On bombs, bugs (and a couple of other ‘B’s)

Dear Colleagues,

Let me kick off with some nice news this week, for a change.

Last week ITM launched  season three of its multi-award-winning podcast ‘Transmission’.  The press release gives you a good idea of what the new season has in store : “Across four captivating episodes, our researchers offer listeners a deep dive into the dynamics of vector-borne diseases and outbreaks, which are amplified by climate change. Whether they carry parasites or viruses, these tiny insect vectors have a tremendous impact on global health, from Belgium to the Peruvian Amazon, showing us that diseases – and health – know no borders. …. In season 3, listeners will follow our researchers and partners as they try to control and even eliminate the diseases that threaten the world, from the mysteries of sleeping sickness to the rising danger of dengue. The podcast takes listeners to cutting-edge insectaries and field labs in the most remote forests, as the journey spans from Burkina Faso to Nepal, and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Peruvian Amazon. Listeners will get a glimpse of what it means to control diseases when their vector is already present on all continents, of a young man’s determination that led to the groundbreaking new malaria vaccine, and of what it takes to keep alive and feed 3000 tsetse flies in a small insectary at the ITM in Antwerp. We will learn why the last mile in disease elimination is always the most adventurous… and what bumps and turns await us on the long road to zero cases.”

Warmly recommended!

Over then to some of the main global health policy news of the week. I’m afraid there the picture is a lot more gloomy. As you probably also noticed, it was a week in which the already raging ‘polycrisis’ got some “extra fuel” – as if it were still needed.   Anyway (and deep sigh).

On  World Health Day   (7 April),  WHO kicked off  ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’, a year-long campaign on maternal and newborn health.  The backdrop? WHO and other UN Agencies warned that the current  ‘Aid cuts could have ‘pandemic-like effects’ on maternal deaths’. More broadly, as  the introductory chapter of Global Health Watch 7 (launched by PHM on World Health Day) makes clear, “… Over 80 per cent of the world’s countries are ‘building back worse’, not better, with health and social spending in decline, taxes becoming regressive, and labor policy and income going in the wrong direction – with women bearing the brunt of the shocks associated with these dynamics.”  We can only agree with PHM that we need to go ‘from a Political Economy of Disease to a Political Economy for Wellbeing’, soon.

(Resumed) INB round 13  on the pandemic agreement (7-11 April) clearly also gets quite some attention in this week’s issue. Dr. Tedros, ever the ‘Global Health Diplomat’, set the scene nicely in his opening address on Monday, arguing that even in dire geopolitical times, “… all countries need to find a balance in protecting their people from both bombs and bugs.”    Now that Tedros is also on Bluesky (at last!) that’s obviously a nuanced message he can easily spread there too. On X, though, he might want to go for a message that feels a bit more natural on that Forum, for example “… we need to protect people from bombs, bugs & barbarian bigots” . And if Tedros ever says ‘hi’ to the Donald on Truth Social, I’d suggest an accompanying tweet like  ‘…. We need to protect PANICANS from BOMBS, bugs and BARBARIAN BIGOTS!!  And make BIG BUCKS in the process!”  😊).

Meanwhile, it appears that Africa CDC’s watchword these days is  “ to turn what may seem like a setback into an opportunity.”   That’s probably the right spirit, even if the current situation is extremely challenging, as they acknowledged themselves in their concept paper   on health financing from last week, spotting among others a ‘convergence of declining aid and rising debt service’.

And there’s plenty of other news, as you’ll notice in this newsletter issue, whether from the Third World Local Production Forum   (in Abu Dhabi (7-9 April)), new WHO guidelines on meningitis, the journals (with among others The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown to 2030 for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health and a Lancet Commission on gender and global health   ),  …

Enjoy your reading.

Kristof Decoster