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Editorial Standards & Methods
Who Counts as an Author? The ICMJE Criteria This Desk Applies
Contributing data or funding isn’t enough for a byline. Here is the four-part authorship test and di...
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Articles by IHJ Editorial Board
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Global Health Policy
Gavi Graduation: What Happens When a Country Ages Out of Vaccine Aid
Gavi’s graduation policy phases countries off donor-funded vaccines over years, not overnight — Indi...
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Outbreak Case Studies
Goma, 1994: The Cholera Outbreak That Outran the Response
In 1994, cholera killed thousands of Rwandan refugees in Goma within days. A case study in why respo...
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Global Health Policy
National HTA Agency or Regional Network? How Developing Nations Build Health Technology Assessment Capacity
Health technology assessment is becoming the tool that decides what care gets funded. Should a devel...
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Temperature Monitoring & Data Loggers
Temperature Excursion Response: The First 60 Minutes After a Cold Chain Alarm
A logger alarm alone does not tell a field team whether stock is safe. Here is the isolate-check-dec...
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Point-of-Care Analyzers
Point-of-Care Analyzer Cartridges: The Storage Rules That Decide If a Result Can Be Trusted
The analyzer gets the attention, but the disposable cartridge is where field point-of-care testing a...
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Operational Research
Inside SORT IT: How Operational Research Turns Field Data Into Published Evidence
How the SORT IT model turns a field program’s own routine data into a peer-reviewed operational rese...
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Uncategorized
Yellow Fever Vaccination Certificates: What the 10-Day Rule and the 2016 Lifetime-Validity Change Actually Require
Why the yellow fever vaccine certificate takes 10 days to activate, why it no longer expires after a...
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Solar & Off-Grid Refrigeration
Solar Direct-Drive vs. Battery-Based Vaccine Refrigerators: Choosing the Right Off-Grid Technology
Two solar cold-chain technologies work differently. Here’s how site conditions, maintenance capacity...
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Malaria & Vector-Borne Disease
Bed Nets or Indoor Spraying? What the Cost-Effectiveness Evidence Actually Shows
WHO guidance and field cost data compare insecticide-treated bed nets with indoor residual spraying,...
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Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs)
Why a Rapid Diagnostic Test Can Read Negative During Active Infection
How antigen and antibody timing drives false negatives on HIV, malaria, and dengue rapid diagnostic...
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Public Health Surveillance
Indicator-Based vs. Event-Based Surveillance: Two Signals, One Early Warning System
Case counts and internet rumors serve different roles in outbreak detection. Here is how indicator-b...
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Field Sanitation Supplies
Fecal Sludge Management: The Field Equipment Behind Safe Pit Latrine Emptying
Latrines are only sanitation infrastructure if someone can safely empty them: the equipment and stan...
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Mobile Isolation & Field Cots
How Cholera Cots Work: The Logic Behind a Deceptively Simple Design
The perforated cot with a bucket underneath looks crude, but its design solves a precise clinical pr...
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Medical-Grade Water Filtration
Ultrafiltration vs. Reverse Osmosis: Choosing the Right Membrane for a Field Hospital
Pore size determines what a field water filter can remove. Here’s how ultrafiltration and reverse os...
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Outbreak Case Studies
Haiti’s 2010 Cholera Outbreak: The Genomic Case for a Single Source
How DNA fingerprinting and strain matching traced Haiti’s 2010 cholera epidemic to a single introduc...
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Defibrillation & Emergency Devices
AED vs. Manual Defibrillator: The Technology and Training Line Between Them
AEDs and manual defibrillators both shock a stopped heart, but they differ sharply in rhythm analysi...
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Field Sanitation Supplies
The Sphere 1:20 Ratio: Sizing a Latrine Program for a Displacement Camp
How the Sphere Handbook’s toilet-to-population ratio and distance rules translate into an actual fie...
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Task-Shifting & Workforce
Community Health Worker Attrition: What Actually Predicts Who Stays
Global CHW attrition ranges from 3% to 77% a year. The evidence points to a specific, predictable mi...
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Point-of-Care Analyzers
Point-of-Care Analyzer Quality Control: Catching a Drifting Result Before It Reaches a Patient
A working point-of-care analyzer can still drift. Here is how internal QC and external quality assur...
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Editorial Standards & Methods
Retraction or Correction? The Test Editors Actually Apply to a Flawed Paper
COPE and ICMJE draw a clear line between retracting a paper and correcting it. Here is the test this...
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Literature Reviews & Evidence Digests
Reading a PRISMA Flow Diagram: What the Boxes Actually Mean
PRISMA flow diagrams condense a review’s entire search into four boxes. Here is what each stage actu...
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Supply Chain & Procurement
Buffer Stock for Essential Medicines: The Formula Behind the Safety Margin
How low-resource health systems size the safety margin on essential medicines, and why the formula h...
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Hygiene in Refugee & Displacement Settings
The Hygiene Promoter Ratio: Why Two Per 1,000 People Decides If Camp WASH Works
Sphere and UNHCR set hygiene promotion staffing at two promoters per 1,000 displaced people — the ra...
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Operational Research
The 30×7 Cluster Survey: How Operational Research Measures Vaccination Coverage With 210 Children
How a two-stage, 210-child sample became the field standard for estimating vaccination coverage, and...
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Malaria & Vector-Borne Disease
RTS,S or R21: How the Two WHO-Recommended Malaria Vaccines Compare
RTS,S and R21/Matrix-M are both WHO-recommended. Here is how their efficacy, dosing, and rollout act...
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Outbreak Field Kits & Procurement
Pre-Positioned or Air-Freighted? How Global Health Teams Decide Where an Outbreak Kit Waits
Why some outbreak kits sit in regional warehouses and others fly in only after a case is confirmed,...
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Trauma & Hemorrhage Control
How to Pack a Wound to Stop Bleeding: The Technique Behind Direct Pressure
Wound packing controls bleeding a tourniquet can’t reach. The technique, the materials, and why the...
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Medical-Grade Water Filtration
Dialysis Water Purity: Why Hemodialysis Sets a Higher Bar Than Drinking-Water Standards
Hemodialysis water is held to a far stricter purity standard than drinking water. Here is why, and w...
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PPE for High-Consequence Pathogens
Respirator Fit Testing for High-Consequence PPE: What OSHA 1910.134 Actually Requires
Why a PAPR can skip the fit test an N95 or elastomeric respirator can’t — and what OSHA 29 CFR 1910....
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Uncategorized
The Shake Test: How Field Teams Detect a Freeze-Damaged Vaccine
A low-tech field test separates freeze-damaged vaccine from safe stock — and explains why heat monit...
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Disease Modelling & Data
Overdispersion and the K Parameter: Why Superspreading Beats the R0 Average
R0 gives a single average. The dispersion parameter k explains why a handful of cases, not the typic...
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Uncategorized
AEFI Surveillance: The Vaccination Campaign Logistics Track Cold Chain Doesn’t Cover
AEFI surveillance runs alongside vaccine supply and cold chain as its own workstream, with separate...
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Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs)
How to Read a Combo Dengue Rapid Test: NS1, IgM, and IgG Explained
A field guide to interpreting the three lines on a combo dengue rapid test, and why the pattern you...
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Field Epidemiology Methods
Case-Control or Cohort? How Outbreak Investigators Choose a Study Design
The analytic study choice in an outbreak investigation isn’t arbitrary — it follows from whether the...
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PPE for High-Consequence Pathogens
Ebola PPE Wear-Time Limits: Why Heat Stress Drives Staffing, Not Just Stock
Ebola-grade PPE traps heat as it blocks the virus, capping safe wear time and reshaping how field te...
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Hygiene in Refugee & Displacement Settings
Scabies in Displacement Camps: Why Mass Drug Administration Outperforms Case-by-Case Treatment
Clinic-by-clinic scabies treatment fails in crowded camps. Here is why mass drug administration, pai...
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Diagnostic Sourcing & Procurement
WHO Prequalification of In Vitro Diagnostics: The Procurement Gate Behind Field Test Kits
Why WHO Prequalification of In Vitro Diagnostics decides which test kits reach field programs, and w...
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Blood Pressure Monitoring
Blood Pressure Cuff Size: The Overlooked Error Behind Inaccurate Readings
A mismatched blood pressure cuff can shift a reading by 5-20 mmHg. Here’s how to check the fit befor...
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Mobile Isolation & Field Cots
Sizing a Cholera Treatment Center: The Bed-Capacity Math Behind Field Deployment
How field planners translate caseload projections into cot counts, zone allocations, and spacing rul...
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Field Sanitation Supplies
Container-Based Sanitation: A Field Option Where Latrines Can’t Be Dug
Container-based toilets offer a sealed, portable alternative to pit latrines on rocky ground, high w...
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Solar & Off-Grid Refrigeration
Solar Vaccine Refrigerator Maintenance: Budgeting for Repairs Before They Happen
Solar direct-drive vaccine refrigerators cut battery risk, but maintenance and spare-parts planning...
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Disease Modelling & Data
Case Fatality Rate vs. Infection Fatality Rate: Reading the Same Outbreak Two Ways
CFR and IFR both measure a disease’s deadliness, but answer different questions, which is why outbre...
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Hygiene in Refugee & Displacement Settings
Menstrual Hygiene Management in Displacement Camps: What the Sphere Standards Actually Require
Menstrual hygiene management is a distinct Sphere-standard WASH line item in camps, not an afterthou...
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HIV, TB & Co-Infection
TB Preventive Therapy for People Living with HIV: Closing the 3HP Coverage Gap
Shorter TB preventive regimens like 3HP cut treatment from nine months to three, but coverage among...
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Global Health Policy
What Is Universal Health Coverage? The Financing Strategies Behind SDG 3.8
UHC means care without financial hardship. Here is how low- and middle-income countries are actually...
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Neglected Tropical Diseases
Schistosomiasis and the WHO’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Roadmap to 2030
How the WHO’s NTD roadmap frames schistosomiasis burden, snail-borne transmission, and 2030 eliminat...
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Editorial Standards & Methods
Levels of Evidence: How This Desk Applies the GRADE Framework
How this desk applies the GRADE framework’s four levels of evidence, and why a well-run trial can st...
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Portable Field Microscopy
Beyond the Local Microscopist: Telemicroscopy in the Field
When no trained microscopist is on site, a digital microscope and a data link can still get the slid...
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Defibrillation & Emergency Devices
Public Access Defibrillation: How AEDs Save Lives
How public access defibrillation works, why minutes matter, and why AED coverage still fails many lo...