Global health review

MSF outreach workers test people for kala azar, Fulbaria, Mymensingh district, Bangladesh. Caption
MSF outreach workers test people for kala azar, Fulbaria, Mymensingh district, Bangladesh.

A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond

12 July 2024       

MSF Scientific Day - Asia 2024 has extended the deadline for abstract submission to 19th June! For guidelines and submission instructions, please visit their website.

This week, in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Epicentre and MSF researchers compared two antipsychotic medications for use in humanitarian settings with limited resources. The authors expressed uncertainty regarding the difference in benefits between the two options and recommended that practitioners consider the side effects and preferences of patients. In The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, DNDi contributed to a systematic review of efficacy studies for visceral leishmaniasis, emphasising the significant variability in design, conduct, analysis, and reporting across all the studies reviewed.

New England Journal of Medicine has released part 1 of their podcast series focusing on race-based diagnosis to examine how beliefs about race influence medicine and are perceived as scientific. And Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene highlighted the need for species-specific antivenom to better manage snakebite.

A correspondence piece in The Lancet warned that the death toll in Gaza might be three to 15 times what has been reported due to the indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. This number of deaths roughly equates to 7.9% of the total population. Finally, the same journal reported on MSF’s decision to replace the MSF Access Campaign with a new structure.

 

Best regards

 

Mohammad Salaymeh, Lydia Lampiri, Ononna Thuli and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Patricia Kahn and Camryn Lewis.

 

All MSF-authored publications can be found on the MSF Science Portal, as well as recordings, abstracts and posters from the MSF Scientific Days International 2023 conference.

Climate change and Planetary Health

The Lancet • Series: Lung cancer in Asia: the impact of climate change

 

Conflict, migration and health

The Lancet • Correspondence: Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential

The Lancet • Article: COVID-19 among migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons: systematic review, meta-analysis and qualitative synthesis of the global empirical literature

The Lancet Regional Health Americas • Review: Healthcare access, quality and financial risk protection among displaced Venezuelan women living in Brazil: a cross-sectional study

 

Global health

The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific • Review: Drug development and evidence for lung cancer targeted therapy in Eastern Asia

The Lancet • World Report***MENTIONS MSF***: Furore as MSF plans to replace Access Campaign

 NEJM • Podcast: Race-Based Diagnosis, Part 1 — ITT Episode 33

PLOS Speaking of Medicine and Health • Blog: Why Removing Language Barriers is an Opportunity for Equity in Global Health

 

HIV

The Lancet HIV • Comment: Effects of self-testing on HIV outcomes in west Africa

The Lancet HIV • Article: Low-cost point-of-care urine test to enhance PrEP adherence

The Lancet HIV • Position paper : Person-centred care for older adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

The Lancet HIV • Viewpoint: Steatotic liver disease and HIV: an agenda for 2030

 

Infectious diseases

JAMA Network Open • Article: Epidemiologic Features of Recovery From SARS-CoV-2 Infection

The Lancet Regional Health Europe • Article: Impact of COVID-19 on total excess mortality and geographic disparities in Europe, 2020–2023: a spatio-temporal analysis

 

Maternal and child health

The Lancet Public Health • Article: Changing patterns of health risk in adolescence: implications for health policy

 

Mental health

The Lancet Psychiatry • Article: Concomitant use of antidepressants and benzodiazepines during pregnancy and associated risk of congenital malformations: a population-based cohort study in Taiwan

PLOS Speaking of Medicine and Health • Blog: Getting to know PLOS Mental Health: Community Mental Health

Cochrane Database Syst Rev. • Article***EPICENTRE & MSF***: Haloperidol (oral) versus olanzapine (oral) for people with schizophrenia and schizophrenia‐spectrum disorders

 

Neglected tropical diseases

PLOS NTD • Article: A Nanobody/Monoclonal Antibody “hybrid” sandwich technology offers an improved immunoassay strategy for detection of African trypanosome infections

PLOS NTD • Article: Assessing the modification impact of vaccination on the relationship of the Discomfort Index with hand, foot, and mouth disease in Guizhou: A multicounty study

PLOS NTD • Article: Case detection delay in leprosy: Testing tool reliability and measurement consistency in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania

TRSTMH • Article: Comparative functional characterization and in vitro immunological cross-reactivity studies on Daboia russelii and Craspedocephalus malabaricus venom Get a

ASTMH • Article***MENTIONS DNDi***: Design, Conduct, Analysis, and Reporting of Therapeutic Efficacy Studies in Visceral Leishmaniasis: A Systematic Review of Published Reports, 2000–2021

PLOS NTD • Article: Improved water supply infrastructure to reduce acute diarrhoeal diseases and cholera in Uvira, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Results and lessons learned from a pragmatic trial

PLOS NTD • Article: Postnatal zinc deficiency due to giardiasis disrupts hippocampal and cerebellar development

PLOS NTD • Article: Risks of anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and sleep disorders in patients with dengue fever: A nationwide, population-based cohort study

TRSTMH • Article: Survival analysis of adult visceral leishmaniasis patients admitted to Metema Hospital, Metema, Ethiopia: a hospital-based cross-sectional study

PLOS NTD • Article: Therapeutic itineraries of snakebite victims and antivenom access in southern Mexico

PLOS NTD • Article: Triple-drug therapy with ivermectin, diethylcarbamazine and albendazole for the acceleration of lymphatic filariasis elimination in Kenya: Programmatic implementation and results of the first impact assessment

 

Non-communicable diseases

The Lancet Oncology • Comment: Cancer and premature mortality—pushing the frontiers of cancer care

The Lancet Oncology • News: Nigeria mandates reporting of all cancer diagnoses

The Lancet Oncology • Article: Premature mortality trends in 183 countries by cancer type, sex, WHO region, and World Bank income level in 2000–19: a retrospective, cross-sectional, population-based study

The Lancet Global Health • Article: Prevalence of all epilepsies in urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya: a two-stage population-based study

 

Outbreaks

The Lancet Microbe • Comment: Oropouche fever outbreak in Brazil: an emerging concern in Latin America

 

Research and reporting

Bulletin of the WHO • Article: District-level monitoring of universal health coverage, India

 

Tuberculosis

The Lancet Microbe • Viewpoint: Implications of subclinical tuberculosis for vaccine trial design and global effect

The Lancet Microbe • Comment: Need for high-resolution observational cohort studies to understand the natural history of tuberculosis

Bulletin of the WHO • Health Policy: Target regimen profiles for tuberculosis treatment

The Lancet Infectious Disease • Review: The inclusion of children and adolescents in tuberculosis diagnostic development and evaluation–a consensus statement