Kenya: Severe drought fuels malnutrition, reduces hospital-delivery births in Turkana County Following four successive failed rainy seasons, Kenya is amid the worst drought in 40 years, the UN’s women’s health agency, UNFPA, said on Tuesday, shining a light on 134,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women who are reported to be acutely malnourished and in need of treatment. UN News

...

The drought crisis is not only affecting women’s access to essential maternal health care; it is causing serious undernutrition among pregnant women, escalating risks to them and their future babies.

...

Nearly half of passengers from China to Milan have COVID: Italian officials Nearly half of the passengers on two recent flights from China to Milan tested positive for COVID-19, Italian health officials said on Wednesday. About 38 percent of passengers on one flight into M… jshapero The Hill

...

Italy will begin testing all new arrivals from China and sequencing the tests for new variants amid China’s surge in COVID-19 cases, Italy’s health minister said on Wednesday.

'Misinformation has changed everything:' How one local health department is restoring trust in vaccines Skepticism around Covid vaccines now threatens other public health priorities. How Oklahoma City's new campaign focusing on choice may have helped boost vaccine rates. NBC News

...

Germany's governing coalition argues over COVID restrictions BERLIN (AP) — Germany's governing coalition is arguing over whether remaining COVID-19 restrictions should be dropped after one of the country's top virologists was quoted as saying that the pandemic is over. AP NEWS

...

Chinese make travel plans as Beijing dismantles zero-COVID rules Chinese people, cut off from the rest of the world for three years by stringent COVID-19 curbs, flocked to travel sites on Tuesday ahead of borders reopening next month, even as rising infections strained the health system and roiled the economy. Joe Cash,Sophie Yu Reuters

...

Deadly fentanyl hybrids and substitutes could fuel 2023’s opioid crisis The drug trade continues to evolve, and the U.S. must continue to evolve with it. dtodd The Hill

...

Respiratory viruses could surge following the holidays, public health experts warn | CNN There is growing concern among infectious disease and public health experts that the US could face even more respiratory infections in January. Jacqueline Howard CNN

...

Autopsies Show COVID-19 in the Brain What this means for neurologic COVID symptoms remains elusive Judy George medpagetoday

...

But in December, an autopsy report of 44 peopleopens in a new tab or window who died with COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic showed that SARS-CoV-2 virus had spread throughout the body -- including the brain -- and persisted in tissue for months.

...

Long COVID: What scientists have learned about the symptoms affecting millions around the world A British historian, an Italian archaeologist and an American preschool teacher each helped bring long COVID into the public's consciousness. CBS News

...

Roadmap to get back on track to end HIV starts at the community level Public health interventions are more effective when funded at the community level. dgilliland The Hill

...

Lessons from COVID require tough questions The government’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was controversial and unprecedented, and it deserves thorough scrutiny. Welcome, then, is a new report published by a congressional committee that… stolliver The Hill

...

‘Tripledemic:’ What Happens When Flu, RSV, and COVID-19 Cases Collide? Yale Medicine physicians discuss the possibility of a tripledemic, which is when RSV, flu, and COVID-19 peak at the same time. Yale Medicine

...

Meanwhile, as of early December, RSV cases reported by Yale were beginning to go down and COVID-19 and flu cases were increasing. A big part of the flu increase, he explains, is our lack of immunity from having not been exposed to the virus for several seasons due to masking and other precautions, many of which have fallen to the wayside.

...

China's COVID cases overwhelm hospitals In more than three decades of emergency medicine, Beijing-based doctor Howard Bernstein said, he has never seen anything like this. Martin Quin Pollard Reuters

...

Millions of Afghan children inoculated against measles, polio in 1st Statewide drive since 2021 transition Millions of Afghan children have been vaccinated during the first nationwide integrated measles and polio campaign in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in August 2021, the UN health agency said on Thursday. UN News

...

Based on the data from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health Expanded Programme on Immunization, the campaign covered 329 districts in all 34 provinces of the country – with 4,341 vaccination teams comprised of four members on each team.

...