Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
27 March 2026
What does the future of snakebite treatment look like? New evidence from rural Ethiopia featured at MSF Scientific Days 2026 will explore a novel, safe, and highly effective antivenom for use in remote settings. Register here to attend.
This week, in BMJ, an MSF opinion piece highlights the impact of war in Lebanon on care for non-communicable diseases and mental health, calling for greater attention to long-term conditions alongside emergency trauma care.
A correspondence in The Lancet Psychiatry, with MSF contribution, emphasises the challenges of diagnosing personality disorders in humanitarian settings, underscoring the need for scalable, practical mental health interventions.
MSF and Epicentre co-authored a study in Conflict and Health, showing how limited access to safe abortion care in the Central African Republic drives unsafe practices and delays in seeking treatment for complications, with serious health and socioeconomic consequences.
Finally, a DNDi comment in The Lancet Regional Health – Africa points to the neglected burden of eumycetoma in Africa, driven by gaps in diagnosis and treatment access, requiring improved surveillance and more effective therapies.
Best regards,
Zhi Wei Ching, Lillian Matthes, 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 2025 conference.
Climate change and planetary health
The Lancet Planetary Health • News: Planetary Health Research Digest
Social Science & Medicine • Article: ‘When you go to bed, and you cannot sleep … ’: smallholder farmers' experiences and perceptions of climate change events and their impacts on health in northern Ghana
Conflict, migration and health
The Lancet Psychiatry • Correspondence***MSF AUTHOR***: Mental health needs and personality disorders in humanitarian settings
The BMJ • Opinion***MSF AUTHOR***: War in Lebanon: the hidden health crisis beyond the frontlines
The Lancet • Comment: Global challenges for research on gun violence
BMJ Global Health • Article: Implementation of essential newborn care in settings of high-intensity armed conflict: a systematic review
Conflict and Health • Article: Finding strength in adversity: key protective factors and the role of experience of discrimination in young adult Syrian refugee stress, coping and wellbeing
Conflict and Health • Article: Adherence to anti-seizure medications among pediatric epilepsy patients during the Sudan armed conflict
Global health
BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Why we must face our past: reconciliatory solidarity for global health ethics
BMJ Global Health • Comment: We watched him die without oxygen: reflections and responses on moral injury among research staff in LMIC hospitals
HIV
The Lancet HIV • Article: Service needs of people living with HIV in the UK (Positive Voices 2022): a cross-sectional survey
Infectious diseases
BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Transforming infectious disease control through social innovation, community engagement and intersectional gender research
BMJ Global Health • Comment: Strengthening equitable research capacity in response to infectious diseases of poverty
BMJ Global Health • Article: A community-level complementary-food safety and hygiene intervention improves family-food preparation behaviours in rural Gambia: a follow-up of a cluster randomised controlled trial
Emerging Infectious Diseases • Article: Seroincidence Rate of Typhoidal Salmonella in Children, Kenya, 2017–2018
Emerging Infectious Diseases • other: Extraintestinal Entamoeba moshkovskii Infection, Eastern India
Malaria
Malaria Journal • Article: Molecular markers of antimalarial drug resistance in pfk13, pfmdr1, pfdhfr, and pfdhps genes of Plasmodium falciparum in a rural municipality in Cubal, Benguela Province, Angola (2022–2023)
Malaria Journal • Article: Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Plasmodium falciparum field isolates lacking pfhrp2 gene
Malaria Journal • Article: Delay in malaria care-seeking for children under five in Africa: a systematic review
Malaria Journal • Article: Cerebral malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax in an afrodescendant adult in Colombia: case report
Malaria Journal • Article: Field and laboratory evaluation of Abbott-Bioline™ Malaria Ag Pf/Pv RDT performance in a high-transmission setting: contrasting results with a low-endemic area
Malaria Journal • Article: Spatio-temporal heterogeneity of urban malaria in Libreville, Gabon (2012–2023): neighborhood-level hotspot analysis for micro-stratified control
Malaria Journal • Article: Evaluation of malaria rapid diagnostic test kit performance in a high-transmission setting: a facility-based cross-sectional study in rural Ghana
Malaria Journal • Article: Population pharmacokinetics of fosmidomycin and clindamycin in combination with artesunate for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Gabonese children and adults
Malaria Journal • Article: Assessing the potential impact of the RTS,S/ASO1 vaccine on malaria burden in Benin: a mathematical modelling approach
Malaria Journal • Article: Prevalence of placental Plasmodium falciparum malaria and associated factors among pregnant women in health facilities in Eastern Uganda
Malaria Journal • Article: Daily pattern of oviposition and fecundity in Anopheles pseudopunctipennis Theobald, the main vector of malaria in Mexico
Malaria Journal • Review: A systematic review of entomological outcomes and sampling approaches used in the evaluation of cluster randomised controlled trials for malaria vector control products
Maternal and child health
The Lancet • Review: More equitable preconception health: paternal life course opportunities for better pregnancy, child, and family outcomes
Conflict and Health • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Pathways to care among women hospitalized with severe abortion complications in Bangui, Central African Republic, a conflict-affected urban setting: qualitative results of the AMoCo (abortion-related morbidity and mortality in conflict-affected and fragile settings) study
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Optimising DTwP-containing vaccine infant immunisation schedules in Uganda and Nepal (OptImms): two open-label, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trials
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Intravenous ferric carboxymaltose versus oral ferrous sulphate for the treatment of moderate-to-severe postpartum anaemia in Nigerian women (IVON-PP): an open-label, randomised controlled trial
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Effect on birthweight of an antenatal multiple micronutrient supplementation programme compared with iron–folic acid supplementation: a cluster-randomised, controlled trial in 85 698 Ethiopian women
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Article: Endotracheal surfactant for infants with life-threatening bronchiolitis (BESS): a randomised, blinded, sham-controlled, phase 2 trial
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • and comment: Surfactant therapy in severe infant bronchiolitis: evidence from the BESS trial
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Opinion: Harnessing Sunlight Safely for Newborn Care: Balancing Risks and Benefits in Resource-Limited Settings
Social Science & Medicine • Article: Long-term consequences of early-life exposure to Famine: Evidence from the 1943 Bengal Famine
Neglected tropical diseases
The Lancet Regional Health Africa • Comment***DNDi AUTHOR***: The burden of eumycetoma in Africa: a neglected fungal disease
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Evaluating dengue transmission dynamics in an endemic urban setting in Viet Nam: an index-household contact cohort study
BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Visceral leishmaniasis elimination in South Asia: lessons learnt can inform disease elimination in East Africa
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Article: Dried Serum Spots for External Quality Assurance of Scrub Typhus IgM Serology: A Multicentre Pilot Study From India
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Operationalising One Health for epidermal parasitic skin diseases: threshold-triggered mass drug administration and a minimal indicator set
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Q fever in patients with acute febrile illness: a hospital-based study from North India
Emerging Infectious Diseases • Article: Strongyloides Genetic Diversity among Humans, Dogs, and Nonhuman Primates, Central African Republic, 2016–2022
Emerging Infectious Diseases • Review: Rethinking Leptospirosis Prevention, the Philippines
Non-communicable diseases
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Article: Quantifying immune dysregulation in pneumonia and sepsis with a parsimonious machine-learning model: a multicohort analysis across care settings and reanalysis of a hydrocortisone randomised controlled trial
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • and comment: The host response in sepsis: can it be quantified?
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Article: Epidemiology, ventilation, and outcomes of acute respiratory failure in immunocompromised patients from 103 intensive care units in 26 countries: a retrospective observational study
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • and comment: Acute respiratory failure in immunocompromised adults: the case for personalised care strategies
New England Journal Medicine • Editorial: Rethinking High-Flow Oxygen in Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure
New England Journal Medicine • Article: Prehospital Whole Blood in Traumatic Hemorrhage — a Randomized Controlled Trial
JAMA • Comment: Tumor Debulking in Combination With Chemotherapy in Multiorgan Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
JAMA • other: Five Big Ideas to Improve the Care of the Critically Ill Patient
JAMA • News: Long COVID Prevalence Decreases as Recovery Rates Improve
JAMA • News: Colorectal Cancer Is Increasing in Younger Adults
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Article: Analysis of Models to Estimate Morbidity Rates of Respiratory Diseases Through Deep Learning
Journal of Public Health Policy • Letter: Rethinking betel nut ‘nga–nga’ chewing practices in the Philippines: cultural tradition or overlooked public health risk?
Social Science & Medicine • Article: ‘It's very hard, it's very very difficult ….’ Exploring the lived experiences of managing diabetes among young people living with type 1 diabetes in underserved communities in Ghana
Conflict and Health • Article: Trauma and post-traumatic stress symptoms among internally displaced populations in Yemen: evidence from a mixed-methods study
Research and reporting
The Lancet Digital Health • Viewpoint: A practical framework for operationalising responsible and equitable artificial intelligence in health care: tackling bias, inequity, and implementation challenges
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Editorial: Caring for caregivers: supporting invisible partners of the ICU
BMJ Global Health • Article: Causes of death from community settings: insights from verbal autopsy implementation in Tanzania
BMJ Global Health • Article: Healthcare utilisation among migrants in the Netherlands’ unique hybrid healthcare system: the HELIUS study
JAMA • Perspectives: When Disregard for Population Health Becomes US Policy
PLOS Medicine • Perspectives: Living to our full potential: Reassessing global sex inequalities in life expectancy
Social Science & Medicine • Article: Polygyny and help-seeking for intimate partner violence in Afghanistan: The mediating role of women's autonomy and the moderating effects of education and fear of the husband
Sexual and reproductive health
The Lancet • Review: Measuring progress in pregnancy planning and preconception health
Conflict and Health • Article: Women’s perceptions of person-centered comprehensive abortion care and associated factors in Northern Ethiopia: a facility-based cross-sectional study in a humanitarian setting
Conflict and Health • Article: Estimating abortion incidence and unintended pregnancy among adolescents living in refugee settlements in Uganda
Tuberculosis
The Lancet • Comment: Understanding where people with tuberculosis seek care to serve them better
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Review: Accelerating research and development of new vaccines against tuberculosis: 5-year progress on the global roadmap
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Article: Spatiotemporal Patterns and Socioeconomic Determinants of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Piauí, Northeast Brazil, 2001–2024
Emerging Infectious Diseases • other: Tuberculosis after TB Preventive Therapy in Persons Living with HIV Recently Initiating Antiretroviral Therapy, Mozambique
Vaccines
Journal of Public Health Policy • Letter: Why Nigeria cannot afford individualized hepatitis B vaccination?
Conflict and Health • Article: Utilizing the COM-B model to identify childhood routine vaccination barriers and uptake among parents and caregivers living in the frontline and Zakarpattia regions of Ukraine amidst Russia’s full-scale invasion