Global Health Checkup
It has all the ingredients of a thriller movie and brings back memories of the beginnings of Covid. But the risk to the global population is low.
Moxidectin has proven effective for river blindness and elephantiasis. But there’s little financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to invest in a drug whose target market is the very poorest people in the world.
Noma ‘is the quintessential neglected disease,’ striking mostly children under 6 in several African countries. There has been very little research on it.
Funding for the U.S. aid program has dropped about 30%. As one expert put it, ‘We're building up problems for the future.’
The result is fragmentation, which can slow the response to outbreaks. The good news is that many countries are making progress to create national health agencies.
Some countries have backup systems to keep medicines flowing. Others do not.
Under the Geneva Conventions, deliberately attacking civilian water systems (which is being actively threatened by American and Iranian leaders) can constitute a war crime.
Persian Gulf countries are crucial transit hubs for pharmaceuticals, and drugs that need to be kept cold and have a short shelf life – including some cancer therapies – are vulnerable to shipping delays.
The battle for attention of the masses has moved from press conferences and government PSAs to TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms. Public health agencies need to step up their 'creator' game.
Scientists don’t yet fully understand how GLP-1 drugs affect the brain’s reward pathways, but there are promising signals about how they control cravings.
The United States has signed 19 one-on-one health agreements directly with African governments since dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development last year.
The spread of mosquito-borne diseases across southern and central Europe (and North America, too) seems inevitable.
In places like Nigeria, with few psychiatrists, AI could help fill a need. But one researcher says it’s not a replacement for human care and the AI incentive structure is meant to keep you engaged.
The toll could climb even higher if funding continues to drop. Here’s how some philanthropies see their role in this moment.
The Trump administration has told the global vaccine group Gavi to phase out shots containing thimerosal as a condition of funding. The preservative is at the center of conspiracy theories, but any link to autism has been debunked.
A global health expert said that with this move, the United States has 'made itself much more vulnerable to disaster and devastation when the next epidemic or pandemic hits.'
From effective outbreak control to promising new research, a few developments that suggest key parts of the global health system are still functioning well, even under strain.
Merging organizations that have overlapping mandates could do more than cut costs. 'One institution with a broader mandate could improve efficiency and be better at building health systems,' one expert said.
Other gaps in protection against the highly contagious disease include access to hard-to-reach clinics and ‘social determinants of vaccination.’
Marco Rubio praises the ‘America First’ agreement as a new approach. How old challenges play out remains to be seen.