The 7-1-7 target is feasible to measure and to achieve, and assessment with this framework can identify areas for performance improvement and help prioritise national planning. Increased investments must be made at the health facility and intermediate public health levels for improved systems to detect, notify, and rapidly respond to emerging public health threats.

In The Lancet Global Health, Aaron F Bochner and colleagues showed how implementing the 7-1-7 target promotes agility and accountability in global health security, using examples from five low-income and middle-income countries.1 The Article emphasises the importance of early action to stem morbidity and save lives, as any delays in detection, notification, and response directly affect the…

Among young adolescents, exposure to tobacco advertisements remains high, and exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements is not high enough. The proportion of young adolescents exposed to pro-tobacco and anti-tobacco advertisements had decreased over time in the majority of included countries. These findings underscore the importance of strict implementation of regulation on tobacco control…

The Article by Chuanwei Ma and colleagues, published in The Lancet Global Health, on the trends in exposure to pro-tobacco and anti-tobacco advertisements in young adolescents aged 12–16 years found that, globally, a high proportion of young people recalled past 30-day exposure to pro-tobacco messaging.1 Encouragingly, the authors also reported that exposure to pro-tobacco messaging among young…

Overweight and obesity prevalence among children and adolescents in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) rose steeply from 2·5% to 17·3% between 1975 and 2016.1,2 By 2020, 39 million children younger than 5 years and 341·6 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 years were affected. This situation is concerning in terms of the current and future burden of non-communicable diseases in…