The Lancet Global Health

A paragraph from the article, which reads: Under the America First Global Health Strategy, however, health cooperation is explicitly subordinated to geopolitical calculation. As the State Department makes clear; “the President and Secretary of State retain the right to pause or terminate programs which do not align with the national interest”.3 In this context, political divergence or non-compliance does not unfold gradually. It occurs abruptly, unevenly, and often without institutional recourse. The suspension of crucial HIV funding to South Africa illustrates this shift. Citing diplomatic positions on major conflicts, land expropriation laws, and alignment with alternative geopolitical blocs, the USA has shown how political alignment now overrides epidemiological logic.4 Disease burden, programmatic performance, and technical capacity provided no insulation. A high-capacity health system was exposed to withdrawal without buffers, timelines, or negotiated safeguards. For many low-income and middle-income countries, the central risk is no longer inefficiency or reform failure. It is abandonment.

A new Comment in The Lancet Global Health lays out the necessary strategic shifts to protect global health in the era of "America First", covering:

- Institutional cooperation
- Legal counterweights
- Redefining the role of multilateral institutions

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Protecting global health in the era of the America First Strategy As Washington recasts its global health agenda, the America First Global Health Strategy (AFGHS) presents itself as a corrective to decades of aid dependence.1 Open-ended assistance is replaced with t...

"The policy challenge is therefore not how to restore a depoliticised global health order, but how to protect health systems in an environment in which leverage determines engagement and continuity." powerful piece in @lancetgh.bsky.social from Nelson Evaborhene www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Prevalence estimates of small vulnerable newborns in China (2012–22): a modelling study Although the prevalence of SVNs in mainland China has stabilised overall, a reversal occurred after 2018, with western provinces showing substantially higher levels than central and eastern provinces....

New modelling study on small vulnerable newborns (SVNs) in China 2012-2022 draws on data from over 14 million livebirths across 30 provinces to show stable but persistently high national SVN prevalence with marked subnational heterogeneity - read #openaccess here: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Gaps in government recognition of the service needs of women who experience intimate partner violence: a comparative case study analysis of policies and implementation across eight countries Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a substantial health and human rights concern. Governmental policies to address IPV are well-documented, but most available evidence on implementation focuses on spe...

On violence against women, a large gap between laws & their implementation exists. Yet we have few tools to measure it. Our @lancetgh.bsky.social article draws on admin & survey data on IPV survivors to assess the “recognition gap” across countries www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... @giga-hamburg.de

Violent and non-violent death tolls for the Gaza conflict: new primary evidence from a population-representative field survey This first independent population survey of mortality in the Gaza Strip shows that violent deaths have substantially exceeded official figures whereas the demographic composition of casualties aligns ...

Published today in @lancetgh.bsky.social: New primary estimates of the death toll in Gaza conducted via a household survey approximate mortality totals 34.7% above Gaza Ministry of Health figures, from the start of the conflict in Gaza up to Jan 2025: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Violent and non-violent death tolls for the Gaza conflict: new primary evidence from a population-representative field survey This first independent population survey of mortality in the Gaza Strip shows that violent deaths have substantially exceeded official figures whereas the demographic composition of casualties aligns ...

Published today in @lancetgh.bsky.social: New primary estimates of the death toll in Gaza conducted via a household survey approximate mortality totals 34.7% above Gaza Ministry of Health figures, from the start of the conflict in Gaza up to Jan 2025: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

A Guardian article discussing a study on mortality in Gaza we published last night which you can find here: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

The Lancet Global Health editors on conferences, implementation, and 2026 Podcast Episode · The Lancet Global Health in conversation with · 02/16/2026 · 29m

🎙️ Our podcast this month features your TLGH editorial team! Zoë, Pingyue, Gavin, and Shangrong discuss the problems with conferences in HICs, equitable research partnership, and the research we'd like to see in 2026!
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2y7y...

The Lancet Global Health editors on conferences, implementation, and 2026 Podcast Episode · The Lancet Global Health in conversation with · 02/16/2026 · 29m

🎙️ Our podcast this month features your TLGH editorial team! Zoë, Pingyue, Gavin, and Shangrong discuss the problems with conferences in HICs, equitable research partnership, and the research we'd like to see in 2026!
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2y7y...

"Implementing digital health and AI for programme screening, diagnosis, and treatment in global eye health"

Eye health a top 10 research priority for data science and AI globally, rising to #3 in the rankings among LMIC experts! 👀

Scoring highly on "potential for translation and implementation".

Investment In Malaria Venture Yields 13x Health Benefits - Health Policy Watch Every $1 invested in the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) between 2000 and 2023 yielded $13 in monetised health benefits, according to a study published in

Every $1 invested in @mmv.org generated $13 in health benefits, new @lancetgh.bsky.social study. ⬇️

1.6M deaths averted.
87M DALYs saved.
19 malaria medicines delivered.

Smart investment saves lives. 💊🌍

✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social
@lseblogs.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
📖⬇️ & 🔁🙏

The Lancet Global Health | LinkedIn The Lancet Global Health | The world-leading global health journal | The Lancet Global Health focuses on improving health for disadvantaged populations worldwide, from entire economic regions to margi...

If LinkedIn is your thing, we've just launched a new resource for keeping up to date with The Lancet Global Health over there! www.linkedin.com/company/lang...

Avoidable deaths through the primary prevention, early detection, and curative treatment of cancer worldwide: a population-based study Nearly half of deaths among people diagnosed with cancer globally could be avoided through primary prevention and improvements in early detection and curative cancer treatment. Global efforts are need...

📢Nearly half of deaths among people diagnosed with cancer globally could be avoided through primary prevention and improvements in early detection and curative treatment📢

Read more in our latest study, just out in @lancetgh.bsky.social
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Table 3 from the paper, which contains too much text to put here, but if you click through to the paper your screen reader should be able to unpack it for you

The issue also features a Health Policy paper on AI, and how stakeholders in different settings think AI usage could be useful to health, "Research priorities for data science and artificial intelligence in global health: an international consensus exercise" www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

A paragraph from the Editorial, which reads: Although AI has the potential to identify neglected health issues and improve access to care, it can also reinforce existing biases and introduce new threats. Grok's misuse is one example of broader risks that under-regulated technological advancement can pose to women's dignity, safety, and wellbeing in patriarchal societies. As Bakelmen and Buse point out in this issue, AI-generated images risk repeating harmful stereotypes and denying people control over their portrayal. As highlighted by UN Women, AI technologies are increasingly used to facilitate and amplify online abuse against women, including harassment, stalking, and the non-consensual sharing or manipulation of intimate images. The scale and speed at which AI can generate and spread harmful content exacerbate digital violence against women and girls. Such misuse aggravates discrimination, inflicts psychological and social harm, and endangers the dignity and safety of women. AI's ease of creating abusive imagery raises urgent ethical concerns, such as privacy violations and non-consensual content, underscoring the need for robust governance and effective safeguards. These challenges are particularly worrisome for women and girls in low-resource settings, where legal and technical protections may be weakest.

Our new Open Access issue is online today! We lead off with an Editorial from our editors highlighting the dangers that AI poses to women around the world, titled "Safeguarding women and girls in the age of AI", ahead of #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2026 www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Our new @lancetgh.bsky.social piece on The tuberculogenic environment — the sum of influences, vulnerabilities, policies, life conditions, and health factors that sustain the tuberculosis pandemic in vulnerable communities

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Modelled eCSC6/18 among people aged 50 years and older globally and by WHO region in 2000–30. Figure from eCSC publication with seven plots, one for each WHO region and one global. Each plot shows predicted trend lines for eCSC between 2000 and 2030 in men (blue) and women (red). There are no trend lines for the European region. All WHO regional plots also show empirical eCSC estimates per year as blue dots.

📢 New eCSC paper out in @lancetgh.bsky.social www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

👁️ Progress towards the 2030 global target is lagging, more investment in quality cataract services is needed urgently.

👁️ Launched at same time as @who.int guidance on cataract care quality: iris.who.int/handle/10665...

A panel from the article which reads: Contrasting foundational and Indigenous approaches in implementation science Potential issues with foundational approaches to implementation science • Emphasis on evidence-based practice over practice-based evidence • Externally driven and deficit-oriented • Equity emphasised only recently • Technical and jargon-heavy • Poor alignment with Indigenous ways of knowing • Insufficient attention to social determinants Alternative Indigenous approaches to implementation science • Affirming and valuing local practice-based evidence and traditional knowledge • Community driven and strengths-based, with a focus on Indigenous leadership • Equity and sovereignty embedded as core guiding principles • Accessible and community-centred, with the use of shared terminology • Integrating and building on Indigenous research methods, ontologies, and epistemologies • Holistic frameworks addressing upstream social determinants of implementation success

From our most recent issue, please take a look at this fascinating Viewpoint on using Indigenous principles to decolonise implementation science, embracing differing epistemologies and community-driven approaches www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

A panel from the article which reads: Contrasting foundational and Indigenous approaches in implementation science Potential issues with foundational approaches to implementation science • Emphasis on evidence-based practice over practice-based evidence • Externally driven and deficit-oriented • Equity emphasised only recently • Technical and jargon-heavy • Poor alignment with Indigenous ways of knowing • Insufficient attention to social determinants Alternative Indigenous approaches to implementation science • Affirming and valuing local practice-based evidence and traditional knowledge • Community driven and strengths-based, with a focus on Indigenous leadership • Equity and sovereignty embedded as core guiding principles • Accessible and community-centred, with the use of shared terminology • Integrating and building on Indigenous research methods, ontologies, and epistemologies • Holistic frameworks addressing upstream social determinants of implementation success

From our most recent issue, please take a look at this fascinating Viewpoint on using Indigenous principles to decolonise implementation science, embracing differing epistemologies and community-driven approaches www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Colourful i-Base graphic. The main text reads: ‘Catastrophic’ US cuts to global aid will mean 23 million avoidable deaths in 4 years. At the top is i-Base’s website address: I hyphen base dot info. A smaller rectangle in the bottom right, reads: HIV news. 2026. There are various dotted patterns. The colours used in the image are two shades of khaki brown, dark purple, light blue, khaki green, magenta, pink, turquoise, orange, dark green, mustard and white.

US funding cuts set to cause 23 million excess deaths in the poorest countries by 2030:

i-base.info/htb/53179

New @lancetgh.bsky.social paper predicts that 5.4 million of these will be children under 5.

#HIVsky #IDsky #GlobalHealth #GlobalAid #HIV #InfantMortality #malaria #LMICs #USAID #PEPFAR

A screenshot of a paragraph from the Editorial, which reads: The tug-of-war between adaptation to fit the context and fidelity to the original plan persists in implementation. Future research focusing on identifying the core elements directly responsible for intervention effects and on understanding the mechanisms by which the implementation strategy works best in given circumstances may help reconcile adaptation and fidelity. But before that, what should guide implementation? A promising pathway by which to realise the field's original purpose of scaling up health improvements equitably and sustainably is through community empowerment and participation. Applied to adaptation, such a process prioritises people's needs and values, and seeks to continuously remove systematic barriers that may marginalise at-risk populations or slow down adaptations.

"By embracing health equity, epistemic justice, Indigenous values, pluralist methodologies, and co-design with and for the communities, implementation research and practice in global health will be transformed." - Read our latest Editorial, on implementation science www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

A caption for this month's Lancet Global Health podcast, which reads: How can clinicians work with communities to implement appropriate interventions? What does effective context-driven, co-created research that respects local knowledge look like? And how can we use qualitative methods to build interventions from the ground up? Dr. Alejandra Paniagua-Avila joins Gavin Cleaver, senior editor at The Lancet Global Health, to discuss her work on advancing equity in implementation research with Indigenous populations in Guatemala, published in this month's issue.

And if you're done reading that and you want more implementation chat, our podcast this month is on the challenges of implementing mental health interventions in Indigenous populations in Guatemala:
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0d23...

A screenshot of a paragraph from the Editorial, which reads: The tug-of-war between adaptation to fit the context and fidelity to the original plan persists in implementation. Future research focusing on identifying the core elements directly responsible for intervention effects and on understanding the mechanisms by which the implementation strategy works best in given circumstances may help reconcile adaptation and fidelity. But before that, what should guide implementation? A promising pathway by which to realise the field's original purpose of scaling up health improvements equitably and sustainably is through community empowerment and participation. Applied to adaptation, such a process prioritises people's needs and values, and seeks to continuously remove systematic barriers that may marginalise at-risk populations or slow down adaptations.

"By embracing health equity, epistemic justice, Indigenous values, pluralist methodologies, and co-design with and for the communities, implementation research and practice in global health will be transformed." - Read our latest Editorial, on implementation science www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

A research in context panel from the article, which reads: Added value of this study This study combined retrospective data and projections for the near future, up to 2030, across a broader set of countries, especially those most vulnerable to ODA shocks, to fully understand the effects of international cooperation and its potential fluctuations on mortality amidst the ODA funding crisis. Our models forecast an additional 22·6 million deaths across all ages, including 5·4 million deaths in children younger than 5 years, by 2030, under a severe defunding scenario; even under a mild defunding scenario, the projected number of excess deaths by 2030 is 9·4 million across all ages and 2·5 million among children younger than 5 years. Implications of all the available evidence Sudden and severe reductions in ODA funding could have catastrophic consequences, with a potential global death toll comparable to—or even exceeding—that of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even modest defunding that simply extends current downward trends is likely to lead to sharp increases in preventable adult and child mortality, potentially resulting in tens of millions of excess deaths in the coming years.

Published today in The Lancet Global Health: A modelling study on current worldwide trends in humanitarian and developmental assistance finds that cuts up to 2030 are projected to cause up to 22.6m additional deaths, inc. 5.4m children u5. Available Open Access - www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

A research in context panel from the article, which reads: Added value of this study This study combined retrospective data and projections for the near future, up to 2030, across a broader set of countries, especially those most vulnerable to ODA shocks, to fully understand the effects of international cooperation and its potential fluctuations on mortality amidst the ODA funding crisis. Our models forecast an additional 22·6 million deaths across all ages, including 5·4 million deaths in children younger than 5 years, by 2030, under a severe defunding scenario; even under a mild defunding scenario, the projected number of excess deaths by 2030 is 9·4 million across all ages and 2·5 million among children younger than 5 years. Implications of all the available evidence Sudden and severe reductions in ODA funding could have catastrophic consequences, with a potential global death toll comparable to—or even exceeding—that of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even modest defunding that simply extends current downward trends is likely to lead to sharp increases in preventable adult and child mortality, potentially resulting in tens of millions of excess deaths in the coming years.

Published today in The Lancet Global Health: A modelling study on current worldwide trends in humanitarian and developmental assistance finds that cuts up to 2030 are projected to cause up to 22.6m additional deaths, inc. 5.4m children u5. Available Open Access - www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

If we want to '#decolonise' evaluation methods - we should do it properly, from the foundation up:
Our @lshtm.bsky.social Centre for Evaluation viewpoint out in this month's @lancetgh.bsky.social
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Conceptual framework illustrating the convergence of global crises that may lead to the re-emergence of noma

On #WorldNTDDay, Marta Ribes and colleagues warn of the resurgence of #noma: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Democratizing Knowledge Through Global Health Podcasts Podcasts are a great way to learn, share, exchange, and democratize global health knowledge. Here are several wonderful podcasts worth checking out!

Democratizing Knowledge Through Global Health Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to learn, share, exchange, and democratize global health knowledge

Here is my new list of podcasts worth checking out!

communities.springernature.com/posts/democr...

Please consider joining this webinar, featuring upcoming papers in The Lancet Global Health and The Lancet Healthy Longevity 👇

📢 Two webinars to launch new @who.int cataract surgery quality guidance & new global eCSC estimates in upcoming @lancetgh.bsky.social paper.

How can we accelerate the delivery of high-quality surgery to increase eCSC by 30 percentage points by 2030?

@iceh-lshtm.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social