Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
30 January 2026
Today marks Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day, reminding us of their significant global impact and the imperative for continued efforts towards control, elimination, or eradication. This year, MSF has undertaken pioneering research including conducting the first deep shotgun metagenomic survey of the oral microbiome in patients with acute noma, and carrying out a pilot study in Honduras to introduce Wolbachia into local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to curb dengue transmission. Additionally, MSF reported the first cases of melioidosis in children under five in Mali. Amid radical shifts in the medical and pharmaceutical research landscape, it is critical that NTDs remain on the global health agenda to ensure that the most neglected populations are not left behind. Read more of MSF’s NTD research on the MSF Science Portal.
This week, in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, DNDi reported on InfoChagas, a digital platform designed to support people at risk of Chagas disease who face significant barriers to healthcare and adequate information, finding it to be widely received as an informative, educational, and supportive resource across diverse regions. In International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Epicentre and MSF evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound for pulmonary tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea, finding high sensitivity but low specificity, and highlighted its potential as an alternative when chest X-ray is unavailable.
In Nature, MSF highlighted persistent challenges in the recent Ebola outbreak response in the DRC, underscoring that rapid short-term interventions fail to build lasting capacity or community trust. A collaboration between the Ministry of Health, WHO, MSF, WFP and other partners led to a new approach to clinical care focused on reinforcing local systems and promoting a more sustainable, patient-centered model of care.
Finally, in The BMJ, MSF discussed the multiple attacks on MSF’s healthcare facilities and workers in South Sudan, underlining that no one should ever have to choose between seeking healthcare for fear they’re unsafe.
Best regards,
Zhi Wei Ching, Lydia Lampiri, Madeleine Baxter and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Amelia Zhao.
All MSF-authored publications can be found on the MSF Science Portal, as well as recordings, abstracts and posters from the MSF Scientific Days 2024 conference.
Antimicrobial resistance
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of bacteria causing surgical site infections in a tertiary care centers in Lebanon
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Barriers and facilitators to antibiotic stewardship in Nigeria’s private healthcare sector: A qualitative interview study with national health and regulatory interest holders
Climate change and Planetary Health
The Lancet Planetary Health • Comment: Pandemic Agreement implementation agenda for international wildlife trade
The BMJ • Opinion: Climate migration is inevitable; we are unprepared
The BMJ • Opinion: The ocean is our greatest ally in mitigating climate change, but overusing it as climate “solution” could be counterproductive
The BMJ • Opinion: What can’t wait: climate triage and The Ministry for the Future
The BMJ • Opinion: Managing the impact of AI on both human health and planetary health requires new forms of governance
The BMJ • Opinion: The narrowing legal operating space for climate action
The BMJ • Opinion: Sustainable healthcare: how Asia Pacific is leading the way
Conflict, migration and health
The BMJ • Analysis: Harnessing wartime recovery to transform healthcare in Ukraine
BMJ Global Health • Article: Newly emerged resistance healthcare systems in northwest Myanmar’s Sagaing Region post-military coup: qualitative insights from anti-junta healthcare workers and community members
BMJ Global Health • Article: Challenges of access to care for children with cancer living in the Gaza Strip/occupied Palestinian territory in 2022: a cross-sectional study
The BMJ • Opinion***MSF AUTHOR***: The BMJ appeal 2025-26: Hospitals should be sanctuaries, not military targets
Ebola
Nature Medicine • Correspondence***MSF AUTHOR***: Reorienting Ebola care toward human-centered sustainable practice
Global health
The BMJ • News***MENTIONS MSF***: New year, new life: MSF supported hospitals around the world greet first babies
BMJ Global Health • Article: Identifying priority diseases and injuries to promote equality as measured by health-adjusted life expectancy: a population-based study
BMJ Global Health • Article: Medical specialists in LMICs: a systematic review and best-fit framework synthesis of the evidence on their roles and contribution to health systems
BMJ Global Health • Article: A novel phased approach to rapid response capacity strengthening in public health emergencies: Egypt’s experience
HIV
BMJ Global Health • Article: Impact of an integrated parenting and nutrition intervention on growth and development in stunted children at 24 months: evidence from the Stepping Stones programme in rural India
JAMA • Viewpoint: Subscription-Based Pricing for Lenacapavir—Learning From Hepatitis C and Cabotegravir
Infectious diseases
The Lancet Infectious Disease • Correspondence: Methodological considerations in the attribution of long COVID to first or second infection
The Lancet Infectious Disease • Article: Methodological considerations in the attribution of long COVID to first or second infection – Authors' reply
The Lancet Infectious Disease • News: Highlights from ASTMH 2025
The Lancet Planetary Health • Article: Risk, burden, and trend of infectious disease hospitalisations associated with floods: a multicountry, time-series study
The BMJ • Article: Oral ivermectin versus 5% permethrin cream to treat children and adults with classic scabies: multicentre, assessor blinded, cluster randomised clinical trial
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Monitoring COVID-19 occurrence in a resource-limited setting – COVID-19 sentinel surveillance in Malawi
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Prevalence of CMV, EBV, HPV, and HSV among South Asian healthy population: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Malaria
The Lancet Infectious Disease • Article: The effectiveness of long-lasting spatial repellent emanators against malaria in humanitarian crisis settings in northern Nigeria: a two-arm pragmatic, open-label, controlled trial
BMJ Global Health • Article: Characterising concerns and misinformation shaping global HIV vaccine confidence and demand: a structured literature search and content analysis
BMJ Global Health • Article: Effectiveness of antenatal care delivery of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in the context of an integrated strategy with seasonal malaria chemoprevention in Mali and Burkina Faso
BMJ Global Health • Article: Development of a new wealth index for Tanzania: the moderated effect of the implementation of 1,7- malaria reactive community-based testing and response (1,7-mRCTR) by socioeconomic position (SEP) with malaria prevention
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Model-guided geospatial surveillance system for antimalarial drug resistance
Malaria Journal • : Funded investments contributed to the reduction of malaria morbidity and mortality in children under five: fifteen years retrospective study from 2009 to 2023 in Burkina Faso
Malaria Journal • : Sustaining community-based malaria services through stakeholder engagement: lessons from co-creation in northeastern Thailand
Malaria Journal • : The impact of intermittent preventive treatment for malaria on school absenteeism among primary school-aged children in Handeni District Council, Tanzania: quasi-experimental study
Malaria Journal • : Accuracy of recording of malaria rapid diagnostic tests in Côte d’Ivoire
Malaria Journal • : Association between placental malaria, postnatal linear growth, and body mass index in the Dogon Longitudinal Study, Mali
Malaria Journal • : Determinants of delay in treatment-seeking among malaria patients attending health facilities in Ethiopia from 2010 to 2024: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Malaria Journal • : Mapping mosquito diversity in Kenya correlating species distribution with malaria prevalence across varied climatic parameters
Maternal and child health
BMJ Global Health • Article: Acceptability of ambulance-based telemedicine (ABT) for paediatric emergencies in Karachi, Pakistan
BMJ Global Health • Article: Introducing and testing the maternal vulnerability segmentation tool (MVST) for essential health services use: demonstrating its use in Oromia, Ethiopia
BMJ Global Health • Practice: Implementation pathways of a health services delivery redesign model to improve maternal and newborn outcomes in Kenya
BMJ Global Health • Article: Impact and cost-effectiveness of Neotree, a digital data capture and decision support tool designed to improve neonatal survival in Zimbabwe: an interrupted time series analysis and economic evaluation
Mental health
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Trends and risk factors for suicide mortality in India from 2001–2019: National mortality study
PLOS Mental Health • : Ingredients for success: Factors associated with successful integration of depression care into non-communicable disease clinics in Malawi: A mixed-methods analysis
Neglected tropical diseases
The Lancet Infectious Disease • Article: Lassa fever symptomatology, viral dynamics, and host immune response (PREPARE): a prospective, observational cohort study in Liberia
The Lancet Infectious Disease • Comment: Lassa viral dynamics: implications for missed diagnosis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Arboviruses circulation in Guinea: Overview and perspectives for public health
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Proceedings of the inaugural symposium on dengue human challenge studies “Challenging the norm: Accelerating dengue countermeasures through human studies”
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: An automated end-to-end system for schistosome viability assessment to accelerate anti-schistosomal drug discovery
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Target product profile for the development of pediatric formulations of new drugs for the treatment of children with T. cruzi infection
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Viewpoint: Endemic and invisible: Visceral Leishmaniasis a One Health imperative in the Somali’s fragile health landscape
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Splenic accumulation of intact Plasmodium ovale sensu lato-infected red blood cells in a patient presenting with splenic rupture
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: CRISPR/Cas12a-RCA enables ultrasensitive detection of circulating free DNA for noninvasive diagnosis of echinococcosis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Exploring the landscape of lymphatic filariasis research in India: A scientometric analysis of two decades from 2000 to 2024
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Review: Paracoccidioidomycosis in the 21st century: Challenges and milestones
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Rapid, label-free surface plasmon resonance discrimination between Bothrops and Crotalus venoms using clinical antivenom as the capture reagent
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Projecting long-term excess risks of major infectious diseases associated with future extreme weather events in Thailand
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Using dried blood spots to estimate Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence in pregnant women in Catalonia, Spain, and to serologically diagnose congenital toxoplasmosis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Low risk of transmission of prototype and newly emerged Oropouche virus strains by European Culex pipiens, Aedes albopictus, and Anopheles atroparvus mosquitoes
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Prognostic determinants and mortality risk of advanced schistosomiasis revealed by Lasso-Cox regression integrative approach
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Community knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward cutaneous leishmaniasis in central Ethiopia
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Leptospirosis in the Caribbean Region between 2000 and 2022: A scoping review of morbidity and mortality
Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Schistosoma japonicum infection: clinical significance of ultrasound findings
Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Topic: Xenomonitoring of Schistosoma intermediate hosts for evaluating community-wide mass drug administration in Ghana: preliminary findings and lessons
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: A Randomised Trial of Three Face-Washing Methods for the Removal of Chlamydia trachomatis From the Faces of Children With Severe Active Trachoma
BMJ Global Health • Comment***DNDi AUTHOR***: Global health is in crisis: to reach neglected patients, we need to reimagine medical research
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article***DNDi AUTHOR***: Analysis of the consultations on the InfoChagas digital platform
Non-communicable diseases
PLOS Global Public Health • Review: The prevalence and associated factors of uncontrolled blood pressure in a rural community of Nepal: A cross-sectional study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Prevalence and risk factors of diarrhea among young children in Kenya’s drylands: A longitudinal study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Stakeholders’ perspectives on the management and prevention of non-communicable diseases in rural Tanzania: SWOC analysis prior to PEN Plus implementation
PLOS Medicine • Article: Taxation of foods high in fat, sugar, and sodium in India: A modelling study of health and economic impacts
Outbreaks
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: The barriers and enablers of outbreak reporting in the Asia-Pacific region: A mixed methods study of field epidemiologists
Sexual and reproductive health
The BMJ • Opinion: The BMJ appeal 2025-26: Breaking the cycle of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo demands action
BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Aligning Islamic ethics with reproductive health policy: addressing gaps in early termination access in Saudi Arabia
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Implementation strategies and outcomes of intravenous iron use for treatment of anaemia during and after pregnancy in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: “As it is about that, they do as they please”: Women’s experience of the accessibility and acceptability of postabortion care in Kaya, Burkina Faso
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Intimate partner violence experience, support seeking and coping strategies among pregnant women in Southwestern Uganda
Tuberculosis
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Global estimates of tuberculosis incidence during pregnancy and postpartum: a rapid review and modelling analysis
The Lancet Global Health • Comment: Bridging maternal health and tuberculosis control: closing the data and policy gap
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Factors associated with delayed diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in Chitwan district of Nepal
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Nutritional status and associated factors among adult patients with tuberculosis in public hospitals of Sidama Region, Ethiopia
International Journal of Infectious Diseases • Article***EPICENTRE AUTHOR***: Diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound for pulmonary tuberculosis in outpatients from Papua New Guinea, a resource-limited setting
Vaccines
The Lancet Infectious Disease • Article: Safety and immunogenicity of PanChol, a single-dose live-attenuated oral cholera vaccine: results from a phase 1a, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial
eClinicalMedicine • Article: REGENECYTE cord blood cell therapy in post-COVID syndrome: a phase IIa randomized, placebo-controlled trial
BMJ Global Health • Article: Public preferences and decision-making for mpox vaccination in the African region: a multinational discrete choice experiment
JAMA • Article: Interim Safety of RSVpreF Vaccination During Pregnancy
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: “Grandmothers as gatekeepers”: The role of older women in addressing vaccine hesitancy in urban slum communities in Ibadan, Nigeria