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

20 December 2024       


We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting submissions for MSF Scientific Days 2025! Please submit your abstracts by 19 January 2025. 

This week, MSF contributes to research in Journal of the International AIDS Society revealing that retention rates for antiretroviral therapy in the Central African Republic are sub-optimal, particularly in the inner country regions, highlighting the various challenges and contextual factors at play. In Clinical Infectious Diseases, MSF and Epicentre examine the frequency and incidence of QT prolongation, a side effect of multi-drug/rifampicin resistant tuberculosis treatment with bedaquiline and delamanid. And in eBioMedicine, MSF contributes to research describing the pattern of Leishmania markers prior to visceral leishmaniasis (VL) onset and identifying Leishmania makers that can predict VL.

In The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, MSF researchers recommend that refugee camps in South Sudan, Jordan, and Rwanda avoid storing drinkable water in direct sunlight and to transfer it between containers during household storage. Their results indicate that chlorine decay rates in water stored in sunlight are 2 to 3.7 times higher than in shaded storage. 

Finally, BMJ Global Health reports that the Kumer Refugee Camp in Ethiopia does not meet Sphere guidelines for water, sanitation, hygiene, health, and nutrition standards, advocating for an urgent response to address the funding gaps. 

Best Regards, 

Lydia Lampiri, Zhi Wei Ching, Ononna Thuli and Holly Baker with MSF-authored article assistance from Amelia Zhao and Zaineb Chaudhry.

 

All MSF-authored publications can be found on MSF Science Portal, as well as recordings, abstracts and posters from the MSF Scientific Days 2024 conference. 

 

Climate change and Planetary Health

The BMJ • Opinion: How is the climate crisis affecting our food supplies? 
 

Conflict, migration and health

eClinicalMedicine • Article: Conflict-related and sexual trauma in treatment-seeking Arabic-speaking men: a cross-sectional study 

BMJ Global Health • Comment***MSF AUTHOR***: Critical failings in humanitarian response: a cholera outbreak in Kumer Refugee Camp, Ethiopia, 2023 

The BMJ • News: Gaza: Aid workers are killed in Israeli airstrikes as attacks on hospitals continue 

The BMJ • Opinion: Sudan has spiralled into a humanitarian catastrophe, but the International Rescue Committee is helping to restore hope in communities 

The BMJ • News: Syria: Doctors warn of refeeding syndrome and infections in released prisoners 
 

Global health

WHO Bulletin • Article: A scoping review and expert consensus on digital determinants of health 

WHO Bulletin • Opinion: Digital health diplomacy and the universal health coverage 

WHO Bulletin • Practice: Digitalization of health care in low- and middle-income countries 

JAMA • Article: Electronic Sepsis Screening Among Patients Admitted to Hospital Wards: A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Trial 

Pathogens • Article***MENTIONS EPICENTRE ***: Impact of Sanitation on Rodent Pullulation and Plague Status in an Informal Settlement on the Outskirts of Mahajanga (Madagascar) 

JAMA Network Open • Article: Primary Care–Based Digital Health–Enabled Stroke Management Intervention: Long-Term Follow-Up of a Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial 

BMJ Global Health • Comment: Reorienting health systems towards a PHC approach: why you cannot do it without enabling legal systems 

JAMA • Article: The Low-Cost, Battery-Powered AI-Enabled Ultrasound Device That Could Improve Global Obstetric Care 

WHO Bulletin • Opinion: Towards an inclusive digital health ecosystem 

BMJ Global Health • Article: What research evidence is required on violence against women to inform future pandemic preparedness? A scoping review of the research evidence and gaps 

BMJ Global Health • Article: Research capacity strengthening methods and meanings: negotiating power in a global health programme on violence against women 
 

HIV

The Lancet HIV • Article: Adaptive HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis adherence interventions for young women in Johannesburg, South Africa: a sequential multiple-assignment randomised trial 

The Lancet HIV • Article: Lesotho's progress towards UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets from 2016 to 2020: comparison of Population-based HIV Impact Assessments 

NEJM • Other: Long-Acting HIV Medicines and the Pandemic Inequality Cycle — Rethinking Access 

JIAS • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Retention on antiretroviral therapy and drivers of lost-to-follow up in the Central African Republic: a longitudinal analysis 

The Lancet HIV • Article: Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and neutralisation activities of the anti-HIV-1 monoclonal antibody PGT121.414.LS administered alone and in combination with VRC07-523LS in adults without HIV in the USA (HVTN 136/HPTN 092): a first-in-human, open-label, randomised controlled phase 1 trial 
 

Infectious diseases

Epidem. & Infect. • Article***EPICENTRE AUTHOR***: Inferring the proportion of undetected cholera infections from serological and clinical surveillance in an immunologically naive population 

Methods Mol Biol. • Study Protocol***MSF AUTHOR***: Mismatch of Supply and Demand: Marburg Virus Disease Outbreaks Need Countermeasures But Will Not Provide Opportunity for Clinical Trials 
 

Malaria

Malaria Journal • Article: Anti-septin complex positive autoimmune encephalitis after severe falciparum malaria: a case report 

The BMJ • News: Malaria: Drug resistance and fragile health systems are hindering progress, WHO warns 

The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Safety and efficacy of the blood-stage malaria vaccine RH5.1/Matrix-M in Burkina Faso: interim results of a double-blind, randomised, controlled, phase 2b trial in children 

Malaria Journal • Article: The mediating role of behavioural and socio-structural factors on the association between household wealth and childhood malaria in Ghana 
 

Maternal and child health

The BMJ • Opinion: Afghanistan: the Taliban’s restrictions on midwifery training will jeopardise the health of women and babies 

PLOS Medicine • Article: Cervical cesarean damage as a growing clinical problem: The association between in-labour cesarean section and recurrent preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies 

The Lancet Global Health • Article: Contextual factors influencing bubble continuous positive airway pressure implementation for paediatric respiratory distress in low-income and middle-income countries: a realist review 

WHO Bulletin • Article: Medicine availability and affordability for paediatric cancers, China 

JAMA Pediatrics • Article: New-Onset Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Among Korean Youths During the COVID-19 Pandemic 

BMJ Global Health • Comment: Revisiting health systems to integrate perinatal mental health into maternal and child health services: perspectives from research, policy and implementation 
 

Mental health

BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Researchers’ agency and the boundaries of global mental health: perspectives from and about Latin America 
 

Neglected tropical diseases

PLOS NTDs • Article: A supervised machine learning statistical design of experiment approach to modeling the barriers to effective snakebite treatment in Ghana 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Barriers and facilitators to programmatic mass drug administration in persistent schistosomiasis hotspot communities: An ethnographic study along Lake Albert, midwestern Uganda 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Comparative study of two Rift Valley fever virus field strains originating from Mauritania 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Cost of dengue in Colombia: A systematic review 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Detection of neutralizing antibodies against arboviruses from liver homogenates 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Dyslipidemia in severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome patients: A retrospective cohort study 

Nat Commun • Article***MENTIONS DNDi ***: Early assessment of antibodies decline in Chagas patients following treatment using a serological multiplex immunoassay 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Leptospira seroprevalence and associated risk factors among slaughterhouse workers in Western Bahr El Ghazal State, South Sudan 

The BMJ • News: PAHO: Americas report record dengue and Oropouche cases 

eBioMedicine • Article***MENTIONS MSF***: Prediction of visceral leishmaniasis development in a highly exposed HIV cohort in Ethiopia based on Leishmania infection markers: results from the PreLeisH study 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Presence of Trypanosoma cruzi (TcI) in different tissues of Didelphis virginiana from the metropolitan area of Merida, southeastern Mexico: Epidemiological relevance and implications for non-vector transmission routes 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Protecting the most vulnerable: The urgent need to include HIV-exposed children in malaria chemoprevention strategies 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Rapid assessment of noma: Reporting on forgotten and neglected disease in Ethiopia 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Relevance of reporting leprosy related disability at the completion of multi drug therapy: A 5-year retrospective analysis of disability in persons affected by leprosy at ALERT Hospital Ethiopia 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Retrospective analysis of spatiotemporal variation of scrub typhus in Yunnan Province, 2006–2022 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Schistosomiasis transmission: A machine learning analysis reveals the importance of agrochemicals on snail abundance in Rwanda 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Seroepidemiology of trachoma in a low prevalence region receiving annual mass azithromycin distribution in Maradi, Niger 

PLOS NTDs • Article: Strategic vaccination responses to Chikungunya outbreaks in Rome: Insights from a dynamic transmission model 
 

Non-communicable diseases

WHO Bulletin • Practice: A policy assessment tool to reduce obesity inequities 

Tropical Medicine and International Heath • Article: Comparison of laboratory‐based and non‐laboratory‐based cardiovascular risk prediction tools in rural India 

The Lancet Regional Health - Southeast Asia • Article: Genetic variants and type 2 diabetes in India: a systematic review and meta-analysis of associated polymorphisms in case-control studies 

eClinicalMedicine • Article: Global, regional, and national burdens of heart failure in adolescents and young adults aged 10–24 years from 1990 to 2021: an analysis of data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 

WHO Bulletin • Practice: Policy coherence of price controls on food and noncommunicable disease prevention, WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions 
 

Outbreaks

BMJ Global Health • Comment: Critical failings in humanitarian response: a cholera outbreak in Kumer Refugee Camp, Ethiopia, 2023 

RSTMH Transactions • Article: Entomological investigation after an outbreak of dengue at the riverside of Rio Doce, Espírito Santo State, Brazil 

RSTMH Transactions • Article: Human T-lymphotropic Virus infection among Quilombo communities in Central Brazil 
 

Research and reporting

eBioMedicine • Article: An ultra-early, transient interferon-associated innate immune response associates with protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection despite exposure 

WHO Bulletin • Practice: Drug registers and essential medicines 

The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific • Article: Exploring access to essential medicines in the South Pacific: insights from a multi-country cross-sectional study 

The Lancet • Article: Global, regional, and national progress towards the 2030 global nutrition targets and forecasts to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 

Tropical Medicine and International Heath • Article: HBV, HCV and HIV among inmates in Latin America and the Caribbean: A systematic review and meta-analysis 

WHO Bulletin • other: Improved sanitation, hygiene and waste services in health-care facilities, Ukraine 

WHO Bulletin • Article: Peer-to-peer tele-consultative services for critical care, Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, United Republic of Tanzania 

eBioMedicine • Article: Post-treatment duration of positivity for standard and ultra-sensitive Plasmodium falciparum antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests, a cohort study from a low-endemic setting in Namibia 

WHO Bulletin • Review: Randomized controlled trials of digital health interventions for rheumatic disease management: a systematic review 

WHO Bulletin • other: Scan and share to register outpatients, India 

eBioMedicine • Article: Therapeutic interventions targeting enteropathy in severe acute malnutrition modulate systemic and vascular inflammation and epithelial regeneration 
 

Sexual and reproductive health

BMJ Global Health • Comment: Can youth-centred sexual and reproductive health self-care and contraceptive innovation address unintended pregnancy among girls and young women? Some reflections from Asia and the Pacific 

 

Tuberculosis

PLOS Medicine • Article: Estimating the health and macroeconomic burdens of tuberculosis in India, 2021–2040: A fully integrated modelling study 

The Lancet Regional Health – Americas • Article: Impact of strategic public health interventions to reduce tuberculosis incidence in Brazil: a Bayesian structural time-series scenario analysis 

BMJ Global Health • Article: Modelling the epidemiological and economic impact of digital adherence technologies with differentiated care for tuberculosis treatment in Ethiopia 

CID • Article***MENTIONS MSF***: The Frequency and Incidence of QT Prolongation with Extended Use of Bedaquiline or Delamanid in a Large, Multi-Country MDR/RR-TB Cohort 
 

Vaccines

J Public Health Afr. • Article***EPICENTRE AUTHOR***: High immunity and low mortality after Omicron and mass event in Cameroon despite low vaccination 

Influenza Other Respir Viruses • Article***MENTIONS EPICENTRE ***: Home-Based Testing as an Approach to Estimate Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in South Africa, 2021–2022—A Pilot Study