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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Pulse Oximetry

Pulse Oximeter Accuracy: What Causes False Readings in the Field

Pulse oximeters are a field-health mainstay, but skin pigmentation, poor perfusion, and motion can a...

Point-of-Care Analyzers

Portable Blood Gas Analyzers: The Standards That Define Field Accuracy

What actually makes a portable blood gas analyzer trustworthy outside a lab: the standards, QC routi...

Outbreak Field Kits & Procurement

Inside the WHO Interagency Emergency Health Kit: What Standardized Modules Mean for Field Procurement

How the WHO’s modular Interagency Emergency Health Kit shapes what outbreak teams stock, order, and...

Vaccine Vial Monitors: Reading Cumulative Heat Exposure Before It Costs Potency

How a vaccine vial monitor’s color-change chemistry tracks cumulative heat exposure, and why that ma...

Solar & Off-Grid Refrigeration

Solar Vaccine Refrigerator Hold-Over Time: Surviving a Cloudy Week

What hold-over time and autonomy ratings actually promise a vaccination campaign when the sun disapp...

Sentinel Surveillance: How a Handful of Clinics Track a Country’s Disease Burden

Sentinel surveillance samples a few clinics and labs instead of counting every case, and it underpin...

Neglected Tropical Diseases

What Are the 20 Neglected Tropical Diseases? The WHO List Explained

WHO’s official roster covers 20 conditions, not one. Here is what qualifies a disease as neglected a...

Mobile Isolation & Field Cots

Cot Spacing Inside a Cholera Treatment Unit: The Layout Rules Behind the One-Meter Gap

Why cholera cots sit more than a meter apart, and how zoning and one-way flow shape a cholera treatm...

Operational Research

Lot Quality Assurance Sampling: Judging a Field Program With 19 Observations

How Lot Quality Assurance Sampling lets field teams classify a program area as acceptable or not wit...

Fever & Vital-Signs Screening

The 60-Second Count: Why Shortcuts in Respiratory Rate Screening Miss Tachypnea

Why full-minute respiratory rate counts still outperform shortcut methods for catching tachypnea at...

Literature Reviews & Evidence Digests

The Missing-Studies Problem: How Trial Registries Guard Against Publication Bias

Why unregistered, unpublished trials distort global health evidence, and how WHO ICTRP, ClinicalTria...

Task-Shifting & Workforce

Supportive Supervision: The Overlooked Variable in Task-Shifting Success

Task-shifting redistributes clinical work to community health workers, but evidence shows outcomes h...

Supply Chain & Procurement

Quantification: How Global Health Programs Forecast Medicine Needs Before They Run Out

Why quantification, the forecasting step behind PEPFAR and Global Fund procurement, still leaves ess...

Microplanning: How Immunization Teams Turn a District Map Into a Coverage Target

Before a single dose is given, campaign teams build a district-level microplan: population estimates...

Portable Field Microscopy

Microscope Fungus in the Field: The Humidity Threshold That Protects Diagnostic Optics

Fungal growth, not drop damage, is the quiet threat to field microscopes in humid climates and the h...

Outbreak Field Kits & Procurement

Shelf-Life Rules for Outbreak Kits: Why the Shortest Expiry Date Sets the Whole Kit’s Clock

Outbreak kit procurement runs on a hidden rule: one short-dated item sets the usable life of the ent...

Defibrillation & Emergency Devices

AED Maintenance: Why the Monthly Check Still Matters in the Self-Test Era

Automated self-tests do not catch everything an AED needs. Here is what a proper maintenance routine...

The Vaccine Storage and Handling SOP: What the Cold Chain’s Paper Trail Actually Requires

A refrigerator holding 2-8C isn’t a cold chain on its own — see what a written vaccine storage and h...

Temperature Monitoring & Data Loggers

Single-Use vs. Reusable Temperature Data Loggers: Matching the Logger to the Trip

Single-use and reusable temperature data loggers solve different cold-chain problems. Here is how to...

Temperature Monitoring & Data Loggers

Temperature Data Logger Calibration: Intervals, Traceability, and When to Replace

How field health programs should set calibration intervals for temperature data loggers, what tracea...

Wastewater Surveillance: Reading a Community’s Health From Its Sewage

How wastewater-based surveillance detects polio, COVID-19, and other pathogens days before clinical...

Blood Pressure Monitoring

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring: Why a 24-Hour Reading Outperforms a Single Office Visit

How 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring works, its guideline thresholds, and why it catches...

HIV, TB & Co-Infection

The Urine LAM Test: Why WHO Restricts It to Advanced HIV Disease

The urine LAM test finds TB fast in people with HIV, but WHO limits its use by CD4 count. Here is th...

Diagnostic Sourcing & Procurement

Forecasting Diagnostic Test Kit Demand: Avoiding Stockouts and Waste

How field programs quantify RDT and reagent needs, and why the gap between too little and too much i...

Neglected Tropical Diseases

Taeniasis and Neurocysticercosis: Why the Same Tapeworm Causes Two Different Diseases

Taenia solium causes two distinct diseases depending on which parasite stage is ingested — one mild,...

Syndromic Surveillance: Detecting Outbreaks Before a Diagnosis Exists

How syndromic surveillance flags outbreaks from symptoms alone, and why it sits apart from case-base...

Pulse Oximetry

Occult Hypoxemia: Why Pulse Oximeter Accuracy Varies by Skin Pigmentation

Pulse oximeters can overestimate oxygen levels in patients with darker skin. What the evidence shows...

Diagnostic Sourcing & Procurement

Why Diagnostic Reagents Get Stuck at Customs, and How Programs Get Them Through

A validated test kit can clear every quality check and still sit at a border for weeks. Here is what...

Portable Field Microscopy

Malaria Microscopy Competency: What the WHO’s Slide-Reading Standard Actually Tests

How the WHO grades a field microscopist’s slide-reading skill — and why a competency score matters a...

Hepatitis B vs. Hepatitis C: Why the Global Elimination Math Is So Different

Hepatitis B and C are both bloodborne and both deadly, but one has a vaccine and one doesn’t — and t...

Trauma & Hemorrhage Control

Tourniquet Time Limit: The Evidence Behind the Two-Hour Rule

How long a tourniquet can stay on before ischemic risk rises, and how field teams decide between wai...

RSV Vaccine for Older Adults: What the Age-Based Guidelines Actually Mean

RSV vaccine guidance for older adults has shifted from a case-by-case discussion to age-tiered recom...

Supply Chain & Procurement

Pooled Procurement: How Global Health Systems Buy Medicine Together

How aggregating demand across countries lets global health buyers negotiate lower prices — and what...

Task-Shifting & Workforce

Task Shifting: How Understaffed Health Systems Redistribute Clinical Work

How task shifting redistributes clinical duties to non-physician workers, and what two decades of fi...

Field Epidemiology Methods

The Line List: How Outbreak Teams Turn Scattered Cases Into a Usable Signal

How a simple case-by-case spreadsheet becomes the working core of a field outbreak investigation, an...

Blood Pressure Monitoring

Validated Blood Pressure Monitors: What “Clinically Accurate” Actually Means

Why device validation, not brand reputation, determines whether a home or field blood-pressure monit...

Fever & Vital-Signs Screening

Infrared, Tympanic, or Axillary: Choosing a Thermometer for Outbreak Triage

A field comparison of thermometry methods for outbreak triage, plus the respiratory-rate threshold s...

IHJ Editorial Board15 Aug 2026

IHJ Editorial Board14 Aug 2026

HIV, TB & Co-Infection

The Two-Week Rule: When to Start ART During Tuberculosis Treatment

Why ART start dates during TB treatment split by CD4 count, and what SAPIT, STRIDE, and CAMELIA show...

IHJ Editorial Board14 Aug 2026

Pulse Oximetry

Choosing a Portable Pulse Oximeter for Field Use: The Specs That Actually Matter

A procurement guide to the specs that separate a field-durable pulse oximeter from a bedside device...