Global health review
A weekly round-up of all the latest global health research from MSF projects and beyond
13 March 2026
Join us for MSF Scientific Days 2026, featuring a keynote panel exploring how humanitarian research data can contribute to evidence, advocacy, and accountability, including its potential use in international investigations and legal processes. Sign up here to join this free, one-day conference taking place on Wednesday, 20 May in London.
This week, in npj Women’s Health, MSF researchers found that reusable menstrual underwear was highly accepted among women in Kalehe, Democratic Republic of Congo. Overall, 98% of participants preferred it over their usual menstrual hygiene methods, highlighting its potential as a practical and sustainable option in low-resource, conflict-affected settings.
In BMJ Public Health, MSF contributed to a study examining healthcare workers’ knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and practices of noma in northwest Nigeria, underscoring opportunities to strengthen training and support earlier detection and treatment.
A study in Mozambique published in Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, with MSF contribution, found that an outpatient treatment model for cryptococcal meningitis in people living with HIV achieved high survival and manageable side effects.
Finally, Epicentre contributed to an article published in BMC Medical Ethics assessing a training programme to strengthen research regulatory and ethics review capacity across the East African Community.
Best regards,
Lydia Lampiri, Zhi Wei Ching, 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.
Climate change and planetary health
The Lancet Planetary Health • Comment: Framing climate change, migration, and health as a syndemic
BMJ • Opinion: Climate change threatens survival—will warnings from economists and intelligence services at last move us to act?
Conflict, migration and health
The Lancet • Correspondence: Call to enhance civilian and military blood preparedness
The Lancet Psychiatry • other: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh should be allowed to work
BMJ • News***MENTIONS MSF***: Iran: WHO calls for protection for health workers as conflict sweeps the Middle East
BMJ • News: Gaza: Interim court order allows aid agencies to stay but entry of staff and supplies suspended
BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Research capacity and decolonisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: a bibliometric analysis
Conflict & Health • Article: Longitudinal serological response to SARS-CoV-2 among rohingya refugees in cox’s bazar, Bangladesh: implications for pandemic preparedness in humanitarian settings
Global health
The Lancet • Viewpoint: Health justice
PLOS Medicine • Article: From crisis response to country control: Restoring agency and sustainability in global health
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Re-imagining health research to include the voices of justice-impacted individuals
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Using DHIS2 routine data for health system preparedness in resource-limited settings: A Bayesian predictive approach in Bangladesh
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Low use of data analytics for health sector priority-setting in Ghana: A case for strengthening analytical capacity
WHO Bulletin • Article: Ethical and social difficulties of addressing environmental harms related to health research
Conflict & Health • Article: Strengthening and sustaining gender-based violence (GBV) coordination in emergencies: a synthesis of practitioner-driven, globally applicable recommendations
HIV
The Lancet HIV • Comment: Structural stigma: an urgent intervention priority in Africa
The Lancet HIV • Comment: The impact of HIV stigma and discrimination on HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, and viral suppression in Africa: a pooled analysis of population-based surveys
eClinicalMedicine • Article: Chemsex and uptake of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among adult cisgender gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men worldwide: a systematic review with meta-analysis
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Who does tracing work for? Characteristics of clients successfully re-engaged in ART care in sub-Saharan Africa after a tracing intervention: A systematic review
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Point-of-care HIV viral load testing in a community antiretroviral therapy delivery programme: A randomised controlled trial (PHILA)
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Hospitalization Free-Survival, Adverse Drug Reactions, and Retention in Care Outcomes of an Outpatient Treatment Model for Cryptococcal Meningitis in PLWH in Maputo, Mozambique
Infectious diseases
BMJ Global Health • Article: Burden of Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli infections among children under 5 years in Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi: a systematic review and meta-analysis
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Microbiological safety and hygiene monitoring of coastal seawater at Northern public beaches of Mauritius and genetic characterization of human pathogenic Vibrio species
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Comparative GWAS using global and Indian Reference Panels reveals non-coding drivers of COVID-19 severity and mortality
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Antimicrobial resistance patterns of Salmonella spp. identified from retail pork and raw side salads from Busia County, Kenya
Malaria
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Knowledge, attitudes and factors associated with the awareness of caregivers of under-five children regarding the malaria vaccine in the Tiko Health District, Cameroon: A community-based cross-sectional study
Tropical Medicine and International Health • other: In Vivo Antimalarial Activity and Toxicological Profile of LAFIS10, a Piperazine Derivative From Ursolic Acid
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Article: Diagnostic Accuracy of Point-of-Care Devices for Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency Detection Among Malaria Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Malaria Journal • Article: Malaria misdiagnosis among febrile patients in Senegal: implications for the underestimation of Plasmodium species diversity and malaria burden
Malaria Journal • Article: Extreme rainfall, flooding and malaria in the Sahara: outbreak analysis in Kidal, Mali 2024
Malaria Journal • Article: Longitudinal surveillance of Anopheles mosquitoes across different settings in Tanga and Unguja: increased distribution of An. merus in coastal and inland areas of Tanzania
Malaria Journal • Article: Malaria-associated splenic haemorrhage requiring emergency splenectomy: a rare complication managed in a resource-constrained setting
Malaria Journal • Article: Climate, environmental, and programmatic correlates of malaria resurgence in Amhara, Ethiopia (2018–2024): a Bayesian spatiotemporal analysis
Malaria Journal • Article: Socioeconomic determinants and maternal malaria: impact on neonatal parasitemia in Osun State, Southwest, Nigeria
Malaria Journal • Article: Utilization and associated factors of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets among households in Gondar Zuria district, Northwest Ethiopia: a mixed methods study, 2025
Malaria Journal • Article: A maximal-coverage approach to prioritizing newborn sickle cell screening sites in Uganda using a sickle cell-malaria co-risk surface
Malaria Journal • Article: Performance evaluation of an automated method for accurate identification of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency on the BS-2800M analyzer
Malaria Journal • Article: Geospatial mapping of gender-sensitive malaria vulnerability and ITN usage barriers in Zamfara State, Nigeria
Maternal and child health
BMJ Global Health • Article: The efficacy of a single dose of oral azithromycin in labour to prevent infections in infants and birthing parents in Fiji: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
Mental health
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: “When a man is stressed, it replicates in the house”: Kenyan women’s perspectives on the influence of male partners on perinatal mental health among women affected by HIV
Neglected tropical diseases
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Quality of life in Indian people affected by leprosy? A systematic review from the country with the highest burden of leprosy cases
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Antivenom shortages and emergency preparedness in Vietnam: a silent public health crisis
The Lancet Regional Health - SEA • Article: Emergence of a novel zoonotic brugian filarial infection during post-validation surveillance for lymphatic filariasis in Sri Lanka
BMJ • Editorial: Trachoma: the final push for global elimination
BMJ • Editorial: Evidence based choices for first line scabies treatment
BMJ Global Health • Article: Prevalence, spatial and temporal distribution of tungiasis in the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KHDSS) in Kenya
BMJ Global Health • Article: Querying Q fever: spatiotemporal patterns and environmental drivers in French Guiana
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Performance evaluation of an operational dengue forecasting system (D-MOSS) in Vietnam
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Pathogenesis of chikungunya arthritis: A scoping review
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Evaluating how demography and temperature increase might alter the burden of congenital Toxoplasmosis in Africa
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: From tests to truth: A misclassification-aware machine learning framework for estimating brucellosis seroprevalence in wild canids
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Review: CCR8 orchestrates an immunosuppressive niche in the liver to promote Echinococcus multilocularis infection
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Image segmentation of cervical grainy sandy patches lesions associated with female genital schistosomiasis using deep convolutional neural network with U-NET architecture
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Cm-p5, a synthetic antimicrobial peptide shows anti-Trypanosoma cruzi activity
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Social and environmental determinants of Neglected infectious diseases in quilombola communities of the Brazilian Amazon: An epidemiological and machine learning analysis
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Modeling the potential distribution of Wesselsbron, Sindbis, and Middelburg viruses and their vectors in Africa under future climatic and land-use changes
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: First report of pathogenic Leptospira in Sri Lankan bats: A potential reservoir risk?
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Anthrax-causing bacteria form biofilms on a soil-inspired porous glass bead model
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: The underestimated burden of placental schistosomiasis in endemic regions: Findings from a cross-sectional, diagnostic proof-of-concept study on placental schistosomiasis in Gabon
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Occurrence of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in invasive snails in the French territories of America, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: The resistance to Toxoplasma gondii in Microtus fortis is associated with the activation of the complement lectin pathway
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: First whole-genome detection of dengue virus in urban Aedes aegypti from Southern Brazil
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Understanding healing: A comparative analysis in chronic diseases with leprosy—A scoping review
Tropical Medicine and International Health • Article: Evaluation of Serum Ferritin Levels and Their Correlation With Clinical Outcomes in Dengue Virus Infection in a Population of Older Adults
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: Typhoid knowledge, prevention practices, and vaccine awareness in high-risk communities of Lilongwe, Malawi
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: From neglect to empowerment: impact of vocational rehabilitation on quality of life among disabled filarial lymphoedema patients in a brugian-endemic region of South India—a mixed methods evaluation
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene • Article: An intriguing case of eosinophilic liver abscess
BMJ Public Health • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Healthcare workers’ knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and practices of noma in Northwest Nigeria: a cross-sectional study
Non-communicable diseases
The Lancet Planetary Health • Article: Ambient temperature and child nutritional status of more than 6 million children in Brazil: a cohort study
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • other: Asthma in India: myths, misdiagnosis, and high mortality
Research and reporting
The Lancet • Comment: Considerations for improving non-inferiority trials
BMJ • Opinion: Language and geographical bias limits global health research
BMJ Global Health • Analysis: Collective action for responsible global health data sharing and use
BMJ Global Health • Article: Data reuse in global health: perspectives from actors in policy, funding and research
WHO Bulletin • Article: Justice in priority-setting for research on health and climate change
BMC Medical Ethics • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Strengthening research regulatory capacity in the East African community: a multi-country training program on emerging and complex study designs
Sexual and reproductive health
BMJ Global Health • Article: Hospital-based services for survivors of sexual violence in Ethiopia: who is missing out? A mixed-methods study
BMJ Global Health • Article: Values and preferences of female sex workers in Zimbabwe for long-acting injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis and the dapivirine vaginal ring: results of a mixed-methods research study
npj Women's Health • Article***MSF AUTHOR***: Feasibility and acceptability of menstrual underwear among women in displacement-prone Kalehe, Democratic Republic of Congo
Tuberculosis
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Acceptability of tongue swabs for tuberculosis screening in migrant settings in northern Italy: A qualitative study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment outcomes at a national referral hospital in Sierra Leone, 2017 to 2022: A retrospective cohort study
PLOS Global Public Health • Article: Principles and priorities for integrated tuberculosis screening and care: A modified Delphi consensus exercise
PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease • Article: Tuberculosis control in Ethiopian prisons: A forgotten front in the end TB Strategy
Vaccines
BMJ Global Health • Practice: Leveraging community insights and navigating logistical challenges: a case study of the 2024 polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, State of Palestine
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Adult dengue vaccination in a low transmission setting: A modelling study in Singapore
Zika
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases • Article: Comparative susceptibility of Old World and New World bat cell lines to Zika virus: Insights into viral replication and inflammatory response