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Global Health Now - Thu, 10/31/2024 - 09:46
96 Global Health NOW: Using DĂ­a de los Muertos to Sell Cigarettes; Mpox Response Ramped Up; and Happy Heidi-Ween! Big Tobacco's profit-seeking cultural appropriation. October 31, 2024 GHN EXCLUSIVE Q&A View of cigarette butts on an ashtray with an image of a sugar skull, in Mexico City. Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Using DĂ­a de los Muertos to Sell Cigarettes
During the Day of the Dead, the streets of Mexico are full of cultural symbols: altars adorned with family photographs and keepsakes, people donning skeleton-themed face paint, and bunches of marigolds. 
  • But the objects displayed also include a more sinister item:  
Even as regulations and bans work to limit tobacco use, the presence of “themed” packs demonstrates how far the industry will go to keep its consumers hooked—even using symbols that resonate with their cultural identity, Graziele Grilo, a program officer for the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told GHN.

Appropriation normalizes tobacco use: The IGTC’s data collection revealed cigarette packs in Mexico that used the national flag’s colors, traditional animals, and Día de los Muertos symbols. Collectible, metallic packs were sold as limited editions to increase desirability—and according to , it worked.

Legislation is working to thwart these tactics: 
  • Most countries already have graphic health warning labels on packs.

  • 20+ countries have banned point-of-sale display of tobacco products.

  • 24+ countries require plain and standardized packaging—limiting or banning the use of shapes, colors, symbols, and descriptors.
Related: Tobacco Companies May Have Found a Way to Make Vapes More Addictive – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   South Sudan has declared a cholera outbreak and launched a task force in response to 50 suspected cholera cases reported following massive flooding that has displaced 46,000+ people in the Upper Nile state.
 
The discovery of bird flu in a pig on an Oregon farm on October 29 marks the first case of H5N1 virus in U.S. swine; the case raises concerns that the virus is closer to becoming a greater threat to humans.
 
Japan is masking up as the country confronts its most serious outbreak of “walking pneumonia” in more than two decades; ~6,000 cases of mycoplasma pneumonia have been reported this year—a 10X jump over 2023.
 
Researchers have uncovered a key mechanism used by the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness to evade antibodies, ; Trypanosoma brucei “constantly changes a surface coat made up of millions of copies of a single protein.”  (Ed. Note: At GHN's publication time, the  site was down.) MPOX Ramping Up the Response
The WHO has deployed its newly created for the first time: Its mission is to assist in the mpox outbreak response in Africa, .
  • 50+ experts are now targeting eight affected countries, with a focus on the DRC and Burundi.  
Background: The GHEC, formed in 2023 to address gaps revealed during the COVID-19 response, supports countries experiencing public health emergencies by:
  • Assessing emergency workforce in affected countries.

  • Deploying a “surge” of various experts, tailored to the countries’ needs. 

  • Facilitating networking between leadership to coordinate and share best practices.
Mpox deep dive: A WHO analysis of global mpox surveillance from 1958–2024 that reviewed 6,585 mpox sequences collected from 64 countries found:
  • “Highly mobile” clade 1 viruses circulating in Central Africa, and unique clade 1 sequences in Eastern Africa, . 

  • Ongoing human-to-human transmission of clade 2b in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“If we want to prevent the next mpox global outbreak, it is now time to strengthen mpox surveillance,” the researchers wrote. 

Meanwhile: Isolated cases outside of Africa continue to be reported, with the latest ones confirmed in and in   GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES DISASTERS How Floodwaters Hollowed Out a ‘Fragile’ Health System
Hurricane Helene's devastating impact continues to reverberate across the U.S. Southeast—particularly in Western North Carolina’s health care system, where floodwaters destroyed critical infrastructure in a region already facing barriers to care.
  • “The health care infrastructure in western North Carolina is already so fragile,” said Kody H. Kinsley, the North Carolina secretary of Health and Human Services.
Ongoing impacts:
  • Much of the region is relying on bottled water and mobile water units because municipal water remains undrinkable. 

  • The region’s largest hospital is pumping in more than 200,000 gallons of water from tankers into the hospital each day; several other hospitals in the region remain closed.

  • Health officials are warning of heightened risks stemming from contaminated water, toxic mud, debris-related injuries. 
ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Happy Heidi-Ween!  
Ah, Halloween—the day every year when ordinary people buy pounds of candy, debate candy corn, wear the best costume they can muster—and then hang their heads in shame when they see what Heidi Klum is wearing.
 
The supermodel’s have seen her transformed into Hindu goddess Kali; Jessica Rabbit; and an elderly woman. In 2022, she just wanted “something random,” she —so she embodied a giant worm made of elaborate prosthetics dubbed “” by her hair and makeup team.
  • Nevertheless, come Halloween, she was inching her way down the Halloween red carpet, fully horizontal. 
Every year, it becomes clearer that Heidi loves Halloween the most—but equally important: Who hates it the most?
  • It could be this , a self-described “Halloween Grinch” who can’t recall ever enjoying a Halloween party. Guess she wasn’t invited to Heidi’s 

Related:

Tim Gunn Judges a Literary Costume Contest — See Exclusive Photos from the New York Public Library's Halloween Parade –  

This DIY Halloween costume turns you into the world's scariest animal ​​–

This Is The Best Dog Halloween Costume We've Ever Seen – QUICK HITS Shortage of IV fluids leads to canceled surgeries –

Ukraine: Population drops by 10 million since Russia invaded in 2014, UNFPA reports –

Overdose deaths are rising among Black and Indigenous Americans –

Sudan: from a forgotten war to an abandoned healthcare system –

New gene discovery aids HIV vaccine progress –

Noninvasive malaria test could be global game changer –

Harvard School of Public Health Study Finds That Deforestation May Increase Malaria Transmission –

New toolkit aims to help U.S. hospitals spot deadly viral hemorrhagic fevers faster and safer –  

Exosomes are touted as a trendy cure-all. We don’t know if they work – Issue No. 2807
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Global Health Now - Wed, 10/30/2024 - 09:25
96 Global Health NOW: Tuberculosis Resurgent; Russia Revives Bioweapons Site; and Ghost Harvest October 30, 2024 Volunteers provide a free tuberculosis clinic in China's Guizhou province. March 23, 2023. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Tuberculosis Resurgent
8.2 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2023, the —the highest number recorded since the agency began tracking efforts.

The “notable increase” from 7.5 million reported in 2022 means TB is once again the top infectious disease killer, surpassing COVID-19. The total number ill with TB is now ~10.8 million, .
  • “The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 
Missing targets: Global funding for TB care and research remains “far below” needs, and global milestones for reducing the TB disease burden are well off-track, .

Key factors: New TB cases are largely driven by undernutrition, HIV infection, diabetes, alcohol use disorders, and smoking, and half of TB-affected households face “catastrophic costs.”

Highest burden: China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines together accounted for 56% of the global TB burden. 

Positive development: Overall TB deaths dropped from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million, suggesting that treatment services have largely recovered from COVID-era disruptions, . 

Meanwhile: Advocacy groups like MĂ©decins Sans FrontiĂšres have Cepheid, the company that produces TB tests, to lower its costs, . GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Militants in Pakistan attacked a health center yesterday, killing two police officers prepping to escort polio workers on a door-to-door campaign; militants also stormed a different health center and warned workers against participating in anti-polio efforts.

Climate change has driven up the number of deaths from extreme heat and has worsened drought and food insecurity, per the .

Dengue fever in Florida is on the rise, with stagnant floodwaters left behind by hurricanes Helene and Milton increasing risks; 50 cases have been logged in the state this year.

Nitazenes have been linked to 278 deaths in the U.K. this year, as many people who sought to buy prescriptions for diazepam received fake medicines with the dangerous synthetic opioids instead. HEALTH SECURITY Russia Revives Bioweapons Site 
New construction at a military research site near Moscow shows signs of being a specialized laboratory complex designed to handle extremely dangerous pathogens, say U.S. intelligence officials.

The past: The site, Sergiev Posad-6, was a major biological weapons research center that conducted experiments during the Cold War on the viruses that cause smallpox, Ebola, and hemorrhagic fevers. 

The present: Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, satellite imagery revealed expansions of the facility, including new biological labs, which have continued.
  • Russian officials have said the labs will be used to strengthen the country’s defenses against pandemics and bioterrorism—the same justification the Soviet Union used to expand its bioweapons program in the 1970s and 1980s.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES NUTRITION Ghost Harvest
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are making many foods—including global staples like rice and wheat—less nutritious, reducing protein, vitamins, and critical micronutrients like zinc and iron.
  • A found that when carbon levels rise, protein levels drop by ~10%, iron by 16%, zinc by ~9%, and magnesium by ~9%.
Over 2 billion people worldwide already face micronutrient deficiencies that can severely impact health. Field studies simulating projected 2050 CO2 levels found that:
  • 175 million additional people could become zinc deficient.

  • 122 million additional people could become protein deficient.
Beyond reducing CO2 emissions: Solutions include fortifying staple foods with essential nutrients and planting varieties less susceptible to increased CO2.



Related: The climate crisis is a nutrition crisis — but solutions exist – OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS CDC offers new details on Lassa fever case in Iowa –

Workplace violence at hospitals continues to surge –

Japan's Shionogi says Phase 3 study showed COVID pill reduces transmission –

Zika is still spreading. Why don’t we have a vaccine yet? –

Health groups call for suspending state plan on maternal deaths, saying it burdens patients –

A Texas Woman Died After the Hospital Said It Would be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage –

The Consequences of US Elections for Women’s Health Globally –

Universal health care may drive the vote in Puerto Rico –

How to prepare for the end of daylight saving time and potential health effects – Issue No. 2806
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Global Health Now - Tue, 10/29/2024 - 09:44
96 Global Health NOW: The Lives Needlessly Lost to Extreme Heat; Plan B Missing From Many Tribal Clinics; and What Hinders Human Bird Flu Surveillance? October 29, 2024 A woman cools off in a fountain as a heat wave hits London, on July 19, 2022. Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty The Lives Needlessly Lost to Extreme Heat
Human-induced climate change drove more than half of Europe’s 68,000 heat deaths in 2022—the continent’s hottest summer on record, , citing a .
  • 38,000 fewer people—10X the number of people murdered on the continent—would have died without anthropogenic warming.

  • The heat killed more women than men, more southern Europeans than northern Europeans, and more older people than younger people.

  • The study comes on the heels of that the world is on track to heat by a catastrophic 3°C by the end of the century.
Meanwhile, proposed federal rules to protect workers from extreme heat might have saved the lives of U.S. laborers, .
  • OSHA, the U.S. worker protection agency, says the government’s estimate that extreme heat kills ~480 workers a year is a vast undercount; Public Citizen puts the toll closer to 2,000.
OSHA has fined employers over heat-related employee deaths, but without national regulations on prevention, its reach is limited—and the agency depends on employees to report unsafe conditions.
  • Many workers—especially farmworkers with H-2A visas are afraid to report unsafe conditions, fearing employer retaliation.
President Biden’s proposed rules would require employers to provide ample water and breaks and ensure new workers have time to acclimate to high-heat jobs—but several industry groups and conservative lawmakers have opposed the rules, which are unlikely to be finalized before Biden leaves office. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Lebanon hospitals are stretched thin trying to treat patients with severe burns as a result of continuing Israeli airstrikes; the country’s only burn unit doubled its beds, but can’t keep up with the critical burn cases.
 
An Iowa resident who recently traveled to West Africa has died after contracting Lassa fever, the state’s health department announced yesterday; the CDC, which is working to confirm the diagnosis, said the risk to the general public is extremely low.

Transplant experts say they’re seeing more people revoking their organ donor registrations after a report that organs were nearly harvested from a Kentucky man mistakenly declared dead.

In a future pandemic, Australians are less likely to accept lockdowns and other measures that helped keep the country’s rate of excess deaths among the world’s lowest, per a new report on the country's COVID-19 response. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS Plan B Missing From Many Tribal Clinics
In 100+ federally funded clinics and pharmacies run by Native American tribal nations, the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill remains inaccessible—despite being available over-the-counter at most American pharmacies for more than a decade.

An investigation by APM Reports, Type Investigations, and KOSU found:
  • 54 tribal clinics in 11 states do not provide emergency contraception.

  • Another 51 clinics impose limits like age restrictions.
Reasons unclear: While most tribal officials interviewed declined to explain the gaps, those who did cited a lack of demand and staff’s personal feelings around the issue. 

An outlier: The Cherokee Nation no longer requires a prescription for Plan B for patients 17 and older. 

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES AVIAN FLU What Hinders Surveillance?
Human H5N1 infections continue to be reported—but researchers are struggling to grasp the scale of transmission because of inadequate surveillance. 

Emails from state and local health departments give some glimpse into reasons for the gaps: :
  • Communication breakdowns with farmers who do not want their workers to be monitored for bird flu.

  • Delays between the start of outbreaks and health department visits. 

  • Insufficient attention to certain aspects of the outbreaks, including cases in pet cats. 
And it’s about to get harder, as cold and flu season will make it “significantly more difficult for the country’s public health departments to track the virus,”  

Related: H5N1 avian flu isolate from dairy worker is transmissible, lethal in animals – OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Animal-to-human viral leap sparked deadly Marburg outbreak –

She says her husband tried to kill her. Enter the 'Pink Wheels' squad –

Rare disease initiative aims to speed diagnoses and treatment in Latin America –

Tenant Right-to-Counsel and Adverse Birth Outcomes in New York, New York –

Shifting power in global health will require leadership by the Global South and allyship by the Global North –

The Dilemma at the Center of McDonald’s E. Coli Outbreak –

Why cars might be the scariest thing this Halloween – Issue No. 2805
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Global Health Now - Mon, 10/28/2024 - 09:24
96 Global Health NOW: ‘Hell on Earth’ in Saudi Detention Centers; A Voice for Hispanic Health; and Coverage Graveyards and Ghost Networks Detainees packed into sweltering rooms with no access to basic hygiene or outside air October 28, 2024 ‘Hell on Earth’ in Saudi Detention Centers
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to live in inhumane, “degrading” conditions inside Saudi detention centers: packed into sweltering rooms with no access to basic hygiene or outside air, . 
  • “It’s no exaggeration to say that place was hell on earth. They never let us outside during my nine-month stay. They never let anyone experience fresh air or sunlight,” said Zaro Gebre, an Ethiopian detainee who smuggled out footage from inside the detention centers. 
Crackdown on migrants: Ethiopians fleeing war and poverty for the Gulf make up a significant proportion of those in the detention centers, .

Reforms promised, unfulfilled: New footage of the centers was released yesterday as part of an that followed up on The Telegraph’s into the centers’ human rights abuses four years ago.
  • Yet conditions remain unchanged since then, or worse: Detainees sleep packed together on floors with trash bags, toilets overflow, and violence erupts between detainees. 
  • The Saudi government faces little pushback from the global community, as the country seeks to burnish its image as an international soccer hub, argues one investigative reporter in a .  
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners
A gene editing therapy for chronic hepatitis B will be tested in human trials in Moldova after the nation’s regulators approved Precision BioSciences’ study of the treatment.

Ozempic may reduce Alzheimer’s risk, per a published in Alzheimer's & Dementia last week that showed semaglutide was associated with a 40%–70% lower risk of a first-time Alzheimer’s diagnosis in patients with type 2 diabetes compared with seven other diabetes medications.

Opioid makers and marketers misused scientific evidence to support inaccurate claims about the drugs—including that they were not addictive—per a new published in Health Affairs Scholar.

McDonald’s has ruled out beef patties as the source of the E. coli outbreak linked to its Quarter Pounder hamburgers, which has killed at least one and sickened ~75 others; instead, onions are believed to be the source of the outbreak. INSURANCE Coverage Graveyards and Ghost Networks
In the U.S., having health insurance is no guarantee that essential medical care will be covered—or even available as advertised. 

Two obstacles gaining more attention: 
  • Denial for dollars: It has become common for insurers to outsource medical reviews to large companies like one called EviCore, which uses algorithms that increase denial rates, . 
  • “Ghost networks”: Far too often, patients purchase health coverage promising access to therapists and other mental health professionals listed in provider directories—only to find them out-of-date and inaccurate, . 
COMMUNITY HEALTH A Voice for Hispanic Health
During the COVID-19 pandemic, journalist Tibisay Zea noticed something in Boston’s Hispanic community: Its members were poorly informed on health issues. To help close that information gap, she launched the Salud podcast in 2022.
  • The show covers culturally relevant health information on topics like COVID-19, diabetes, cancer, and workplace accidents, all of which disproportionately affect Latino people. 
Zea focuses on connecting health experts with personal stories from the Latino community—an approach that not only informs but also resonates emotionally with listeners, many of whom face socioeconomic challenges and barriers to health care.

GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES WATER How Women Suffer When Wells Go Dry
Water insecurity comes with major health risks—and women often bear the burden. 

Recent in water-scarce areas of Peru and Indonesia included interviews with women who reported: 
  • Extreme physical exertion from carrying heavy water buckets that led multiple women to go into premature labor and miscarry.
  • Struggling to secure water for sanitary births. 
  • Barriers to menstrual hygiene, which prevented young women and girls from attending school.
Increased violence: Indonesian women in water-insecure households were more than twice as likely to report experiencing gender-based violence in the last year.

QUICK HITS Some people with ADHD thrive in periods of stress, new study shows –

HIV-Infected Patient Refused Care In Armenia –

Remembering Dr. Richard Cash: How a 'simple' intervention helped save millions of lives –

The Final Push: Overcoming the Last Barriers to Global Polio Eradication –

Gas-powered leaf blowers are noisy, polluting and harmful to our health. But are bans the best way to go? – Issue No. 2804
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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World Health Organization - Fri, 10/25/2024 - 08:00
Reports of Israeli troops storming one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza are deeply concerning, while ongoing hostilities are hampering polio vaccination in the area, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. 
Categories: Global Health Feed

World Health Organization - Fri, 10/25/2024 - 08:00
Children and disabled people are facing ever more horrific conditions in war-torn Gaza, with some dying as they wait for medical evacuations, as the year-long war grinds on, UN officials and rights experts said on Friday.
Categories: Global Health Feed

Global Health Now - Thu, 10/24/2024 - 09:26
96 Global Health NOW: A Widening E. coli Investigation; The Silence of the Feds; and Hospital Gown 
 But Don’t Make it Fashion October 24, 2024 A Widening E. coli Investigation
A multistate outbreak of E. coli infections has prompted an expansive, by the CDC and U.S. agencies that have linked the infections to McDonald’s restaurants. 

Outbreak details, : The food poisoning has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states, including 10 who were hospitalized and one person who .
  • But the number of people affected by the outbreak is likely much higher, . 
Zeroing in on a source: Of 18 sickened people interviewed, all reported eating at McDonald’s.
  • A specific ingredient has not been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, but the that the onions or beef patties used for Quarter Pounders are the likely source of contamination, . 

  • McDonald’s has taken Quarter Pounders in about a fifth of its stores, and the onion supplier, Taylor Farms Colorado, issued a broader recall of yellow onions—though the company said that it has found no traces of E. coli in tests. 
Bigger picture: The outbreak, which comes on the heels of the Boar’s Head listeria contamination linked to 10 deaths, has prompted larger questions about U.S. food safety, .

Related: Why food recalls are everywhere right now – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   Rifaximin, a common antibiotic used to treat liver disease, is fueling bacterial resistance to daptomycin—one of the few treatments effective against the superbug vancomycin-resistant enterococcus faecium (VRE), .

People 50 and older should get pneumococcal vaccines to protect against pneumonia and other dangerous illnesses, a CDC advisory panel recommended yesterday, replacing earlier guidance aimed at people ages 65+.  

A second dose of the 2024–25 COVID-19 vaccine is now for people ages 65+ and for people with moderate or severe immunocompromising conditions, per a CDC vaccine advisory group.

Single-use vapes will be banned in England starting next June, as the British government tries to curb rising vape usage among children and teens. VIOLENCE ‘Shocking, Staggering’ Sexual Violence in DRC
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen an “acute escalation” of sexual violence in recent years, per a from Physicians for Human Rights.
  • ~90,000 documented sexual assaults were reported in 2023 in DRC—up from 40,000 in 2021. The group believes it is a “severe undercount.”
“The level of sexual violence is shocking. It's staggering,” said PHR director Saman Zia-Zarifi.

Other organizations echo the findings:
  • A recent described an “explosion of sexual violence,” with MSF teams treating 25,000+ sexual assault survivors in 2023 compared to a previous average of 10,000 victims per year. 
  • UNICEF’s chief of child protection in the DRC, Ramatou Toure, described a ”skyrocketing” crisis in camps—where “almost every girl or every woman has experienced sexual violence.” 
Driving the surge: Armed rebel and militia groups have gained strength, and the UN’s 2023 withdrawal of its peacekeeping forces at the request of DRC’s government has led to a “vacuum” of protection. 



Related: Four in 10 deaths in war zones last year were women, UN report finds – GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES SUBSTANCE USE What Makes ‘Pink Cocaine’ So Dangerous
A designer drug called tusi has been in the news lately due to its connections with Sean “Diddy” Combs and the recent death of Liam Payne.
  • It’s a bright pink powder combining any number of substances. Common ingredients include ketamine and ecstasy, but usually not cocaine.
Users are led to believe that tusi is safer than street drugs, but without knowing the exact ingredients of a given batch—which could even include fentanyl or xylazine—the effects can be unpredictable and even fatal.
  • The drug has been linked to at least nine deaths so far, including four suicides and four accidental overdoses.
AVIAN FLU The Silence of the Feds
When U.S. farm veterinarians began to sound the alarm about avian influenza detected in cows, they were expecting a full-blown response from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including widespread testing and surveillance. 

Instead, they got silence: “Nobody came. When the diagnosis came in, the government stood still,” said one veterinarian. 

Conflict of interest: The USDA’s sometimes conflicting mandates to oversee the safety of the nation’s food animals while also protecting the nation’s agriculture trade has resulted in a “‘don’t test, don’t tell’ policy among dairy farmers.”

The result? There is no nationwide surveillance or accurate sense of H5N1’s scope as the virus continues to spread.
  • “We are repeating every single mistake” of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. 
ALMOST FRIDAY DIVERSION Hospital Gown 
 But Don’t Make it Fashion
Iconic is usually a compliment in the fashion world. Not this time.
 
The hospital “gown” is an affront to formalwear everywhere. An insult to our tastes and our figures. And really more of a glorified sheet than a garment.
 
Why the sartorial shame? The New York Times’ fashion critic
  • This wretched wearable was designed to accommodate IVs and provide easy access to the body, resulting in the “dehumanizing” fronts-in, butts-out design behind (ahem!) countless hospital humiliations.

  • Even Diane von Furstenberg couldn’t make it chic. The designer reimagined her iconic wrap dress as a patient gown for the Cleveland Clinic. And it’s .
Another idea: “You might as well just walk around naked,” Timothy Andrews, a health industry analyst and frequent hospital outpatient, said to . “It’s probably easier—just give us a belt and a loincloth.” QUICK HITS Tens of thousands of UK dementia patients to be enrolled in clinical trials –

U.S. Study on Puberty Blockers Goes Unpublished Because of Politics, Doctor Says –

Crackdown on Homeless Encampments Raises Public Health Questions –

World’s first vaccine for norovirus the ‘winter vomiting bug’ begins final stage trial –

Perspectives on Medical School Admission for Black Students Among Premedical Advisers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities –

Youth cheerleading is getting more athletic — and riskier –

Surgical Centers Urged to Nix Mandatory Pre-Op Pregnancy Tests – Thanks for the tip, Chiara Jaffe!

Drinking is cheaper than it’s been in decades. Lobbyists are fighting to keep it that way –

How breast milk can help fight climate change – Issue No. 2803
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

Please send the Global Health NOW free sign-up link to friends and colleagues:

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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Categories: Global Health Feed

Gene therapy project receives major funding

ș«čúÂăÎè Faculty of Medicine news - Wed, 10/23/2024 - 10:20
$1.14 million from CIHR will resolve treatment roadblocks for rare brain disorders

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Gene therapy for rare neurological disorders will move one step forward thanks to a $1.14 million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Categories: Global Health Feed

Gene therapy project receives major funding

ș«čúÂăÎè Faculty of Medicine news - Wed, 10/23/2024 - 10:20
$1.14 million from CIHR will resolve treatment roadblocks for rare brain disorders

Ìę

Gene therapy for rare neurological disorders will move one step forward thanks to a $1.14 million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Categories: Global Health Feed

Global Health Now - Wed, 10/23/2024 - 09:36
96 Global Health NOW: Lebanese Hospitals on Alert; Malaria Becomes ‘Ancient History’ in Egypt; and Switching Sides on the Tobacco Fight October 23, 2024 Lebanese forces take security measures around Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut on October 22, after an Israeli attack near the area. Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Lebanese Hospitals on Alert as Strikes Intensify 
  UN officials are urging protections for health care facilities in Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike Tuesday near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital—the largest public hospital in Lebanon—led to “significant damage,” .

Another hospital, the Al-Sahel Hospital in Dahiyeh, was evacuated amid “horror and tears” after Israel claimed that Hezbollah is stockpiling cash and gold in a bunker under the hospital, increasing fears that Lebanon’s health sector could face the same destruction as Gaza’s, .

Other mounting health risks: 400,000+ displaced Lebanese children face growing risk of cholera, scabies, and waterborne diseases due to unsanitary conditions in shelters, .
  • Last week, health authorities Northern Lebanon’s first case of cholera. 
Meanwhile in Gaza: Escalating violence across northern Gaza has forced the postponement of the polio vaccination campaign’s final phase, .
  • And the WHO led a “high risk” in northern Gaza to transfer patients to Gaza City this week amid intense hostilities and the denial of deliveries of critical medical supplies, blood, and fuel.
GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   New stroke prevention guidelines from the American Stroke Association for the first time call out specific risks faced by women and gender-diverse individuals taking the hormone estrogen; also call for screening for and addressing social determinants of health.

Girls and young women may be more susceptible to the clade Ib mpox subvariant, that found a higher percentage of cases and a much earlier average age of infection—6 years—among girls, compared with 17.5 years for boys.
 
An E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers has sickened at least 49 people in 10 U.S. states, leading to one death and 10 hospitalizations, the yesterday; investigators are focused on onions and beef as potential sources of contamination.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture weakened its bird flu emergency order last spring in response to pushback from state and industry officials—potentially contributing to disease transmission across state lines, records show. GOOD NEWS Malaria Becomes ‘Ancient History’ in Egypt   
After three years of interruption to the transmission chain in Egypt, the country malaria-free.
  • The country had a prevalence of ~40% in 1930—but public health officials made strides over the last century, . 
How they did it, :
  • Free diagnosis and treatment, regardless of legal status. 

  • Malaria detection training for health professionals.

  • Malaria screenings provided at the country’s borders. 
Vigilance to continue: The health ministry pledges to guard its malaria-free status through surveillance, integrated vector management, and rapid response to imported cases.
 
The Quote: "Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES BIG TOBACCO Switching Sides on the Tobacco Fight 
As the FDA fights an “epic struggle” against the tobacco industry over next-generation nicotine products, the agency is contending with a particularly galling dynamic: lawyers who have shifted alliances. 

Nearly two dozen FDA lawyers have left the FDA’s tobacco regulation arm to advise, litigate for, or work with the tobacco and vaping industry over the last 15 years, according to a review by The Examination.

Insider advantage: The lawyers often helped craft and defend the same regulations the industry is fighting—giving them a powerful upper hand in litigation.
  • “It seems like every time we get sued in the tobacco industry, a former FDA lawyer is leading the lawsuit,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told an oversight organization last year. 
CLIMATE CRISIS Climate Change’s Psychological Toll
Climate-related changes threaten more than people’s physical safety and livelihoods. These changes also act as a “threat multiplier,” increasing risks for mental health problems. 
  • Survivors of California’s 2018 Camp wildfire were diagnosed with PTSD at a rate comparable to war veterans.

  • Slower-onset changes like drought, land cover change, rising sea levels, etc., can cause stress over time that erupts into violence like 2019’s Ogossagou massacre in Mali.
A hefty price tag: Mental disorders due to climate, pollution, and environment-related causes could cost the global economy $47 billion annually by 2030. 

To address these issues, researchers are pushing for mental health to be a focus in climate policy and interventions, such as in countries’ Paris Accord climate action plans.

OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Polio Anywhere is a Threat Everywhere: Why the UK Must Act –

Dengue fever: with a record 12.4m cases in 2024 so far, what is driving the world’s largest outbreak? –

Ukraine: Population drops by 10 million since Russia invaded in 2014, UNFPA reports –

Elderly Americans with dementia have become some of the GOP’s top donors without even realizing it –

Beyond Longevity: The Critical Role of Mental Health in Japan’s Well-Being –

How one woman set up a mental health helpline for the whole of South Africa –

How does the brain react to birth control? A researcher scanned herself 75 times to find out –

Coke, Twinkies, Skittles, and 
 Whole-Grain Bread? – Issue No. 2802
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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World Health Organization - Wed, 10/23/2024 - 08:00
Countries facing conflict, natural disasters and humanitarian crises are struggling to provide routine childhood immunisations leaving many children vulnerable to the resurgence of polio, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in new report. 
Categories: Global Health Feed

World Health Organization - Wed, 10/23/2024 - 08:00
Intense bombardments, mass displacements and lack of access in northern Gaza have forced the postponement of a polio vaccination campaign, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday.
Categories: Global Health Feed

Global Health Now - Tue, 10/22/2024 - 09:35
96 Global Health NOW: The Push to Prevent Drownings in Uganda; Switching Sides on the Tobacco Fight; and Heeding Africa’s Hearing Loss October 22, 2024 GHN EXCLUSIVE Bystanders watch rescuers search the site of a capsized cruise boat on Lake Victoria near Mutima village, south of Kampala, Uganda. November 25, 2018. Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty The Push to Prevent Drownings in Uganda
KAMPALA, Uganda—Every year, —people like Owen Ntanda, an 18-year-old boat operator who drowned in the lake last summer, despite being a good swimmer—giving the lake a reputation as one of the “” in the world.
  • by researchers at Makerere University and the CDC estimated Uganda’s drowning death rate to be 8.5 per 100,000 population per year—~2,942 drowning deaths a year. 

  • Worldwide, . But in Uganda, young adults aged 20–39 years are most affected, —and men in Uganda are 3X more likely to drown than women. 
Behind Uganda’s high drowning rate:
  • A lack of safety gear like life jackets—most of which are substandard.

  • Overloaded cargo boats—which are not well-policed.

  • Supercharged floods fueled by climate change.
Steps toward change:
  • Uganda will become one of the first countries to implement a national drowning intervention strategy—expected to launch this fall—giving each stakeholder ministry a mandate and drowning prevention activities.
  • The Ministry of Health has established emergency response services focused on water emergencies, boosting first aid training, and procuring water boat ambulances.
Ed. Note: This article is part of , made possible through the generous support of loyal GHN readers. Kyra Guy of USC’s Keck School of Medicine won an honorable mention for entering the idea for this story in the 2024 Untold Global Health Stories contest, co-sponsored by GHN and CUGH, which is now accepting nominations for the 2025 round. ! GLOBAL HEALTH VOICES The Latest One-Liners   A large proportion of sub-Saharan African teens with severe asthma are missing out on diagnosis and treatment, of 27,000 students from urban areas in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria; of ~3,000+ reporting symptoms, just ~600 had a formal diagnosis.

School administrators in Mexico have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk foods like sugary fruit drinks and chips or face heavy fines between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense.

Washington state its first suspected avian flu infections in people—four agricultural workers who tested positive after working with infected poultry at a facility that culled ~800,000 birds that tested positive for avian flu last week.

U.S. infant mortality was higher than expected in the months following the Supreme Court decision that eliminated federal abortion protections, , corresponding with a 7% absolute increase in infant mortality overall, representing 247 excess deaths. DATA POINT VIOLENCE A Public Health Approach to Political Violence 
As political rhetoric grows more incendiary leading up to the first U.S. presidential election since the January 6, 2021 insurrection, the at the University of California at Davis has begun to study the threat of political violence in earnest. 

A key goal of their research: Identify risk factors and interventions that could deescalate potential unrest before it arises. 

“Openness to change”: According to a from the program released last month, just 3.7% respondents said it was “very likely” that they would participate as a combatant in a large-scale civil conflict—but ~44% said they would be “not likely” to join if they were dissuaded by family members, and ~30% said they could be deterred from participating if a respected religious leader urged them not to.

Such findings can “guide prevention efforts,” the survey concluded.

HEALTH DISPARITIES Heeding Africa’s Hearing Loss
54 million people in Africa are facing hearing loss by 2030, due to factors including a shortage of hearing specialists and a limited budget for ear and hearing care (EHC).
  • Up to 75% of child hearing loss in LMICs is preventable.
  • Only 10% of the 33 million people who need hearing aids have access and can afford them. 
  • Hearing loss costs Africa an estimated $27 billion per year, in terms of the impact on human lives and economies. 
Solutions: pushes for EHC policies and implementation—urging more dedicated funding, better-equipped facilities, and exploration of public-private partnerships. 
 
OPPORTUNITY QUICK HITS Committee reviewing euthanasia in Canada finds some deaths driven by homelessness fears, isolation –

A Maine Law Could Have Forced the Lewiston Mass Shooter Into Mental Health Treatment. Why Wasn’t It Used? –  

China unveils first diagnosis guidelines to battle escalating obesity crisis –

Medicaid will cover traditional healing practices for Native Americans in 4 states –

Ending “domestic helicopter research” –

As Ukraine's birth rate plunges, here's what one doctor is doing to reverse the trend –

The Perverse Consequences of Tuition-Free Medical School – Issue No. 2801
Global Health NOW is an initiative of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Contributors include Brian W. Simpson, MPH, Dayna Kerecman Myers, Annalies Winny, Morgan Coulson, Kate Belz, Melissa Hartman, Jackie Powder, Aliza Rosen, and Rin Swann. Write us: dkerecm1@jhu.edu, like us on and follow us on Instagram and X .

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  Copyright 2024 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All Rights Reserved. Views and opinions expressed in Global Health NOW do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health or Johns Hopkins University.


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