Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
10 April 2026
Generating evidence in conflict settings takes centre stage at MSF Scientific Days 2026, with a keynote from Dr Akihiro Seita and Dr Masako Hoshino on conducting research under fire, including their critical month‑by‑month analysis of acute malnutrition in Gaza that helped underpin the IPC’s famine confirmation and reveal the impact of restricted aid on children’s health. Register here to attend in person or online.
This week, in Nature Scientific Reports, MSF demonstrated that pretomanid, used in WHO-recommended regimens for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis, achieves effective drug exposure in most patients when assessed using time-dependant targets, supporting current dosing. However, fewer patients met alternative AUC/MIC targets.
A research article published in BMC Infectious Diseases, with MSF contribution, described a high burden of co-occurring opportunistic infections among patients with advanced HIV in Kinshasa, dominated by tuberculosis and neurological infections.
In Discover Mental Health, Epicentre co-authored a study investigating the intersecting impacts of displacement, gender-based violence, and linguistic marginalisation on the mental health of internally displaced Anglophone women in Cameroon.
Finally, in Journal of Pediatrics, Epicentre contributed to a research article finding that anaemia is strongly associated with increased mortality among children hospitalised with severe pneumonia in Uganda, with risk decreasing as haemoglobin levels rise.
Best regards,
Lillian Matthes, 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 2025 conference.
Antimicrobial resistance
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Strategies to reduce antimicrobial resistance in newborns in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Article: Phenotypic Trends and Molecular Mechanisms of Helicobacter pylori Antibiotic Resistance in Bangladesh: A Scoping Review
Climate change and planetary health
BMJ Global Health • Article: Challenges and opportunities to addressing non-communicable diseases after climate-related disasters in Mozambique: a qualitative study
Conflict, migration and health
Conflict and Health • Article: Civilian family members’ deaths and perceived causes in war-torn Tigray, Ethiopia: modified poisson regression
Global health
eClinicalMedicine • Article: Preterm birth attributable to exposure to chemicals used in plastic materials: a global estimate
The Lancet Haematology • Article: Implications of changes in WHO haemoglobin elevation adjustment guidelines on global, regional, and national anaemia burden, 1990–2023: a population-based modelling study
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Global climate justice and the future of air quality co-benefits in low-income and middle-income countries: an energy, climate, and health modelling study
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Effects of climate change on physical inactivity: a panel data study across 156 countries from 2000 to 2022
JAMA • other: Lead-Attributable Cardiovascular Disease Burden: Global Burden of Disease Study 2023
PLOS Global Public Health • Feature: The intergenerational legacies of research disinvestment, aid retrenchment and transactional compacts on global women’s health
PLOS Global Public Health • Opinion: Aligning action across major infectious diseases in a dynamic global health landscape
HIV
The BMJ • News***MENTIONS MSF***: HIV/AIDS: MSF condemns Gilead for refusing to sell it lenacapavir
PLOS Medicine • Article: Effect of enhanced peer PrEP referral with HIV self-testing delivery among young Kenyan women: A randomized controlled trial of peer networks
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Incidence and correlates of chronic anemia in people living with HIV Initiating ART: An exploratory five-year retrospective cohort of patients retained in care
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Feasibility and acceptability of task sharing collection of HIV viral load dried blood spot samples with community lay cadres: A cross-sectional diagnostic validation study in Zimbabwe
BMC Infectious Diseases • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Descriptive epidemiology of opportunistic infections among patients with advanced HIV disease in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Infectious diseases
PLOS Medicine • Article: Cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analyses of promoting handwashing with soap: A systematic review
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Cholera in Kenya: A scoping review of current research, evidence gaps and future directions
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Genomic diversity of diarrheagenic multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli across asymptomatic children and livestock in Nairobi, Kenya
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Economic impact of a large-scale scabies upsurge on healthcare facilities in Rohingya refugee camps: A retrospective costing study
Malaria
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Adapting reactive case detection strategies for high-risk populations to increase malaria infection detection in Aceh Province, Indonesia
Malaria Journal • Article: Efficacy of ivermectin for malaria vector control: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials
Malaria Journal • Article: Community health volunteers improve access to malaria case management in Siaya County, Kenya
Malaria Journal • Article: Climate change and malaria control in Africa: country experiences and strategic responses
Malaria Journal • Article: Fatal and non-fatal health outcomes of malaria among reproductive age women in Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa, from 1990 to 2023
Maternal and child health
The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health • Article: Age distribution of respiratory syncytial virus disease in children younger than 5 years in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
The Lancet Global Health • Article: The effect of tranexamic acid during childbirth on maternal mortality: an epidemiological modelling and cost-effectiveness study
BMJ Global Health • Article: Impacts of rising food prices on nutritional outcomes and mortality of children in low and middle-income countries: a systematic review
BMJ Global Health • Article: The effects of antenatal interventions on gestational weight gain in low and middle-income countries: a systematic review
JAMA • Comment: Initial Resuscitation of Preterm Infants With Targeted Oxygen
JAMA • News: Extended-Release Buprenorphine Found Safe and Effective During Pregnancy
Conflict and Health • Article: Conflict-driven antenatal care interruption in conflict zones of Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
The Journal of Pediatrics • Article***EPICENTRE AUTHOR***: The Effect of Anemia on Mortality in Children Hospitalized with Severe Pneumonia in Uganda
Mental health
The Lancet Psychiatry • Article: Effectiveness of the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach to optimise outpatient mental, neurological, and substance-use disorder treatment cascades in Mozambique: a cluster-randomised trial
PLOS Digital Health • Article: A pilot study of the online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Guide for Immigrant Resilience: A culturally adapted intervention for undocumented community members
Discover Mental Health • Article***EPICENTRE AUTHOR***: Understanding the nexus between gender-based violence and mental health among Anglophone internally displaced women in Littoral Cameroon through an intersectional socioecological lens
Neglected tropical diseases
eBioMedicine • Article: Nucleoprotein and glycoprotein based serological assays for detection of Marburg virus infections
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Advanced machine learning approaches for predicting Neglected Tropical Disease co-endemicity in Kenya: A focus on soil-transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Assessment of the role of Haemophilus ducreyi coinfection on outcomes of Yaws treatment in the southwestern part of Ghana
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Impact of projected climate and socioeconomic scenarios on state-wise annual dengue incidence in India using ensemble models
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Addressing the elephant in the room: Proceedings of the third annual Dengue Endgame Summit
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Review: Advances in vaccine development through the controlled human infection models for hookworm and schistosomiasis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Leishmania amazonensis amastigotes invade non-phagocytic cells via highly localized parasite-induced actin remodeling
Non-communicable diseases
The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific • Article: Syndemic analysis of stroke in Indonesia
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Depression and cancer outcomes in resource-limited settings: A cross-sectional analysis of treatment uptake and survival among metastatic breast cancer patients in Lagos, Nigeria
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Integrating noncommunicable disease care in a public primary health care facility in North Lebanon: A qualitative study of implementation in a humanitarian crisis
Outbreaks
The BMJ • News: Measles: 38 children dead in Bangladesh outbreak
BMJ Global Health • Practice: Strengthening healthcare worker knowledge for outbreak preparedness and response via mobile technology in Nigeria and Uganda
BMJ Global Health • Article: Process mapping the One Health response to a rabies outbreak in the Philippines
BMJ Global Health • Article: Projections of dengue epidemics attributable to climate change in Peru
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Paralytic rabies outbreak mimicking guillain–Barré syndrome in French Amazonia
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Oropouche virus outbreaks in northeast Brazil between 2024–25 are characterized by sustained transmission and spread to newly affected areas
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Reporting trends and seasonality in the World Health Organization's Disease Outbreak News (DONs) across 1996–2023
PLOS Global Public Health • Opinion: Measles at the U.S.–Mexico border: The fragility of cross-border disease control
Research and reporting
The BMJ • Opinion: Safeguarding evidence for health in the face of political pressure
JAMA • News: US COVID-19 Deaths May Have Been Underreported, Study Finds
JAMA • News: More Than 50 Medical Schools Commit to Increased Nutrition Training, but What Will They Teach?
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Health technology assessment system in Tanzania: Is it a championing system or still a system lagging behind?
PLOS Global Public Health • Feature: Implementation research can enhance health research systems and reduce dependency on external aid
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Governance reforms for Pakistan’s National Institute of Health: Addressing challenges in disease surveillance and emergency management: A qualitative study
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine • Article: Seismic Lessons Learned: The Evolution of Public Readiness and Crisis Communication in Almaty
WHO Bulletin • Editorial: WHO Collaborating Centres: a global scientific network
Sexual and reproductive health
The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia • Article: National, state and district-level estimates of stillbirth in India at 20 weeks’ gestation or longer using national family health survey data (2005–21)
The Lancet Public Health • Article: Gender-based violence against women and girls aged ≥15 years presenting to European emergency departments: a multinational, cross-sectional analysis
The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health • Article: Efficacy of a smartphone game to increase age and condom use at first sex among adolescents in Kenya (Tumaini): a randomised controlled trial
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Population impact of South Africa's human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme on HPV prevalence in adolescent girls with and without HIV: a repeat cross-sectional study
Tuberculosis
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Association of linezolid interruption and rechallenge with clinical outcomes in patients with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in South Africa, 2018–22: an observational cohort study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Perceived benefits of community-based TB preventive treatment in children in Uganda: “When she sees other children getting the same medication, she will feel not alone.”
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Inequalities in financial burden of tuberculosis among affected families across 19 low- and middle-income countries
Scientific Reports • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Population pharmacokinetics and target attainment of pretomanid in rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis patients
Vaccines
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Examining epidemiological models and economic analyses of typhoid conjugate vaccine: A scoping review
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Opinion: Global Donor Fatigue and Its Impact on Vaccination Coverage in Africa: Challenges and the Path Forward