Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
28 August 2026
Abstract submissions are now open for MSF Paediatric Days 2027. This year’s conference will focus on nutrition and strengthening the continuum of care, with submissions also welcomed across a broad range of paediatric research and practice. Review the submission guidelines and submit your abstract by 4 October 2026.
This week, an MSF commentary in The Lancet underscored ongoing community resistance, mistrust, and contestation to Bundibugyo virus response efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, questioning whether affected populations are still too often treated as beneficiaries of outbreak responses rather than as partners in their design and implementation. Additionally, in The Lancet Global Health, another commentary outlined major operational barriers to applying research findings in the outbreak response.
An article co-authored by DNDi in The Journal of Infectious Diseases evaluated a new approach to monitoring treatment response in adults with chronic Chagas disease. MultiCruzi, a serological multiplex immunoassay for Trypanosoma cruzi, was successfully used to identify patterns of antibody decline that could serve as indicators of treatment associated biological responses.
Finally, a study protocol in JMIR Research Protocols outlined a systematic review of AI models used to predict treatment and disease outcomes among people living with HIV. The review aims to assess how accurately these tools predict outcomes such as disease progression, treatment failure and mortality, as well as their reliability and readiness for use in clinical care.
Best regards,
Maya Fenyk, Lillian Matthes, and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Alys Barton and 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 2026 conference.
Antimicrobial resistance
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Severe health-care-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance in an Asian Surveillance Network (ACORN-HAI): a multicentre, prospective cohort study
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Antimicrobial susceptibility of priority bacterial pathogens from laboratory samples in Timor-Leste: a retrospective analysis of database (2020–2025)
The Lancet Microbe • Article: Burden and genomic characterisation of Shigella-associated diarrhoea in children younger than 5 years in Lusaka, Zambia: a prospective cohort study
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Article: Additional considerations regarding the antibiotic treatment for Mycoplasma genitalium infection
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Healthcare providers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices toward antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic use at a tertiary care hospital in Southwest Ethiopia
Climate change and Planetary Health
The Lancet Planetary Health • Article: Exceeding human heat tolerance in a warming, ageing world: a global projection modelling study
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Creating complete life histories of individual female tsetse (Glossina spp) to study the effects of meteorological conditions on fly size in Zimbabwe
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Nurses’ roles and views in earthquake disaster relief efforts: a qualitative study
Conflict, migration and health
Global Public Health • Article: Who do the data serve? Critical reflections on program monitoring during the war in Ukraine
Global health
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Trends and disparities of vision impairment in Mexico from 1990 to 2023: a comparative analysis with Latin America and the Caribbean based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023
PLOS • Editorial: World Humanitarian Day: Why humanitarian settings need more research, not less
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Reframing neglect in neglected tropical diseases and related environmental determinants: A scoping review of photovoice studies
Health Policy and Planning • Article: What is success in global health diplomacy? A qualitative analysis of gendered and global perspectives on success and failure
Health Policy and Planning • Article: The Brazilian Breast Cancer Patient Navigation Programme: Impact on Waiting Times and Treatment Costs
Global Public Health • Article: The limits of evidence in global drug control: Reflections on the WHO coca leaf review
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Stakeholders’ perspectives on the contemporary landscape of pharmaceutical market competition in Malaysia’s public sector: exploring the key influences of economic, regulatory, and public procurement policies and practices
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Health entrepreneurship in universal health coverage delivery: evidence from emerging economies
HIV
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: The effect of electronic monitoring devices for adherence support on the risk of virological failure in young people with HIV in Zimbabwe: an open label, randomised controlled trial
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Progress towards global 95–95–95 targets in Tanzania: trends from population-based HIV impact surveys in 2016–2017 and 2022–2023
The Lancet HIV • Article: Programmatic effectiveness of tuberculosis preventive treatment for people with HIV in six high-tuberculosis-burden countries (PROTECT): a prospective cohort study and meta-analysis
Global Public Health • Article: Pathways of onward HIV disclosure in relationships among young people living with vertically acquired HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy: A qualitative analysis from the BREATHER Plus trial, South Africa
Infectious diseases
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Economic and health burden of severe respiratory syncytial virus infection among hospitalised children at three tertiary hospitals in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia: a two-year prospective multicentre cohort study
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Azithromycin with or without cefixime for suspected or culture-confirmed uncomplicated typhoid fever in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (ACT-South Asia): a double-blind, parallel-group, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 4 trial
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Epidemiological impact of a dual-action insecticidal coating applied to Aedes aegypti breeding sites on dengue transmission in Colombia: a cluster-randomised trial
The Lancet Microbe • Article: A WHO International Standard for neutralising antibodies to Chikungunya virus: development and evaluation
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Article: The Breastfeeding Period: A Critical Opportunity to Expand Access to Hepatitis C Cure
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Usability of Cholera detection system in Tigray
Malaria
JAMA • Letter: Resurgence of Malaria in Ethiopia
Malaria Journal • Article: Non-falciparum malaria and the blind spot of HRP2 based rapid diagnostic tests: a nationally representative PCR study of children in the 2024–25 Uganda Malaria Indicator Survey
Malaria Journal • Article: Ex vivo susceptibility to dihydroartemisinin in Plasmodium falciparum patient isolates from Eastern Rwanda, 2025
Malaria Journal • Article: Factors associated with malaria parasitemia in hospitalized children under five years of age with severe acute malnutrition in Burundi: a retrospective cross-sectional study
Malaria Journal • Article: Forgotten reservoirs: an attempt to revive field research on rodent malaria parasites in their main natural host, the thicket rat Grammomys poensis (formerly Thamnomys rutilans)
Maternal and child health
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Prevalence and risk factors for stillbirths in India: secondary analysis of ICMR-Stillbirth Pooled India Cohort (ICMR-SPIC)
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Short-term ambient temperature exposure and stillbirth in The Gambia: a time-stratified case-crossover analysis of facility-based births
The Lancet Global Health • Article: The impact of the women’s medical education ban in Afghanistan on service coverage and maternal and neonatal mortality: a modelling study
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Strengthening obstetric fistula care: an environmental scan of a comprehensive treatment program in Malawi
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Health worker perspectives on the screening and management of hypertensive disorders and diabetes in pregnancy in Uganda: a cross-sectional survey
Mental health
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: The mental health burden of cumulative trauma in a setting of chronic insecurity: a large community-based study in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Association between household environment and the risk of depression and anxiety among women in Bangladesh: analysis of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (2022)
Neglected tropical diseases
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Emergence and phylogeography of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti in Southeastern Iran
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Viral and host determinants of arboviral disease severity in African populations: A systematic review with meta-analysis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Drug development targeting the mitochondrial respiratory chain of Sparganum proliferum: Initial biochemical and drug discovery insights into the enigmatic helminth parasite
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Shared viral burdens: Molecular evidence of Usutu virus infection and multi-arbovirus exposure in migrant and resident birds at wintering locations in Nigeria
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: From visceral to visible: A systematic review and meta-analysis of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis incidence, risk factors, and treatment outcomes in Eastern Africa
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Hematological profiles and preventive-practice characteristics among patients with podoconiosis: A case-control study in Musanze District, Rwanda
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Opportunities and challenges for countermeasures against Rift Valley fever virus: A quintessential One Health pathogen
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: A conserved grain-associated immunosuppressive niche in Sudanese patients with mycetoma
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Urban Persistence of Triatoma infestans: Post-Spraying Reinfestation Dynamics and Evaluation of Alternative Surveillance Tools
RSTMH • Article: Congenital Chagas disease in Mexico: a systematic review of gaps in diagnosis and clinical follow-up
Non-communicable diseases
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: The impact and evolution of environmental/occupational, behavioural, and metabolic risk factors on CVD burdens in the Asia–Pacific region from 1990 to 2023: a secondary analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Burden of cardiovascular diseases in the Asia–Pacific region from 1990 to 2023, with forecasts to 2050: a secondary analysis of the Global Burden of disease study 2023
RSTMH • Article: Burden and determinants of snakebite mortality in Tamil Nadu, India: a surveillance and verbal autopsy study
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Healthcare providers’ knowledge, practices, and training on childhood poisoning prevention and management in a low- and middle-income country: a cross-sectional study
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Adherence and clinical outcomes among patients with sickle cell disease receiving prophylactic therapy in Bamenda, Cameroon: a cross-sectional study
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Implementation of cardiovascular disease risk prediction scores in Sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review
Outbreaks
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Article: Containment of a Candidozyma auris Outbreak in an Acute Care Hospital using a Comprehensive Screening and Surveillance Program
Research and reporting
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Comparison of Cobas Plasma Separation Cards and Whatman filter paper cards versus conventional serum samples for anti-Trypansoma cruzi antibody detection
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Investigating the therapeutic potential of the antibacterial drug nitroxoline in combating cryptococcal infection
Malaria Journal • Article: Field evaluation of SumiLarv™ 2MR larvicide for controlling the invasive malaria vector Anopheles stephensi in Ethiopia: a randomised controlled trial
Sexual and reproductive health
The Lancet Regional Health • Article: Incidence, reinfection, and reproductive morbidity of bacterial sexually transmitted infections among Kenyan adolescent girls and young women receiving systematic testing and treatment: a 4.5-Year prospective cohort analysis
Global Public Health • Article: When coverage is not autonomy: Reproductive health indicators, inequality, and governance in India’s national family health survey (NFHS-5)
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Assessment of financial toxicity among patients treated for cervical cancer in Rwanda, a cross-sectional study
Tuberculosis
Global Public Health • Article: Tuberculosis prevention in low- and middle-income settings in the Asia-Pacific region, a qualitative scoping review
BMC Health Services Research • Article: A comparison of pediatric tuberculosis care cascades in public- and private-sector facilities in Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh
Vaccines
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Safety and immunogenicity of the synthetic carbohydrate conjugate vaccine, SF2a-TT15, against Shigella flexneri 2a in infants in Kenya: a phase 2a, age-descending, dose-escalating, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled study
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Successes and Challenges of the District Health Information Software Version Two (DHIS2) Adverse Events following Immunization (AEFI) Tracker Application at the early implementation stage in Bangladesh