Global Health News Briefs

September/October 2025 | Volume 24 Number 5

Ebola sickens 64 patients in DRC outbreak

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 64 people with confirmed or probable Ebola virus disease as of November 5 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) outbreak. Of these patients, 45 have died. Laboratory tests identified the Zaire strain, the most dangerous and common of Ebola strains, as the cause of the outbreak, first declared in early September. Africa CDC Director General Dr. Jean Kaseya traveled to DRC to meet with its Minister of Health early in the outbreak to discuss disease management, which includes increasing surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory capacity, and infection prevention and control efforts. Staff from the U.S. CDC are also assisting in the response in DRC’s Kasai Province, where more than 42,000 people have been vaccinated against Ebola. Authorities say Ervebo, an approved vaccine, is effective in preventing infection with the Zaire strain. Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever that is spread by infected blood and other body fluids. This is the 16th Ebola outbreak in the DRC since the virus was discovered there in 1976.

Genomic study tracks invasive subspecies of mosquitoes

Each year dengue, a mosquito-borne disease, causes hundreds of millions of infections worldwide. Jacob Crawford, PhD, of Verily Life Sciences LLC (Google’s research organization) and his colleagues investigated the global migration paths of the Aedes aegypti mosquito—the primary disease vector of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika. The team sequenced 1,206 genomes from 73 globally distributed populations of Aedes aegypti and found that this lineage developed its preference for humans in West Africa. Later, during the Atlantic slave trade, this lineage arrived in the Americas, where an invasive subspecies, Aedes aegypti aegypti emerged. Since then, the subspecies re-entered Africa and interbred with native populations, resulting in more robust dengue outbreaks and insecticide-resistant mutations. Global cases of dengue increased 10 fold over the past two decades, with more than 12 million cases and 7,700 deaths reported in the Americas and Caribbean, according to this NIH-supported study published in the journal Science.

Marine sponge compounds show potential for treating Leishmaniasis

A research team at Tokyo University of Science isolated 10 natural compounds from marine sponges with the potential to transform leishmaniasis treatment. Leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease caused by unicellular parasites spread by the bite of infected sand flies, is prevalent across 90 tropical, subtropical, and southern European countries, affecting nearly 12 million people worldwide. Skin sores resulting from the disease can develop into deep ulcers. The discovered marine compounds, known as onnamides and previously linked to antitumor activity, show low toxicity and high selectivity, such that they kill the parasite while sparing human cells. The researchers believe these compounds, collected in Manza, Okinawa, hold promise for the development of new treatments for leishmaniasis and possibly other protozoan diseases, such as Chagas disease and African sleeping sickness. Their findings are published in Marine Biotechnology.

Impact Global Health report tallies the benefits of global health R&D

Spending on global health research and development (R&D) by high income countries pays off big, according to a report by Impact Global Health, a non-profit that provides data and tools to support global health R&D advocacy across neglected diseases, emerging infectious diseases, and women’s health. The $71 billion invested in global health R&D between 2007 and 2023 has generated $511 billion in gross domestic product growth. This investment, 90% of which has been concentrated in institutions in high-income countries, has not only delivered life-saving innovations but also led to 20,000 patents and the creation of 643,000 jobs. The report identifies 22 health innovations—vaccines, diagnostics, delivery platforms, and treatments—originally developed for use in low- and middle-income countries--that have delivered unexpected benefits to high-income countries. An additional benefit provided by global health R&D expenditures is the building of pandemic response capacity, which serves as a pillar of national security, the report authors note.

Know-do gap drives antibiotic overprescribing for diarrhea in India

What drives antibiotic overprescribing for childhood diarrhea in India? When patients take unneeded antibiotics, the result can be drug-resistant bacteria that cause extremely difficult-to-treat infections. The “know-do gap”— where clinicians understand the proper guidelines but don’t follow them—drives most unnecessary drug prescribing in India, suggests a new study from University of Southern California and Duke University. The researchers sampled 2,282 private providers across 253 towns in India and discovered that 70% prescribed antibiotics without seeing any signs of bacterial infection. Interviews suggest that many providers believe that their patients want “strong medicine” (antibiotics) and will change doctors if they don’t get a prescription. Drug-resistant bacteria account for the lion’s share of antimicrobial resistance, which causes roughly five million deaths each year. Science Advances published this study funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Updated November 17, 2025

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