Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
15 May 2026
MSF Scientific Days 2026 is next week! The full agenda is live, with sessions exploring the latest research and debates shaping humanitarian global health. Register now to secure your spot for Wednesday 20 May, either in person or online.
This week, an MSF-authored editorial for International Health’s special issue on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in conflict settings reflects on continued progress in NTD control amidst growing global health challenges. At a time of increasing conflict worldwide, it calls for sustained investment in NTD prevention, treatment, and care.
In BMJ Global Health, an analysis piece with MSF contribution examines the fragmented trauma pathways faced by civilians injured in conflicts across the Middle East, highlighting major gaps in access to coordinated emergency, surgical, and rehabilitative care under conditions of ongoing violence.
In the Journal of International Humanitarian Action, a narrative ethnographic exploration in the MSF Goyalmara Mother–Child Hospital in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, examines the complex moral experiences of MSF staff attempting to provide empathetic palliative care to children and their families in a humanitarian context.
A retrospective study, published in AIDS Research and Therapy, describes the incidence, characteristics, and outcomes of candidemia in hospitalised patients with advanced HIV at an MSF-supported hospital in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Findings highlight the need for improved diagnostics and access to antifungal susceptibility testing.
Finally, Epicentre and MSF contributed to an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology, analysing household and community transmission of COVID-19 across four sub-Saharan African cities, finding that community transmission accounted for most infections while household transmission rates varied by setting.
Best regards,
Clara von Kaehne, Lillian Matthes, and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Alys Barton and 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 BMJ • Feature: How climate change is reshaping India's snakebite crisis
The BMJ Global Health • Editorial: Congo’s conflicts, minerals and microbes: planetary health implications
PLOS Medicine • Perspectives: Climate change and non-communicable diseases: An invisible syndemic
Global Public Health • Comment: Silent signals: Autism, disability, and heat vulnerability in a warming world
Conflict, migration and health
The BMJ • Opinion: The US-Israeli war is driving a displacement crisis in Iran
The BMJ Global Health • Analysis***MSF AUTHOR***: Fragmented geographies and trauma pathways in the Middle East
BMC Health Services Research • Article: The impact of war on Primary Health Care in Ukraine: a cross-sectional survey and qualitative interviews with service providers
Global health
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Global, regional, and national disease burden of arthropod-borne diseases: Projections to 2030 based on the global burden of disease study 2021
HIV
The Lancet HIV • Review: Global mental health disparities among transgender women and transfeminine people living with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 63 studies
PLOS Medicine • Article: Trends in HIV self-testing uptake in Africa: A modeling study of population-based surveys and HIV testing program data
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Experiences, barriers, and enablers of integrated HIV and sexual and reproductive health services in Nigeria: a qualitative study of service users and healthcare providers
PLOS Medicine • Article: Point-of-care early infant HIV diagnosis at birth in a pragmatic cluster-randomized trial in Mozambique and Tanzania: A comparative cost and cost-effectiveness study
BMJ Global Health • Article***MENTIONS MSF***: HIV care continuity for women in postconflict Tigray: assessing mother-to-child transmission rates, infant health and cervical cancer screening
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and quick SOFA(qSOFA) predict 30-day mortality in patients with HIV-associated Talaromycosis: A multicenter retrospective cohort study
The Lancet Regional Health Africa • Article: Cost-effectiveness of implementing long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis in Eswatini: a mathematical modelling study
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Expanding Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan testing for diagnosis of tuberculosis among adults living with HIV admitted to hospitals in Tanzania and Mozambique (EXULTANT): a randomised controlled trial
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • and comment: Non-sputum testing: an incomplete bridge across the tuberculosis diagnostic gap
AIDS Research and Therapy • Article: Incidence and characteristics of candidemia in hospitalised patients with advanced HIV in the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Infectious diseases
The New England Journal of Medicine • Correspondence: Human Infection with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N5) Virus
The BMJ Global Health • Article: AWaRe antibiotic prescribing for common acute infections in private primary care in low–middle-income countries: a patient-level analysis using IQVIA prescriber surveys from Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia
JAMA • Review: Hepatitis B
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Incidence of acute pancreatitis among hospitalized patients with dengue: A systematic review and meta-analysis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Methods for estimating the burden of acute tropical infectious diseases: A scoping review
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Article: Accuracy of Plasma Cell-Free DNA PCR for Diagnosis of Coccidioidomycosis
Clinical Infectious Diseases • and editorial: A Road Not Yet Taken: Cell-Free DNA PCR Testing For Coccidioidomycosis
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Letter: Atypical HBV Serological Patterns After Switching to CAB/RPV: Interpretation Within Current Definitions
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Correspondence: Anti-HBs Seroconversion Following Withdrawal of Anti-HBV-Active Agents: An Underrecognized Form of HBV Reactivation?
American Journal of Epidemiology • Article: Assessing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in African households from the reanalysis of serosurveys
Malaria
The Lancet • Article: Impact of introducing RTS,S/AS01E malaria vaccine on mortality in young children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi: an observational evaluation of a cluster-randomised implementation programme
Malaria Journal • Article: Plasmodium vivax infection in Duffy-negative populations in Sudan: a systematic review and meta-analysis of host–parasite genetic adaptation
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Repositioning Antibiotics against Plasmodium falciparum RAD5 and WD11 as Novel Antimalarial Targets
Malaria Journal • Article: CAR-macrophage therapy: a novel strategy to overcome antimalarial drug resistance by targeting PfEMP1-mediated adhesion
Malaria Journal • Article: Protocol for a multicentric open-label randomized controlled trial comparing low-dose (0.25 mg/kg) and standard-dose (0.75 mg/kg) primaquine for gametocytocidal efficacy and safety in Plasmodium falciparum malaria
Malaria Journal • Article: Cross-border molecular epidemiology of Plasmodium falciparum drug susceptibility: insights from the Uganda-Demoractic Republic of the Congo border
Malaria Journal • Case Study: First record of fatal Plasmodium relictum (GRW4) infection in a highly endangered Fatu Hiva monarch (Pomarea whitneyi) fledgling: a case report
Malaria Journal • Article: Pyrethroids resistance and distribution of kdr mutations (L1014F and N1575Y) in Anopheles gambiae s.l. along the south-north transect of Benin
Maternal and child health
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Barriers and facilitators of parental healthcare-seeking for sick young infants with possible serious bacterial infection in Ethiopia: a qualitative study using a socio ecological model
The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Global variation in injury patterns, interventions, and post-operative outcomes for children and adolescents undergoing trauma laparotomy: an international cohort study
The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health • and comment: Beyone the operative room in paediatric trauma care
The BMJ • Letter: We need narrative approaches to children’s mental health in conflict
The BMJ • Practice: Identifying and managing pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain
The BMJ Global Health • Article: Factors affecting access to and utilisation of intravenous iron to treat anaemia in pregnancy in Zomba, Malawi: a qualitative study
PLOS Medicine • Article: Pathways of emergency care for severely ill children in Nigerian and Ugandan hospitals: A process mapping study
The BMJ Global Health • Article: Alarming disparities of adolescent motherhood in Nigeria: results from 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory
Journal of International Humanitarian Action • Article: “Their suffering also plagues us”: a narrative ethnographic exploration of humanitarian healthcare workers’ moral experiences of providing pediatric palliative care in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Mental health
BMJ Global Health • Article: Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programme impacts women’s mental health via food security in rural Bangladesh
Neglected tropical diseases
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Mass drug administration for soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis in selected districts of Rwanda: Coverage, implementation factors, and household water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Epidemiological study of leptospiral interaction in bovine farms in rural areas of Colombia: A One Health approach
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Mycetoma as a major cause of limb amputation in Northeastern Ethiopia: A facility-based retrospective study
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Clonorchis sinensis excretory secretory products promote hepatic fibrosis through stimulating biliary epithelium to secrete IL-17A
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Accuracy of AI-assisted diagnostic tools for Schistosoma haematobium:A systematic review and meta-analysis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Field deployment of a mobile suitcase laboratory for Buruli ulcer diagnosis in Ghana
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Establishment and characterization of a Wolbachia (wAlbB)-infected Aedes aegypti line (Tw-Kao) for dengue control
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Biomphalaria pfeifferi infected with Schistosoma spp. in Kakamega and Bungoma counties, western Kenya confirms autochtonous transmission of intestinal schistosomiasis
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene • Case Study: Armadillo meat consumption and Hansen’s disease (leprosy): a case–control study in Brazil
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Article: Fatal transfusion-transmitted severe dengue in an immunocompromised host: case report and systematic literature review
Clinical Infectious Diseases • and editorial: Transfusion-transmitted Severe Dengue: Implications for Blood Supply Safety
International Health • Article: Neglected tropical diseases in conflict zones: devastating consequences of a lack of inclusion
Non-communicable diseases
The Lancet eBioMedicine • Article: Influence of obesity on susceptibility to systemic symptoms and host responses to orthoflaviviral infection: a prospective observational study using yellow fever vaccine to simulate acute infection
The BMJ Global Health • Article: Optimising care for uncomplicated type 2 diabetes mellitus in Lagos, Nigeria: cost and benefit estimates using real-world data
JAMA • Article: Digoxin in Patients With Symptomatic Rheumatic Heart DiseaseA Randomized Clinical Trial
Outbreaks
The BMJ • News: Hantavirus: Third British national has suspected infection as WHO says this is “not the start of a pandemic”
The BMJ • News: Hantavirus: Three dead in cruise ship outbreak as authorities investigate human-to-human transmission
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Chikungunya virus in dengue-suspected patients: Molecular evidence from the 2019 outbreak in Yangon, Myanmar
Research and reporting
Conflict and Health • Case Study: Real-time analytical insights for disease surveillance and response during the severe drought and food security crisis, Somalia 2022–2023
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Spatial distribution of noma incidence in Nigeria, 1999–2024: a modelling study
Malaria Journal • Article: Effect of cumulative exposure to media channels for malaria messages on knowledge of malaria prevention among women (15–49 years) in Uganda
Malaria Journal • Article: Socio-demographic predictors of insecticide-treated bed net ownership and utilization for protection against malaria by rural community members across five regions of Mainland Tanzania
The BMJ Global Health • Article: A systematic review of infectious disease outbreaks and violence against women and girls: changes in magnitude, mechanisms and lessons for the future
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Modelling approaches for predicting the distribution of skin NTDs: A systematic review
Sexual and reproductive health
The New England Journal of Medicine • other: Cerebral Syphilitic Gumma
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Durability of doxycycline effectiveness against gonorrhoea after implementation of post-exposure prophylaxis in southern California, USA: a retrospective, test-negative, observational study
JAMA • Article: Syphilis Linked to Higher Risk of Some Cardiovascular Outcomes
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections in the Brazilian Amazon: A 10-year retrospective study
BMC Health Services Research • Article: Perceived barriers and facilitators to conventional cervical screening: a qualitative study among women, primary health workers and community representatives in Uganda
Tuberculosis
The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia • Article: Cost-effectiveness of a mTB-Tobacco intervention for smoking cessation in people with tuberculosis: an economic evaluation of a cluster randomised controlled trial
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Predictive Ability of Sonographic Characteristics Alone to Diagnose Tuberculous Pleural Effusions in a Resource-Limited Setting: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study in Zambia
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Cost-effectiveness of in-kind nutritional support for impoverished persons with tuberculosis to reduce mortality and disengagement from care in India: a modelling study
Vaccines
Clinical Infectious Diseases • Article: Influenza A and B Viral Shedding in Adults Immunized with Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine
The Lancet eBioMedicine • Article: Three-year follow-up of the COVAXID trial: real-world assessment of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine immunogenicity in immunocompromised individuals highlights increasing roles of hybrid and passive immunity
The Lancet Regional Health Americas • Article: Impact of switching from a quadrivalent to a nonavalent HPV vaccine on HPV infections and cervical cancer in Colombia: a mathematical modelling study
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene • Article: Antibody response following rabies vaccination: a retrospective cohort study from a tertiary centre in Kerala, India
The BMJ • News***MENTIONS MSF***: Malaria vaccine reduces child deaths by 13% in Africa, WHO study reports
The BMJ • News: Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine outperforms standard shot, study finds
The BMJ • Article: Aluminium adjuvants in vaccines and potential health effects: systematic review
Zika
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Dual role of Japanese encephalitis virus fusion loop peptide antibodies in Zika virus infection