Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
27 September 2024
This week, in recognition of International Safe Abortion Awareness Day, the MSF Science Portal introduced a new collection that consolidates all the latest research conducted by MSF regarding safe abortion care.
In a scoping review in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology, MSF identified procalcitonin as an effective biomarker for diagnosing bacterial co-infection in patients with COVID-19 in non-intensive care settings in high-income countries. However, the results should be interpreted in the context of other clinical findings. Additionally, the authors noted a significant gap in research on this topic from low- and middle-income countries. DNDi participated in The Lancet Microbe series on Chagas disease by investigating the association of Trypanosoma cruzi transmission with climate change. In another article in the series, DNDi authors discussed the challenges associated with discovering and translating prophylactic and therapeutic strategies from the laboratory bench to clinical application.
A comment in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology reported the findings from a 2022 survey on the priorities and challenges in delivering hepatitis B virus (HBV) care in resource-limited settings. The survey highlighted limited access to diagnostic tests, inadequate training for healthcare workers, and the lack of mother-to-child transmission prevention, and the authors called for a global commitment to expand the availability of point-of-care rapid diagnostic tests. Finally, a news piece in The BMJ reported that Jordan has been recognised as the first country to eliminate leprosy disease.
Best regards,
Lydia Lampiri, Zhi Wei Ching, Ononna Thuli and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Patricia Kahn, Amelia Zhao and Zaineb Chaudhry.
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
Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology • Review***MSF AUTHOR***: Are C-reactive protein and procalcitonin safe and useful for antimicrobial stewardship purposes in patients with COVID-19? A scoping review
The Lancet • Article: Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Health system interventions and responses to anti-microbial resistance: A scoping review of evidence from 15 African countries
PLOS Medicine • Article: Is C-reactive protein sufficient to guide antimicrobial therapy for lower respiratory tract infections among children? Results from a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial in Uganda
Conflict, migration and health
Conflict and Health • Article: A psychosocial bouldering intervention improves the well-being of young refugees and adolescents from the host community in Lebanon: results from a pragmatic controlled trial
JAMA Network Open • Article: Chronic Illness and Quality of Life 5 Years After Displacement Among Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh
Conflict and Health • Article: Defending the right to health in Gaza: a call to action by health workers
Conflict and Health • Article: Delivering therapy over telephone in a humanitarian setting: a pilot randomized controlled trial of common elements treatment approach (CETA) with Syrian refugee children in Lebanon
JAMA Psychiatry • Article: Suicidality Calls to a National Helpline After a Terror Attack and War
Global health
BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Advancing collaborative research for health: why does collaboration matter?
PLOS Global Public Health • ArticleArticle: Civil society activism for Africa’s vaccine and local manufacturing agenda: Can mpox be the test case?
BMJ • News: Leprosy: Jordan becomes first country to eliminate disease
BMJ • Opinion: One Health models are lacking an indigenous perspective
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Reinforcing community health workers program in africa for universal health coverage and global health security: A call for concerted efforts
BMJ • News: WHO acts to boost access to mpox vaccine
JAMA • News: WHO Announces Mpox Global Plan, Appeals for Funding
HIV
JAMA • Opinion: AIDS in Africa—Impact of Research: The 2024 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Beyond the 95s: What happens when uniform program targets are applied across a heterogenous HIV epidemic in Eastern and Southern Africa?
The Lancet HIV • Article: Health impact, budget impact, and price threshold for cost-effectiveness of lenacapavir for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in eastern and southern Africa: a modelling analysis
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Projected impact of fast-tracking of anti-retroviral treatment coverage on vertical transmission of HIV in India
JAMA • Article: Thirty-Five Years of HIV Research in Africa—An Interview With Winners of the 2024 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Trends in body mass index for people with and without HIV: Pooled analysis of nationally-representative health surveys from 10 countries and 173,800 adults in Africa
Infectious diseases
The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology • Comment: Availability of point-of-care HBV tests in resource-limited settings
Malaria
Malaria Journal • Article: Acetylsalicylic acid and dihydroartemisinin combined therapy on experimental malaria-associated acute lung injury: analysis of lung function and the inflammatory process
Malaria Journal • Article: Brugada syndrome precipitated by uncomplicated malaria treated with dihydroartemisinin piperaquine: a case report
eClinicalMedicine • Article: Comparing approaches for chemoprevention for school-based malaria control in Malawi: an open label, randomized, controlled clinical trial
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Expanding the roles of malaria post workers in Thailand: A qualitative study of stakeholder perspectives
JAMA • Article: Malaria Rapid Tests, Febrile Illness Management, and Child Mortality Across Sub-Saharan African Countries
Malaria Journal • Article: Prospective acceptability of mass drug administration for malaria in Kedougou region in Senegal: a mixed method study
JAMA • Opinion: The Crucial Role of Rapid Point-of-Care Tests for Malaria in Improving Fever Management
Malaria Journal • Article: The impact of Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Vectobac® WDG) larvicide sprayed with drones on the bio-control of malaria vectors in rice fields of sub-urban Kigali, Rwanda
Malaria Journal • Article: Therapeutic efficacy of artemether–lumefantrine in the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Arba Minch Zuria District, Gamo Zone, Southwest Ethiopia
Malaria Journal • Article: Whole-genome sequencing of major malaria vectors reveals the evolution of new insecticide resistance variants in a longitudinal study in Burkina Faso
Malaria Journal • Article: Why becoming a positive deviant for malaria prevention and control: a sequential explanatory mixed methods study in Bugesera district, Rwanda
Maternal and child health
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Changes in the medical admissions and mortality amongst children in four South African hospitals following the COVID-19 pandemic: A five-year review
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Determinants of quality antenatal care use in Kenya: Insights from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Multilevel factors drive child exposure to enteric pathogens in animal feces: A qualitative study in northwestern coastal Ecuador
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Prevalence of anemia and its associated factors among school-going adolescent girls in schools of Dhankuta municipality, Nepal
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Socioeconomic inequalities in adverse pregnancy outcomes in India: 2004–2019
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Women’s autonomy, neonatal, infant and under-five mortality in the Upper East Region of Ghana
Mental health
BMJ • Feature: Are India’s regulatory gaps leaving patients with substandard mental health counsellors?
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Perceptions of burnout among public sector physicians in Sierra Leone: A qualitative study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Psychosocial experiences of adolescents with tuberculosis in Cape Town
Neglected tropical diseases
The Lancet Microbe • Series***DNDi AUTHOR***: Challenges and advancements in the development of vaccines and therapies against Chagas disease
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Challenges in rescuing snakes to protect human lives and promote snake conservation in Tamil Nadu, India
The Lancet Microbe • Series***DNDi AUTHOR***: Climate change and Trypanosoma cruzi transmission in North and central America
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Clinical presentation of human leptospirosis in febrile patients: Urabá, Colombia
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Communities’ knowledge, perceptions and preventive practices on soil-transmitted helminthes in Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia: Formative mixed study
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Comparative evaluation of plasma biomarkers of Schistosoma haematobium infection in endemic populations from Burkina Faso
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Editorial: Editorial Note: Discovery of Markers of Exposure Specific to Bites of Lutzomyia longipalpis, the Vector of Leishmania infantum chagasi in Latin America
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Improving health behaviours and attitudes around podoconiosis in Northern Western Ethiopia: Implementation and intervention effectiveness
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Metagenomic next generation sequencing of plasma RNA for diagnosis of unexplained, acute febrile illness in Uganda
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Oral Chagas disease outbreak by bacaba juice ingestion: A century after Carlos Chagas’ discovery, the disease is still hard to manage
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Revisiting the impact of Schistosoma mansoni regulating mechanisms on transmission dynamics using SchiSTOP, a novel modelling framework
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Spatio-temporal patterns of dengue in Bangladesh during 2019 to 2023: Implications for targeted control strategies
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Susceptibility of BS90 Biomphalaria glabrata snails to infection by SmLE Schistosoma mansoni segregates as a dominant allele in a cluster of polymorphic genes for single-pass transmembrane proteins
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Temperature dependence of mosquitoes: Comparing mechanistic and machine learning approaches
Outbreaks
BMJ • News: Nipah virus: Kerala reports second death in four months
Research and reporting
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: A cross-sectional assessment of expanding basic healthcare services to rural and underserved communities through proprietary patent medicine vendors in Northern Nigeria
Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants and their impact on immune evasion and vaccine-induced immunity
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Mosquito-disseminated pyriproxyfen for mosquito-borne disease control in Belo Horizonte, Brazil: a pragmatic, before–after control–intervention paired-series trial
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Outcome of burn injury and its associated factors among burn patients attending public hospitals in North Showa Zone, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study
The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific • Article: Pathways to healthy ageing in Vanuatu: a qualitative evaluation of national policy priorities
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Seasonal variations in haematological and biochemical parameters of healthy Gambian adults: Retrospective study 2018–2022
Tuberculosis
PLOS Medicine • Article: HIV, malnutrition, and noncommunicable disease epidemics among tuberculosis-affected households in east and southern Africa: A cross-sectional analysis of the ERASE-TB cohort
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Perceived ease of use of Truenat among laboratory staff as a new diagnostic tool for TB in Nigeria: Result of a pilot roll-out
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Sequential and parallel testing for microbiological confirmation of tuberculosis disease in children in five low-income and middle-income countries: a secondary analysis of the RaPaed-TB study
Vaccines
eBioMedicine • Article: Next generation yellow fever vaccine induces an equivalent immune and transcriptomic profile to the current vaccine: observations from a phase I randomised clinical trial