News archive

On 21 May, a delegation from Karolinska Institutet joined partners in Viet Nam to mark the close of the Re-imagining TB Care (RTC) initiative and launch a new phase of collaborative tuberculosis (TB) research focused on the long-term social and economic impacts of TB.

The Department of Global Public Health is recruiting an Assistant Professor in Mental and Sexual Health to join our dynamic team. We are seeking an ambitious and creative early-career researcher with the potential to become a future academic leader.

Hien Vu is an experienced anesthesiologist who has spent nearly two decades working in one of Vietnam’s largest maternal hospitals. Now a PhD student at the Department of Global Public Health, she combines clinical expertise with research to improve neonatal respiratory care and help save the lives of newborns in low-resource settings worldwide.

Sweden, once one of the world’s most equal countries, now faces growing disparities in living conditions and health. Lower education or income is increasingly linked to higher risks of ill health and premature death. These issues and the connection to political decisions are examined in a recent special issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health Research (Socialmedicinsk tidskrift, SMT), featuring contributions from several researchers at the Department of Global Public Health.

Claudia Hanson at the Department of Global Public Health has been appointed Professor of Global Health Systems Research. Her transdisciplinary career allows her to combine a strong clinical background with experience in health system strengthening, and implementation science, with a particular focus on improving maternal, newborn and child health in low- and middle-income countries.

This question is currently being considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) and was also the topic of a panel discussion held by the Department of Global Public Health in May.

In late May, the Department of Global Public Health hosted an international visit within the EU-funded CURIOUS project, bringing together partners to exchange experiences and develop approaches to strengthening nursing education in Somalia.

Most breast cancer patients in Uganda and Ethiopia are diagnosed too late, and many lack access to life-saving treatment. Tove Ekdahl Hjelm defends her thesis "Early-onset breast cancer in East Africa: Genetics, tumor characteristics and clinical management" on June 5, where she highlights deficiencies in access to adequate care, but also that more lives can be saved.

The step from working on Gotland to working in Afghanistan may seem a long one, but for anaesthetist Dr Anders Mattsson, it could soon become a reality. If it happens, it will not be his first time working on missions abroad. It is a way of working that he feels facilitates a two-way exchange of expertise, a philosophy that is entirely in line with the Centre for Health Crises’ and, not least, the idea behind the course ‘Anesthesia and critical care with limited resources’.

A new Lancet Commission on Precision Health has been launched to develop a comprehensive framework for integrating precision approaches into health systems worldwide. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet are contributing to the work, with a particular focus on ensuring equitable access, including in resource-limited settings.

Humanitarianism is often seen as an implicit good. The dedication to preserve, protect and support human life, dignity, and the reduction of suffering. But its implicit goodness can also stand in the way of further analysis and debate about what it contributes to in practice. That is why Centre for Health Crises at Karolinska Institutet organised just such an evening of discussion.

Teresa Santos discovered health economics whilst studying economics. She is now a PhD student, and her research aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of various interventions in order to provide decision-makers with the evidence they need to optimise investments in public health.

Meet Maxim Kan, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Global Public Health, who was recently awarded an establishment grant from Forte of SEK 3,069,000. He will use the funding to investigate health inequalities among participants in Swedish needle and syringe programs.

For a week, a conference room at the old Långholmen prison in Stockholm and the lawn outside were transformed into the fictional country of Marconia, when Sweden’s new emergency medical team initative met to conduct a training exercise. The week-long exercise was planned and carried out by the research group Global Disaster Medicine Karolinska Institutet (KI), which is a designated centre of expertise in the field by the National Board of Health and Welfare.

Treating pregnancy-related iron deficiency anaemia with a one-time iron infusion provides better health outcomes and greater value than standard iron tablets, according to a new study published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health. The findings may help guide healthcare decisions in low-resource settings.

“What We Saw in Gaza” was the title of a seminar organised on 21 April by the Centre for Health Crises and the research group Global Disaster Medicine – Health Needs and Response. Researchers and healthcare professionals who had recently been working in humanitarian healthcare in Gaza, shared their experiences and answered the many questions posed by the engaged audience. The closing words – never to accept that a situation like this becomes normalised – echoed through the hall.

Despite new diagnostic methods and expanded vaccination programmes, many children in Uganda continue to suffer from severe brain infections. This is shown in a new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Africa. The researchers’ analysis highlights simple clinical signs that can help healthcare providers more quickly identify children at high risk of death.

Mosquito-borne viral diseases such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya are spreading to new regions as the climate becomes warmer. A new study from Karolinska Institutet and Institut Pasteur, published in Nature Communications, shows that a newly developed blood test can distinguish between similar viruses and thereby contribute to better surveillance of how these infections spread.

The Centre for Health Crises at Karolinska Institutet works to ensure that experience gained from working on health crises internationally can be transformed to benefit Sweden’s crisis preparedness. As part of this, they have conducted a one-day training excerise on global outbreak epidemiology in collaboration with the Swedish Red Cross. Its aim is to provide further education for people who have worked on projects abroad.

For the first time, the course Sustainable Health and Development was offered to master’s students within the Master’s Programme in Global Health at Karolinska Institutet. While the course has previously been delivered to undergraduate and doctoral students, it now offers new opportunities for interdisciplinary learning at the master’s level and for international collaboration.

How we engage our brains while sitting for long periods may affect cognitive health later in life. A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, shows that adults who spend most of their sedentary time on mentally passive activities, such as watching TV, face a higher risk of developing dementia. By contrast, brain-stimulating sedentary activities, such as reading, appear to reduce the risk.

The President has appointed Tobias Alfvén at the Department of Global Public Health as deputy dean of doctoral education, starting 1 July. With long-standing experience in research, teaching, clinical practice and leadership, he now looks forward to contributing to the continued development of KI’s doctoral education.

Since December 2025, three new Senior Lecturers have been appointed at the Department of Global Public Health. Here they share their goals and priorities.

Farzana Rahman is a clinical physiotherapist with a strong interest in improving eldercare. Her doctoral thesis focuses on health and social care for older people, with particular emphasis on home healthcare and home help.

On March 5th, the Changemaker Project and the BIGH Doctoral Programme hosted the conference “Spotlighting Adolescent Co-Design.” The event brought together over 90 participants from Sweden, Finland, Tanzania, and beyond.

In February, Elin Larsson and Claudia Hanson participated in the annual meeting of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group to the UN Human Reproduction Programme.

Carina King, an infectious diseases epidemiologist, has dedicated over a decade to improving the diagnosis and treatment of paediatric pneumonia in sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, she received a prestigious Consolidation Grant from the Swedish Research Council for a project that aims to refine referral guidelines for children with moderate hypoxaemia – a critical gap in current clinical practice.

Filip Andersson began his studies in statistics and economic demography. After being hired as a data manager in a research project, he became inspired to pursue a research career himself and went on to start his PhD studies at the Department of Global Public Health.

The Vietnam–Sweden Health Partnership Forum, co-organized by the Embassy of Vietnam in Stockholm and Karolinska Institutet, brought together leaders in government, research, and healthcare to mark more than 50 years of bilateral collaboration. The event also outlined an ambitious new phase of research-driven cooperation centered on innovation, capacity building, and maternal and newborn health.

The Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH) has released a film that tells the story of Professor Stefan Swartling Peterson and a 25-year collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University in Uganda. Through his personal reflections and experiences in Uganda, the film highlights long-term partnerships, sustainable health systems, and the impact of cross-border collaboration on improving maternal and child health.

The Centre for Health Crises and the research group Global Disaster Medicine will deepen their educational collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières over the next three years thanks to new support from the Kamprad Family Foundation. The focus is on pre-deployment training that provides skills and tools for delivering healthcare in resource-limited settings, humanitarian disasters, and health crises both globally and locally.

Göran Sterky, a renowned paediatrician, professor at Karolinska Institutet, and founder of IHCAR (International Health Care Research), passed away in November 2025 at the age of 95.

During 1–10 December 2025, doctoral students participated in the hybrid doctoral course “Sustainable Health and the 2030 Agenda." The course provided students and early-stage researchers with an in-depth orientation to sustainable health within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the interconnections between the Sustainable Development Goals and global public health. The course will be given again in December 2026.

Artificial Intelligence that detects breast cancer, enables medical imaging in low-resource countries and that identifies the patients who require advanced treatment even at the point of diagnosis – these are just a few examples of AI research at Karolinska Institutet that is impacting an entire world. Parts of this work were presented during the conference AI@KI, Advances in Artificial Intelligence at Karolinska Institutet, on 2 December.

A new test shows promising results for detecting latent tuberculosis infection in resource-limited settings. This is according to a study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The director of the Centre for Health Crises, Johan von Schreeb, surgeon and professor of global disaster medicine at Karolinska Institutet is awarded the Forska!Sverige Honorary Award for his outstanding commitment to reducing suffering around the world and for his leading research in a field that is becoming increasingly relevant also in Sweden.

On 14–15 October 2025, Karolinska Institutet (KI) and Makerere University in Uganda celebrated 25 years of partnership advancing global health, research, and education. The milestone also marks the 5th anniversary of the jointly established Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH) — a platform for promoting sustainable health and equitable global partnerships.

Fitness amongst young adults varies widely from one country to another, and is strongly associated with both socioeconomic development and gender equality, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science reports. The results indicate that levels of development and gender equality in a society can affect differences in physical capacity and therefore public health in general.

Thirteen medical professionals from the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, China, recently spent an intensive week at Karolinska Institutet, diving into clinical research methodology from a global public health perspective. The professional education course offered a dynamic mix of lectures, discussions, and collaborative learning.

The Nordic Health Crises University Network aims, among other things, to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration between Nordic universities in the field of health crises. Over the next two years, it will be possible to apply for funding for a short-term exchange. The visits should focus on health crises, last between 2–6 weeks, and the total cost may not exceed SEK 30,000.

KI’s Global Health course combines classroom learning with international fieldwork in countries like Laos, offering students from various programs unique insights into global health systems and challenges. Anders Tegnell, physician and state epidemiologist during the COVID-19 pandemic, recently joined the course as a guest teacher. “It gives new perspectives, and you learn new things”, says Tegnell after travelling to Lao PDR with KI students as part of the Global Health course.

Access to cervical cancer screening in low- and middle-income countries can be improved with the help of AI, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University and the University of Helsinki, published in The BMJ. However, the technology requires support from functioning healthcare systems to be effective.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with colleagues in South Africa, have investigated whether tuberculosis can be traced in exhaled air. The results, published in the scientific journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases, show that a new method may help identify people with infectious tuberculosis directly in primary care.

Welcome to the annual KI-CAMS joint symposia on Respiratory Medicine, Cardiovascular Research and Population Medicine.

On 1 October, researchers, decision-makers and representatives from industry and international organisations gathered at KI for the high-level meeting Vaccines for All: Health. Security. Growth. Benjamin Dousa, Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, participated in the important meeting, organised by Karolinska Institutet and the Stockholm School of Economics in collabotation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During the ongoing Preparedness Week (Beredskapsveckan), the importance of being ready for crises is highlighted. When infectious diseases spread rapidly, it takes more than medical expertise and knowledge – it also requires the ability to collaborate under pressure. Hedvig Glans, expert coordinator at the Centre for Health Crises, recently participated in an international exercise focused on exactly this.

This autumn, we’re welcoming the first group of students to our new two-year Master’s Programme in Global Health. This vibrant group of 40 students come from over 20 countries, spanning almost all continents, and a range of backgrounds—law, political science, anthropology, public affairs, medicine, public health, nursing, and more.

Märit Halmin is an intensive care physician and researcher in the research group for Global Disaster Medicine – health needs and interventions at GPH. This summer, she worked at a field hospital in Al-Mawasi, Gaza – an area declared a humanitarian zone but where bombs fell around the clock. For five weeks, she treated seriously injured children and adults. In tents without running water and with a lack of pain relief, every medical intervention became a battle against time and resources.

Attacks on healthcare are dramatically increasing in conflicts and wars around the world. The Centre for Health Crises continues to highlight this development. On 9 September, KI researchers Märit Halmin and Johan von Schreeb, together with representatives from Médecins Sans Frontières, the Swedish Medical Association, and the Swedish Association of Health Professionals, participated in a meeting at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to urge Sweden to take clear international responsibility.

The Nordic Health Crises University Network (HealthCrisNet) gathered for its first-ever meeting in Reykjavík, Iceland, from 27–29 August 2025. Established earlier this year with funding from NordForsk, the network brings together universities from across the Nordic region to strengthen preparedness and resilience in the face of health crises.