Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
27 August 2021
Hello Everyone,
This week, MSF authors a commentary in BMJ Global Health setting out three major threats to the control of visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa and a contingency plan to coordinate global activities for the disease.
Also in BMJ Global Health, MSF contributes to an article describing the work of the Social Sciences Analytics Cell (CASS) in providing integrated outbreak analytics during the 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The article describes the operational processes of CASS and key factors contributing to its usefulness.
In NEJM, a clinical trial conducted in Burkina Faso and Mali assesses whether providing a malaria vaccine in combination with seasonal malaria chemoprevention is more effective in protecting young children from malaria than providing either intervention alone. Results showed that this new approach of combining interventions substantially reduced the incidence of uncomplicated malaria, hospital admissions with severe malaria, and death from malaria compared to using either intervention alone.
In the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, an MSF-authored article discusses the implementation of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in conflict settings of the Middle East during the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls for prioritisation of IPC that is supported by contextualised evidence.
MSF also contributes to a review in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health summarising the evidence around the demographic trends in international migration of unaccompanied minors, their mental and physical health, and legal implications. The authors provide recommendations to protect the rights of these children and adolescents.
Reminder: MSF Scientific Days Asia 2021 took place this week. Recordings from all the sessions are available on the conference platform for the next 30 days.
Best regards,
Austin Heuer, Bharath Kumar, Jodie Pearlman and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Patricia Kahn and Amelia Zhao
Climate change and planetary health
The Lancet • Article : Estimating the cause-specific relative risks of non-optimal temperature on daily mortality: a two-part modelling approach applied to the Global Burden of Disease Study
The Lancet • Series : Hot weather and heat extremes: health risks
The Lancet • Editorial : Health in a world of extreme heat
The Lancet Public Health • Editorial : Mitigating climate change must be a priority for public health
Conflict, migration and health
The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health • Review ***MSF AUTHOR***: International migration of unaccompanied minors: trends, health risks, and legal protection
Conflict and Health • Article : The impact of a community based rehabilitation program in Afghanistan: a longitudinal analysis using propensity score matching and difference in difference analysis
BMJ Opinion • Blog : Afghanistan is at a crossroads again—preventing a descent into chaos
Ebola
BMJ • News : Ivory Coast rolls out Ebola vaccine after first confirmed case since 1994
Global health
The Lancet • World Report : Haiti's health woes intensify
BMJ Global Health • Comment : Dialogical reflexivity towards collective action to transform global health
BMJ Global Health • Article : Governance factors that affect the implementation of health financing reforms in Tanzania: an exploratory study of stakeholders’ perspectives
JAMA • Article : Urgent Efforts Needed to Increase Access to Clean Water, Sanitation
BMJ Opinion • Blog : The global health security agenda rewards rich nations for their selfish behaviour
PLOS Medicine • Article : Global surgery, obstetric, and anaesthesia indicator definitions and reporting: An Utstein consensus report
HIV
The Lancet EClinical Medicine • Article : The geography of emergency department-based HIV testing in South Africa: Can patients link to care?
JAMA • Article : Long-term, Affordable PrEP Cuts New HIV Infection Rate
PLOS ONE • Article : Effect of suicidality on clinical and behavioural outcomes in HIV positive adults in Uganda
PLOS ONE • Article : Levels of mother-to-child HIV transmission knowledge and associated factors among reproductive-age women in Ethiopia: Analysis of 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey Data
Infectious diseases
The Lancet Global Health • Article : Incidence of acute rheumatic fever in northern and western Uganda: a prospective, population-based study and comment Long-awaited update on estimates of acute rheumatic fever in Africa
BMJ Global Health • Comment : Control of visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa: fragile progress, new threats
BMJ Global Health • Article : Community-based amoxicillin treatment for fast breathing pneumonia in young infants 7–59 days old: a cluster randomised trial in rural Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India and Malawi
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article : Factors associated with pyomyositis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article : Safety and efficacy of Magnesium Sulfate in the management of Tetanus: A systematic review
Malaria
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article : Cotrimoxazole versus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in HIV-infected pregnant women in Bangui, Central African Republic: a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial
Malaria Journal • Article : Contents and quality of travel tips on malaria in English and Spanish travel blogs
Malaria Journal • Article : Investment case for malaria elimination in South Africa: a financing model for resource mobilization to accelerate regional malaria elimination
Malaria Journal • Article : Effectiveness of a long-lasting insecticide treatment kit (ICON® Maxx) for polyester nets over three years of household use: a WHO phase III trial in Tanzania
Maternal and child health
The Lancet • Article : Global, regional, and national progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for neonatal and child health: all-cause and cause-specific mortality findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
The Lancet EClinical Medicine • Article : Secondary analysis of retrospective and prospective reports of adverse childhood experiences and mental health in young adulthood: Filtered through recent stressors
BMJ Global Health • Article : Early childhood development and parental training interventions in rural China: a systematic review and meta-analysis
JAMA • Article : Air Pollution’s Effects on Newborns’ Thyroid Hormones
Transactions of RSTMH • Article : Prevalence and associated factors of undernutrition among pregnant Sudanese women
PLOS ONE • Article : Seroepidemiology and associated risk factors of hepatitis B and C virus infections among pregnant women attending maternity wards at two hospitals in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Neglected tropical diseases
BMJ Global Health • Comment ***MSF AUTHOR***: Control of visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa: fragile progress, new threats
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Comment : An urgent need: vaccines for neglected tropical diseases
PLOS NTDs • Article : The efficacy of topical, oral and surgical interventions for the treatment of tungiasis: A systematic review of the literature
PLOS NTDs • Article : Innovative tracking, active search and follow-up strategies for new leprosy cases in the female prison population
PLOS NTDs • Article : Accuracy of an experimental whole-blood test for detecting reactivation of echinococcal cysts
PLOS NTDs • Article : Towards a shared understanding of sustainability for neglected tropical disease programs
PLOS NTDs • Article : Diagnostic testing holds the key to NTD elimination
PLOS NTDs • Article : Changing epidemiology of dengue in Sri Lanka—Challenges for the future
PLOS NTDs • Article : Infection with Blastocystis spp. and its association with enteric infections and environmental enteric dysfunction among slum-dwelling malnourished adults in Bangladesh
PLOS NTDs • Article : Coagulation abnormalities in Dengue fever infection: A systematic review and meta-analysis
PLOS NTDs • Article : Leptospirosis as a cause of fever associated with jaundice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
PLOS NTDs • Article : Rabies epidemiology, prevention and control in Nigeria: Scoping progress towards elimination
PLOS NTDs • Article : Comparison between blood hemoglobin concentration determined by point-of-care device and complete blood count in adult patients with dengue
PLOS NTDs • Article : Availability, affordability and stock-outs of commodities for the treatment of snakebite in Kenya
PLOS NTDs • Article : Environmental determinants of E. coli, link with the diarrheal diseases, and indication of vulnerability criteria in tropical West Africa (Kapore, Burkina Faso)
PLOS NTDs • Article : Factors associated with soil-transmitted helminths infection in Benin: Findings from the DeWorm3 study
PLOS NTDs • Article : Farmer perceptions and willingness to pay for novel livestock pest control technologies: A case of tsetse repellent collar in Kwale County in Kenya
Non-communicable diseases
PLOS ONE • Article : Perinatal outcomes of women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in Jimma Medical Center, southwest Ethiopia: Retrospective cohort study
Outbreaks
BMJ Global Health • Practice ***MSF AUTHOR***: How to improve outbreak response: a case study of integrated outbreak analytics from Ebola in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
International Journal of Infectious Diseases • Short survey ***MSF AUTHOR***: How COVID-19 highlighted the need for infection prevention and control measures to become central to the global conversation: experience from the conflict settings of the Middle-East
The Lancet • World Report : Health leaders criticise limited ACT-A review
The Lancet Global Health • Correspondence : The impact of COVID-19 on antimalarial supply chains in Ghana
The Lancet Regional Health • Comment : The Prevention of Common Respiratory Virus Epidemics in 2020-21 during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic: An Unexpected Benefit of the Implementation of Public Health Measures
BMJ • Feature : Covid-19: How Kerala kept itself above water in India’s devastating second wave
Transactions of RSTMH • Article : Rabies and the pandemic: lessons for One Health
Resarch and reporting
BMJ Global Health • Article : Conducting clinical research in a resource-constrained setting: lessons from a longitudinal cohort study in The Gambia
Tuberculosis
Transactions of RSTMH • Article : Concurrent central nervous system involvement in immunocompetent adults with pulmonary miliary TB: a prospective analysis
Transactions of RSTMH • Article : A comparison of vitamin D and cathelicidin (LL-37) levels between patients with active TB and their healthy contacts in a high HIV prevalence setting: a prospective descriptive study
Vaccines
The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health • Editorial : Childhood vaccinations: playing catch-up
BMJ • Editorial : Real world effectiveness of covid-19 vaccines
BMJ • Editorial : Vaccines should not be the preserve of rich countries
BMJ Global Health • Comment : Time for action: towards an intersectional gender approach to COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment that leaves no one behind
PLOS Speaking of Medicine • Blog : COVID-19 Vaccine Equity- The Neglected Pandemic Stepchild
PLOS ONE • Article : Peoples’ understanding, acceptance, and perceived challenges of vaccination against COVID-19: A cross-sectional study in Bangladesh