Climate Change at World Health Assembly and AI in Global Health

Editors' Note

April marked the eleventh consecutive month of record global temperatures, continuing the alarm over climate change. To kick off this week's edition, Gregory Kuzmak and Estelle Willie of the Rockefeller Foundation explain how the World Health Assembly meeting later this month provides an opportunity to lay out clear directives on climate and health for the World Health Organization and its member states.

Next, CFR's Mariel Ferragamo outlines how the impending reversal of Gambia's ban on female genital mutilation could embolden religious conservatives to push against other protections in the country and elsewhere across Africa.

Alleviating concerns about bird flu in milk, journalist Rachel Nuwer explains how pasteurization obliterates the virus from commercial dairy products, eliminating the risk of transmission by consumption.

A group of authors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine continues the conversation on influenza by examining how COVID-19 has shifted annual flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) seasons across the globe.

To wrap up the week, Boston University's Elaine O. Nsoesie opens a series on artificial intelligence (AI) and global health by discussing how the technology can help empower communities across Africa to create create their own solutions to health challenges. The other pieces, which cover facial recognition technology in health settings and how generative AI can inspire climate action, can be found here.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor 