Andrea Conroy, PhD

Fiji becomes the 26th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem

Fiji makes history!
In a landmark public health achievement, Fiji has been validated by WHO for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem.

✅ Trachoma — a neglected tropical disease (NTD) and the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness — is the first NTD to be eliminated in Fiji.

Last Ebola patient in Democratic Republic of the Congo discharged The last Ebola patient in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was discharged today, marking an important milestone in the efforts to end the outbreak.

The last patient with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (#DRC) has recovered and been discharged. This marks a major step forward and begins a 42-day countdown to declaring the outbreak over.
Read the news here: bit.ly/3JgoNQ5

After years of sniffing out tuberculosis in Africa, Caroline, an African giant pouched rat (Cricetomys ansorgei), officially retired in March.
Her incredible nose helped detect thousands of TB cases missed by conventional methods and she did it much faster than lab technicians.

Screenshot that says Hepatitis B Vaccines VOTE: All pregnant women should be tested for hepatitis B infection. VOTE: The pediatric vaccine schedule should be updated to reflect the following change: • If a mother tests HBsAG-negative: • The first dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine is not given until the child is at least one month old. • Infants may receive a dose of hepatitis B vaccine before one month according to individual based decision-making.* *Also referred to as shared decisionmaking

Yes, ACIP will end hepatitis B vaccines for infants at birth today, and despite his speech about the importance of these vaccines yesterday, Bill Cassidy won’t do damned thing about it.

This is from the ACIP page for their anticipated votes today.

This will, as ever harm the most vulnerable.

The Hepatitis B Vaccine: Why the Birth Dose Matters and Why We Must Defend It Defending science, saving newborn lives, and keeping the world on track to end Hepatitis B

Newborn lives are on the line. The hepatitis B birth dose is safe, effective, and lifesaving yet it’s under attack at ACIP this week. Weakening this policy would be a grave mistake.
Read why we must defend it.
open.substack.com/pub/bktitanj...

If we truly cared about children, we would

- ensure they had easy access to lifesaving vaccines

- enact policies to control guns

- protect them in conflicts and wars

- tackle climate change which jeopardizes their future

Adults are failing on all the above

Ebola vaccination begins in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Vaccination of frontline health workers and contacts of people infected with Ebola virus disease has begun in Bulape health zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Kasai Province where an outbr...

We do not talk enough about how much vaccines have transformed Ebola outbreaks. The country stock pile of 2000 vaccines was immediately deployed to respond to the outbreak in the DRC and 45,000 additional doses have been approved for shipment to the DRC.
www.afro.who.int/countries/de...

This child was infected with measles before they were able to be vaccinated (under 12 months), likely from someone unvaccinated.

They survived the infection but years later they’re dead. The risk of SSPE for an infant infected with measles is 1 in 600, & it’s 95% fatal. Your vaccine protects others

My uncle was in lifelong pain from the polio he had as a toddler. He was hospitalized with post-polio syndrome in his 60s.

When the polio vaccine became available, my grandma waited in line overnight for 2 days to get it for the other 5 kids.

The 16th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Bulape Health Zone, Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new spillover event from an unknown reservoir host Background The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently facing concurrent outbreaks including mpox, cholera and malaria (1-4). The Ministry of Public Health, DRC has declared the 16th Ebola...

In under 24h following the newly identified outbreak of #Ebola in the DRC, the virus has been isolated, sequenced and the virus sequence data made publicly available.
virological.org/t/the-16th-e...

Democratic Republic of the Congo declares Ebola virus disease outbreak in Kasai Province Kinshasa – Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Kasai Province where 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths, including four health w...

The WHO has confirmed and officially declared an Ebola outbreak is unfolding in the Kasai province of the DRC. Thankfully this time there is stockpile of 2000 vaccines readily available to be deployed to respond to this outbreak. Following this closely.
www.afro.who.int/countries/de...

An ancient disease makes yet another comeback Why cholera is striking in Africa. It's a disease that's easy to control with proper treatment. But without medical care, patients can perish quickly.

Over the past three years, cases have more than doubled, with over 230,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths so far this year on the continent. Those cases are spread across 23 countries, up from 15 affected countries in 2022, according to Africa CDC.

Whatever happened to mpox? Is it still a threat? The virus took the world by storm. It was declared a "public health emergency of continental concern." What's the current status? With the U.S. aid cuts, one doctor says, "We're flying blind."

There has been a recent increase in mpox cases in South Kivu, DRC
www.npr.org/sections/goa...

The vaccine is about 100% effective if taken when needed.
Treatment for most is about 100% ineffective.

A split phone showing a vest worn by a migrant in the water, compared to a luxury yacht, with a caption that reads: Migrants aren’t the problem. Inequality is

Even as our political leaders find more ways to demonize migrants and refugees, let’s remember:

Migrants aren’t the problem

Inequality is

The forgotten story of … Di Jones and the footballers who died of tetanus The infection was a serious threat to British players in the years before a vaccination was introduced, claiming several lives, including that of the Manchester City full-back in 1902

Football used to be deadly before we had vaccines.
Here's the story of 29 players died from tetanus—a bacteria found everywhere—before vaccines.

There is no immunity to tetanus except through vaccines. Even tetanus survivors -saved by antitoxin, antibiotics & critical care - don’t gain protection

How Botswana eliminated paediatric HIV Political will, free maternity care and digital health tools helped Botswana achieve high standards for ending mother-to-child transmission.

Amidst all the daily bad news, here is some good news to lift up your week!

Botswana eliminates paediatric HIV

www.nature.com/articles/d44...

The year I was born. we basically had no idea why cancers happened and now we understand the underlying force behind it with 100% clarity and the molecular forces behind it with many orders of magnitude more resolution.

We were entirely in the dark, and now the room is lit.

Domestically made, updated Moderna vaccines

Let’s Go Canada 🇨🇦 !

Polio eradication efforts have been hit with a 40% funding cut—just as the world was close to eliminating the disease. Without renewed support, we can expect more frequent polio alerts.
www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Mpox deaths, Kenya surge among top concerns in Africa's outbreaks

Meanwhile, the United States authorized the transfer of 219,000 vaccine doses, and the DRC deployed LC16 vaccine doses from Japan.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/m...

Photo: NIAID/Flickr cc

US pediatric group breaks with federal policy, recommends COVID vaccines for young children The American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday recommended that all young children get vaccinated against COVID-19, differing from federal policy that no longer recommends routine vaccination for healthy children.

Resistance

www.reuters.com/business/hea...

If vaccines made doctors rich, pediatricians wouldn’t be the lowest-paid in medicine. They chose kids over higher salaries their classmates earn elsewhere.

A Debilitating Virus Surges Globally as Mosquitoes Move With Warming Climate

Chikungunya is usually quick & painful, but can be deadly for older or vulnerable patients. It can cause arthritis sidelining breadwinners, sometimes myocarditis, & outbreaks show increased mortality in the elderly/diabetic/renal disease. Can overwhelm health systems when everyone infected at once

Small Investment, Big Returns: Why This NIH Center Matters The Fogarty International Center within the National Institutes of Health has had a huge global footprint and impact, but it's on the chopping block.

The entire annual budget of the Fogarty International Center is a merely 0.2% of the total NIH budget

Despite this tiny investment, Fogarty has had a spectacular national & global footprint and impact...

Trump administration wants to zero the Fogarty budget

www.forbes.com/sites/madhuk...

Important

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/o...

This virus seems like it's no longer a problem. It's still a threat A year ago, on Aug. 14, 2024, the World Health Organization declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Why are health experts so frustrated by the world's response?

Exactly a year since the second declaration of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern, the disease has steadily continued to spread undeterred in several African countries. The resources to help control it have not really matched the emergency.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...

What an awful outbreak. At least 87 people, possibly 96, have died in Argentina after hospital-use fentanyl, often given in surgery, was tainted with Klebsiella pneumoniae & Ralstonia pickettii, some drug-resistant. The outbreak began in May when the pattern of severe infections in patients appeared

Malaria risk in WA is extremely low. It spreads person-to-person only via mosquitoes—rarely via blood transfusion or needle sharing (like NYC’s last malaria cases in the 1940s)

“Airport malaria”: an infected mosquito (or traveler+mosquito) arrives by plane, bites someone near an airport w/no travel

Small Investment, Big Returns: Why This NIH Center Matters The Fogarty International Center within the National Institutes of Health has had a huge global footprint and impact. US policy makers must save this national treasure

My new @forbes.com piece is about the critical importance of NIH and it's impactful Fogarty program

Small Investment, Big Returns: Why This NIH Center Matters

www.forbes.com/sites/madhuk...