With two-thirds of South Africans living below the poverty line, pregnant women are at risk of undernourishment and delivering underweight babies, leading to long-term complications. A social grant might be a solution, but policy progress is slow.

A possible plague death at a Russian research institute is receiving intensifying international scrutiny, as health officials press for more clarity amid limited information from Russian authorities, reports Forbes.

Survivors of Nepal’s apocalyptic August floods face a wide range of post-disaster public health hazards while relying on a devastated health care system, reports Think Global Health.

The fight against Ebola in the DRC is at an inflection point: While the Bundibugyo outbreak shows signs of slowing transmission, sudden surges of violence and displacement are making it harder to sustain progress—and to ascertain the true state of the outbreak.

Renewed fighting in Yemen is battering the country’s already fragile health system, as health workers warn that cholera, measles, and dengue are all on the rise and that hunger is reaching critical levels among children amid widespread displacement, reports UN News.

Roughly 164 million women around the world who want to delay or avoid pregnancy are not using contraception, the WHO reports—underscoring the need for better access and more options.

Countries failed to reach consensus Friday on a UN declaration aimed at strengthening pandemic preparedness after the U.S. and Italy rejected the draft, reports The New York Times.

Extreme El Niño weather conditions will continue to take a devastating public health toll over the coming year, warn climate experts calling for governments and aid groups to make urgent preparations, per The Guardian.

The toll of chronic ailments like heart disease, cancers, and diabetes, which now account for almost half of deaths in Africa, will soon eclipse the continent’s infectious disease toll, finds a new analysis for the Lancet Global Health’s Global Burden of Disease Study.

The Trump administration is weighing an executive order to create an external panel to review—and potentially veto—NIH research grants that conflict with administration priorities, escalating ongoing White House efforts to steer the health research agency.

Federal health datasets are becoming a battleground in the U.S. as public health experts question Trump administration changes to how agencies collect and publish information, reports Axios.

As spiraling new HIV infections strain the small Pacific island of Fiji, officials declared a national HIV emergency this week and scaled up their response, reports CNN.

Over the last five years, several countries have passed legislation to end child marriage. But the practice is still too pervasive, reports UNICEF.

Rabies has been making headlines across multiple states this summer. Natalie Armstrong talks about what you need to know about rabies and how to stay safe.

Ebola is still gaining ground in the DRC, reaching new areas and intensifying in some regions even as transmission declines in others.