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Thailand and SE Asia’s first Pint of Science Festival kicked Pint-of-Science1 off on Mon 15 May with a look at Killer Bugs: Disease, Detection and Destruction and an enthusiastic reception from over 50 attendees that included scientists from MORU and other institutions, business people with a background in science and students.
Reimagining primary health care: a historical and contemporary scoping review of community-based primary health care models and innovations
Posted 13/02/2026. Can community-based primary health care survive rapid demographic change, rising chronic diseases, and digital disruption? Drawing on global evidence from 1975–2025, Bipin Adhikari and colleagues show how community health workers transformed access and equity, and why CBPHC must now evolve into an integrated, people-centered, and digitally enabled model to achieve universal health coverage.
Rapid diagnosis of skin and soft tissue melioidosis in children
Posted 11/02/2026. Keang Suy and colleagues evaluate the impact and accuracy of the Active Melioidosis Detect rapid test in children. By focusing on skin and soft tissue cases, this study expands our understanding of paediatric melioidosis, a vulnerable population often overlooked, ensuring they receive the rapid diagnostic attention and tailored clinical care they deserve.
Laboratory diagnosis of melioidosis
Posted 06/02/2026. Vanaporn Wuthiekanun and colleagues outline current best practices and challenges in the laboratory diagnosis of melioidosis, a frequently underdiagnosed yet life-threatening disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei. Drawing on global expertise from endemic and non-endemic regions, the authors highlight the importance of integrating rapid lateral flow assays, PCR, and genomic approaches to improve early detection and global surveillance.
Diaries in global health: a southern perspective
Posted 04/02/2026. Diaries in Global Health: A Southern Perspective traces Bipin Adhikari’s journey from rural Nepal to global health practice, using personal narratives to explore power, inequality, and contemporary global health discourses such as decolonisation. The book calls for epistemic indebtedness and positions Global South scholars as active producers of knowledge in a more humane, pluralistic global health field.
Spatiotemporal trends in P. falciparum malaria and identification of high-risk villages in Eastern Myanmar: an 8-year observational study
Posted 30/01/2026. Using routine weekly surveillance data from malaria posts in Hpapun Township, Myanmar (2014 - 2021), Jade Rae and colleagues developed a geostatistical model to estimate monthly Plasmodium falciparum incidence and identify villages with persistently higher-than-expected incidence, providing a practical approach for targeting resources and supporting malaria elimination.
One health perspective of antibiotic resistance in enterobacterales from Southeast Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Posted 21/01/2026. Antimicrobial resistance in Enterobacterales remains a critical challenge in Southeast Asia. Yewei Xie, Mo Yin and colleagues synthesised regional data, identifying high resistance burdens across sectors while revealing critical gaps in cross-sectoral surveillance. These findings highlight the urgent need for a standardised regional network to strengthen evidence-informed preparedness and response
Housing modifications for heat adaptation
Posted 20/01/2026. Better housing can lead to better health. Retrofitting of existing housing may be the fastest way and needs the least start up capital but the results are often suboptimal compared to a novel house design. Salum Mshamu, Lorenz von Seidlein, and Jakob Knudsen comment on a recent study of house modification in Kenya in nature medicine.
Tafenoquine lactation pharmacokinetics: a pilot study
Posted 09/01/2026. First report: tafenoquine antimalarial concentrations in breast milk have been measured by Mellie Gilder, Eh Heet and colleagues at Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, an important step to vivax elimination. Details of drug concentrations in foremilk vs. hindmilk, and abundant vs. scarce milk volumes shed new light on the dynamics of lactation pharmacokinetics.
Single-step versus conventional injectable artesunate for severe malaria in children: an open label, non-inferiority randomized clinical trial, Democratic Republic of the Congo and United Republic of Tanzania
Posted 07/01/2026. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, a randomized clinical trial led by Prof Marie Onyamboko, Dr Samwel Gesase, and Dr Caterina Fanello demonstrated that, in children with severe malaria, one-step injectable artesunate was quicker and cheaper to administer and had equivalent safety and efficacy compared with the conventional formulation.
The underperforming Abbott-Bioline Malaria Ag P.f/P.v rapid diagnostic test: a whiter shade of pale - where the truth is not plain to see
Posted 06/01/2026. Widely used Abbott-Bioline malaria RDTs failed to detect most vivax malaria cases in Myanmar (sensitivity: 0.24). The absence of the positivity colour band was objectively confirmed using ImageJ® image-processing software. Despite clear evidence of poor performance presented since August 2024, neither WHO (ISF) nor Abbott took action, resulting in large-scale, preventable morbidity and mortality. These RDTs should not be used. By Frank Smithuis.
Prospective characterisation of drug-resistant bloodstream infections in Africa and Asia (ACORN2): a surveillance network assessment
Posted 17/12/2025. The burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in many low- and middle-income countries remains largely unknown. The Wellcome-funded ACORN2 study worked with clinical teams in 19 hospitals across Africa and Asia to identify a high incidence of AMR in bloodstream infections caused by global priority bacterial pathogens. By Paul Turner
Engagement and justice considerations in mitigation of antimicrobial resistance
Posted 10/12/2025. In this paper, Phaik Yeong Cheah and colleagues stressed that mitigation of antimicrobial resistance should include perspectives of communities most affected by it. They also said that multiple dimensions of justice should be considered e.g. procedural justice, distributive justice, reparative justice.
Nationwide seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic and prepandemic periods in Lao PDR
Posted 21/11/2025. Laos reported the region’s fewest COVID-19 cases in 2020–early 2021, leading some to suspect weak surveillance. However, gold-standard serology showed minimal SARS-CoV-2 exposure, no cross-reactive neutralising antibodies before the pandemic, and low seroprevalence before vaccination, confirming Laos had little transmission prior to the surge beginning in May 2021. By Koukeo Phommasone
Causes of death in rural southeast Asia by electronic verbal autopsy: a population-based observational study
Posted 20/11/2025. A five-country rural verbal-autopsy study finds a substantial burden of non-communicable diseases alongside persistent infectious threats. High rates of undocumented home deaths and limited access to care highlight the need to strengthen primary healthcare systems, improve mortality surveillance, and target interventions across Southeast Asia’s rural communities. By Nan Shwe Nwe Htun
Transplacental Transfer of Lumefantrine, Mefloquine, and Piperaquine: A Comparison of Concentrations in Mothers, Neonates, and Cord Blood
Posted 12/11/2025. Malaria parasites cross the placenta, but what about antimalarials? Makoto Saito and SMRU researchers found neonatal capillary drug levels nearly matched maternal levels for piperaquine but were under half for lumefantrine and mefloquine. Cord levels were lowest, suggesting neonatal capillary sampling is essential.
Factors associated with positive blood cultures in children in nine African and Asian countries: the ACORN2 surveillance network
Posted 07/11/2025. Blood culture (BC) yield is low in children. Cristina Ardura-Garcia and colleagues used data from ACORN2, a surveillance network including 19 African and Asian hospitals, to identify routinely collected and readily available factors associated with BC positivity in hospitalised children. These findings may optimise BC indications in children in LMICs.
How should health researchers advance health equity?
Posted 05/11/2025. In tnis commentary. Phaik Yeong Cheah and Michael Parker outline ways in which health researchers can advance health equity. They focus on often-overlooked areas, including identifying context-specific drivers of inequity, carefully selecting research questions and priorities, engaging stakeholders, including those whose voices are seldom heard, improving diversity and inclusiveness among study participants, and using equity-oriented study designs.
Stakeholder analysis for ‘One Health’ approach to tackle antimicrobial resistance
Posted 04/11/2025. The varied understanding of stakeholder engagement often limits its effective use. In their BMJ Global Health analysis, Bipin Adhikari and colleagues draw lessons from Nepal to show how applying stakeholder analysis through a 'One Health' approach can bridge sectors, clarify roles, and strengthen collective action against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Optimal gestational weight gain and pregnancy outcomes, by BMI and height, in a marginalised population of women with short stature living along the Thailand-Myanmar border: A retrospective cohort, 2004–2023
Posted 21/10/2025. Pregnancy guidelines are frequently derived from populations in high income countries. International gestational weight gain guidelines are based on taller populations from North America and Western Europe. Mary Gouws, Rose McGready and SMRU colleagues suggest that lower weight gain during pregnancy in women with short stature on the Thailand-Myanmar border is associated with optimal outcomes.
Placental and cord blood DNA methylation in preterm birth: exploring the epigenetic role of maternal dietary protein
Posted 31/10/2025. Fatima Ahmed, Annalisa Terranegra and SMRU colleagues compared DNA methlyation in placental and cord blood samples from preterm birth and full-term pregnancies among Karen and Burmese populations in Myanmar and Thailand. The findings provide novel insights into how protein deficiency may epigenetically predispose to preterm birth and suggests potential biomarkers for early detection and intervention