Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
15 January 2020
Hello Everyone,
This week, MSF authors an article in The Lancet assessing the immunogenicity and safety of one-fifth fractional doses of WHO pre-qualified yellow fever vaccines in Mbarara, Uganda, and Kilifi, Kenya. Fractional dosage of vaccines was safe and non-inferior compared to standard dosing, adding support to WHO policy on the use of fractional dosing of yellow fever vaccines for outbreak response.
In PLOS Medicine, MSF authors an article evaluating a multidisciplinary primary-level non-communicable disease programme in Irbid, Jordan, aimed at Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians. Using routine clinic data to examine levels of blood pressure and diabetes control, the authors showed that the programme resulted in good treatment outcomes and reduced rates of treatment interruption.
In PLOS ONE, an article presents the first stage of a participatory, bottom-up approach in Kuc, Uganda, in which community members were involved in setting a research agenda to improve health in their community. A qualitative study in BMJ Global Health explores the ethical issues around Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the need for specific ethics guidance for HDSS.
An MSF-authored article in Infectious Agents and Cancer assesses the feasibility, safety and outcomes of treating AIDS-associated Kaposi’s sarcoma with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) in Maputo, Mozambique. PLD was safe, well-tolerated and effective as first-line chemotherapy for Kaposi’s sarcoma, and resulted in rapid improvements in quality of life.
Reminder: a virtual global launch of The Lancet Series on Women’s and Children’s Health in Conflict Settings will take place on January 25, and will involve discussions from a panel of experts and frontline workers on advancing health sector interventions for women and children in conflict settings.
Best regards,
Freja Nielsen, Austin Heuer, Jodie Pearlman and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Patricia Kahn and Amelia Zhao
Antimicrobial resistance
BMJ Global Health • Comment : Using treatment guidelines to improve antibiotic use: insights from an antibiotic point prevalence survey in Kenya
Climate change and planetary health
The Lancet Planetary Health • Comment : Planetary health diplomacy: a call to action
The Lancet Planetary Health • Correspondence : Equipping global health trainees for the climate crisis
JAMA • Article : Associations Between Simulated Future Changes in Climate, Air Quality, and Human Health
Conflict, migration and health
Conflict and Health • Article : Exploring resource scarcity and contextual influences on wellbeing among young refugees in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, Uganda: findings from a qualitative study
Conflict and Health • Article : A case analysis of partnered research on palliative care for refugees in Jordan and Rwanda
Ebola
Open Forum Infectious Diseases • Other ***MSF AUTHOR***: Immunogenicity of rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP Ebola Vaccine (ERVEBO™) in Participants by Age, Sex, and Baseline GP-ELISA Titer: A Post Hoc Analysis of Three Phase 2/3 Trials
JAMA • Article : Characterization of Ebola Virus–Associated Eye Disease
PLOS ONE • Article : An immunotoxin targeting Ebola virus glycoprotein inhibits Ebola virus production from infected cells
HIV
BMC Infectious Agents and Cancer • Article ***MSF AUTHOR***: Outcomes of AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma in Mozambique after treatment with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin
PLOS Medicine • Article : Novel community health worker strategy for HIV service engagement in a hyperendemic community in Rakai, Uganda: A pragmatic, cluster-randomized trial
PLOS ONE • Article : Depression and associated factors among HIV-positive youths attending antiretroviral therapy clinics in Jimma town, southwest Ethiopia
PLOS ONE • Article : Occult hepatitis B virus infection in a Kenyan cohort of HIV infected anti-retroviral therapy naïve adults
PLOS ONE • Article : Evaluating antibiotic use and developing a tool to optimize prescribing in a family-centered HIV clinic in Eswatini
PLOS ONE • Article : Circulation of hepatitis delta virus and occult hepatitis B virus infection amongst HIV/HBV co-infected patients in Korle-Bu, Ghana
PLOS ONE • Article : Women design their own vaginal microbicide trial: Suggestions on how to improve adherence from former participants of HIV prevention trials
PLOS ONE • Article : A comparison of medication adherence and viral suppression in antiretroviral treatment-naïve patients with HIV/AIDS depending on the drug formulary
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article : Predictors of glucose metabolism and blood pressure among Ethiopian individuals with HIV/AIDS after one‐year antiretroviral therapy
Infectious diseases
Open Forum Infectious Diseases • Article ***MSF AUTHOR***: Concomitant treatment of chronic hepatitis C with direct acting antivirals and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is effective and safe
Malaria
PLOS ONE • Article : Randomized trials of housing interventions to prevent malaria and Aedes-transmitted diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Malaria Journal • Article : Impact of placental malaria on maternal, placental and fetal cord responses and its role in pregnancy outcomes in women from Blue Nile State, Sudan
Malaria Journal • Article : Drug resistance markers within an evolving efficacy of anti-malarial drugs in Cameroon: a systematic review and meta-analysis (1998–2020)
Malaria Journal • Article : Significance of training, monitoring and assessment of malaria workers in achieving malaria elimination goal of Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project
Malaria Journal • Article : Variation of physical durability between LLIN products and net use environments: summary of findings from four African countries
Malaria Journal • Article : Effect of 4 years of seasonal malaria chemoprevention on the acquisition of antibodies to Plasmodium falciparum antigens in Ouelessebougou, Mali
Malaria Journal • Article : Malaria micro-stratification using routine surveillance data in Western Kenya
Malaria Journal • Article : Knowledge and practices regarding malaria and the National Treatment Guidelines among public health workers in Equatorial Guinea
Malaria Journal • Article : Community demand for comprehensive primary health care from malaria volunteers in South-East Myanmar: a qualitative study
Malaria Journal • Article : Pharmacokinetic profile of amodiaquine and its active metabolite desethylamodiaquine in Ghanaian patients with uncomplicated falciparum malaria
Malaria Journal • Article : Plasma angiopoietin-2 is associated with age-related deficits in cognitive sub-scales in Ugandan children following severe malaria
Malaria Journal • Article : Should we care about Plasmodium vivax and HIV co-infection? A systematic review and a cases series from the Brazilian Amazon
Malaria Journal • Article : Socio-economic determinants of malaria in tribal dominated Mandla district enrolled in Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project in Madhya Pradesh
Maternal and child health
BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth • Article ***MSF AUTHOR***: Resilience to maintain quality of intrapartum care in war torn Yemen: a retrospective pre-post study evaluating effects of changing birth volumes in a congested frontline hospital
The Lancet HIV • Article : Dolutegravir and pregnancy outcomes in women on antiretroviral therapy in Brazil: a retrospective national cohort study
The Lancet Global Health • Comment : A road to optimising maternal and newborn quality care measurement for all
The Lancet Global Health • Correspondence : COVID-19's lost generation of unvaccinated children and comment COVID-19's lost generation of unvaccinated children – Authors' reply
JAMA Pediatrics • Editorial : Intrapartum Maternal Oxygen Supplementation—Friend or Foe?
JAMA Pediatrics • Article : Maternal Oxygen Supplementation Compared With Room Air for Intrauterine Resuscitation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
PLOS ONE • Article : Racial and geographic variation in effects of maternal education and neighborhood-level measures of socioeconomic status on gestational age at birth: Findings from the ECHO cohorts
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article : Febrile seizures in an urban Tanzanian population: lessons learned from a community‐based random cluster survey
Neglected tropical diseases
The Lancet EClinical Medicine • Article : Global, regional, and national dengue burden from 1990 to 2017: A systematic analysis based on the global burden of disease study 2017
BugBitten • Blog : Deworming achieves progress towards 2030 NTD goals sub-Saharan Africa
PLOS NTDs • Viewpoint : Scabies-infested pregnant women: A critical therapeutic challenge
Non-communicable diseases
PLOS ONE • Article : Appropriateness and affordability of prescriptions to diabetic patients attending a tertiary hospital in Eastern Uganda: A retrospective cross-sectional study
PLOS ONE • Article : Determinants of change in blood pressure in Ghana: Longitudinal data from WHO-SAGE Waves 1–3
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article : β‐cell dysfunction and insulin resistance in relation to prediabetes and diabetes among adults in north‐western Tanzania: a cross‐sectional study
Outbreaks
The Lancet • Article : 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study and comment Long-term follow-up of recovered patients with COVID-19
The Lancet • World Report : Health systems neglected by COVID-19 donors
The Lancet • World Report : Polio in Afghanistan: a changing landscape
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Article : Prevalence and risk factors for delirium in critically ill patients with COVID-19 (COVID-D): a multicentre cohort study and comment Sedation in mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19
The Lancet Planetary Health • Editorial : A Pandemic Era
BMJ Global Health • Comment : What are SARS-CoV-2 genomes from the WHO Africa region member states telling us?
BMJ Global Health • Editorial : Healthcare of Indigenous Amazonian Peoples in response to COVID-19: marginality, discrimination and revaluation of ancestral knowledge in Ucayali, Peru
BMJ Global Health • Analysis : The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection
BMJ Global Health • Article : Boundaries of solidarity: a meta-ethnography of mask use during past epidemics to inform SARS-CoV-2 suppression
NEJM • Article : Tocilizumab in Patients Hospitalized with Covid-19 Pneumonia
JAMA • Perspectives : Africa Succeeded Against COVID-19’s First Wave, but the Second Wave Brings New Challenges
JAMA • Perspectives : Sorting Out Whether Vitamin D Deficiency Raises COVID-19 Risk
JAMA • Article : SARS-CoV-2 Transmission From People Without COVID-19 Symptoms
JAMA • Viewpoint : Genetic Variants of SARS-CoV-2—What Do They Mean?
PLOS ONE • Article : Mortality and other outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease pneumonia admitted to the emergency department: A prospective observational Brazilian study
PLOS ONE • Article : Predicting health behavior in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Worldwide survey results from early March 2020
Transactions RSTMH • Article : Epidemiology and challenges of dengue surveillance in the WHO South-East Asia Region
Transactions RSTMH • Article : Use of modelling to modify trachoma elimination strategies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic
Research and reporting
PLOS ONE • Article : Setting a research agenda to improve community health: An inclusive mixed-methods approach in Northern Uganda
BMJ Global Health • Article : Towards an appropriate ethics framework for Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS): learning from issues faced in diverse HDSS in sub-Saharan Africa
BMJ Global Health • Article : State of the evidence: a survey of global disparities in clinical trials
Sexual and reproductive health
PLOS NTDs • Article : Congenital syphilis in Argentina: Experience in a pediatric hospital
PLOS ONE • Article : “As young men we have a role to play in preventing sexual violence”: Development and relevance of the men with conscience intervention to prevent sexual violence
Tuberculosis
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article ***MSF AUTHOR***: Accuracy of molecular drug susceptibility testing amongst tuberculosis patients in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan
The Lancet EClinical Medicine • Article : Cost-effectiveness of scaling up short course preventive therapy for tuberculosis among children across 12 countries
PLOS ONE • Article : Implementation of the new integrated algorithm for diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Karnataka State, India: How well are we doing?
PLOS ONE • Article : Interleukin-18 and interferon-γ single nucleotide polymorphisms in Egyptian patients with tuberculosis
PLOS ONE • Article : Sex-related differences in smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Prevalence and associated factors
Vaccines
The Lancet • Article ***MSF AUTHOR***: Immunogenicity and safety of fractional doses of yellow fever vaccines: a randomised, double-blind, non-inferiority trial and comment Public health role for fractional dosage of yellow fever vaccine
NEJM • Correspondence : Durability of Responses after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273 Vaccination
WHO Bulletin • Editorial : Ensuring equitable access to vaccines for refugees and migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic
BMJ Opinion • Blog : Human challenge trials of covid-19 vaccines still have much to teach us
Zika
PLOS ONE • Article : Cohort profile: Study on Zika virus infection in Brazil (ZIKABRA study)