📄 Category

public and global health

433 papers

Public and global health examines how we protect communities from disease, manage outbreaks, and improve well-being across the world. This vital field connects diverse research on everything from infectious disease control and vaccination strategies to the social factors that shape our collective health. Because these studies often impact policy and daily life, understanding them quickly is more important than ever.

At Gist.Science, we track every new preprint published in this category on medRxiv to ensure you never miss a breakthrough. We process each submission to provide both plain-language explanations for general readers and detailed technical summaries for experts, making complex findings accessible to everyone.

Below are the latest papers in public and global health, freshly summarized from the most recent medRxiv releases.

📄 public and global health

Hepatitis B virus Seroprevalence Among Heterosexual Couples Attending Antenatal Care at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda

This hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda reveals a high Hepatitis B virus seroprevalence of 8.3% among antenatal couples, with significantly higher rates in male partners and strong associations with daily alcohol consumption and lack of prior vaccination, underscoring the urgent need for routine couple screening and premarital sensitization.

Otim, P., Bongomin, F., Ochola, E.2026-08-05
📄 public and global health

Primary healthcare facilities readiness for animal-related injuries: Availability, stock-Outs, and affordability of essential commodities in rural public health facilities, Tanzania

A retrospective study of rural public health facilities in Tanzania reveals that essential commodities for treating animal-related injuries, particularly anti-rabies biologicals and snake antivenom, suffer from inadequate availability, frequent stockouts, and unaffordability, highlighting an urgent need for strengthened supply chain systems and financial risk protection to ensure equitable access to life-saving treatments.

Kilonzi, M., Thobias, J. M., Hyuha, G., Malaba, P. M., Aiko, B., Kiwango, G., Marealle, A. I., Sirili, N.2026-08-04
📄 public and global health

How do patients move within the Norwegian hospital system? A comprehensive ward- and hospital-level network analysis

By analyzing 3.6 million patient trajectories from the Norwegian Patient Registry, this study maps a robust, hierarchical network of hospital movements that identifies central wards as key hubs for potential nosocomial infection spread, thereby providing a structural foundation for prioritizing surveillance and improving predictive modeling.

de Blasio, B. F., Scalia Tomba, G.2026-08-03
📄 public and global health

Drug utilization pattern and cost analysis of anticancer drugs among cancer patients attending a tertiary cancer hospital in Nepal: A cross-sectional study

This cross-sectional study at a tertiary cancer hospital in Nepal reveals that while anticancer drugs are almost universally prescribed as generics, their actual costs vary widely among patients and are not reliably predicted by demographic or prescribing factors, highlighting a need for improved adherence to the national essential medicines list and closer monitoring of drug pricing.

Sigdel, N., Bhusal, A., Neupane, K., Adhikari, P., Thapa, R. T., Pant, P.2026-08-03
📄 public and global health

Estimating the impact of different intermittent preventative treatment in pregnancy delivery strategies on low birth weight outcomes under moderate and high malaria transmission setting: A modelling study

This modeling study demonstrates that in moderate and high malaria transmission settings, maximizing coverage of both insecticide-treated nets and intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy—particularly for pregnancies overlapping seasonal epidemic peaks—is critical for significantly reducing clinical malaria cases and low birth weight outcomes.

Chakuvinga, L., Franco, C., Silal, S.2026-08-02
📄 public and global health

The impact of deconfliction on humanitarian access and healthcare delivery in Gaza: a qualitative study of international healthcare workers

This qualitative study of international healthcare workers in Gaza reveals that since October 2023, deconfliction has functioned not as a neutral protection mechanism but as a conditional regime of control that Israel uses to restrict humanitarian access, erode Palestinian healthcare autonomy, and shift responsibility for civilian safety onto aid organizations, thereby facilitating the systematic undermining of life-sustaining medical infrastructure.

Lesher, E., Petersen, C., Smith, J., Elnakib, S.2026-08-02
📄 public and global health

Problematic gaming in occasional, low, intermediate or heavy use gamers - not all screen time is created equal - a reanalysis

This reanalysis of Singaporean adolescents reveals that the drivers of problematic gaming symptoms differ by baseline usage habits, with changes in gaming consumption primarily affecting occasional gamers and changes in impulsivity affecting heavy gamers, underscoring the need for tailored preventive strategies.

Bediou, B., Cekic, S., Gentile, D. A., Bavelier, D.2026-08-02
📄 public and global health

From Sparse Data to Smart Decisions: Region-Specific Policy Evaluation via Simulation

This paper presents a framework that bridges routine surveillance data and computationally expensive agent-based models via a surrogate ODE model to evaluate region-specific infectious disease interventions while explicitly propagating parameter uncertainty, demonstrating through a Michigan COVID-19 case study that intervention effectiveness varies significantly across counties and cannot be reliably predicted by simple demographics.

Dudley, C., Bergman, D., Jain, H., Norton, K.-A., Rutter, E., Eisenberg, M. C., Jackson, T.2026-08-01
📄 public and global health

Interim BNT162b2 LP.8.1-adapted COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness among Non-Immunocompromised Older Adults in California and Louisiana, August-December 2025

This study estimates that the BNT162b2 LP.8.1-adapted COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated 48% effectiveness against emergency department and urgent care encounters among non-immunocompromised adults aged 65 and older in California and Louisiana between August and December 2025.

Zambrano, L. D., Yu, T., Mateus, J., Zhao, X., Andersen, K., Valluri, S. R., Karakuzu Ikizler, B., Nepal, R. M., MacNeil (…)2026-07-31
📄 public and global health

Design and pilot clinical evaluation of a low-cost, continuous respiratory monitor for newborns

This paper presents the design and pilot clinical evaluation of BreathAlert, a low-cost, continuous respiratory monitor using abdominal motion sensors that demonstrated accurate respiratory rate measurement for preterm newborns in both US and Malawian hospital settings, offering a viable solution for low-resource environments where manual counting is infeasible.

Coyle, J., Amin, A., Bailey, J., Valle, M., Mtenthaonga, P., Mjumira, R., Mangwiro, L., Nelson, N., Heenan, M., Kalikoff (…)2026-07-31