Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine - LSTM

20/05/2026

Childhood stunting affects around 150.2 million children worldwide (as of 2025), but global targets to reduce stunting remain unmet despite previous research and intervention programmes.

LSTM’s Professor Stephen J. Allen and Dr Benjamin Momo Kadia were guest editors and contributors to a theme issue on childhood stunting published by the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, which brings together international evidence on the complex biological, biomedical and environmental factors that contribute to childhood stunting.

Together, these studies help support more integrated approaches to tackling childhood stunting by highlighting how infections, gut health, nutrition, food systems and environmental conditions interact to shape child growth and development.

Read more:

LSTM's Professor Stephen Allen and Dr Benjamin Kadia co-edit a Royal Society theme issue examining the biological & environmental causes of childhood stunting.

20/05/2026

Last night, the Ship & Mitre in Liverpool was host to LSTM’s Shahreen Chowdhury, Dylan Postmus and Thomas Hampton, who shared powerful stories of equity in healthcare as part of annual worldwide science festival Pint of Science.

Shahreen delivered a thought-provoking talk on the connection between the body and mind, sharing powerful accounts from co-researchers with psychosocial disabilities who have used art to express their experiences. Their stories highlighted the importance of inclusion and the value and insight everyone brings.

Dylan explored progress in HIV research, celebrating how far we’ve come while questioning how close we are to a cure amid funding pressures. While effective treatments help people living with HIV manage the virus, lifelong medication is still needed and an accessible cure remains out of reach.

Thomas shared breakthroughs in children’s hearing testing and exciting research into assistive technologies and new hearing devices that could transform how we identify and support hearing loss in young people.

A key discussion point was how assistive technologies can make invisible disabilities visible, which can have a significant impact on those who use them. Thank you to everyone who joined us for an evening of meaningful stories and conversation.

19/05/2026

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) continues to threaten efforts to end the global TB epidemic. A new study in Sierra Leone led by LSTM has highlighted a high mortality rate amongst people with MDR-TB, with around 1 in 10 dying within 12 months after successfully completing treatment.

The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Africa, found that these were associated with a range of medical and social factors, including HIV, smoking and chronic lung disease. It was also reported that 18% of the 739 people with MDR-TB tracked over a two-year period had died before or during treatment, with these deaths linked to older age, unemployment, HIV, being underweight and other chronic conditions.

Read more: https://lstm.ac/43majEw
Read the full study here: https://lstm.ac/4fvxdAE

18/05/2026

📣 Our Professional Diploma in Pharmaceutical Systems Information Session takes place this week!
📆 Wednesday 20 May
🕐️ 13:00-13:30 (UTC+1)
📍 Online

This 10-month, part-time, online course is for you if you are a new or experienced professional. It will equip you with the knowledge, skills and competencies in pharmaceutical systems to analyse, synthesise, evaluate and apply programme content in your day-to-day work through interactive online study, access to our library resources and networking with your peers across the globe.

In this online information session, you'll hear directly from the course director Rocio Villacorta Linaza and have the opportunity to ask any questions.

Register for your free place here: https://lstm.ac/DPSMayReg

Watch our short video and find out more about the benefits of studying the Professional Diploma in Pharmaceutical Systems.

15/05/2026

This year's Pint of Science festival takes place next week, bringing cutting-edge health research out of the lab and into the pub!

There's a final few tickets remaining for this year's night at the Ship and Mitre Pub in Liverpool, “Health for All: Rethinking Access, Equity and Innovation” on Tuesday 19th May, so don't miss the chance to hear researchers from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine explore how we can build more inclusive health systems, ensuring that innovation reaches the communities who need it most.

Join us for an evening of thought-provoking talks and conversation. Find out more and book your place: https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/health-for-all-rethinking-access-equity-and-innovation/.

Join researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine as they explore how health systems and technologies are being redesigned to be more inclusi…

14/05/2026

LSTM researchers have identified a previously unknown bacterium strongly associated with the devastating tropical disease noma, offering an important step towards understanding what drives its progression.

This discovery could potentially transform the way one of the world’s most neglected diseases is detected and treated.

Noma is a condition that mainly affects young children living in extreme poverty, and is fatal in up to 90% of cases if left untreated. In the future, this new insight could enable clinicians to identify children at risk before the disease reaches its most destructive stage, reducing both mortality and lifelong disfigurement.

Read more on our website: https://lstm.ac/4bId3RO

13/05/2026

This year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness week is action. We’re committed to driving practical change through our research and teaching. Find out how we’ve taken action ⬇️

12/05/2026

Today on International Nurses Day we celebrate and recognise the incredible contribution nurses make across LSTM and around the world.

Nurses are at the heart of improving global health outcomes, playing vital roles in research, clinical care and international collaboration. Across LSTM, our nurses contribute to global research partnerships, including studies currently taking place with colleagues in Indonesia.

They also provide essential specialist services through the Well Travelled Clinic, supporting pre- and post-travel and occupational health care, alongside their work with the Liverpool Vaccine Group on a human challenge study testing a novel bivalent vaccine for typhoid and paratyphoid.

Pictured are Mark Bell, Nicola Murphy, Maria Moore, Paris Benevenuto and Angie Hyder-Wright.

Thank you to all nurses across LSTM and around the world for your expertise, compassion and dedication every day.

07/05/2026

Mosquito surveillance is an increasingly important environmental and public health priority in the UK, as climate change and international travel fuel the spread of invasive species across Europe.

For example, Aedes albopictus, a vector for diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus, has contributed to local outbreaks of dengue in Europe. This species is not established in the UK, though its eggs have been repeatedly detected in South East England in recent years.

A new research project, led by LSTM and Lund University in Sweden, will use the latest advances in optical remote sensing technology, known as entomological lidar, to detect and identify the most important endemic and invasive mosquito species in UK.

Read more: https://lstmed.ac.uk/news/laser-technology-to-track-and-identify-invasive-mosquitoes-in-the-uk/.

06/05/2026

In the latest episode of the Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast, Professor Jonathan Ball speaks to Madeleine Finlay about suspected cases of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship travelling from Argentina to Cape Verde.

Jonathan explains where hantaviruses come from, how they spread to humans, and the public health response now underway following the deaths of three passengers.

Listen here:

Madeleine Finlay talks to Prof Jonathan Ball from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to find out more about the virus behind the outbreak on a luxury cruise ship