Global Health News Briefs

September/October 2026 | Volume 25 Number 5

Second-largest Ebola outbreak on record continues in DRC

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues its response to an ongoing outbreak of Ebola, caused by Bundibugyo virus (a type of Ebola virus), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As of September 19, 2026, the DRC estimates a total of 7,672 confirmed cases with 3,699 confirmed deaths, while neighboring Uganda reports 20 confirmed cases and 2 deaths. This outbreak is not only the second-largest on record, but it is spreading substantially faster than previous Ebola outbreaks, surpassing 1,000 confirmed cases within 40 days of initial response (compared to 235 days to reach more than 1,000 cases during the 2018 Ebola outbreak in DRC). CDC supports response and preparedness efforts in DRC, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Angola, and South Sudan. It also provides clinical guidance and training, plus technical assistance, to help with disease tracking, contact tracing, and laboratory diagnostic testing.

The importance of NIH’s international research portfolio

Why does NIH conduct international research? Fogarty’s former Acting Director Peter Kilmarx relied on more than three decades of experience working in global health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to answer this question for Health Affairs. He writes that NIH supports global research not as foreign assistance, but because it advances its own scientific mission and global health, including the health of Americans. Kilmarx notes five additional reasons favoring global investigations: scientific discovery requires studying research opportunities where they occur; international research reveals health risks and solutions that eventually affect Americans; innovation increasingly flows in both directions; international partnerships accelerate discovery; and strong international research partnerships strengthen U.S. health security.

Improved treatment regimen for Chagas disease?

A shorter regimen with fewer pills is as effective as the standard treatment for chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection, the cause of Chagas disease, according to trial results published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. More than seven million people worldwide, mainly in Latin America, become infected with Trypanosoma cruzi each year. Up to 40% of people with this parasitic infection then develop Chagas disease, which can lead to serious heart or digestive complications. Until now, two drugs, benznidazole and nifurtimox, have been given in regimens developed more than half a century ago; the side effects lead to about a third of all patients stopping treatment early. The TESEO trial, a randomized clinical trial co-led by the University of Texas at El Paso and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, compared six treatment strategies over three years and found the 30-day, once-a-day course of benznidazole is not inferior to the 60-days, twice-a-day standard. Three years after treatment, the parasite remained undetectable in the blood of 94% of participants in the 30-day group compared with 95% in the standard group. Chagas disease has become a public health concern in recent years in the United States, Europe and Japan.

34 million more doctors, nurses, dentists, and pharmacists needed worldwide

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) researchers estimate that the global health workforce nearly tripled between 1990 and 2023, yet 34.4 million additional doctors, nurses, and other professionals are needed worldwide. Investigators at IHME, based at the University of Washington School of Medicine, used 1,816 country-years of data from population-based surveys, 82 from censuses, 3,888 from administrative sources, and 96 from the scientific literature to describe the composition and density of health workers by sex and professional specialty for 204 countries and territories from 1990 through 2023. In 2023, the global health workforce included 15.1 million doctors, 6.8 million pharmacists and pharmaceutical assistants, 6.1 million dentists and dental assistants, and 33.2 million nurses. While the global health workforce expanded by more than 81 million workers with most regions experiencing substantial growth, an additional 7.1 million doctors, 23.9 million nurses, 1.8 million dentists, and 1.6 million pharmacists are still required. The study, published in The Lancet Public Health, suggests the largest shortages are in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Steady electricity in healthcare facilities linked to fewer deaths

A recent study suggests that energy infrastructure can have life and death consequences for patients in lower-resource healthcare facilities. Using survey data collected from 303 hospitals and reference health centers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), plus monthly health system records and power-sensor measurements, the team estimates that mortality fell from about 4.5% in facilities with insufficient and unreliable power to about 2.6% in facilities with sufficient capacity and more than 22 hours of electricity per day. The study, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, was conducted by investigators from Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, University of California, Berkeley, and the Research Center for Humanitarian Aid in the DRC.

Lowering blood pressure with a culturally adapted intervention

A modified version of a program created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced systolic blood pressure by 3.3 mmHg among Ecuadorean workers at high-risk for diabetes. The Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja study adapted the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) for the local Ecuador setting by changing the number of sessions and adding regional recipes, group activities, and workplace visits. The 192 participants who completed the 16-week intervention showed decreases in body fat, waist circumference, and body mass index and dropped an average of 1.06% of their body weight. Despite these gains, the researchers noted that, overall, the modified DPP program did not outperform standard treatment given the lack of statistically significant improvements in diabetes risk scores, muscle mass, visceral fat, and other measurements (when compared to the control group receiving standard treatment). Translational Behavioral Medicine published the study.

Weather patterns predict winter air pollution in northern India

In northern India, winter air pollution can be terrible, with Delhi and other major cities experiencing Air Quality Index levels above 999—more than 30 times the safety limit. Now Princeton School of Public and International Affairs researchers suggest that seasonal forecasts would give India months of warning before severe air pollution descends on the north. They say 70% of year-to-year variation in winter air pollution levels can be explained by the frequency of western disturbances, storm systems that travel eastward from the Mediterranean region toward South Asia, where they strengthen vertical ventilation and bring precipitation that can clear some of the accumulated air pollution. Winters with more frequent disturbances tend to experience lower air pollution levels, while winters with fewer disturbances may be subject to more severe pollution, according to the study published in Science Advances.

Firstborn sons influence mental health in rural India

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers surveyed reproductive-aged married women and their co-residing mothers-in-law in Uttar Pradesh, India, to better understand the effects of the conventional social pressure to have a baby boy. The team collected socioeconomic and mental health data using a survey that screens for depression and anxiety risk. They found that the mothers-in-law experienced a 15% lower risk of depression or anxiety when their daughters-in-law had a firstborn son, results that are comparable to the effects of pension programs providing security for older women. Generally, the daughters-in-law showed no elevated mental health risks when they didn’t have a firstborn son. A firstborn son in a household also provided additional social and economic impact, the researchers found, with mothers-in-law more likely to approve a daughter-in-law’s use of birth control, to help with childcare duties, and to support a daughter-in-law’s work outside the home. The Journal of Development Economics published this study.

Updated September 24, 2026

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