Frank van Leth
@fvlscience.bsky.social
Epidemiologist. Intersection methodology, infectious diseases and social science. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Dept. Healh Sciences, Head section International Health. Vice-director Amsterdam Public Health research institute. #TB #HIV #AMR #syndemics
This is a great opportunity. Come and work with us in this wonderful team.
We are seeking a PhD student💡. 4-yrs 💶 for 🇲🇿 in locally co-designed #airborne infection control, #AMR surveillance in 🇿🇦 🇳🇬 Based in Maputo (FundacaoAurum) #TBSky #EpiSky @fvlscience.bsky.social Lusophone health/ lab w/ roots in 🇲🇿 #PublicHealth #EDCTP3 @itmantwerp.bsky.social Q: emitchell@itg.be
October 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM
This is a great opportunity. Come and work with us in this wonderful team.
Reposted by Frank van Leth
TB deaths up 5% in 6 months since USAID funds pulled from Napula, Mozambique: #USAID #TBsky #TBFighters #tuberculosis observador.pt/2025/09/24/t...
Tuberculose matou 71 pessoas na província moçambicana de Nampula em seis meses
As autoridades de saúde apontam a falta de financiamento como uma das causas do aumento da doença. Entre 2019 e 2024, do total de 108.242 casos notificados e tratados no país, 10.547 eram crianças.
observador.pt
September 26, 2025 at 9:22 AM
TB deaths up 5% in 6 months since USAID funds pulled from Napula, Mozambique: #USAID #TBsky #TBFighters #tuberculosis observador.pt/2025/09/24/t...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
#IDsky
Unfortunately, despite a promising premise, Clofast did not pan out for shorter duration w/clofazamine rifapentine regimen (3 months) vs RIPE (6 mo).
Shorter regimen had higher relapse rate, worsening radiographic response
despite earlier cx conversion
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Unfortunately, despite a promising premise, Clofast did not pan out for shorter duration w/clofazamine rifapentine regimen (3 months) vs RIPE (6 mo).
Shorter regimen had higher relapse rate, worsening radiographic response
despite earlier cx conversion
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
September 9, 2025 at 1:24 AM
#IDsky
Unfortunately, despite a promising premise, Clofast did not pan out for shorter duration w/clofazamine rifapentine regimen (3 months) vs RIPE (6 mo).
Shorter regimen had higher relapse rate, worsening radiographic response
despite earlier cx conversion
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Unfortunately, despite a promising premise, Clofast did not pan out for shorter duration w/clofazamine rifapentine regimen (3 months) vs RIPE (6 mo).
Shorter regimen had higher relapse rate, worsening radiographic response
despite earlier cx conversion
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
Today TAG launched some of our 2025 Pipeline Reports. You’ll find TB Treatment, along with all four HIV reports. Download them now! www.treatmentactiongroup.org/resources/pi...
August 13, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Today TAG launched some of our 2025 Pipeline Reports. You’ll find TB Treatment, along with all four HIV reports. Download them now! www.treatmentactiongroup.org/resources/pi...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
A year after its breakout public health moment, 'miracle drug' lenacapavir has been approved by the FDA and recommended by the WHO. The drug is a long-lasting shot that provides almost 100% protection against HIV infection. buff.ly/E5zOvGl
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
August 12, 2025 at 12:50 PM
A year after its breakout public health moment, 'miracle drug' lenacapavir has been approved by the FDA and recommended by the WHO. The drug is a long-lasting shot that provides almost 100% protection against HIV infection. buff.ly/E5zOvGl
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
Reposted by Frank van Leth
The @who.int has prequalified the first African-made first-line #HIV treatment.
Its procurement by @globalfund.bsky.social marks progress in building resilient, self-sufficient health systems in Africa —still home to 65% of the global HIV burden.
🟠 https://f.mtr.cool/bdqvnetetr
#GlobalHealth
Its procurement by @globalfund.bsky.social marks progress in building resilient, self-sufficient health systems in Africa —still home to 65% of the global HIV burden.
🟠 https://f.mtr.cool/bdqvnetetr
#GlobalHealth
Africa’s push for HIV independence advances with first procurement of locally made medicines
Sub-Saharan Africa has taken a cautious but critical step toward greater health self-reliance as locally produced HIV medicines and diagnostic tests begin reaching national programmes – including, for the first time, procurement of African-made treatment for Mozambique.
f.mtr.cool
August 9, 2025 at 4:03 PM
The @who.int has prequalified the first African-made first-line #HIV treatment.
Its procurement by @globalfund.bsky.social marks progress in building resilient, self-sufficient health systems in Africa —still home to 65% of the global HIV burden.
🟠 https://f.mtr.cool/bdqvnetetr
#GlobalHealth
Its procurement by @globalfund.bsky.social marks progress in building resilient, self-sufficient health systems in Africa —still home to 65% of the global HIV burden.
🟠 https://f.mtr.cool/bdqvnetetr
#GlobalHealth
With the #jpiamr program closing, there is a final conference on its achievements. Nice gathering of funders, scientists of all walks, and policy makers. Lessons learned when moving to EU partnership OneHealth. Looking forward to new era.
May 8, 2025 at 8:46 AM
With the #jpiamr program closing, there is a final conference on its achievements. Nice gathering of funders, scientists of all walks, and policy makers. Lessons learned when moving to EU partnership OneHealth. Looking forward to new era.
Great post. As always. Thanks
New blog post! In which I explain the issue with mediation analysis and sketch out one way to deal with the underlying causal inference problem -- in just a bit over 1,000 words!
If you have never found the time to read up on this, now is your chance.
www.the100.ci/2025/03/20/r...
If you have never found the time to read up on this, now is your chance.
www.the100.ci/2025/03/20/r...
Reviewer notes: That’s a very nice mediation analysis you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
Mediation analysis has gotten a lot of flak, including classic titles such as “Yes, but what’s the mechanism? (Don’t expect an easy answer)” (Bullock et al., 2010), “What mediation analysis can (not) ...
www.the100.ci
March 20, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Great post. As always. Thanks
The Dutch gvt joins the move to shortsightedness. "Development aid only for projects with direct returns for the Netherlands". Exit sexual health, women partcipation, and climate.
#development #aid #RSH. A sad day for many
#development #aid #RSH. A sad day for many
February 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM
The Dutch gvt joins the move to shortsightedness. "Development aid only for projects with direct returns for the Netherlands". Exit sexual health, women partcipation, and climate.
#development #aid #RSH. A sad day for many
#development #aid #RSH. A sad day for many
Reposted by Frank van Leth
The WHO research agenda for #AMR in human health has identified 40 research priorities to be addressed by 2030, focusing on bacterial and fungal pathogens critical for AMR. Target is to encourage evidence generation for effective AMR policy translation
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
February 4, 2025 at 9:02 AM
The WHO research agenda for #AMR in human health has identified 40 research priorities to be addressed by 2030, focusing on bacterial and fungal pathogens critical for AMR. Target is to encourage evidence generation for effective AMR policy translation
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Congrsts. Great and important work
Proud to see the endTB trial, work of a huge team, led by @partnersinhealth.bsky.social, @msf.org, IRD & supported by @unitaid.bsky.social, published in @nejm.org today. Safe, effective, shortened treatments for drug-resistant TB can be available to all. #TBSky #ForeignAid tinyurl.com/NEJM-endTB
Oral Regimens for Rifampin-Resistant, Fluoroquinolone-Susceptible Tuberculosis | NEJM
For decades, poor treatment options and low-quality evidence plagued care for patients
with rifampin-resistant tuberculosis. The advent of new drugs to treat tuberculosis
and enhanced funding now p...
tinyurl.com
January 30, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Congrsts. Great and important work
Reposted by Frank van Leth
We share a lot of our ideas, code, datasets (that we spend years sanitizing) early. Often way before we release preprints. We do this so that others can use, build on, improve & even "beat" our approaches. But I want to say a few things about some simple expectations 1/
January 17, 2025 at 5:16 PM
We share a lot of our ideas, code, datasets (that we spend years sanitizing) early. Often way before we release preprints. We do this so that others can use, build on, improve & even "beat" our approaches. But I want to say a few things about some simple expectations 1/
Reposted by Frank van Leth
The Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp launched the Armand Van Deun Scholarship Initiative in honour of his legacy. Armand was founding father of our short course Clinical Decision-Making for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) @ITM. Read more: www.itg.be/en/health-st...
In memory of Armand Van Deun
To honour Armand Van Deun's legacy in TB research & treatment, we launched the Armand Van Deun Scholarship Initiative, a cause you can also support
www.itg.be
January 13, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp launched the Armand Van Deun Scholarship Initiative in honour of his legacy. Armand was founding father of our short course Clinical Decision-Making for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) @ITM. Read more: www.itg.be/en/health-st...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
Our work on immortal time bias "Illustrating the structures of bias from immortal time using directed acyclic graphs" led by Emma Guoyi Yang @yanggy_hku is out at International Journal of Epidemiology: doi.org/10.1093/ije/.... Brief thread:
Illustrating the structures of bias from immortal time using directed acyclic graphs
AbstractBackground. Immortal time is a period of follow-up during which death or the study outcome cannot occur by design. Bias from immortal time has been
doi.org
January 8, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Our work on immortal time bias "Illustrating the structures of bias from immortal time using directed acyclic graphs" led by Emma Guoyi Yang @yanggy_hku is out at International Journal of Epidemiology: doi.org/10.1093/ije/.... Brief thread:
Reposted by Frank van Leth
⚠️ Bit of an alarm bell to MDR-TB regimen BPaL/M - resistance to constituent antibiotics developing and transmission of such strains already occurring
#TBSky #IDSky @nejm.org
www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...
#TBSky #IDSky @nejm.org
www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...
Transmission as a Key Driver of Resistance to the New Tuberculosis Drugs | NEJM
Whole-genome sequencing was used to show that resistance to newer antituberculosis
drugs is present in at least 27 countries and that up to a quarter of this resistance
may be due to person-to-...
www.nejm.org
January 5, 2025 at 7:57 AM
⚠️ Bit of an alarm bell to MDR-TB regimen BPaL/M - resistance to constituent antibiotics developing and transmission of such strains already occurring
#TBSky #IDSky @nejm.org
www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...
#TBSky #IDSky @nejm.org
www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
Fake or flawed studies are polluting systematic reviews in medicine and other fields - but how do you spot them?
For Nature, I report on efforts to create a short checklist of red flags, and on the automated integrity tools emerging to help.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
For Nature, I report on efforts to create a short checklist of red flags, and on the automated integrity tools emerging to help.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Giant study finds untrustworthy trials pollute gold-standard medical reviews
Two-year collaboration aims to create tools to help counter the tide of flawed research.
www.nature.com
December 18, 2024 at 12:14 PM
Fake or flawed studies are polluting systematic reviews in medicine and other fields - but how do you spot them?
For Nature, I report on efforts to create a short checklist of red flags, and on the automated integrity tools emerging to help.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
For Nature, I report on efforts to create a short checklist of red flags, and on the automated integrity tools emerging to help.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
indianexpress.com/article/citi...
Access to drugs continues to be a major concern for TB control. All the science in the world can't help if we can't get the drugs. #TBSky #endTB HT Ankita Upadhyay on twitter.
Access to drugs continues to be a major concern for TB control. All the science in the world can't help if we can't get the drugs. #TBSky #endTB HT Ankita Upadhyay on twitter.
‘Poora saal waste ho jayega’: Delhi teen struggles with drug-resistant TB as key medicines out of stock
MDR TB is caused by germs that are resistant to two or more of the main tuberculosis drugs -- isoniazid and rifampin.
indianexpress.com
December 18, 2024 at 2:42 AM
indianexpress.com/article/citi...
Access to drugs continues to be a major concern for TB control. All the science in the world can't help if we can't get the drugs. #TBSky #endTB HT Ankita Upadhyay on twitter.
Access to drugs continues to be a major concern for TB control. All the science in the world can't help if we can't get the drugs. #TBSky #endTB HT Ankita Upadhyay on twitter.
Rather happy with this one. We used a Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) approach in surveillance of #AMR in #UTI in Indonesia. Working on this rapid surveillance approach for quite a while.
doi.org/10.1093/aje/...
doi.org/10.1093/aje/...
December 5, 2024 at 11:50 AM
Rather happy with this one. We used a Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) approach in surveillance of #AMR in #UTI in Indonesia. Working on this rapid surveillance approach for quite a while.
doi.org/10.1093/aje/...
doi.org/10.1093/aje/...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
A hub-and-spoke approach to implementing #AntimicrobialStewardship programmes (ASPs) in Zambian hospitals improved the core elements of #AMS practice and modestly reduced antibiotic use over 1 year, offering insights for strengthening ASPs in Africa: https://buff.ly/4ghXvDP
#JACAMRNews
#JACAMRNews
Impact of a hub-and-spoke approach to hospital antimicrobial stewardship programmes on antibiotic use in Zambia
AbstractBackground. Antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs) aim to optimize antibiotic use and prevent antimicrobial resistance.Objective. This study a
buff.ly
December 5, 2024 at 11:00 AM
A hub-and-spoke approach to implementing #AntimicrobialStewardship programmes (ASPs) in Zambian hospitals improved the core elements of #AMS practice and modestly reduced antibiotic use over 1 year, offering insights for strengthening ASPs in Africa: https://buff.ly/4ghXvDP
#JACAMRNews
#JACAMRNews
Reposted by Frank van Leth
We call for a more flexible One Health approach to prioritize localized AMR research in critical settings like hospitals and care facilities. This would address urgent human health needs while supporting broader integrative goals.
www.bmj.com/content/386/...
www.bmj.com/content/386/...
Integrating Human-Centric and One Health Perspectives in AMR Research Funding Re: Unless we confront antimicrobial resistance now, we risk the consequences of a post-antibiotic society
www.bmj.com
December 5, 2024 at 9:07 AM
We call for a more flexible One Health approach to prioritize localized AMR research in critical settings like hospitals and care facilities. This would address urgent human health needs while supporting broader integrative goals.
www.bmj.com/content/386/...
www.bmj.com/content/386/...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
Tuberculosis: a biosocial problem that requires biosocial solutions
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
December 4, 2024 at 8:43 PM
Tuberculosis: a biosocial problem that requires biosocial solutions
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by Frank van Leth
WHO-prequalified test is the same one that Cepheid claims to be selling “at cost”. But, in nearly 15 months since making that claim, Cepheid & its parent, Danaher, refuse to provide any evidence for it. The product is priced at 60% above a 2019 estimate of its cost + reasonable profit. 🧵
December 5, 2024 at 3:27 AM
WHO-prequalified test is the same one that Cepheid claims to be selling “at cost”. But, in nearly 15 months since making that claim, Cepheid & its parent, Danaher, refuse to provide any evidence for it. The product is priced at 60% above a 2019 estimate of its cost + reasonable profit. 🧵
Reposted by Frank van Leth
I'm advertising a PhD studentship (open to international students) on understanding how temperature may alter the ecology and evolution of AMR. Might suits someone with a microbiology/wet lab background who wants to expand into ecoevo. Or vice versa! But interest more important than experience.
November 15, 2024 at 10:41 AM
I'm advertising a PhD studentship (open to international students) on understanding how temperature may alter the ecology and evolution of AMR. Might suits someone with a microbiology/wet lab background who wants to expand into ecoevo. Or vice versa! But interest more important than experience.
Reposted by Frank van Leth
Reproducing my viral thread from Twitter on why we should stop using the term "sub-Saharan Africa"
Academics routinely use this term. For many years, I also used it without really thinking much about it or questioning its use. But it’s problematic and should be avoided. Here are the reasons:
Academics routinely use this term. For many years, I also used it without really thinking much about it or questioning its use. But it’s problematic and should be avoided. Here are the reasons:
November 29, 2024 at 4:47 AM
Reproducing my viral thread from Twitter on why we should stop using the term "sub-Saharan Africa"
Academics routinely use this term. For many years, I also used it without really thinking much about it or questioning its use. But it’s problematic and should be avoided. Here are the reasons:
Academics routinely use this term. For many years, I also used it without really thinking much about it or questioning its use. But it’s problematic and should be avoided. Here are the reasons: