Global health review

MSF outreach workers test people for kala azar, Fulbaria, Mymensingh district, Bangladesh. Caption
MSF outreach workers test people for kala azar, Fulbaria, Mymensingh district, Bangladesh.

A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond

1 December 2023

This week from MSF, a field report in the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs addresses misinformation in humanitarian programmes, demonstrating the value of the MSF Listen project in combatting this. In the same journal, another MSF field report on humanitarian disruption in conflict settings documents MSF’s experience and reflects on the potential of aid to disrupt local balances, or even be a factor in fueling violence.

From DNDi, research in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases trials a new treatment combination for post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Sudan, finding it to be safe and efficacious. Meanwhile, in PLOS Computational Biology, a DNDi article explores a new approach to deciding sample sizes and age distributions required to estimate dengue circulation in a population.

Finally, today is World AIDS Day! Check out The Lancet HIV’s December issue focused on pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP) for HIV prevention, featuring an article on the implementation of PrEP among female sex workers in South Africa.

Best Regards,

Mohammad Salaymeh, Lydia Lampiri, Sam Hibbs, and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Patricia Kahn and Annie Dunlap.

All MSF-authored publications can be found on the MSF Science Portal, as well as recordings, abstracts and posters from the MSF Scientific Days International 2023 conference.

Conflict, migration and health

The Lancet • Correspondence/letters : Excess mortality in Gaza: Oct 7–26, 2023

 

The Lancet • Correspondence/letters : Aid to the Central African Republic falls while death rates rise

 

The Lancet • Correspondence/letters : The need for medical sanctity in conflict zones

 

Global health

The BMJ Global Health • Comments : Decoloniality in global health research: ten tasks for early career researchers

 

The BMJ Global Health • Comments : How to build bridges for Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria by linking formal and informal health providers

 

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : Understanding reticence to occupy free, novel-design homes: A qualitative study in Mtwara, Southeast Tanzania

 

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : South Africa’s male homicide epidemic hiding in plain sight: Exploring sex differences and patterns in homicide risk in a retrospective descriptive study of postmortem investigations

 

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : Female community health volunteers’ experience in navigating social context while providing basic diabetes services in western Nepal: Social capital and beyond from systems thinking

 

The BMJ Global Health • Research : What made primary health care resilient against COVID-19? A mixed-methods positive deviance study in Nigeria

 

BMC Health Services Research • Research : Challenges and experience of the Ethiopian rural health extension program: implications for reform and revitalization

 

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs • Field report***MSF AUTHORS***: Benefiting Some More than Others: Humanitarian Disruption in Conflict Settings

 

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs • Field report***MSF AUTHOR***: Misinformation in Humanitarian Programmes: Lessons from the MSF Listen Experience

 

HIV

Tropical Medicine and Health • Research : Measuring training effectiveness of laboratory biosafety program offered at African Center for Integrated Laboratory Training in 22 President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief supported countries (2008–2014)

 

The Lancet HIV • Research : Effect of implementation strategies on pre-exposure prophylaxis persistence among female sex workers in South Africa: an interrupted time series study

 

Infectious diseases

The Lancet Global Health • Research : Association between air raids and reported incidence of cholera in Yemen, 2016–19: an ecological modelling study

 

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : Risk factors for diarrheagenic Escherichia coli infection in children aged 6–24 months in peri-urban community, Nairobi, Kenya

 

Bugbitten blog (BMC) • Opinions/viewpoints : Vampires exist…in the viral world at least

 

Malaria

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : Assessing risk factors for malaria and schistosomiasis among children in Misungwi, Tanzania, an area of co-endemicity: A mixed methods study

 

Malaria Journal • Research : Diagnostic performance of ultrasensitive rapid diagnostic test for the detection of Plasmodium falciparum infections in asymptomatic individuals in Kisangani, Northeast Democratic Republic of Congo

 

Malaria Journal • Research : Caregiver acceptance of malaria vaccination for children under 5 years of age and associated factors: cross-sectional household survey, Guinea and Sierra Leone, 2022

 

Malaria Journal • Research : Prevalence and risk factors associated with malaria infection in children under two years of age in southern Togo prior to perennial malaria chemoprevention implementation

 

Malaria Journal • Research : Relationship between the colours of the rivers in the Amazon and the incidence of malaria

 

Malaria Journal • Research : Evidence of malarial chemoprophylaxis among travellers who died from malaria: a systematic review and meta-analysis

 

Malaria Journal • Research : Health workers’ adherence to the malaria test, treat and track strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic in malaria high transmission area in Eastern Uganda

 

Malaria Journal • Research : Experiences of healthcare personnel on the efficacy of artemisinin-based combination therapy and malaria diagnosis in hospitals in Uganda

 

Maternal and child health

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : Healthcare provider perspective on barriers and facilitators in the care of pediatric injury patients at a tertiary hospital in Northern Tanzania: A qualitative study

 

The BMJ blog (BMJ Opinion) • Opinions/viewpoints : Reducing adolescent inequity through strategic investment: a global perspective

 

BMC Health Services Research • Research : Demand and supply analysis for maternal and child health services at the primary healthcare level in Nigeria

 

BMC Health Services Research • Research : Barriers experienced by community midwives to provide basic emergency obstetric and newborn care in rural Pakistan

 

Mental health

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : Suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt among men who have sex with men in Nepal: Findings from a cross-sectional study

 

Neglected tropical diseases

The BMJ Global Health • Research : Utility of surveillance data for planning for dengue elimination in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: a scenario-tree modelling approach

 

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Research***DNDi AUTHORS***: Safety and efficacy of paromomycin/miltefosine/liposomal amphotericin B combinations for the treatment of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Sudan: A phase II, open label, randomized, parallel arm study

 

PLOS Computational Biology • Research***DNDi AUTHORS***: A simulation-based method to inform serosurvey designs for estimating the force of infection using existing blood samples

 

Outbreaks

The BMJ Global Health • Research : Rethinking international financing for health to better respond to future pandemics

 

The BMJ • Research : How African countries can prepare for the next pandemic

 

Sexual and reproductive health

PLOS Global Public Health • Research : Perceptions of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services in selected Higher and Tertiary Education Institutions of Zambia: A qualitative study on the perspectives of young people and healthcare providers

 

The BMJ Global Health • Research : A systematic review of the indirect impacts of COVID-19 on sexual and reproductive health services and outcomes in humanitarian settings

 

The BMJ Global Health • Research : Trends and risk of recurrent preterm birth in pregnancy cohorts in rural Bangladesh, 1990–2019

 

Tuberculosis

BMC Global and Public Health • Research : Placing the values and preferences of people most affected by TB at the center of screening and testing: an approach for reaching the unreached

 

BMC Health Services Research • Research : Cost of digital technologies and family-observed DOT for a shorter MDR-TB regimen: a modelling study in Ethiopia, India and Uganda