1/ Imagine being a kid, just vibing at school, when boom—a tapeworm decides to set up camp in your brain. 🧠🏕️ Welcome to the wildest, most unexpected outbreak Belgium has seen. And no, this isn’t an episode of House MD but it reads like it. I love ID #IDSky #MedSky www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Neurocysticercosis school outbreak in Belgium

Human cysticercosis results from ingesting microscopic Taenia solium eggs shed by a tapeworm carrier, forming cystic larvae (ie, cysticerci) in tissues. These larvae normally encyst in the pig, the natural intermediate host. Upon consumption by humans, they develop into a new intestinal tapeworm. Affecting the human brain, neurocysticercosis is responsible for a third of epilepsy cases in endemic tropical and subtropical regions.1,2

thelancet.com

Where in the world does the press give you maps like this for? Oh, right, Africa. Continuing with a very old tradition, rendering it as terra incognita. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/w...

As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar inaugurates the new diaTROPIX diagnostic manufacturing site in Mbao. Financially and technically supported by FIND & Unitaid, this aims to improve access to high-quality #diagnostics4all. 🔗 unitaid.org/news-blog/fi...

Congratulations to my dear friend & colleague Placide Mbala at INRB in Kinshasa! 🎉 He is one of Nature's 10 people who shaped science this year He is an incredible scientist and person who has dedicated his career to fighting diseases like Ebola, COVID, and #mpox. 🙌 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This doctor raised the alarm about a deadly mpox outbreak that went global

Placide Mbala is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2024.

nature.com

Despite the failure of international plans to cut plastics pollution, the Gambia is redoubling its efforts. A new bold roadmap hopes to eliminate plastic over the next decade. As experts believe the world will soon be “unable to cope” with the volume of plastic waste. My latest @theguardian.com ⬇️

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2y ago

‘It is ambitious, but ambition builds the world’: can the Gambia’s bold plan to cut plastic pollution work?

1/17 [Why] is furosemide susceptible to malabsorption from "gut edema"? When a patient with heart failure is hospitalized with congestion I often hear "let's use IV furosemide; they're probably not absorbing the PO." It's a comment unique to furosemide. But is it accurate?

'To me, innovations mean little if they cannot save lives (...) Yes, mRNA vaccines are great, Nobel-prize-winning innovations, but they never reached most Global South countries. To date, they continue to remain a monopoly of Big Pharma and rich nations that hoarded vaccines.' @madhupai.bsky.social

Global health researcher Madhukar Pai believes scientific innovations must reach everyone

Working toward a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable future for global health with Dr. Pai.

cell.com

A 40% dose of the PCV13 vaccine proved noninferior to full doses, enhancing immunization sustainability for infants. by Gallagher KE, Lucinde R (...) Scott JAG et 18 al. in @nejm.org #MedSky 📖 read the article:

Fractional Doses of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine — A Noninferiority Trial | NEJM

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are an expensive component of the routine immunization schedule. Fractional-dose regimens may be one option to increase the sustainability of the vaccine program. We...

nejm.org

Institutions reverting to in-person-only events are reinstating pre-COVID exclusion. Knowledge-sharing events must include an online option, at the very least, to allow people in the Global South to hear and contest what is being said about them. Do better. #AcademicSky

Sierra Leone will this week become the 1st country to launch a nationwide preventive #Ebola vaccination campaign for people at the highest risk. Over 3 weeks, will deliver 20k doses of Merck’s Ervebo vaccine in a drive that will be repeated every 2-3 years. #IDSKY www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Ten years ago Ebola tore through Sierra Leone. Can a vaccine drive stop history repeating itself?

Memories of 2014, when the disease ravaged west Africa, are raw, while risk remains high. This week the first ever nationwide prevention programme begins – and doctors hope it will be enough to fend o...

theguardian.com

I am not campaigning for or against assisted dying, but it is clear to me (& NCEPOD) that the Human Right to living without preventable suffering is not being met here, & the answer is to prevent what suffering is preventable before we change the law. We can do better. 6/

Academics wanting to 'verify' their Bluesky profile as genuine might give an ORCID identifier in their profile and link back to their Bluesky profile from ORCID. #AcademicSky

This coupled with a high influx of international medical graduates (IMGs) indicates problems for UK trained Doctors progressing in their careers.

WHERE does the ascites actually come from? The weeping liver! Check this 1955 paper out: Method: clamped IVC in dogs Result: Ascites beaded on the liver surface. Covering the liver with a bag collects all the ascites, keeps the gut dry

1/ Back to the basics today: let's talk about common pitfalls in obtaining cardiac #POCUS images ❤️ Here are some very common image acquisition errors in basic views, as well as the simple moves to correct them ✅ 🧵 #emimcc #POCUSky #echosky #MedSky

When I’m picky with which airlines I fly for international events it’s not because I’m being difficult. It’s because I’ve been doing this for more than a decade and I know how to get the minimum pain out of Western airlines and airports when travelling with an African passport.

“Unfair knowledge practices easily beset our efforts to achieve health equity within & between countries. Enacted by people from a distance & from a position of power…” Please read our realist synthesis using pose & gaze to make sense of epistemic injustice. Here: academic.oup.com/heapol/artic...

So here is a starter pack of African scientists and researchers across disciplines. It will continue to grow as I find more people and more migrate to this platform but gotta start somewhere 😊. go.bsky.app/GixA4xP

Oh - and if it’s not too much trouble, if you don’t mind Rt this so people can find me here, I’d be very grateful. Thank you

Good day to remind everyone Around the globe the measles vaccine has saved nearly 94 million lives over the past 50 years www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-...

1/📢 In our new PREPRINT - tinyurl.com/yc6kbay9 - we estimate that 156 million people globally carry a recent, viable M. tuberculosis (Mtb) infection and are at high risk of progressing to TB disease.

• What are people dying from in poorer countries? This is an extremely important q, but our understanding is very limited by region & time. (I've written about an example before; how surveys overturned our understanding of the large burden of snakebite: www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/14-how-man...)

#14: How many people die from snakebites?

This week: Missing data – the most underrated problem in global health.

scientificdiscovery.dev

Parachute research remains a major problem in global health research. This piece builds on our experience of implementation of authorship reflexivity statements in what has turned out to be a major thread of work over the last few years 🧪 #medsky #globalhealth gh.bmj.com/content/9/1/...

I like to use this image to illustrate the mind blowing effect that vaccines have had. I don’t think there has been a more profound impact on health outcomes than vaccines

A thread of books I’m reading or have recently read. The Dragonfly Sea. First novel for a Kenyan writer, which would have benefited from some editing. But still a good read and warmly recommended.

I don't normally share pre-prints but this one is important anda major thread of activity for me (any many others) over the last two years. Increased medical complexity in sub Saharan African hospitals requires urgent interventions to address population needs. 🧪🩺 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Another #MedSky #Skeetorial Iron deficiency is relatively frequent and seen by all types of physicians. For years, iron supplements were given multiple times a day. Now we know that should never happen. So why the change? 1/n

Pleased to have worked with the team at NIH who used their ingenuity to save the life of one of our patients. www.frontiersin.org/journals/cel...

Frontiers | Novel management of pseudomonas biofilm-like structure in a post-pneumonectomy empyema

frontiersin.org

@glaucomflecken.bsky.social

Startling Lady of Gore@postnatodepression.bsky.social · 2y ago

National Safety Association of NZ safety poster "Eyes are rationed ... two to a lifetime. Protect them!", circa 1970. Ref 2014/080.039 South Canterbury Museum.