Global health news for June 2023

The colossal Thwaites glacier rivals the state of Florida in size CREDIT: NASA/ZUMA Wire/Shutterstock Antarctica’s colossal ‘doomsday’ Thwaites glacier rivals the state of Florida in size and holds enough water to raise the ocean by 65 centimetres. The icy mass already accounts for 4 per cent of the planet’s sea level rise and loses 50 billion tons of ice annually. Now, scientists have discovered that a more “vigorous melting” could push up sea levels faster than first thought, spelling disaster for a number of cities and coastal communities.

‘Bullets sizzling in the air’: Gunmen open fire on MSF hospital in Darfur Medical staff had only moments to get themselves and their patients out before the shooting and looting began.

The pandemic shifted geopolitics, disrupted global supply chains, drove economic crises and hit vaccination rates CREDIT: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP

‘Flesh-eating’ bacteria spreads at record rate in Japan The potentially deadly condition is caused by an unusual manifestation of the strep A bacteria that triggers necrotising fasciitis. Across Europe, dozens of babies have died of whooping cough and measles has surged across the globe. Meanwhile a flesh-eating bacteria is spreading at record rates in Japan, cholera has staged a comeback, and tuberculosis is rising in southeast Asia. In Brazil and Argentina, overwhelmed hospitals are teeming with dengue patients. SARS-CoV-2 might have subsided, but the pandemic has been followed by a seemingly never-ending stream of nasties. There are even reports that the incidence of heart attack and stroke has jumped in its wake. And the hard data is clear. Since 2020, more than 40 countries have seen at least one disease outbreak peak at levels ten times higher than before Covid-19 emerged, according to a study by the analytics firm Airfinity and Bloomberg. It begs the question: has the pandemic somehow fundamentally changed us or the pathogens which surround us? Today’s top stories A mother with her malnourished infant at a feeding centre CREDIT: Georg Gassauer/MSF An influx of extremely malnourished children have overwhelmed hospitals in northern Nigeria, where millions of infants are suffering from a lack of food. Health workers told The Telegraph that they are running out of space to treat young children in Nigeria’s troubled Borno state, where a combination of inflation, protracted conflict and climate shocks have driven a huge increase in food insecurity. ‘They suggested I sell my daughter’: The dark side of global microfinance An idea that would eradicate the world’s poverty has led to debt traps and empty stomachs. Virus found in sloths spreads from Amazon to humans Oropouche is on the move in South America, alarming experts about its disastrous threat to the region’s healthcare systems. The three-toed sloth, native to the Amazon basin, is not known for its speed. The animals move almost as if they were in slow motion. Unfortunately the same is not true for the Oropouche virus that they carry. Part of the arbovirus family, which includes Zika and Dengue, it is subject to explosive bursts of contagion. An epidemic which hit Belem, in the Brazilian Amazon state of Pará, in 1961, infected 11,000 people within weeks. Now Oropouche is on the move in South America, alarming experts about its disastrous threat to the region’s healthcare systems. Thailand approves landmark same sex marriage equality law The bill was passed by an overwhelming government majority, in what activists called a ‘triumph for justice and human rights’.

Haitians face catastrophic hunger as country further descends into lawlessness The poorest nation in the Americas is on the brink of famine as it battles its worst food shortages on record