Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
13 February 2026
Remember to save the date for the MSF Scientific Day conference on 20th of May 2026. Bringing together participants from over 100 countries, this truly is a conference without borders!
In American Journal of Epidemiology, MSF and Epicentre report a higher risk of unfavorable outcomes among people with hepatitis C treated for multidrug- or rifampicin-resistant TB. This association was partly explained by differences in baseline characteristics and loss to follow-up, suggesting that improving treatment retention may help reduce outcome gaps.
In International Journal of Drug Policy, MSF contributed to a systematic review assessing the global epidemiology of injecting drug use and key infectious diseases including HIV, hepatitis C virus, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B virus among incarcerated populations. In a companion study, authors reported that not a single country ensures that incarcerated people have access to all recommended prevention and treatment services across every facility, such as opioid agonist treatment, needle and syringe programmes, and HIV, hepatitis C, TB, hepatitis B testing, treatment, and vaccination.
Finally, The Lancet Infectious Diseases highlighted two recent documentary films made by DNDi that examine visceral leishmaniasis at a pivotal moment in its trajectory: near elimination in South Asia contrasted by a rapidly rising burden in East Africa.
Best regards,
Zhi Wei Ching, Lydia Lampiri, Madeleine Baxter 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 2024 conference.
Antimicrobial resistance
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Integrative Profiling of Antimicrobial Resistance Risks in a Philippine Peri-Urban Community: Insights From Clinical Data, Wastewater Analysis and Community Engagement
Climate change and Planetary Health
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: The impacts of climate change on occupational health and work among outdoor workers: A scoping review
Who Bulletin • Article: Justice and responsibility in climate change adaptation research
Who Bulletin • Article: Participatory research and community engagement in climate and health research
Who Bulletin • Article: Ethical priority-setting in climate and health research
Conflict & Health • Article: The overlapping effects of climate change and conflict on mental health of vulnerable populations: a scoping review
Malaria Journal • Article: Climate variability and malaria incidence trends in Yumbe District, West Nile Sub-region of Uganda (2017–2021)
Conflict, migration and health
The Lancet • Comment: Venezuela's health system: when force meets fragility
The Lancet Infectious Disease • other: Reem Abu Shomar— championing water safety in Gaza
The BMJ • News: Israel accepts Gaza death toll of 70 000, but experts say true number is much higher
The BMJ • News: Iran: Doctor faces execution for treating protestors as nine other physicians arrested, human right groups warn
The BMJ • News***MENTIONS MSF***: Gaza: Israel to ban MSF after charity’s U turn on sharing Palestinian staff details
The BMJ • Opinion: Iran: Attacking injured protestors and healthcare workers violates medical neutrality
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Viral metagenome characterization reveals species-specific virome profiles in Triatominae populations from the southern United States
Conflict & Health • Article: Psychosocial support for schoolchildren in wartime Ukraine: community-based access and parent-reported perceived helpfulness
Global health
The Lancet • Correspondence: Health effects of reductions in food assistance benefits in the USA
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Impact of two decades of humanitarian and development assistance and the projected mortality consequences of current defunding to 2030: retrospective evaluation and forecasting analysis
The Lancet Public Health • Viewpoint: Rethinking health-care systems to tackle social isolation and frailty
BMJ Global Health • Article: Local systems, local solutions: which factors drive essential medicine availability in public health facilities across Indonesia?
BMJ Global Health • Article: Implementation of health and health-related sustainable development goals: progress, challenges and opportunities—a systematic literature review update
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Acceptability and usability of COVID-19 antigen self-test in populations under socioeconomic vulnerability in Brazil: A cross-sectional study
Transactions RSTMH • Article: Diseases of ‘warm temperaments’: a modern perspective on Dr Hother McCormack Hanschell’s ‘On the influence of race in venereal disease’ and the legacies of colonialism and scientific racism in tropical medicine
HIV
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Linkage to and retention in chronic care among patients diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, or HIV in DIMAMO PHRC clinics, South Africa
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Phenotypic impacts of treatment-selected mutations in HIV-2 protease on darunavir and lopinavir susceptibility: Evaluating genotypic HIV-2 drug resistance tools
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Access to HIV treatment during community-wide flooding: Experiences of people living with HIV and health care workers in Malawi, a mixed methods study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Policies and strategies for HPV vaccination schedule completion in immunocompromised girls, including girls living with HIV: Qualitative insights from Eswatini, Malawi, and Uganda
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Improving HIV assisted partner services outcomes by eliciting additional partners after the initial encounter
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Applying human-centered design to adapt a multifaceted implementation strategy for integrating HIV and NCD services in Lusaka, Zambia: Healthcare worker perspectives
Infectious diseases
The Lancet Planetary Health • other: Time to re-evaluate combination antifungal therapy for invasive aspergillosis and other invasive mycoses
The Lancet Planetary Health • Comment: Circulation of clade Ib mpox outside of Africa—are we prepared?
BMJ Global Health • Article: Strengthening supply chains for pathogen genomic surveillance in Asia
PLOS Medicine • Article: The mpox epidemic is not over: Reducing disproportionate burden in Africa and persistent global risk require a sustained response
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Characterization of hepatitis B virus surface gene mutations from Huzhou, eastern China
Who Bulletin • Article: Identification of priority areas for cholera control, Cameroon
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Cost of illness of scrub typhus in South India – a population-based, mixed-methods study
International Journal of Drug Policy • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Global coverage of interventions for reduction of injecting drug use-related harm, HIV, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis in prisons and other carceral settings: A systematic review
International Journal of Drug Policy • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: The global epidemiology of injecting drug use, HIV, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis among people who are incarcerated: a multistage systematic review
American Journal of Epidemiology • Article***EPICENTRE AUTHOR***: Estimating the effect of hepatitis C infection on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment outcomes under hypothetical interventions on regimen composition and adherence
Malaria
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Early vascular toxicity induced by Bothrops atrox venom in the chorioallantoic membrane assay: Kinetic profile and translational insights
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Integrating causal inference and machine learning to quantify climate-malaria relationships: Evidence of temperature and rainfall thresholds from Colombian municipalities
Malaria Journal • Article: Quality of inpatient test-and-treat malaria case-management in public and private hospitals in Kano State, Nigeria
Malaria Journal • Article: Mosquito direct skin feeding bioassay: 15 years of experience and a standardised approach in Mali
Malaria Journal • Article: Malaria: a review on its current epidemiological status and management strategies
Malaria Journal • Article: Identification of serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1-interacting proteins in Plasmodium berghei
Malaria Journal • Article: SIMPLseq: a high-sensitivity Plasmodium falciparum genotyping and PCR contamination tracking tool
Malaria Journal • Article: Updating Anopheles funestus group members in Burkina Faso: species distribution and contribution to malaria transmission
Malaria Journal • Article: Spatial and temporal inequalities in malaria incidence and mortality among children aged 0–4 years in Nigeria: a subnational analysis, 2010–2019
Malaria Journal • Article: Pooled prevalence of Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency among malaria patients in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Malaria Journal • Article: Household characteristics, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and malaria prevalence among children aged 6–59 months in Ghana: an analysis of the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey
Malaria Journal • Article: Building contextually-relevant training programs for scientific development: process and lessons learned in implementing two iterations of a faculty enrichment program in applied malaria modeling
Malaria Journal • Article: Positive tests are all alike, every negative test is negative in its own way: lack of confidence in negative malaria rapid diagnostic tests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Maternal and child health
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Soil-transmitted helminth infections and nutritional status of school-age children, in Mekhoni town, Tigray, Ethiopia
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Giardia duodenalis MIF induces host intestinal damage via CD74 receptor mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation
PLOS Medicine • Article: Mother and child health 4.5 years after gestational diabetes mellitus managed using tight or less tight targets for glycaemic control: Post-hoc follow-up study of the TARGET trial
PLOS Global Public Health • Review: Feeding pattern and associated factors among children aged 6–23 months in the Tahtay Maichew district, northern Ethiopia
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Results from a maternal, newborn and child health program targeting pregnant, married adolescent girls in northern Nigeria
Mental health
The Lancet HIV • Comment: Embedding mental health and SRHR in HIV–UHC strategies
The Lancet Psychiatry • other: Harnessing the power of constitutional rights and legal frameworks to scale up public mental health implementation
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Adolescent suicide attempts in Brazil and impact of COVID-19 pandemic: A temporal analysis
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Community-identified priorities for parenting and parental mental health in coastal Ghana: Formative insights to shape a multi-component intervention
Neglected tropical diseases
The Lancet Planetary Health • other***MENTIONS DNDi***: Leishmaniasis: a story of two continents
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Comment: Pulmonary hydatid disease in children: a neglected burden hidden in plain sight
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: Reaching the last mile with ivermectin mass drug administration against onchocerciasis: The case of Kwanware-Ottou persistent transmission focus in the Wenchi health district of Ghana
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: National control programs for scabies: Experiences from Fiji and Solomon Islands
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: Social, environmental and policy contexts affecting the feasibility and acceptability of improving household flooring for better health in rural Kenya
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: Pathogenic Leptospira species identified in dogs and cats during neutering in Thailand
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: Rapid diagnosis of skin and soft tissue melioidosis in children
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: The Death to Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis (DOLF) project: Accomplishments and ongoing research
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: Effect of a gut commensal Lactobacillus strain Limosilactobacillus caviae JL20 on leptospiral whole-cell inactivated vaccine in hamsters
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: Evaluation of surveillance-response interventions for Schistosoma haematobium elimination on Pemba Island, Tanzania: A 4-year intervention study with repeated cross-sectional surveys
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Arbovirus Outbreak Reveals Co-Infection of Dengue and Chikungunya Viruses at Zona da Mata Region in Minas Gerais, Brazil, During 2024
Tropical Medicine & International Health • other: Poor Response to Albendazole in Hookworm-Infected Abnormal Haemoglobin Carriers
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Facing pediatric snakebites unarmed: knowledge gaps and first-aid response challenges among parents in rural Sri Lanka
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Deep venous thrombosis due to Wuchereria bancrofti-induced reactive hypereosinophilia syndrome: a case report
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Chronic health manifestations following hump-nosed pit viper (Hypnale spp.) bites: an authenticated case series
Non-communicable diseases
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Concurrent therapeutic and behavioral interventions are associated with a reduced number of emerging Dracunculus medinensis worms in dogs in Chad
Sexual and reproductive health
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Prevalence and spatial distribution characteristics of human brucellosis in Ningxia from 2010 to 2024
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Geospatial variation and risk factors for malnutrition among postpartum women in rural Bangladesh
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: The humanitarian-development nexus and sexual and reproductive health interventions in fragile settings: A scoping review
Tuberculosis
The Lancet HIV • Article: Inpatient initiation of tuberculosis preventive therapy with 1 month of isoniazid and rifapentine for adults with advanced HIV disease and cryptococcal meningitis (IMPROVE): a non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial
The Lancet HIV • Comment: Preventing tuberculosis in advanced HIV disease
The Lancet Regional Health - South East Asia • Viewpoint: From DOTS to DOST: a new framework for TB elimination in India
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Comment: Tackling the twin crises of tuberculosis and undernutrition
PLOS Medicine • Article: Estimating the global burden of viable Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection: A mathematical modelling study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Combination interventions to control the tuberculosis epidemic in the Karamoja subregion of Uganda: A modelling analysis
Vaccines
The Lancet • Correspondence: New approaches for UK–China global health cooperation
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Content and Factors Influencing Health Education in Immunisation Clinics in Nigeria
Conflict & Health • Article: Beyond survival: how social support and psychological security protect war-disabled individuals from post-traumatic stress in Yemen
Malaria Journal • Article: R21/MATRIX malaria vaccine: awareness, perception, acceptability, and willingness to pay among caregivers of under-five children in endemic communities in Lagos, Nigeria