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HSC Medicine, Dentistry and Healthcare Sciences Current Awareness Bulletins: Public Health

Public Health current awareness bulletin

Frequency: Bi-monthly

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November 2025

Barriers and strategies to enhance uptake of HIV self-testing among men who have sex with men: a restricted review

Climate change and workplace heat stress: technical report and guidance (WHO report)

Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity

Drug resistance in parasites: a review of mechanisms, drivers, and mitigation strategies

Effectiveness of SARS‐CoV‐2 testing strategies inreducing COVID‐19 cases, hospitalisations, and deaths (new Cochrane review)

Effects of reductions in US foreign assistance on HIV, tuberculosis, family planning, and maternal and child health: a modelling study

Efficacy and safety of respiratory syncytial virus vaccines (new Cochrane review)

Estimating the effect of contact tracing during the early stage of an epidemic

Heatwaves: how air pollution is worsening effects on health

HIV testing: increasing uptake among people who may have undiagnosed HIV (updated NICE guideline NG60)

Impact of food, beverage, and alcohol brand marketing on consumptive behaviors and health in children and adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics

Monkeypox: a comprehensive review of virology, epidemiology, and global health implications

The path forward for vaccine policy in the United States

Personal night light exposure predicts incidence of cardiovascular diseases in >88,000 individuals (preprint)

Race, ethnicity and risk for colonisation and infection with key bacterial pathogens: a scoping review

Restoring the infant mortality rate as a measure of societal health and well-being

Total and specific potato intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three US cohort studies and a substitution meta-analysis of prospective cohorts

Transforming health: the role of mobile applications in lifestyle changes for hypertension

Vaping and harm in young people: umbrella review

West Nile virus: a review (JAMA)

WHO guideline on HIV service delivery (WHO report)

Why scientists are rethinking the immune effects of SARS-CoV-2

Sources

BMJ (Aug-Sep); BMJ Global Health (Aug); Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health (Jul-Aug); Cochrane Library (Sep-Oct); Infectious Disease Modelling (Sep); JAMA (Aug); Lancet (Aug-Sep); Lancet Global Health (Oct); medRxiv (Jun); Microbes and Infectious Diseases (Aug); Nature (Aug); NEJM (Aug); NICE website (Aug-Sep); Obesity Reviews (Sep); Tobacco Control (Aug); WHO website (Aug-Sep)

September 2025

Advances in the management of hepatitis B

Aluminum-adsorbed vaccines and chronic diseases in childhood: a nationwide cohort study

Bed poverty: effects on child health—and the doctor’s role

Climate crossroads: how global warming drives coronavirus emergence, the long COVID crisis of tomorrow, and AI’s role in navigating our future

Common misconceptions about COVID hold strong as new variant spreads

Corynebacterium diphtheriae outbreak in migrant populations in Europe

Current and future trends in the consumption, sale and purchasing of alcohol-free and low-alcohol products in Great Britain, 2014 to 2023

Decoding post-mortem infection dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, IAV and RSV: new insights for public health and emerging infectious diseases management

Demographic and socioeconomic determinants of maternal knowledge and confidence in promoting infant and toddler oral health: an exploratory study

Digital health, technology‐driven or technology‐assisted interventions for the management of obesity in children and adolescents (new Cochrane intervention review)

Electronic cigarettes and subsequent cigarette smoking in young people: a systematic review

Elevated toxic element emissions from popular disposable e-cigarettes: sources, life cycle, and health risks

Emergency Medical Services response to wildfires from a public health perspective: a systematic review

Environmental noise in Europe 2025 (European Environment Agency report)

Environmental risk factors for systemic lupus erythematosus through the lens of social determinants of health

Epidemiology and phylogenomic characterisation of two distinct mpox outbreaks in Kinshasa, DR Congo, involving a new subclade Ia lineage: a retrospective, observational study

Estimating the potential malaria morbidity and mortality avertable by the US President's Malaria Initiative in 2025: a geospatial modelling analysis

Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis

Evaluation of school food policies for secondary schools in Europe: results for health, acceptance, and affordability from a scoping review

An evidence-based approach to COVID-19 vaccination

Food insecurity and clinical outcomes in surgical trauma patients

From preschool to policy: a scoping review of recommended interventions for a systems approach to improve dietary intake in early childhood

Global, regional, and national trends in routine childhood vaccination coverage from 1980 to 2023 with forecasts to 2030: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023

Health literacy and obesity: a systematic scoping review

How much does the absence of the ‘hidden population’ from United Kingdom household surveys underestimate smoking prevalence?

Immunities in the COVID age: a sociomaterial and more-than-human perspective

The impacts of e-cigarette flavours: an overview of systematic reviews

Incident dementia across neighbourhood material deprivation: implications for underdiagnosis

Long COVID rates higher in women: evidence grows

Longitudinal patterns of e-cigarette use initiation and progression to frequent vaping from mid-to-late adolescence to young adulthood

Microbial laden mobile phones from international conference attendees pose potential risks to public health and biosecurity

Modeling reemergence of vaccine-eliminated infectious diseases under declining vaccination in the US

On improving public health after COVID-19 epidemic: a fractal-fractional mathematical solutions with short memory effect and efficient optimal strategies

Public health strategies and community resources to address social isolation and loneliness in older adults

Supporting dementia caregivers: the role of “lived experience” and public health collaboration

Trends and disparities in maternal self-reported mental and physical health

Values and preferences regarding the health sector response to interpersonal violence against transgender and gender-diverse individuals: a systematic review

Sources

ACS Central Science (Jun); Addiction (Jul-Aug); Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions (Apr-Jun); Annals of Internal Medicine (Jul); Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics (Sep); Arthritis Care & Research (Jun); BMJ, The (Jun-Jul); Burns (Aug); Clinics in Geriatric Medicine (Aug); Cochrane Library (Jun-Jul); European Environment Agency website (Jun); Gauntlet website (Jun); Infection, Disease & Health (May); Infectious Diseases Now (Sep); JAMA (Jun); JAMA Internal Medicine (Jul); JAMA Surgery (May); Journal of Infection (Jun); Lancet, The (Jun-Jul); Lancet Psychiatry, The (Jul); Medscape (Jul); NEJM (Jun); Obesity Reviews (Jun-Jul); Pediatric Dental Journal (Aug); PLoS One (May); Social Theory & Health (Jul)

July 2025

Antibiotic prescribing patterns in the community and primary care settings through a gender lens

Association between wealth and mortality in the United States and Europe

Association of fully branded, standardized packaging and limited flavor and brand descriptors of e-liquids with interest in trying products among youths in Great Britain

Associations of smoke-free policies in multi-unit housing with smoking behavior and second-hand smoke exposure: a systematic review

Communication-based interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccine willingness and uptake: a systematic review with meta-analysis

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases (new Cochrane intervention review)

Driving under viral impairment: linking acute SARS-CoV-2 infections to elevated car crash risks

Gardening initiatives as an approach to cancer prevention for children and youth

Global, regional, and national burden of household air pollution, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Growing health concern regarding gambling addiction in the age of sportsbooks

Household income trajectory effect on oral health-related quality of life during the transition from childhood to adolescence

Long COVID clinical evaluation, research and impact on society: a global expert consensus

Measuring the fitted filtration efficiency of cloth masks, medical masks and respirators

A nationwide study of risk factors for long COVID and its economic and mental health consequences in the United States

Removing barriers to COVID-19 vaccine intention in a university population: results of a serial mediation study through the dimensions of the Health Belief Model

Review of mammography screening guidelines of the 5 largest global economies

Trends and patterns of dual use of combustible tobacco and e-cigarettes among adults in England: a population study, 2016–2024

Typhoid conjugate vaccines for preventing typhoid fever (enteric fever) (new Cochrane intervention review)

Using a systems thinking approach to map the global rise of ultra-processed foods in population diets

Utilizing Google Trends data to enhance forecasts and monitor long COVID prevalence

Youth involvement in policy processes in public health, education, and social work—a scoping review

Sources

Addiction (Apr); Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials (Apr); BMJ Open (May); Clinical Imaging (Apr); Cochrane Library (Apr-May); Communications Medicine (May); JAMA Internal Medicine (Apr); Journal of Dentistry (Mar); Lancet, The (Apr); Nature Communications Medicine (Apr); NEJM (Apr); Obesity Reviews (Apr); PLOS Global Public Health (Apr); PLOS One (Apr-May); Public Health (May)

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