Funding gaps threaten global health security, warns OECD – and other top health stories

Global health security faces significant funding gaps, with an estimated $10.5 billion per year needed to strengthen preparedness, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, a new OECD report finds. Despite post-COVID commitments, these investments remain largely unmet, it says.

In 2022, external funding covered nearly 80% of prevention and response spending in low-income countries, while high-income nations spent significantly more per capita. Smart Spending to Combat Global Health Threats highlights the need for innovative financing, including increased multilateral development bank involvement and contributions from philanthropic initiatives and private investors.

The report authors also note a shift in spending priorities: while funding for pandemic preparedness grew by over 30% annually from 2019 to 2022, investment in primary healthcare and sanitation declined. Balancing preparedness efforts with broader health-system resilience will be key, they say.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published a new tool identifying 24 pathogen families that pose the greatest risk to public health, aiming to guide research and development efforts in diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics.

Designed to support the UK’s Biological Security Strategy, the list features viral families such as coronaviridae (which includes COVID-19), paramyxoviridae (which includes nipah virus) and orthomyxoviridae (which includes avian influenza). Each family is ranked for its potential to cause epidemics or pandemics, as well as sensitivity to climate change and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and other risk factors.

Bird flu has recently been detected in a sheep in northern England, the first known case of its kind globally, highlighting the potential for avian influenza to spread among mammals and its implications for pandemic risks.

"This tool is a vital guide for industry and academia, highlighting where scientific research can be targeted to boost UK preparedness against health threats," said Dr Isabel Oliver, UKHSA’s Chief Scientific Officer.

However, experts have raised concerns about the tool’s transparency and scope. Comments from the scientific community included noting a lack of clear methodology and references, making it difficult to assess the research quality, and the possibility that prioritization could divert funding from other important pathogens, including those linked to AMR.

The UKHSA emphasizes that the tool does not predict the next pandemic but helps prioritize investment. It will be updated annually as new data emerges.

Namibia has confirmed its first cholera case in 10 years, prompting the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to step up response efforts. It is also working to control an outbreak in Angola, where cases are now declining.

A study of nearly 38,000 UK adults suggests that having children may help slow brain ageing, reports Science News. Researchers found that parents showed stronger brain connections, especially in areas that typically decline with age.

Johns Hopkins University, a key US medical research centre, is to cut over 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration reduced grants to the institution by $800 million, The Guardian reports. This loss of funding from the US Agency for International Development will impact 247 US-based workers and nearly 2,000 positions abroad across 44 countries.

A study of a supercentenarian woman (over the age of 110) has discovered that her genes made her cells behave as if she was 17 years younger. Additionally, her gut microbiota, which plays a role in health, resembled that of an infant, according to researchers at the University of Barcelona.

An Australian man in his forties has become the first person to leave hospital with a titanium artificial heart, after living with it for over three months, Nature reports. The device, used temporarily for heart failure patients awaiting transplants, allowed him to later receive a human heart. He is the sixth person globally to receive the BiVACOR device.

Measles cases in Europe have reached a 25-year high. An analysis by WHO and UNICEF revealed 127,350 cases in 2024, double the number from 2023 and the highest since 1997. Infections are also on the rise in the US, with more cases reported in the first months of 2025 than in all of 2024.

NHS England will be abolished and brought under "democratic control" as part of an effort to reduce bureaucracy and duplication, UK prime minister Keir Starmer has announced. The organization will be integrated into the Department of Health, with around 50% of its 14,400 staff expected to be cut, reports the BBC.

The average life expectancy at birth in high-income countries is 78 years, while in low-income countries it's 64 years. Tackling the global issue of health inequity means examining the three main causes of it, which are discrimination, differences in social, economic and environmental drivers of health, and structural health system issues. This video explains further:

Countries worldwide have the opportunity to achieve greater self-reliance in healthcare. Here, two experts explore how Cuba, Brazil and Thailand are leading the way in their approaches to health sovereignty, and ways a "four-quadrant strategy" can enhance healthcare self-sufficiency.