16 October 2020
This week, MSF co-authors a protocol in BMJ Open, for an economic evaluation taking place alongside TB-PRACTECAL, a randomised control trial evaluating short, tolerable and effective treatments for people with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The evaluation will assess the costs of the new regimens to patients and providers, and the cost-effectiveness compared to the standard of care for MDR-TB patients in Uzbekistan, South Africa and Belarus. Also in BMJ Open, an MSF-authored article explores the lived experiences of palliative care among people living with HIV/AIDS in Bihar, India, and highlights a poor understanding of the concept of palliative care and limited access to palliative care services. You can watch these findings being presented during this year’s MSF Scientific Days.
MSF authors an article in BMC Infectious Diseases evaluating the impact of new clinical guidelines for the management of advanced HIV patients in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Alongside installation of laboratory equipment and point-of-care tests, the simplification and implementation of the new guidelines improved the diagnosis and clinical outcomes of patients.
MSF authors an article in International Health outlining the multidisciplinary care pathways for migrant victims of torture in an unnamed country that acts as a transit country. The authors describe the population accessing care at the MSF clinic, the characteristics of care and the patient outcomes, and reinforce the complexity of care for these patients.
Finally, in BMJ Global Health, an article sets outs of list of 120 interventions needed to protect essential health services in low- and middle-income countries and humanitarian settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conflict, migration and health
RSTMH International Health • Article ***MENTIONS MSF***: Offering care for victims of torture among a migrant population in a transit country: a descriptive study in a dedicated clinic from January 2017 to June 2019
Conflict and Health • Article : Community engagement and building trust to resolve ethical challenges during humanitarian crises: experience from the CAGED study
BMJ Global Health • Article : Spatial–temporal trends in forced migrant mortality, 2014–2018
Global health
PLOS Medicine • Article : Socioeconomic level and associations between heat exposure and all-cause and cause-specific hospitalization in 1,814 Brazilian cities: A nationwide case-crossover study
WHO Bulletin • Perspectives : Rural retention strategies in the South-East Asia Region: evidence to guide effective implementation
BMJ Global Health • Article : Quality assurance systems of pharmaceutical distributors in low-income and middle-income countries: weaknesses and ways forward
HIV
BMJ Open • Article ***MSF AUTHOR***: Lived experiences of palliative care among people living with HIV/AIDS: a qualitative study from Bihar, India
BMC Infectious Diseases • Article ***MSF AUTHOR***: Impact of the implementation of new guidelines on the management of patients with HIV infection at an advanced HIV clinic in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
PLOS Medicine • Article : The impact of continuous quality improvement on coverage of antenatal HIV care tests in rural South Africa: Results of a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised controlled implementation trial
The Lancet HIV • Article : Home-based oral self-testing for absent and declining individuals during a door-to-door HIV testing campaign in rural Lesotho (HOSENG): a cluster-randomised trial and comment Secondary distribution of HIV self-tests improves coverage
Infectious diseases
NEJM • Article : Interferon Beta-1b and Lopinavir–Ritonavir for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
PLOS NTDs • Article : The environmental drivers of bacterial meningitis epidemics in the Democratic Republic of Congo, central Africa
PLOS NTDs • Article : Prevalence, intensity and associated risk factors of soil-transmitted helminth and schistosome infections in Kenya: Impact assessment after five rounds of mass drug administration in Kenya
Malaria
BMJ Global Health • Article : Spatial and spatio-temporal methods for mapping malaria risk: a systematic review
Malaria Journal • Article : Comparison of leucocyte profiles between healthy children and those with asymptomatic and symptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections
Malaria Journal • Article : Binding of human serum proteins to Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes and its association with malaria clinical presentation
Maternal and child health
The Lancet Global Health • Article : Effect on mortality of increasing the cutoff blood glucose concentration for initiating hypoglycaemia treatment in severely sick children aged 1 month to 5 years in Malawi (SugarFACT): a pragmatic, randomised controlled trial
The Lancet • Correspondence : Undermining breastfeeding will not alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic
The Lancet • Comment : Marketing of breastmilk substitutes during the COVID-19 pandemic
BMJ Global Health • Article : Trends and inequalities in the nutritional status of adolescent girls and adult women in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000: a cross-sectional series study
BMJ Global Health • Article : Closing the gap on institutional delivery in northern India: a case study of how integrated machine learning approaches can enable precision public health
BMJ Global Health • Article : Long-term outcomes for children with disability and severe acute malnutrition in Malawi
BMJ Global Health • Article : Lactational amenorrhoea among adolescent girls in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic scoping review
PLOS NTDs • Article : Anti-Zika virus and anti-Usutu virus activity of human milk and its components
PLOS NTDs • Article : Incidence and progression of trachomatous scarring in a cohort of children in a formerly hyper-endemic district of Tanzania
Mental health
The Lancet • Editorial : The intersection of COVID-19 and mental health
PLOS Speaking of Medicine • Editorial : Mental health for all: A wise investment
Neglected tropical diseases
PLOS NTDs • Viewpoint : Building country capacity to sustain NTD programs and progress: A call to action
Non-communicable diseases
WHO Bulletin • Perspectives : Addressing barriers to primary health-care services for noncommunicable diseases in the African Region
NEJM • Article : A Randomized Trial Comparing Antibiotics with Appendectomy for Appendicitis
BMJ Global Health • Article : Magnitude, temporal trends and inequality in global burden of tracheal, bronchus and lung cancer: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
Outbreaks
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology • Review ***MSF AUTHOR***: Extended use or re-use of single-use surgical masks and filtering facepiece respirators during COVID-19: A rapid systematic review
The Lancet Planetary Health • Review ***MSF AUTHOR***: People-centred surveillance: a narrative review of community-based surveillance among crisis-affected populations
NEJM • Article : Effect of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19
NEJM • Viewpoint : Covid-19, Ebola, and HIV — Leveraging Lessons to Maximize Impact
JAMA • Viewpoint : Long-term Health Consequences of COVID-19
The Lancet • Article : Lopinavir–ritonavir in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial and comment Antiviral monotherapy for hospitalised patients with COVID-19 is not enough
The Lancet • Correspondence : COVID-19: leaving no one behind in Latin America
The Lancet • Correspondence : Steroids for sepsis and ARDS: this eternal controversy remains with COVID-19
The Lancet • Comment : Living with the COVID-19 pandemic: act now with the tools we have
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine • Article : Clinical impact of molecular point-of-care testing for suspected COVID-19 in hospital (COV-19POC): a prospective, interventional, non-randomised, controlled study and comment Near-patient SARS-CoV-2 molecular platforms: new-old tools for new-old problems
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Article : T-cell responses to MERS coronavirus infection in people with occupational exposure to dromedary camels in Nigeria: an observational cohort study and comment MERS-CoV in Africa—an enigma with relevance to COVID-19
The Lancet Infectious Diseases • Correspondence : Beyond COVID-19—a paradigm shift in infection management?
BMJ Global Health • Editorial : Towards the real-time inclusion of sex- and age-disaggregated data in pandemic responses
BMJ Global Health • Analysis : Lockdown measures in response to COVID-19 in nine sub-Saharan African countries
BMJ Global Health • Article : Protecting essential health services in low-income and middle-income countries and humanitarian settings while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic
Research and reporting
BMJ Global Health • Analysis : The value proposition of the Global Health Security Index
BMJ Global Health • Article : Systems thinking for health emergencies: use of process mapping during outbreak response
Tuberculosis
BMJ Open • Study Protocol ***MSF AUTHOR***: Cost-effectiveness of new MDR-TB regimens: study protocol for the TB-PRACTECAL economic evaluation substudy
BMJ Global Health • Article : Differential yield of universal versus selective drug susceptibility testing of patients with tuberculosis in high-burden countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
BMJ Opinion • Opinion : Tuberculosis patients need better mental health support, especially in the time of covid-19