The Independent (World)
진보 성향
사회
US hits a scary mark for total number of measles cases — for the second year in a row
America’s yearly measles cases had not surpassed 2,000 since 1992 - before it did last year
"MEASLES" · 총 27건
필터 보기현재 지수
50.3
0 = 부정 우세
50 = 중립
100 = 긍정 우세
최근 7일 기준 88,891건을 분석한 결과, 뉴스 심리지수는 50.2(균형)입니다. 긍정 4,410건(5.0%)·중립 82,312건(92.6%)·부정 2,169건(2.4%)이며, 중립 비중이 뚜렷하게 높습니다. 성향 지수는 종합 14.7(중도 균형)입니다.
America’s yearly measles cases had not surpassed 2,000 since 1992 - before it did last year
Measles cases in the U.S. reached 2,030 on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Measles may be the bigger threat partly because it is more contagious, and cases in the U.S. are already rising.
The number of U.S. measles cases in 2026 has now exceeded 2,000, quickly approaching the full annual total of last year. As of June 4, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 2,030 cases so far this year, with 93 percent or 1,890 cases associated with outbreaks. Throughout all of 2025, the...
The World Cup is presenting a unique challenge for public health officials.
Measles cases in the United States have surpassed 2,000 for the second year in a row, according to data updated Friday from the CDC.
Officials are more concerned about highly contagious diseases like measles and respiratory viruses, which can spread quickly through large, fast-moving crowds.
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The number of measles cases reported in Japan this year has reached 511, approaching the 2019 total of 744, a national research insti
The measles outbreak in Bangladesh is one of its deadliest health crises in decades, as experts warned that the lack of measures to increase vaccinations and enhance immunisation across the country could lead to a further spike in cases. There were over 60,000 suspected cases of measles, and nearly 600 people have died from the disease since mid-March, according to media reports. The outbreak has been particularly severe among malnourished children and communities with limited access to health...
Country: Myanmar Sources: Health Cluster, World Health Organization Highlights Ongoing surge in deadly attacks on health care with 73 incidents reported by Insecurity Insight between 1 January and 31 May 2026, as compared to 38 verified attacks on health care recorded by WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA). Use of heavy weapons continues to be the highest reported type of incident, followed by obstruction, psychological violence and removal of assets. Health Cluster will conduct SSA awareness sessions to encourage partners to report any attack on health care directly in the online system. Intensification of airstrikes and drone attacks in Chin, Magway, Rakhine, and Sagaing as well as Kachin, Karenni and northern Shan, severely impeding access to health care and transport of medical supplies. Lack of vector control and bednets are triggering a malaria surge in Chin, Kachin, and Tanintharyi. Because of inadequate testing and treatment, malaria outbreaks are able to rapidly expand. Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) outbreaks resulting from poor hygiene practices in Karen, Karenni, Mon, Sagaing, and Southern Shan. Lack of testing and awareness is leading to rapid spread of the disease. Joint Health-Nutrition-WASH Cluster AWD Action Planning at sub-national level ongoing as part of monsoon preparedness - Measles preparedness in Rakhine stepped up after continuing largescale measles outbreak in neighbouring Bangladesh: ongoing training of health workers on diagnosis and treatment of measles cases, and continuing advocacy for urgent, large-scale immunization, after 5 years of zero vaccination.
Country: Sierra Leone Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. Description of the Event Date when the trigger was met 13-05-2026 What happened, where and when? On 13 May 2026, the National Public Health Agency (NPHA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), officially declared a measles outbreak in Sierra Leone following confirmation of sustained transmission across multiple districts. On the same day, 41 confirmed cases were reported across eight districts: Western Area Urban (Freetown), Western Area Rural, Port Loko, Bombali, Tonkolili, Bo, Kenema, and Kono. Between 14 and 19 May 2026, an additional 8 confirmed cases were identified, bringing the total to 49 confirmed cases. The outbreak is characterized by a laboratory positivity rate of 75 per cent, indicating active community transmission and likely underdetection of cases through routine surveillance systems. The spread across both urban and rural districts, including densely populated communities in Freetown, significantly increases the risk of rapid nationwide propagation. The outbreak is occurring within a context of persistent immunity gaps linked to suboptimal routine immunization coverage, particularly in underserved and hard-to-reach communities. Children under five years of age remain the most vulnerable due to low vaccination uptake, malnutrition, and limited access to healthcare services. High population mobility, overcrowded settlements, schools, and marketplaces continue to facilitate rapid transmission. Health systems in affected districts are under increasing pressure due to rising demands for surveillance, case investigation, laboratory testing, community engagement, and case management. Existing response efforts are further constrained by weak community-level surveillance, limited outreach capacity for rapid vaccination scale-up, inadequate risk communication coverage, and shortages of operational resources in high-risk districts. In response, the MoH and NPHA activated the Incident Command Centre (ICC) and initiated coordination with humanitarian and development partners to scale up containment measures, including reactive vaccination, surveillance strengthening, community engagement, and case management support. NPHA has specifically requested urgent partner support to reinforce outbreak response efforts, warning that the outbreak risks escalating further, particularly in densely populated districts, if immediate action is not taken. Despite ongoing response measures, transmission continues to expand, highlighting the urgent need for coordinated humanitarian support to contain the outbreak, strengthen vaccination uptake, and reduce preventable morbidity and mortality among vulnerable populations.
Despite being the leading cause of vaccine-preventable child deaths worldwide, measles doesn’t garner much attention, says Hsu Li Yang of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
About 1 in 5 cases were hospitalized and most of those developed complications.
Country: Somalia Source: Action Against Hunger Population: 19 million People in Need: 6 million People Facing Hunger: 9.8 million People Helped Last Year: 3,201,516 Our Team: 116 employees Program Start: 1992 In Somalia, birth is never a quiet, private thing. Grandmothers whisper blessings. Neighbors hold your hand. For as long as anyone can remember, mothers have brought babies into the world this way; guided by the women who came before them. That wisdom is real. It matters. But it is not always enough. In Somalia, fewer than one in three mothers give birth with a trained health worker by their side. Too many mothers and babies die from problems that good medical care can prevent. So, how do you keep the wisdom of grandmothers and add the safety of modern medicine? You build a place that families trust. That is exactly what happened at Makkah Hospital in Mogadishu, with support from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), World Health Organization Somalia, and Action Against Hunger. And that is where two young mothers—strangers to each other—walked through the same door and changed the future of their families. Dahiro was 24 years old. She traveled a long way from her village in Jilib, a small town far from the capital. She had already given birth twice before, both times at home, and both times without a doctor or a nurse. “I always feared hospitals for delivery,” she said, holding her newborn daughter close. “In Jilib, you trust what your grandmother told you.” Dahiro holds her newborn baby at the Makkah Hospital, supported by Action Against Hunger Dahiro was a careful, loving mother. She breastfed her older children because her aunt told her it was the right thing to do. The practice also helped space out her pregnancies in a natural way. She followed the traditions and believed she was doing everything right. “But I didn’t know,” she says quietly, “that I was only doing half the job to protect them.” She had recently realized through conversation with the hospital staff that, while breastfeeding built her babies’ immune systems, they needed vaccines as an additional shield. Her older children, still back in the village, had never been vaccinated because she simply didn’t know they needed to be. Down the hall, 25-year-old Nafisa sat with her children gathered around her. She was a single mother, and life had not been easy. A bad drought pushed her family from their home and into a displacement camp. Nafisa has a consultation at Makkah Hospital, supported by Action Against Hunger. Nafisa first came to Makkah Hospital in June 2025 because her two young children were dangerously thin. They were malnourished and needed special milk and therapeutic food to survive. While the medical team treated her children, they noticed Nafisa was pregnant and signed her up for check-ups right away. In September 2025, she returned to the hospital and delivered her baby safely. But even then, she could not stop worrying. A measles outbreak was spreading near her camp. “I feared my children might get sick from Jadeeco [the Somali word for measles],” she said . Her voice was steady, but her eyes showed fear. The team at Makkah Hospital did not treat Dahiro’s and Nafisa’s appointments as time to address isolated issues. They treated them as an opportunity for holistic care. This is the “one-stop-shop” approach: when a mother walks through the door for any reason—a birth, a sick child, or hunger—the team checks on everything. Every child. Every need. Dahiro is helped by a midwife in the postnatal room in Makkah Hospital, supported by Action Against Hunger. Action Against Hunger and WHO Somalia have built a healthcare system that sees the whole family. When Makkah Hospital brings vaccines, nutrition, and maternal care under one roof, they are turning Somalia’s National Transformation Plan (NTP) – the country’s roadmap for rebuilding and modernizing the country through 2029 – into a reality that mothers can actually feel. One ordinary morning at Makkah Hospital, something small and powerful happened. Dahiro and Nafisa were both in the ward at the same time. Dahiro’s newborn daughter received her very first vaccine. Nafisa’s children got their life-saving shots and were checked to make sure they were growing well. Two families, side by side, stepping into safety at the same time. Nafisa in the Makkah Hospital This is how big goals like Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being) stop being words on paper and start becoming real life. Every visit becomes a chance to catch what might otherwise be missed. Dahiro and Nafisa headed home, carrying their children and a new shield of knowledge. “I will go back home with what I know now,” Dahiro says with new confidence. “I will speak to other mothers. My aunts gave me their wisdom, and now I will give other mothers the wisdom I have found here.” She is not rejecting what her grandmother taught her; she is adding to it. Nafisa does not say much as she leaves. She just breathes with relief and holds her children a little tighter, knowing they are finally safe. These two women walked into Makkah Hospital as strangers, each carrying her own fears. They are walking out as proof of what becomes possible when the right support meets a mother’s love. When you give a mother the tools, she protects the family. And family by family, they are rewriting the future of a nation.
Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: Direct Relief A clinical pharmacist and Direct Relief’s regional director for Africa, Dr. Samuel talks about the current Ebola outbreak, how it's different than past events, and how it can be contained. By Talya Meyers When the first cases of Ebola virus were announced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this month, Dr. Jeffrey Samuel, traveling in East Africa, read about it on the Direct Relief website. Dr. Samuel, a clinical pharmacist and Direct Relief’s regional director for Africa, was visiting hospital partners in Uganda at the time the country’s first cases were being identified and contained. “We were already engaging with and supporting partners in Uganda through routine medical shipments and other ongoing support,” he explained. “That work was not Ebola-specific, but it reflects the kind of sustained support health systems need before, during, and after an emergency.” Direct Relief also dispatched $2.5 million in emergency medical support to the DRC, the epicenter of the outbreak, to support Ebola containment and treatment. But Dr. Samuel stressed that routine support can’t be disentangled from emergency response. Both are vital to containing an Ebola outbreak or similar public health emergency, and to helping affected communities respond and recover. “Ebola response is about much more than Ebola alone,” he said. “Stronger health systems allow countries to continue delivering essential healthcare services even while responding to an emergency.” Direct Relief: So many people are unfamiliar with Ebola, and it’s frightening. Can you give us some background? How does Ebola spread, what are the symptoms, and how do people stay safe? Jeffrey Samuel: Yeah, absolutely. Ebola is a severe viral disease: It primarily spreads through direct contact with body fluids from someone who is either sick with the disease or has died from it. That includes blood, vomit, diarrhea, urine, saliva, sweat, and other types of bodily fluids like that. It can also spread through contaminated medical equipment, unsafe burial practices, or direct contact with the body of someone who has died from the disease. One important thing I always emphasize with Ebola is that it’s not airborne, like measles or Covid-19. You can’t get Ebola simply by walking past someone. That’s why healthcare workers, the families that take care of these patients, and the people involved in different burial practices are often at the highest risk. Ebola typically starts with non-specific symptoms: stuff like fever, fatigue, muscle aches, headaches, and weakness. It can look like malaria, typhoid and other infectious diseases common in the region, so it’s hard to distinguish at the outset. It’s not until the disease starts to progress that many patients start developing vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. Their organs start to fail, and in some cases, patients can experience hemorrhaging in the later stages of illness. The incubation period, which means the time between when a person is exposed to when the symptoms begin, is usually between 2 and 21 days. That’s a very large range, which does not help [with diagnosis and containment] either. Direct Relief: How dangerous is this outbreak? Jeffrey Samuel: Historically, Ebola has been extremely deadly. Fatality rates typically depend on the strain involved, how quickly the outbreak is detected, and the strength of the healthcare system responding to it. Most people are familiar with the Zaire virus, which caused the large Ebola outbreaks from 2014 to 2016 in West Africa. Those outbreaks often had fatality rates around 50 to 70 percent, which is extremely high. The Bundibugyo virus, which is the one that’s causing the current outbreak, has historically had somewhat lower fatality rates – generally around 25 to 50 percent. But that’s still a very serious and potentially fatal disease. Direct Relief: How is Ebola prevented and treated? Jeffrey Samuel: In terms of prevention, the most important measures are early identification of cases, isolation of those suspected cases, infection prevention and control – in other words, good hand hygiene and personal protective equipment – contact tracing of people those patients have been in contact with recently, and safe burial procedures. You need strong community engagement and trust. That’s a big [issue] specifically with this outbreak. There have been reports of Ebola treatment units being attacked and set on fire, which shows how difficult containment becomes when fear, grief, and mistrust are present. Right now, the treatment is supportive care. That includes IV fluids, electrolyte replacement, oxygen support, treatment of secondary infections, management of blood pressure, providing the right nutritional support, and very careful monitoring. These supportive care measures can really improve survival in a massive way. For us at Direct Relief, focusing on supporting these areas is top priority. Direct Relief: Can you talk about the difference between treating the Zaire and Bundibugyo strains? Jeffrey Samuel: Absolutely. The biggest practical difference is that this current outbreak is being caused by the Bundibugyo virus, while the 2014 to 2016 West Africa outbreak was caused by the Zaire Ebola virus. That distinction matters because all of the approved vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments that were developed over the past decade were specifically designed for the Zaire Ebola virus. But it’s important to remember that during that outbreak, these tools were not widely available. In fact, that outbreak is what accelerated [Ebola] vaccine and therapeutic development globally. Researchers are now working on similar tools for the Bundibugyo virus as well. In the meantime, the public health response principles remain largely the same. It’s really surveillance, monitoring, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, supportive care, and community engagement. Direct Relief: Why did this outbreak take so long to surface? Jeffrey Samuel: One of the biggest challenges is that early symptoms of Ebola look very similar to many other diseases common in the region. A patient with fever, vomiting, fatigue, or diarrhea may initially be suspected of having malaria, cholera, typhoid, or another common illness. In many outbreaks, the alarm bells only begin once healthcare workers become infected, or if there’s a cluster of unexplained deaths that appear, or if the laboratory testing confirms something unusual. This outbreak is also occurring in an incredibly complex environment. The eastern DRC has faced years of conflict, displacement, insecurity, and strain on the healthcare system. Insecurity can delay surveillance teams from reaching the affected areas. It can limit testing capacity, disrupt transport, and make it harder to trace contacts effectively. There are also trust issues that can emerge during outbreaks. In some communities, people may fear isolation centers or avoid seeking care because they worry about stigma or separation from family members. And because the Bundibugyo virus is relatively uncommon compared to the Zaire Ebola virus, it may not have been the first thing clinicians initially suspected when they were seeing these cases. Direct Relief: Is this going to spread much further? What happens if it does? Jeffrey Samuel: Yes, there’s certainly a risk of further regional spread, which is why neighboring countries have implemented stricter border controls, enhanced surveillance, and other preparedness measures. Rwanda, for example, temporarily closed key border crossings with the DRC. And in the U.S., travelers who have recently visited the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan are being routed through designated airports for enhanced public health screening. The biggest danger is that outbreaks can overwhelm fragile health systems and healthcare facilities. They can reduce routine care access. They can increase infections in healthcare workers, and interrupt normal services like maternal and child health or vaccination programs. Ebola really creates broader humanitarian impacts, and in settings already affected by conflict or displacement, the response becomes even more difficult. A lot of measures have been put in place to try to prevent it from spreading further regionally. But that doesn’t negate the impact that’s happening on the ground right now. Direct Relief: During the West Africa outbreak, Americans were diagnosed with Ebola – it’s happened during this event too – and they had much better survival rates than the West African people who got sick. Why is that? Jeffrey Samuel: It’s important to state clearly that the differences in outcomes were not biological. They were largely about access to care and the strength of the surrounding healthcare system. Patients treated in highly resourced settings like the U.S. often received earlier diagnosis, intensive monitoring around the clock, aggressive fluid and electrolyte replacement. That’s a real key. They also had access to oxygen support, advanced laboratory testing, PPE, and intensive care when needed. [Note: the federal administration has announced that Americans diagnosed with Ebola during this outbreak are being routed to Kenya, not the U.S., for treatment.] In many outbreak settings, especially in places affected by conflict or displacement, it can be much harder to provide that same level of care consistently because the infrastructure and resources are often much more limited. And that can have a real impact on patient outcomes. Honestly, this is one of the broader lessons Ebola keeps exposing globally: Outbreak preparedness and health system strengthening are deeply connected. Direct Relief: Direct Relief has shipped a significant range of medical support, including PPE, cardiovascular drugs, and IV fluids, to the DRC in response to this Ebola outbreak. How did the organization decide what to send, and what role will that support play? Jeffrey Samuel: All these items play a very practical and important role in the outbreak response. PPE helps protect healthcare workers and prevent transmission inside of healthcare facilities. During Ebola outbreaks, protecting healthcare workers is critical because health worker infections can quickly weaken the overall response capacity. IV fluids are absolutely key to supportive care. Ebola patients often experience severe vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and electrolyte loss. So a key part of treatment is being able to replace those fluids and electrolytes. Beyond Ebola-specific supplies, essential medicines like cardiovascular drugs, antibiotics, and other critical treatments help keep the broader health system functioning during an outbreak. Ebola response does not pause the rest of healthcare – patients still need care for chronic diseases, infections, pregnancy complications, and other urgent health needs. And our approach is very much partner-driven. We work directly with local partner organizations, hospitals, and in-country ministries of health to understand the actual operational and clinical needs on the ground. We also look at storage capacity, cold chain requirements, logistics, and feasibility for what we send. The strongest responses happen when that emergency support is layered onto resilient local systems. Emergency response plus long-term system strengthening go hand in hand. The goal is to support countries not only in responding to the current outbreak, but also to build stronger systems for whatever comes next.
Measles in the US, a cholera outbreak in the DRC, TB patient registration drops in Cambodia, Kenya, and Mozambique and closer to home, HIV outbreaks in children have all been linked to what doctors have warned are cuts to programmes and disastrous policy changes. Global funding has shrunk for healthcare across countries that need it the most which is why experts in Pakistan are really getting worried. The effects are immediately clear on the ground. In the busy streets of Lyari, Karachi, Amna Sualeh once navigated confidently through her community as a health worker with the Greenstar Social Marketing’s Sitara Baji (star sister) programme. Women trusted her to provide affordable intrauterine devices (IUDs), counselling on how to space out their children, and basic reproductive health services. “Before, with donor support, we could perform IUD insertions for just Rs500,” she says. “Now it costs up to Rs10,000 in private clinics. Many simply can’t afford it anymore.” Her clients, mostly working-class mothers, have begun skipping visits or turning to unsafe alternatives. As Pakistan’s macroeconomic crisis stretches out, many women have stopped coming altogether as their incomes have shrunk. This refrain is repeated across the provinces as overseas development assistance, once an indispensable backbone of the country’s public health system, contracts sharply. While not a principal focus of the global conversation on the impact of the Great Aid Recession, Pakistan enters the second quarter of the 21st century with its health system already stretched thin. It spends just 0.9 per cent of its GDP on public health, far below the WHO’s 5pc benchmark for universal health coverage. Life expectancy is 67.3 years, which is four years below the South Asian average, and conversely, infant and maternal mortality remain stubbornly high at 50.1 deaths per 1,000 live births and 155 deaths per 100,000 live births, respectively, more than double the rates of neighbours such as Bangladesh and Nepal. These outcomes reflect chronic underinvestment, rigid budgetary structures, and a system that has long relied on overseas technical and financial assistance for crucial health functions that domestic resources have not historically covered. For years, overseas development assistance, including both on-budget funds that flowed through government budgets and off-budget funds directed to NGOs, helped bridge key gaps in the system. While it comprised only a small proportion (around 1pc) of public health spending, much of this assistance was for crucial system functions that have historically been underserved in government budgets and policy. This is particularly true for funding from Global Health Initiatives (GHIs), specialised international financing mechanisms that support priority health programmes around the world, through organisations such as the Global Fund for TB, AIDS and Malaria and Gavi. In Pakistan, this support included the less visible aspects of health, such as supply chain logistics, cold chain management and storage, commodity procurement, monitoring support, and technical capacity building across key programmes like mother and child health, family planning, immunisation, HIV-AIDS, malaria and TB. As laid out in a recent report by think tank Tabadlab, the unprecedented global aid retrenchment crisis that has enveloped the world since 2025 has hit many of these programmes hard. USAID’s suspension led to the closure of over 60 UNFPA-run health facilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, directly disrupting care for 1.7 million people and halting HIV-AIDS programmes in Sindh that were providing life-saving medications to patients. Screengrab from Tabadlab research paper on aid cuts. This was followed by reductions in financial commitments in Pakistan from multilateral GHI donors such as Gavi and The Global Fund, as finances were redistributed across regions and priorities. Drawdowns in Gavi affected vaccination programmes caused layoffs of over 200 vaccinators in Lahore alone. A $27.2 million Global Fund reduction halved TB support in multiple provinces, cut diagnostic kit financing by 75pc, and placed treatment for over 42,000 HIV-positive patients at risk. Across the board, these cuts are eroding important nodes of the health system for which ODA had earlier provided the systemic architecture and connective tissue. Preventative healthcare’s invisible erosion Preventative health programmes—long under-prioritised in domestic health budgets and rarely accorded priority by local politicians and policymakers who tend to focus resources on visible infrastructure—have been disproportionately impacted. Organisations like the Global Fund helped develop monitoring and surveillance systems and trained thousands of frontline workers to prevent and monitor the spread of communicable diseases. Over the past year, many of these programs have been terminated. Dr Ilyas Gondal, former director general of health in Punjab, oversaw the administration of these programmes firsthand. “Preventative healthcare has not been given its due importance here,” he observes. “Donors filled critical gaps in programmes such as the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI), AIDS, Hepatitis and TB through support for training, outreach, health awareness, literature, and logistics. Now, most of that work has stopped across all of these programmes.” Dr Gondal fears that progress on coverage for vaccine-preventable diseases could be reversed if no arrangements are made for alternative financing. Ejaz Mahmood, a community health worker at Indus Hospital in Faisalabad, worked with the Global Fund-supported Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programme, which trained 10,000 frontline workers in standard operating procedures for infection prevention across the country and developed IPC committees following the Covid-19 pandemic. He describes how most of those IPC committees have now become non-functional, and critical infection prevention training has been abandoned. “No one is there to train health workers anymore. We are already seeing needle-stick injuries rising, with over 111 such cases in Faisalabad this year, along with rising cases of HIV-AIDS and Hepatitis B.” Screengrab from Tabadlab research paper on ODA cuts on Pakistan’s health system. Some of the fallout of such crucial programmes being abandoned may already be contributing to disease outbreaks. Over the past year, Pakistan has witnessed one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, with a 200pc rise in infections between 2010 and 2024. Recent media investigations in Punjab and Sindh uncovered multiple HIV outbreaks originating from health facilities that disproportionately affected children, with the reuse of syringes, non-screening of blood samples, and other unsafe medical and waste management practices identified as the causes. As donors that were crucial in enabling preventative interventions and programmes draw down support, the risk of such outbreaks is likely to increase, unless the funding and institutional structures for these programmes are sustained or replaced with domestic capacity and resources. Tuberculosis detection and treatment in jeopardy Pakistan ranks fifth globally in TB burden, with nearly 650,000 cases and 70,000 deaths annually; over half of cases go undetected. Provincial TB control programmes have long depended on donors for the bulk of programme funding. While provincial governments contribute brick-and-mortar infrastructure for these projects, organisations like The Global Fund financed everything from service delivery to detection and surveillance to commodity stocks. Dr Sher Afghan, director of the TB Control Programme in Balochistan, is direct about the scale of the crisis: “We currently face an 80pc funding gap.” The cuts resulted in a 50pc reduction in programme human resources. “We have had to halve monitoring and surveillance staff, postpone prevalence surveys, and capacity building programmes that were training 800 workers a year.” In resource-strapped provinces with unique geographical access challenges like Balochistan, this has made TB detection increasingly difficult. Programme administrators like Dr Afghan are concerned about the increased risk of undetected transmission. “Every TB-positive patient who is not treated spreads the disease to 12 people on average. Thus, every undiagnosed case means potentially 13 undiagnosed cases.” The Global Fund cut has also triggered a 50pc reduction in district-level monitoring and community interventions staff in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, alongside a 75pc cut in diagnostic testing kits and the elimination of capacity-building. Utilisation of USAID in Pakistan’s healthcare system Life and healthcare programmes; primary healthcare in erstwhile FATA and frontier regions; childhood and neonatal support; malaria control. Screengrab from PIDE research paper on foreign aid, donors and consultants. Babar Shigri, former programme management specialist with USAID Pakistan, observed the impact of donor withdrawal firsthand. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, USAID supported TB programmes with contact tracing, pharmaceutical products, community mobilisation and management information systems that improved detection rates. “It’s not about funding alone,” he says. “When USAID left, work slowed down overall as one of the main actors driving and coordinating advocacy was gone.” In Balochistan, Dr Sher Afghan is cautiously optimistic that the government will step up to the challenge and is working on creating budgetary space for the programme. But with the sudden shock to a system long dependent on donor-led systems, there is a risk of systemic collapse to the programme unless there is rapid action to create fiscal and institutional mechanisms for transitional planning. Family planning being priced out of access Family planning programmes have been among the hardest hit. Through off-budget ODA, donors like USAID supported access by underwriting everything from supply chains to capacity building for large non-governmental family planning providers such as Greenstar Social Marketing and Rahnuma FPAP. When funding evaporated, the effects were immediate. Dr Syed Azizur Rab, CEO of Greenstar Social Marketing Pakistan, describes a donor-supported network that enabled underserved rural and working-class communities to access contraceptives and SRH services nationwide. “Donor support covered functions ranging from commodity subsidies, training, and logistics to community outreach and monitoring,” he explains. With that support gone, clinics have had to raise fees to cover costs and scaled back services. Screengrab from PIDE research paper on foreign aid, donors and consultants. Access to contraceptives, particularly long-acting ones like IUCDs and implants has been severely affected. According to Dr Rab, due to a lack of domestic production and rising costs of imports, “without donor subsidies, implants and IUCDs in private are simply commercially non-viable.” This effect has been compounded by increased taxes on contraceptives by the government as a revenue measure, further pricing them out of reach amid a prolonged inflationary crisis. Greenstar-affiliated clinicians such as Amna Sualeh now watch clients weigh the increased cost of an IUCD against tighter household budgets. Many are now forgoing modern contraceptive methods altogether and having unintended pregnancies as a result. In Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Noreen Nasir, a lady health visitor and midwife with over two decades of experience, worked for years as a family planning provider with USAID’s now-terminated Building Healthier Families programme. The project supported training and diagnostics, IUCDs, injections and implants for women in working-class neighbourhoods. “We used to be able to provide these commodities and services at a very minimal cost because of donor support,” she says. “Now we have to charge for them and face frequent shortages of implants and injections. At times, I pay for delivery kits out of my own pocket because the client can’t afford them and the delivery would be riskier otherwise.” As a result of the loss of support, she says, increasing numbers of women are turning to unqualified providers and stocks of key family planning products have fallen short. According to Noreen, the loss of access to affordable natal and post-natal care is also affecting infant nutrition, with reduced breastfeeding rates and rising underweight deliveries in the community she serves. Rahnuma FPAP, one of the country’s largest reproductive health networks, has closed dozens of centres. District Programme Manager Farrukh Bashir is pessimistic in his assessment: “When the funding stopped, all project beneficiaries lost access, and we had to close all donor-supported clinics. In facilities where we used to have three doctors, we now have just one. Doctor-client ratios have worsened across the board, and thousands of women from working-class communities have lost reliable sexual and reproductive health care.” Mother and child health fragile gains at risk The cuts have also severely impacted mother and child health programs and services in a country that has long had some of the worst maternal, neonatal and child health outcomes in Asia. Donor financing for these programmes was critical in reducing maternal mortality across the country (from 276 per 100,000 births in 2006 to 155 by 2024). ODA for it was particularly important for remote and marginalised regions of provinces such as Balochistan, where access to facility-based maternal and child healthcare is limited amid resource and geographical access challenges. Community health worker Shazia Ahmad worked with the EU-ECHO project, which helped upgrade basic health units and hospitals in underserved districts, and provided delivery kits, folic acid, nutrition advice, breastfeeding support and health awareness sessions. “The project was very well received in the communities, and we registered over 100,000 women. We were conducting health screenings for mothers and children while also providing nutrition supplements in districts with the highest malnutrition rates in the country.” Screengrab from PIDE research paper on foreign aid, donors and consultants. But with the termination of the project, medicines and services have been halved, and more layoffs are planned. Shazia worries about reversing the substantive gains they had made in rural communities in Balochistan. “The project was very popular with communities, and we were already seeing genuine behavioural change. Now all that work is at risk, and we are unable to follow up on the healthcare needs we had identified.” In a Rahnuma clinic in a working-class neighbourhood in Faisalabad, Punjab, Dr Amna Ehsan once operated under a “no refusal” policy with low charges for marginalised women. Donor funds allowed subsidised medicines and gynaecological OPD services. Now services are being privatised, and fees are rising. “We had very low charges and could provide low-cost medicines which were affordable for the marginalised communities we work in,” she says. Patient volumes, faced with increased fees for services and medicines, have slowed to a trickle. Systemic vulnerabilities and the transition challenge These individual stories of the struggles of health workers and administrators in the face of ODA cuts illustrate the broader structural problems documented in recent analyses of Pakistan’s health system and financing. As is clear, the impact is not just fiscal but functional. ODA, particularly off-budget flows through Global Health Initiatives, were critical for crucial health system functions that public budgets cover only partially or not at all. Bilateral cuts such as the USAID suspension have produced “cliff-edge” disruptions—abrupt programme discontinuities without transitional periods or buffers. Multilateral financing reductions have eroded the infrastructure of vertical disease programmes, including for commodities, diagnostics, surveillance and field operations. Commodity supply chains are particularly vulnerable. Donors handled pooled procurement that secured steep discounts on vaccines, TB drugs and diagnostics. As things stand, domestic systems lack the fiscal flexibility, technical capacity and regulatory agility to absorb these functions quickly. Further, technical assistance withdrawal is eroding surveillance, monitoring, data systems and planning capacity. The result is not total collapse or catastrophe but precise ruptures: stockouts, shortages, laid-off outreach workers, broken referral chains and rising exposure to out-of-pocket costs that can push families deeper into poverty and raise the underappreciated risk of disease outbreaks. While the risks are very real, the current moment also presents an opportunity for the kind of structural change that Pakistan’s health system has long needed. However, the government’s response must move beyond emergency and ad-hoc plugging of gaps and outbreak controls towards transition planning. If governments demonstrate adequate initiative and come together to coordinate, assess and fill these financing gaps, we can secure and build on the fragile health gains of recent years. At Greenstar, Dr Azizur Rab sees this moment as a reform opportunity that could build on what already exists: “The federal and provincial governments will have to look at the models already created with donor money and scale them up. However, this requires government ownership and political will.” If Pakistan seizes the crisis as a catalyst for functional transition—from donor dependence to resilience and sustainability—it can build a fully domestically financed health system capable of protecting the most vulnerable while also preventing outbreaks and creating effective local referral systems and commodity supply chains. The choice, and the cost of inaction, will be measured in lives and in the hard-won public health gains now hanging in the balance.
Conservative Shasta County stopped a measles outbreak from spreading, enlisting teachers, church leaders, and other trusted community members to get the public on board with health guidelines. Infectious disease specialists say the successful effort could be a guide for other communities struggling to contain the highly contagious virus.
Many of those who can’t be vaccinated, including pregnant women and immunocompromised people, are also at high risk of serious complications.
[Dabanga] En Nahud / El Fula / Wad Banda / Dibebad / Ghubeis -- Health authorities in West Kordofan say a growing cholera outbreak has killed 40 people and infected 228 others, while emergency teams in East Darfur have warned of rising suspected measles cases in a refugee camp hosting South Sudanese refugees.
Country: South Sudan Source: UN Children's Fund Please refer to the attached file. Highlights Conflict-driven displacement has intensified humanitarian needs, with 276,500 people displaced across Jonglei, Lakes, Upper Nile, and Central Equatoria since December 2025, including 110,000 seeking refuge in Ethiopia, further straining services. Concurrent outbreaks — including a resurgence of cholera alongside measles, mpox, and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) — are deepening vulnerability, eroding coping capacities, and heightening risks of malnutrition and preventable diseases, especially among children. UNICEF has activated a Level 2 response to strengthen coordination, accelerate decision making, and scale up life-saving assistance amid escalating conflict, disease outbreaks, and humanitarian access constraints. The 2026 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal is only 32 per cent funded against the $197 million required, leaving critical gaps in response capacity amid rapidly growing needs.