💉 The DRC continues to fight illnesses, mysterious and known; The cost of saving lives? Apparently too high; Body Mass apocalypse

#554 | The great undoing of women's rights; When bad medicine is good enough; Welcome to The Kableverse

Hello, and welcome back to The Kable where we not only bring you news from the life sciences this week but we weave it into verse too. Oh ayuh.

In Uganda, the ongoing Ebola outbreak is far from over. A four-year-old child became the second fatality with cases rising to 12 and then 14 after the detection of a new cluster during the week. The UN this week launched an emergency appeal for funds to help Uganda contain the outbreak. Amid all this, Gavi's VaccinesWork platform has a nice read on how Uganda was readier than ever to deal with an Ebola outbreak this time around.

In neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), far too much is going wrong. The mystery illness, first reported in late January, is still doing the rounds with scientists now attributing it to contaminated water while other researchers say a new microbe might have just made its introductions. Another outbreak has also been reported from the country's Équateur Province which has so far seen 52 deaths in over 900 suspected cases. The country, already the epicentre of an mpox outbreak with a new clade, is now also reporting an outbreak of a new variant of clade 1A.

The WHO this week announced recommendations for the flu shot for the northern hemisphere for the next season. Normally, we wouldn't carry this news because this is routine and procedural. Why it stands out this time is because, surprisingly, US health agencies participated in the meeting too, even as they prepare to exit the WHO. Over in the US, where antiscience continues to rule the roost, the new health secretary wants to end the ongoing measles outbreak but still shopped short of emphatically calling for vaccinations, calling it a personal choice instead. But cod liver oil, vitamin A, and other assorted snake oil? That is definitely a recommendation.

In India, swine flu cases are on the rise with the capital New Delhi showing the way.

If the stories mentioned till now make you want to get on social media to either distract yourself or talk about it, just know that social media is addictive - you can feel it in your body - and you can talk to someone IRL instead.

And finally, we know that poetry is the last thing you'd expect to read in The Kable but hey, there have to be new ways, ever so often, of presenting old news. So, here is Kableverse with Beauty and the Breach. Set to the tune of Disney's Tale as Old as Time, this is the latest from the pharmacy of the world.

Tale as old as time
Trouble yet again
Glenmark pulls its stock
Bottles on the block
One point five million

Just another day
Granules in the news
FDA’s report
Findings to retort
Manufacturing blues

Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Shortfalls at the core
Quality demise

Tale as old as time
Warnings on repeat
Fix it, then it's fine
Till the next headline
In the pharma beat

Certain as the sun
Shining on the flaws
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Compliance, please pause

Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Another FDA cause...

Stories Of The Week

The 4.5 billion body problem. By 2050, obesity will weigh heavy on more than half the world's adults and a third of its kids - over 4.5 billion people - thanks to what experts are calling a "monumental societal failure." The latest figures out of The Lancet paint a grim picture: obesity rates have already doubled in 30 years, and without intervention, low- and middle-income countries (the ones least equipped to cope) will shoulder most of the burden. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is looking at a 250% spike. Solutions? Governments should stop hand-wringing and start making healthy diets accessible - because the current strategy of doing very little and acting very surprised clearly isn’t working.
(The Lancet)

Congratulations on the progress. Now please pack up your program. The world's deadliest killer is so back, baby. After two decades of progress saving 79 million lives from TB - the world’s deadliest infectious disease - recent, abrupt US funding cuts are now pushing TB programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to the brink. With the US historically footing nearly a quarter of global TB aid, these cuts threaten to dismantle essential services, from treatment and diagnostics to research and community outreach. Health worker layoffs, broken drug supply chains, and failing surveillance systems are already hitting the highest-burden countries, particularly across Africa and Southeast Asia. Without immediate action, decades of hard-won gains will unravel, and millions will be left exposed. TB may be an ancient disease, but apparently, so is humanity’s habit of looking away when the funding dries up.
(WHO)

Bottom line

Progress Reversed. Rights Revoked. Repeat. Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration, women’s rights are not just stalling - they're backsliding. Nearly a quarter of governments now report active pushback against gender equality, as economic turmoil, climate crises, rising conflicts, and digital misogyny chip away at decades of progress. Femicide remains rampant, women’s representation lags, and defenders of rights face harassment and worse. Yes, there have been gains - fewer maternal deaths, more women in parliaments, over 1,500 gender-equality laws passed - but as UN Women warns, the victories are fragile, and the backlash is loud. With Beijing+30 on the horizon, the call is clear: push back against the pushback, or risk losing an entire generation’s fight for equality.
(UN Women)

Long reads

A prescription for Africa. Africa carries a quarter of the world's disease burden but produces just 3% of its medicines and a barely-there 0.1% of global vaccines. COVID-19 and mpox made the risks of this dependency impossible to ignore, exposing the continent’s vulnerability to supply chain disruptions and leaving populations waiting in line for the leftovers. Enter the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA) and AUDA-NEPAD’s 24 Priority Medical Products list - a focused, practical roadmap to build self-reliance, scale local production, and finally put Africa in charge of its own health security. 148 pages of insight into what could be your next drug-manufacturing blockbuster.
(NEPAD)

Death by supply chain. When deadly cough syrups from India killed at least 70 children in The Gambia - and more in Uzbekistan, Cameroon, and beyond - it exposed more than just toxic medicine. It laid bare the global double standard that leaves poor countries drowning in substandard drugs, with no safety net. While rich nations rigorously test imported pharmaceuticals and monitor factories abroad, low-income countries like The Gambia are left relying on underfunded local regulators, conflicted officials, and a WHO that shrugs off systemic reform in favour of reactive alerts and empty condolences. Indian authorities deny, deflect, and delay. The WHO pleads limited resources. Meanwhile, families that lost their children are still asking the obvious question: if this had happened in Europe or the US, would we still be waiting for justice? An interesting first part of a promised three-parter on Himal Mag. You will be asked to subscribe, but hey, it's free.
(Himal)

Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.