Think Global Health
A new publication examining how changes in health are reshaping economies, societies, and everyday lives. An initiative from @cfr.org.
🌎: www.thinkglobalhealth.org
📩 Subscribe to our newsletter: thinkglobalhealth.org/newsletter
- AI tools can generate a digital “doctor” who looks and sounds like a real clinician. Sunny Jha explains how physicians’ digital doubles are spreading medical misinformation and eroding trust in public health.
- In January, the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization. Peter Singer, former special advisor to the WHO director general, outlines how the organization could strengthen global health despite the departure.
- The U.S. departure from the World Health Organization is akin to a messy breakup. If past practice is any guide, a simple strategy could facilitate the reunion of the global health agency and its largest donor.
- Mexico has announced its first measles death of 2026, and two Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities—in Texas and Arizona—reported cases as well.
- India has the world's highest burden of tuberculosis. A year after U.S. foreign aid cuts, community organizations are struggling to reach patients, which is undoing progress with combating stigma and improving treatment completion.
- New work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) recipients have put many older adults at risk for losing their food assistance.
- Rising gold prices culminated with an all-time high in December, a trend that has inspired small-scale miners in Ghana to work without licenses in dangerous, underground mines.
- After a decade of deliberation, Indonesia's tax on sugar-sweetened beverages remains in limbo. Public health experts warn that the repeated postponements could increase the burden of noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
- The collapse of international food aid and U.S. nutrition programs fuels malnutrition and social division. A new human-centered framework could shift food assistance from short-term emergency logic toward social and economic resilience.
- One year after USAID’s sunsetting, new estimates reveal that 2025’s health funding cuts were bigger than expected.
- South Carolina’s measles emergency has become the largest regional outbreak in the United States since cases began rebounding last year, surpassing West Texas' counts. Elsewhere, Nigeria faces a growing diphtheria outbreak.
- This week, the Trump administration finalized a new sweeping rule that broadens the Mexico City Policy. @spsaki.bsky.social explains how the policy represents the most expansive—and potentially disruptive—version of ideological restrictions on foreign aid to date.
- For Africa, 2025 exposed the vulnerability of systems that were built around external support. Read how the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization could further weaken the continent’s health systems if action is not taken.
- One in four people worldwide live in fragile contexts, which can devolve into a humanitarian emergency through a confluence of crises. In these areas, assessing local capacity along with national systems are essential in assessing pandemic preparedness.
- Cambodia’s maternal mortality ratio is more than double the UN target of 70 deaths per 100,000 births. An OB-GYN and health administrator highlights how inexpensive strategies improved maternal care at his rural hospital.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics describes the new U.S. childhood vaccination schedule as “dangerous and unnecessary." Despite that pushback, pediatricians and states could expose themselves to legal threats if they forgo the new schedule.
- The new U.S. vaccine schedule arrives as declining immunization rates and growing nonmedical exemptions have allowed flu, measles, and pertussis to thrive. Gavi’s former head Seth Berkley explores what this approach means for pandemic preparedness.
- Older adults facing grief, frailty, and loneliness are easy targets for AI scammers. To protect those adults, regulatory efforts against AI-related risks are emerging across the United States.
- As the United States marks one year since a measles outbreak began in Texas, cases are still climbing. South Carolina reports 212 new cases in the past week, raising its total to 646. Elsewhere, Mexico's outbreak has recorded 7,131 cases and 24 deaths.
- A year ago, President Donald Trump initiated the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). A former special advisor to the WHO director general outlines three reforms that could entice the United States to return.
- In December 2025, gold prices reached an all-time high, topping $4,400 per ounce. As gold demand grows, more of Ghana’s rural families are turning to small-scale mining that exposes workers to toxins and dangerous conditions.
- Declines in donor funding threaten progress against HIV and other diseases. To bolster the global health ecosystem, African health and finance officials, along with the former executive director of UNAIDS, offer 10 considerations for reforms this year:
- New work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients will lead to more than 1 million older adults losing their food aid, and rural communities will be hit hardest.
- Deep cuts to foreign aid threaten hard-won gains in combating diseases such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. Read 10 considerations to guide global health ecosystem reforms.
- The new U.S. vaccine schedule reduces the number of childhood diseases covered by routine immunization from 17 to 11—a move experts describe as “dangerous.” But pediatricians and states could expose themselves to legal threats by forgoing the schedule.
- Disease outbreaks are common in areas experiencing humanitarian crises, where traditional preparedness tools and approaches are often inadequate. To properly assess readiness in those settings, long-term investments in primary care are needed.
- From Sudan to San Francisco, food aid is under siege. Sabeeha Quereshi writes that a new blueprint is needed: a human-centered, practical approach to food aid that makes dignity a strategic imperative, not a charitable afterthought to other sectors.
- This week, U.S. Congress presented a bipartisan bill that appropriated $9.4 billion for global health, indicating that such spending could exceed initial expectations for 2026. But end-of-year estimates show that many programs remain in a funding limbo.
- Between 2004 and 2024, Mumbai's trains claimed nearly 66,500 lives, caused primarily by people falling from overcrowded trains. Despite those causalities, authorities continue to delay implementing safety reforms.
- Last year, Chinese and Nigerian companies announced a string of plans to build pharmaceutical production facilities. As China expands its Health Silk Road, countries have an opportunity to engage in an alternative to U.S.-backed models for global health.
- Recent breakthroughs in diagnostic technology, such as blood-based biomarkers, could allow for earlier and more precise diagnoses of Alzheimer's Disease. Read more about these innovations:
- In the United States, nearly 8 in 10 older adults have used artificial intelligence (AI). However, scammers are now deploying AI chatbots to target seniors, and the trend has inspired a slew of new regulatory proposals.
- Noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, influenced COVID-19 outcomes across countries. Without adequate preparation, this scenario could repeat itself during future epidemics and pandemics.
- Originally approved for diabetes, GLP-1 drugs are being prescribed off-label to treat depression. But physicians warn that the access to those drugs is outpacing research on the mental health impacts.
- Measles is spreading in conflict zones. In 2025, Yemen recorded more than 16,000 infections and 100 deaths. In the past two weeks, Democratic Republic of Congo's Kasai-Oriental province reported 450 infections. For more updates:
- Global aid cuts in 2025 threatened hard-won health gains. As a new year begins, African health and finance officials, along with the former executive director of UNAIDS, offer 10 considerations to transform the global health ecosystem.
- Last month, Congress reauthorized the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), expanding its funding ceiling to $205 billion. If utilized successfully, those funds could enhance the DFC's work in global health security.
- Traditional Alzheimer's disease diagnostic tools are limited, resulting in 75% of dementia cases going undiagnosed worldwide. New methods using blood biomarkers could transform the diagnostic landscape.
- Africa endures a disproportionate share of global disease and death, stemming in part from chronic underfinancing of health. To close that gap, Africa could recover lost revenues and expand its resources through innovation and self-reliance.
- New federal work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients could result in more than 1 million adults ages 55 to 64 losing food assistance. Read how older adults can navigate this policy change.
- Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity and hypertension, have influenced COVID-19 outcomes globally. A new analysis looks at whether strategies to reduce the global NCD burden could help pandemic preparedness.
- Mumbai has the busiest commuter railway network in the world, but it is also one of the deadliest. Fatalities due to overcrowding on trains signal an urgent need for reforms to create a safer and more sustainable transit system.
- The past year has seen tremendous shifts in the global health landscape. To cover developments in 2025, contributors and journalists spread across six continents published nearly 200 articles with Think Global Health:
- Headaches account for almost 5% of the world's total health loss, yet, they are not seen as serious threats. Read how the misuse of painkillers contributes to global headache burden.
- India’s recent decision to increase taxes on sugary carbonated drinks marks a step toward curbing excess sugar intake among young people, but that progress could be undermined by lower levies on noncarbonated fruit juices and milk drinks.
- The America First Global Health Strategy outlines how the United States will engage internationally while protecting domestic interests. Read how African leaders should seize the moment and leverage shifting donor priorities to accelerate their own.
- For centuries, chronic conditions stemming from respiratory infections have haunted individuals well after the initial illness subsides. The growing burden of long COVID underscores the need to look at history's warnings to inform new methods of care.
- Measles cases involving airports in South Dakota and North Carolina raise concerns about spread amid holiday travel. Angola and Uganda are recording large measles outbreaks. Meanwhile, a Central Texas city reports an uptick in whooping cough deaths.
- The America First Global Health Strategy outlines how the United States will engage internationally while protecting domestic interests. Read how African leaders should seize the moment and leverage shifting donor priorities to accelerate their own.
- Tools for pandemic preparedness sometimes overlook humanitarian settings, where conflict and fragile governance negate traditional preparedness tools. To determine outbreak readiness, local and national capacity should be assessed together.
