Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
7 August 2026
In global health news, a trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that a once-weekly pill combining two HIV drugs, islatravir and lenacapavir, worked just as well at keeping the virus suppressed as the current daily standard. If approved, weekly dosing could make it far easier for millions of people living with HIV to stay on treatment.
This week, in BMJ Global Health, an Epicentre and MSF article reported that although most people living with HIV in a Central African Republic programme started antiretroviral therapy soon after diagnosis, over a third had dropped out of care by 2022 and only a third had fully suppressed the virus. Insecurity, distance and stigma were key barriers, pointing to the need for care models better suited to fragile settings.
In the same journal, an article with MSF contribution described how a district hospital in Tanzania was rapidly converted into a specialist treatment unit during a 2025 Marburg virus outbreak. Innovations like contamination zones, contactless monitoring and a mobile lab offered a practical model for adapting infrastructure during health emergencies.
Finally, in Microbial Genomics, a study with Epicentre and MSF contribution found that children with severe malnutrition in Niger who carried Salmonella in their gut were nearly 19 times more likely to develop bloodstream infections. Resistance to common antibiotics was widespread, but the strains stayed susceptible to more advanced drugs.
Best regards,
Rosie Wharton, 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 2026 conference.
Antimicrobial resistance
The Lancet Public Health • Article: Estimating optimal levels of WHO Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) antibiotic use in 186 countries, territories, and areas on the basis of clinical infection and resistance burden
The Lancet Public Health • and comment: Being AWaRe: benchmarking antibiotic use
Climate change and planetary health
Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Letter: Climate change as an amplifier of hantavirus risk in South Asia: a neglected nexus
Conflict, migration and health
The BMJ • Feature: Russia’s healthcare crumbles amid Putin’s war with Ukraine
The BMJ Global Health • Article: A systematic review of MHPSS interventions targeting non-clinical Arabic-speaking refugees and/or displaced populations in the MENA region
Conflict and Health • Review: Essential medicines in conflict-affected settings: a systematic review of accessibility and affordability across fragile health systems
Ebola
The Lancet Global Health • Correspondence: The overlooked role of local frontline health workers in the Bundibugyo Ebola response
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Review: A review of Bundibugyo virus and the 2026 outbreak: lessons for epidemic preparedness
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • News: Enrolment begins in the EBO-PEP trial in DRC
The BMJ • News: Ebola: DRC outbreak is now “fastest growing in history,” as strikes hinder response
Global health
The Lancet Public Health • Article: Global, regional, and national trends in the morbidity gap and contributing diseases, injuries, and risk factors, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023
The Lancet Global Health • Article: Market-source pathogens in traditional food markets, 2000–25: a systematic review and meta-analysis
HIV
The Lancet eBioMedicine • Article: HIV-1 reservoir inducibility and immune phenotypes after prolonged analytical treatment interruption: a long-term follow-up study
The Lancet HIV • Article: Durability of HIV viral suppression in South Africa: a national cohort study
The Lancet HIV • and comment: Viral load data from South Africa builds confidence in U=U
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Viewpoint: Empiric tuberculosis treatment in hospitalised adults with advanced HIV disease in Africa: applying the therapeutic threshold to clinical practice
The BMJ Global Health • Article: Prevalence and uptake of HIV services among men who have sex with men in Northern Nigeria
The BMJ Global Health • Article***EPICENTRE AUTHOR***: Navigating the HIV continuum of care from treatment to retention strategies in Carnot, Central African Republic: a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study
JAMA Network • News: ACOG Releases New HIV Screening and Prevention Guidelines
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Correspondence: Clinical Characteristics of Mpox and Mpox–HIV Coinfection in Lima, Peru: A Retrospective Multicenter Analysis
Infectious diseases
The Lancet Regional Health Africa • Article: Elevating community voices in One Health: a participatory study applying the Community Zoonoses Prioritisation tool in Somalia
The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia • Article: Mortality and cost of therapy of carbapenem susceptible vs resistant Gram-negative infections among hospitalised patients in India: a multicentric surveillance (2022–2025)
The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific • Article: Impact and effectiveness of Australia's 2025 hybrid RSV immunisation program: results from the PAEDS-FluCAN Network
The Lancet • Comment: Strengthening infection prevention in long-term care facilities in low-income and middle-income countries
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • other: Integrating research and surveillance to mitigate zoonotic disease risk in indigenous communities: Insights from an expert group meeting in Amazonas, Peru
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Investigation of bacterial agents in yaws-like ulcers in children and their environment in Cameroon: An experience from the Akonolinga Health District
Malaria
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Impact of directly observed treatment and extended age range of seasonal malaria chemoprevention with sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine in Burkina Faso: a three-group, open-label, cluster-randomised, controlled trial
Malaria Journal • other: Building the toolkit to address malaria resurgence and radical cure of vivax malaria in Ethiopia: a meeting report
Malaria Journal • Case Study: Recurrent parasitemias with artemisinin partial resistance mutations during the 2024 Ethiopia malaria resurgence: a case series
Malaria Journal • Review: Placental malaria and preeclampsia: shared pathways and translational perspectives in endemic regions
Maternal and child health
The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia • Article: Stillbirths at 22- and 28-weeks’ gestation or longer for the states in India: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023
JAMA Network • Editorial: Nurturing Care for Term Small-for-Gestational-Age Infants
Mental health
PLOS Speaking of Medicine and Health • Blog: PLOS Mental Health ‘Community Case Studies’: When the System Fails – Student Suicides, State Violence, and the Public Health Costs of Democratic Erosion in India
Neglected tropical diseases
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: First-aid, pre-hospital care, and harmful indigenous practices in pediatric snakebite envenomation: A systematic review of global evidence from 1973 to 2025
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Under pressure: Clinical management of venom-induced compartment syndrome in snakebite–A scoping review of the global literature
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article: Effectiveness of scabies treatments in Italy (SCAB-net): a prospective observational study
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • and comment: Unpicking the reasons for treatment failure in scabies
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • News: New UN resolution links NTDs to human rights
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Human gnathostomiasis – A systematic review and analysis of the literature
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: A 24 month longitudinal cohort study of hookworm infection among school-age children in Ghana: Predictors of persistent and repeated infection
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Review: Zoonotic neglected tropical diseases at the animal-human interface in the Greater Mekong Subregion: Two decades of surveillance in Laos and Cambodia
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Clinical and haematological correlates of severe dengue using 2023 epidemic data: A multicentre tertiary hospital-based analysis from Dhaka, Bangladesh
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Machine learning reveals temperature as a key predictor of dengue risk across Thailand’s provinces: A 20-year analysis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: A very late paradoxical reaction occurring following antibiotic treatment of Buruli ulcer
World Health Organization • other***MENTIONS MSF***: WHO guidelines on leishmaniases: treatment of visceral leishmaniasis and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in eastern Africa and South-East Asia
Non-communicable diseases
The Lancet Regional Health Africa • Article: Trends of age-standardised hypertension prevalence, treatment, and control among adults aged 30–79 years in Africa from 1990 to 2019
The BMJ Global Health • Article: Preoperative chlorhexidine mouthwash to prevent postoperative infections in low-risk elective abdominal surgeries: a double-blind RCT from North India among patients with poor oral hygiene
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Residency-Based Inequalities in Cervical Cancer Screening in Sub-Saharan Africa
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Pathways to Care for Patients With Severe Chronic NCDs: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Inpatients in Neno Malawi
Outbreaks
The BMJ • News: Cyclosporiasis: “Explosive diarrhoea” spreads to UK in outbreak linked to Mexico
The BMJ • News: West Nile virus: Cases rise in parts of Europe
The BMJ Global Health • other***MENTIONS MSF***: Mpox in Sierra Leone and the Mano River Union: an epidemic unfolding in real time
The BMJ Global Health • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Transforming health systems in crisis: innovative infrastructure adaptations for Marburg outbreak response in Biharamulo, Kagera, Tanzania
Research and reporting
The Lancet Microbe • Article: Minimal supply chain and forecasting testing volumes for clinical bacteriology laboratories in resource-limited settings for individual patient care: a costing study
The BMJ • Opinion: Medical tourism erodes Africa’s health sovereignty
The BMJ Global Health • Practice: Total body photography for standardised documentation of mpox skin lesions in remote study sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • other: Ethical considerations in decentralizing antivenom treatment in indigenous territories of the Brazilian Amazonia
BMC Health Services Research • Review: Equity in healthcare financing and access to care among vulnerable populations in Africa: a systematic review
Sexual and reproductive health
The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia • Article: Determinants of family planning use among married women of reproductive age in south Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
The BMJ • News: Ectopic pregnancy: Rise in admissions may be linked to deprivation, study suggests
The BMJ Global Health • Article: How community dialogues influence norm change around female genital mutilation: a mediation analysis from a high-burden Kenyan setting
World Health Organization • World Report: Global health sector strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2022–2030: 2026 mid-term progress report
Tuberculosis
The Lancet Global Health • Article: In-home tongue swab testing for tuberculosis screening among household contacts in South Africa: a prospective cohort study
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease • Editorial: TB and mental health integration: lessons from WHO feasibility pilots in Ghana, Kenya, and Pakistan
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease • Article: Trends and treatment outcomes of TB among people living with HIV: a nationwide cohort study, 2011–2022
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease • Article: Miliary TB – a retrospective cohort study of diagnostic and clinical features
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease • Letter: Paediatric central nervous system TB: analysis of a 13-year retrospective cohort
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease • Letter: Enhancing TB diagnosis from tongue swabs: global challenges and marginal strategic opportunities
Tropical Medicine & International Health • Article: Implementability of Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Paediatric Tuberculosis Diagnosis in Resource-Constrained Settings: Experiences and Perspectives From Uganda
Vaccines
The BMJ • News: US measles: Cases now surpass last year’s total as vaccination rates decline
World Health Organization • other: WHO position paper on COVID-19 vaccines - July 2026