October 10, 2025

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Better health begins with ideas

 

Editors’ Note

On Thursday, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza. The initial deal calls for a hostage-prisoner exchange between the two parties and marks a major step toward a complete ceasefire. 

 

That breakthrough unfolded as the war entered its third year on October 7. To illustrate how the conflict has undermined health-care progress in the region, TGH Data Editor Allison Krugman offers three charts that convey the immense health needs in Gaza.  

 

TGH then takes readers to Africa, where one-fifth of the world’s 1.2 million annual road deaths occur—but those deaths are preventable. Matthew Taylor, who manages the World Health Organization’s Road Safety Reporting Initiative, describes the roles journalists could play in framing traffic collisions as avoidable and toward boosting public demand for accountability.  

 

Next, Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Ronald Eberhard Tundang describes four enforcement mechanisms that the Pandemic Treaty and a new initiative from the U.S. National Institutes of Health should consider to promote drug affordability and expand access in low- and middle-income countries. 

 

To wrap up, Nisha Sharma, Colin Bell, and Penelope Love from Deakin University and Prabhat Lamichhane from La Trobe University describe Nepal’s growing reliance on processed, packaged foods and how policymakers can promote healthier options.  

 

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor 

 

This Week’s Highlights

 

URBANIZATION

Road safety officers stand, as traffic is blocks a road, in Lokoja, Nigeria, on October 13, 2022.

Shifting the Narrative on Global Road Safety 

by Matthew Taylor

A study examines the role journalism can play in preventing traffic collisions in five Anglophone African countries 

      

Read this story

 

GOVERNANCE

A customer waits for his medicine in a pharmacy, in downtown Cairo, Egypt, on November 17, 2016.  REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Holding Drug Companies Accountable: NIH Access Plan vs. Pandemic Treaty 

by Ronald Tundang

Four enforcement mechanisms the policy frameworks could consider to promote drug affordability 

      

Read this story

 

Figure of the Week

 

A column chart showing Child mortality in Israel and the Palestinian territories  from 2013-23

Read this story

 

Recommended Feature

 

FOOD

A woman sells beans and snacks at her food stall, in Lalitpur, Nepal, on April 26, 2013.

Nepal’s Growing Reliance on Packaged Foods 

by Nisha Sharma, Colin Bell, Prabhat Lamichhane, and Penelope Love

Over time, consuming packaged products limits diet diversity and leads to unhealthy weight gain

 

Read this story

 

What We’re Reading

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived. (ProPublica)

Premature Baby Dies of Measles in Alberta Outbreak’s First Death (CBC) 

 

Why Are More Young People Getting Cancer? (New York Times)

 

Does Tylenol Cause Autism? Here’s How We Could Find Out (Wall Street Journal)

 

Aid Cuts Hit Yemen Amid Measles Crisis (Global Health Now)

Myanmar’s Children Suffer as U.S. Aid Cuts Take Hold (Associated Press)

 

Scientists Win Nobel Prize for Discovering Why Immune System Does Not Destroy the Body (BBC)

 

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