gains at risk as funding falls, WHO warns

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Years of progress in tackling HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are at risk of stalling, leaving millions of people without access to life-saving prevention, testing and treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Global Health Now: Global Health NOW: Hope and Headwinds in the HIV Fight; and Unlocking the Medical Potential of Menstrual Blood

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:41:06 -0400

Global Health NOW: Hope and Headwinds in the HIV Fight; and Unlocking the Medical Potential of Menstrual Blood

July 27, 2026

NEWS IN BRIEF

More health workers have gone on strike at a treatment center in the Ebola epicenter of eastern Congo, demanding pay as the rapidly growing outbreak nears ~3,000 confirmed cases and 1,300+ deaths. AP

Migraine-related ER visits increase during periods of wildfire smoke, finds a study published Friday in JAMA in which Canadian researchers analyzed ~1 million emergency visits for migraine conditions between 2010 and 2023 and saw a 6% uptick in such visits during periods of smoke-filled air. CBC

Baltimore is expanding its 911 dispatch to include “wraparound support” for crises that may not require EMS or police response, including connection to mobile crisis teams for people in mental health distress and emergency housing support; the service will be funded by opioid-related legal settlements. NPR

Restricted eating windows could be linked to a reduced dementia risk, per a new pilot study presented at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting, which found that cognitive skills were improved in older women who restricted their eating to an 8–9-hour window and avoided eating four hours before bed, compared with participants who spread their meals across ~12 hours. The Independent

IN FOCUS

A nurse prepares to inject a patient with lenacapavir on June 8, at Paulina Morapeli Clinic in Embalenhle township outside Secunda, South Africa. Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty

Hope and Headwinds in the HIV Fight

The world’s largest scientific conference on HIV/AIDS kicks off this week at an inflection point in the decades-long fight against the virus: The promise of wider PrEP access is rapidly brightening the outlook in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. At the same time, funding cuts and political shifts threaten to undermine years of progress.

That tension was on full display at the 26th International AIDS Conference yesterday in Rio de Janeiro, where health activists protested U.S. PEPFAR disruptions and U.S. officials acknowledged a need to continue reaching at-risk populations.

Pivotal moment for PrEP: Merck announced last week that it licensed seven generic manufacturers to produce a low-cost version of its investigational monthly PrEP pill, alimatravir, for 129 LMICs, reports The New York Times (gift link).

The decision could rapidly expand access to the pill in those countries if late-stage clinical trials succeed.

Progress meets political disruption: Such innovations come as progress has stalled on cutting HIV infection rates. There were 1.2 million new HIV infections in 2025, per UNAIDS, while recent analyses show PrEP initiation fell sharply in several high-burden countries amid reductions in U.S. and other donor funding.

U.S. under scrutiny: Meanwhile, a U.S. government session outlining the country’s new “America First Global Health Strategy” was interrupted by HIV activists blowing whistles and chanting, “You lie, people die,” reports Health Policy Watch.

At the session, U.S. officials acknowledged that despite the recent focus on treatment for mothers and babies, ending the epidemic requires reaching “all people at risk”—including key populations.
“We can’t forget any group because if we do, we will fail,” said Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing PEPFAR.

Related:

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean helped build the future of HIV prevention. But will they be able to benefit from it? – Unitaid (commentary)

She Wasn’t Supposed to Survive. Her Fight Saved Thousands – Haaretz

Kenyan Professor Kenneth Ngure Elected President of the International AIDS Society in Brazil – Africa Science News

DATA POINT

300,000

—————

Drowning deaths worldwide each year—most preventable, and 90%+ in LMICs. Ahead of World Drowning Prevention Day yesterday, the WHO released a technical package of seven strategies to reduce drowning deaths; the framework is being launched in Ghana, where ~three people die each day from drowning. —WHO (news release)

INNOVATION

Unlocking the Medical Potential of Menstrual Blood

An emerging field of study and innovation is stemming from a long-discarded biological resource: menstrual blood.

A growing number of researchers and biotech companies are exploring the potential of such blood samples as a tool for understanding fertility, diagnosing disease, and studying the body’s healing systems.

Recent developments include:

A system that collects and analyzes blood from used tampons, creating a “liquid biopsy” without invasive procedures.
A self-collection kit that uses a tampon to screen for HPV.
An FDA-approved pad used for hemoglobin A1c monitoring.
A menstrual cup used for endometriosis diagnosis.

Broader insights: Researchers are also studying whether menstruation may provide a “blueprint” for the body’s response to inflammation and tissue repair.

Reasons to Be Cheerful

OPPORTUNITY

Conference: Tending to the Public Health Workforce

Join the National Network of Public Health Institutes in lively Nashville, Tennessee, August 24–26, 2026, for their annual public health workforce development conference, Open Forum: Next Generation.

Students get a discounted rate of $375 for the entire conference.

QUICK HITS

Ebola Thrives in DR Congo’s Chaos. The World May Soon Pay the Price – Newsweek

Yemen’s health workers race to halt latest outbreak of deadly dengue fever – Al Jazeera

Gaza: Dialysis patients face gruelling hospital journey by donkey cart – UN News

Todd R. Lawrence and Madison A. Kesler: E-bikes, e-scooters are a burgeoning pediatric public health emergency – STAT (commentary)

NIH is again terminating grants that the Trump administration dislikes – Science

Trump “public charge” rule resets health test for green cards – Axios

Grocery Shopping in the Age of Explosive Diarrhea – The New Yorker

Issue No. 2596