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Wenhui Mao

Wenhui Mao

Assistant Research Professor of Global Health
Duke Global Health Institute
wenhui.mao@duke.edu
310 Trent Drive, Box 90519, Durham, NC 27710
310 Trent Drive, Box 90519, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Global Disparities in Premature Mortality.

Journal Article JAMA health forum · October 2025 ImportancePersistent disparities in mortality across countries suggest uneven improvements in living standards and access to life-extending health technologies, as well as context-specific obstacles. Studies have analyzed cross-country inequality ... Full text Cite

Epidemiological and demographic trends and projections in global health from 1970 to 2050: a descriptive analysis from the third Lancet Commission on Investing in Health, Global Health 2050.

Journal Article Lancet (London, England) · August 2025 BackgroundSystematic analyses of global health trends can provide an accurate narrative of progress and challenges. We analysed the impact of changing age-specific mortality (epidemiology) and age structure (demography) on crude death rates (CDRs) ... Full text Cite

Development, launch, and scale-up of health products in low-income and middle-income countries: a retrospective analysis on 59 health products.

Journal Article The Lancet. Global health · June 2025 BackgroundLow-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) bear a heavy burden from communicable, maternal, and childhood diseases, yet access to health products addressing these burdens is lagging. We aimed to provide empirical evidence about the t ... Full text Cite

Priority Health Conditions and Global Life Expectancy Disparities.

Journal Article JAMA network open · May 2025 ImportanceLife expectancy is a composite health measure reflecting acute and life-course exposures. Identifying conditions behind disparities in life expectancy can guide policy, planning, and financing to battle the most urgent health problems. Full text Cite

Salud global 2050: el camino para reducir a la mitad la muerte prematura.

Journal Article Salud publica de Mexico · May 2025 En el informe Salud Global 2050, la Comisión de la revista The Lancet sobre la Inversión en Salud concluye que, para mediados de siglo, es posible lograr mejoras significativas en el bienestar humano con inversiones en salud focalizadas. El informe estable ... Full text Cite

Progress, impacts and lessons from market shaping in the past decade: a systematic review.

Journal Article Frontiers in public health · January 2025 Market shaping activities have been increasingly used to improve access to health products, such as the advance market commitments used to increase access to the pneumococcal vaccine and COVID-19 vaccines. This paper reviewed the progress and impacts, and ... Full text Cite

Who benefits from the donor-supported malaria programme in Enugu State, Nigeria? A benefit incidence analysis.

Journal Article PLOS global public health · January 2025 Nigeria bears the highest global burden of malaria, accounting for 25% of cases and 19% of deaths worldwide. Development partners provide substantial support for malaria prevention and treatment in Nigeria. This study examines the financial burden of malar ... Full text Cite

Halving premature death and improving quality of life at all ages: cross-country analyses of past trends and future directions.

Journal Article Lancet (London, England) · December 2024 BackgroundAlthough death in old age is unavoidable, premature death-defined here as death before age 70 years-is not. To assess whether halving premature mortality by 2050 is feasible, we examined the large variation in premature death rates befor ... Full text Cite

Global health 2050: the path to halving premature death by mid-century.

Journal Article Lancet (London, England) · October 2024 Full text Cite

Cost-effectiveness and budget impact analysis of screening and preventive interventions for cardiovascular disease in Myanmar: an economic modelling study.

Journal Article The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · July 2024 BackgroundCardiovascular diseases (CVD) remains a leading cause of mortality in Myanmar. Despite the burden, CVD preventive services receive low government and donor budgets, which has led to poor CVD outcomes.MethodsWe conducted a cost-e ... Full text Cite

Strategic donor behaviour and country vulnerability in health aid transitions.

Journal Article BMJ global health · November 2023 BackgroundWhen countries reach the middle-income threshold, many multilateral donors, including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), begin to withdraw their official development assistance (ODA), known as graduation. We hypothesised that bilateral d ... Full text Open Access Cite

Scaling malaria interventions: bottlenecks to malaria elimination.

Journal Article BMJ global health · November 2023 The slow progress in malaria control efforts and increasing challenges have prompted a need to accelerate the research and development (R&D), launch and scaling of effective interventions for malaria elimination. This research, including desk research and ... Full text Open Access Cite

Comparing research and development, launch, and scale up timelines of 18 vaccines: lessons learnt from COVID-19 and implications for other infectious diseases.

Journal Article BMJ global health · September 2023 Over the next decade, millions of deaths could be prevented by increasing access to vaccines in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the research and development (R&D), launch and scale up timelines of ... Full text Cite

UK foreign aid cuts and global health.

Journal Article BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · September 2023 Full text Cite

Mobilizing Domestic Funds for the HIV/AIDS Response in Nigeria: Estimating the Potential Contribution of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Journal Article Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · April 2023 BackgroundAmid the dwindling donor support for HIV in Nigeria, there is an urgent need for additional domestic HIV funding. This study estimates the required financial resources for people living with HIV (PLHIV) and the potential magnitude of dom ... Full text Cite

Effects of public financing of essential maternal and child health interventions across wealth quintiles in Nigeria: an extended cost-effectiveness analysis.

Journal Article The Lancet. Global health · April 2023 BackgroundMaternal and newborn mortality rates in Nigeria are among the highest globally, and large socioeconomic inequalities exist in access to maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services in the country. Inequalities also exist in catast ... Full text Cite

Is Nigeria on course to achieve universal health coverage in the context of its epidemiological and financing transition? A knowledge, capacity and policy gap analysis (a qualitative study).

Journal Article BMJ open · March 2023 ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess Nigeria's preparedness to finance and drive the universal health coverage (UHC) agenda within the context of changing health conditions and resource needs associated with the disease, demographic and funding tr ... Full text Cite

Chinese health funding in Africa: The untold story.

Journal Article PLOS global public health · January 2023 The motivations behind China's allocation of health aid to Africa remain complex due to limited information on the details of health aid project activities. Insufficient knowledge about the purpose of China's health aid hinders our understanding of China's ... Full text Cite

United Kingdom aid cuts: implications for financing health systems.

Journal Article Frontiers in public health · January 2023 BackgroundThe United Kingdom (UK) used to be the second largest bilateral provider of official development assistance (ODA) for health. However, in 2021 the UK government cut its annual aid budget by 30%. We aim to understand how these cuts might ... Full text Cite

Estimating Chinese bilateral aid for health: an analysis of AidData's Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset Version 2.0.

Conference BMJ global health · December 2022 BackgroundAlthough it is difficult to quantify, previous estimates suggested that China's global health aid has increased sharply since the early 2000s. Unlike many donors, China has no official aid reporting obligations, nor does it voluntarily d ... Full text Cite

Have lower-income groups benefited more from increased government health insurance subsidies? Benefit incidence analysis in Ningxia, China.

Journal Article Health policy and planning · November 2022 China's government subsidies on the demand side-such as subsidizing medical insurance premiums-have accelerated progress towards universal health coverage. We examined whether the increased government subsidies had benefited the population, especially the ... Full text Cite

Improving access to medicines: lessons from 10 years of drug reforms in China, 2009-2020.

Journal Article BMJ global health · November 2022 China initiated its healthcare reform in 2009 to provide accessible and affordable healthcare to all. We summarised China's drug reforms between 2009 and 2020 using the WHO framework. China has initiated comprehensive drug policies to address different iss ... Full text Cite

Estimated Global Proportions of Individuals With Persistent Fatigue, Cognitive, and Respiratory Symptom Clusters Following Symptomatic COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021.

Journal Article JAMA · October 25, 2022 IMPORTANCE: Some individuals experience persistent symptoms after initial symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (often referred to as Long COVID). OBJECTIVE: To estimate the proportion of males and females with COVID-19, younger or older than 20 years of age, w ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impacts of donor transitions on health systems in middle-income countries: a scoping review.

Journal Article Health policy and planning · October 2022 As countries graduate from low-income to middle-income status, many face losses in development assistance for health and must 'transition' to greater domestic funding of their health response. If improperly managed, donor transitions in middle-income count ... Full text Cite

Investing in late-stage clinical trials and manufacturing of product candidates for five major infectious diseases: a modelling study of the benefits and costs of investment in three middle-income countries.

Journal Article The Lancet. Global health · July 2022 BackgroundInvesting in late-stage clinical trials, trial sites, and production capacity for new health products could improve access to vaccines, therapeutics, and infectious disease diagnostics in middle-income countries. This study assesses the ... Full text Cite

Coverage of social assistance in Ethiopia during the COVID-19 pandemic: a time-to-event analysis.

Journal Article BMJ global health · July 2022 ObjectiveIn a pandemic, government assistance is essential to support the most vulnerable households as they face health and economic challenges. However, government assistance is effective only when it reaches vulnerable households in time. In th ... Full text Cite

Equity assessment of childhood immunisation at national and subnational levels in Myanmar: a benefit incidence analysis.

Journal Article BMJ global health · July 2022 IntroductionMyanmar, a conflict-affected geographically and ethnically diverse lower middle-income country, was in the donor transition phase for health prior to the political unrest of the last year. This study analyses the distribution of benefi ... Full text Cite

Who benefits from tuberculosis outpatient services in Enugu state, Nigeria? A benefit incidence analysis.

Journal Article Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · June 2022 ObjectivesNigeria is one of the 30 high-burden countries for TB and currently, recurrent costs of TB treatment services are largely dependent on donor-funding, with government providing the health facilities. This study aims to assess the benefit ... Full text Cite

Scaling up community-based health insurance in Ethiopia: a qualitative study of the benefits and challenges.

Journal Article BMC health services research · April 2022 BackgroundEthiopia has achieved impressive improvements in health outcomes and economic growth in the last decade but its total health spending is among the lowest in Africa. Ethiopia launched a Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) scheme in 20 ... Full text Cite

It is not too late to achieve global covid-19 vaccine equity.

Journal Article BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · March 2022 Full text Cite

Addressing child health inequity through case management of under-five malaria in Nigeria: an extended cost-effectiveness analysis.

Journal Article Malaria journal · March 2022 BackgroundUnder-five malaria in Nigeria is a leading cause of global child mortality, accounting for 95,000 annual child deaths. High out-of-pocket medical expenditure contributes to under-five malaria mortality by discouraging care-seeking and us ... Full text Cite

Identifying the impact of COVID-19 on health systems and lessons for future emergency preparedness: A stakeholder analysis in Kenya.

Journal Article PLOS global public health · January 2022 The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has triggered a public health and economic crisis in high and low resource settings since the beginning of 2020. With the first case being discovered on 12th March 2020, Kenya has responded by using health and non-health ... Full text Cite

Tracking financing for global common goods for health: A machine learning approach using natural language processing techniques.

Journal Article Frontiers in public health · January 2022 ObjectiveTracking global health funding is a crucial but time consuming and labor-intensive process. This study aimed to develop a framework to automate the tracking of global health spending using natural language processing (NLP) and machine lea ... Full text Cite

Perspectives of frontline health workers on transition from development assistance for health in Ghana: A qualitative study.

Journal Article PLOS global public health · January 2022 Many Low-income countries depend on development assistance for health (DAH) to finance the health sector. The transition of these countries to middle-income status has led to reduction in effective aid from development partners while these countries are ex ... Full text Cite

Progress in the face of cuts: a qualitative Nigerian case study of maintaining progress towards universal health coverage after losing donor assistance.

Journal Article Health policy and planning · August 2021 In the coming years, about a dozen middle-income countries are excepted to transition out of development assistance for health (DAH) based on their economic growth. This anticipated loss of external funds at a time when there is a need for accelerated prog ... Full text Cite

Did the poor gain from India's health policy interventions? Evidence from benefit-incidence analysis, 2004-2018.

Journal Article International journal for equity in health · July 2021 BackgroundHealth policy interventions were expected to improve access to health care delivery, provide financial risk protection, besides reducing inequities that underlie geographic and socio-economic variation in population access to health care ... Full text Cite

Access to quality diagnosis and rational treatment for tuberculosis: real-world evidence from China-Gates Tuberculosis Control Project Phase III.

Journal Article Infect Dis Poverty · June 29, 2021 BACKGROUND: China has successfully reduced tuberculosis (TB) incidence rate over the past three decades, however, challenges remain in improving the quality of TB diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, we assess the effects of the implementation of "China ... Full text Link to item Cite

Achieving global mortality reduction targets and universal health coverage: The impact of COVID-19.

Journal Article PLoS medicine · June 2021 Wenhui Mao and coauthors discuss possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for health aspirations in low- and middle-income countries. ... Full text Cite

Ten-year impacts of China's rural health scheme: lessons for universal health coverage.

Journal Article BMJ Glob Health · April 2021 China has made profound progress in advancing universal health coverage (UHC) over the past two decades. New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) was initiated in 2003 to provide health insurance coverage to rural population. Its benefit packages and cost-sha ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of multiple policy interventions on the screening and diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients: a cascade analysis on six prefectures in China.

Journal Article Infect Dis Poverty · January 19, 2021 BACKGROUND: The detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a major health concern in China. We aim to summarize interventions related to the screening and detection of DR-TB in Jiangsu Province, analyse their impact, and highlight policy implicati ... Full text Link to item Cite

Socio-Economic and Rural-Urban Differences in Healthcare and Catastrophic Health Expenditure Among Cancer Patients in China: Analysis of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.

Journal Article Front Public Health · 2021 Objective: In China, cancer accounts for one-fifth of all deaths, and exerts a heavy toll on patients, families, healthcare systems, and society as a whole. This study aims to examine the temporal trends in socio-economic and rural-urban differences in tre ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transitioning from donor aid for health: perspectives of national stakeholders in Ghana.

Journal Article BMJ global health · January 2021 BackgroundGhana's shift from low-income to middle-income status will make it ineligible to receive concessional aid in the future. While transition may be a reflection of positive changes in a country, such as economic development or health progre ... Full text Cite

Advancing universal health coverage in China and Vietnam: lessons for other countries.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · November 25, 2020 BACKGROUND: China and Vietnam have made impressive progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) through government-led health insurance reforms. We compared the different pathways used to achieve UHC, to identify the lessons other countries can learn f ... Full text Link to item Cite

COVID-19 control strategies in Taizhou city, China.

Journal Article Bulletin of the World Health Organization · September 2020 ProblemOn 21 January 2020, the city of Taizhou, China, reported its first imported coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case and subsequently the number of cases rapidly increased.ApproachTo organize the emergency responses, the government ... Full text Cite

Does health insurance impact health service utilization among older adults in urban China? A nationwide cross-sectional study.

Journal Article BMC Health Serv Res · July 9, 2020 BACKGROUND: China's rapidly aging population has led to many challenges related to the health care delivery and financing. Since 2007, the Urban Residents Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) program has provided financial protection for older adults living in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combating hepatitis B and C by 2030: achievements, gaps, and options for actions in China.

Journal Article BMJ Glob Health · June 2020 China has the highest number of hepatitis B and C cases globally. Despite remarkable achievements, China faces daunting challenges in achieving international targets for hepatitis elimination. As part of a large-scale project assessing China's progress in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Making sense of estimates of health aid from China.

Journal Article BMJ global health · January 2020 Full text Cite

Under-reporting of TB cases and associated factors: a case study in China.

Journal Article BMC Public Health · December 11, 2019 BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is a leading cause of death worldwide and has become a high global health priority. Accurate country level surveillance is critical to ending the pandemic. Effective routine reporting systems which track the course of the epidemic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Current situation and progress toward the 2030 health-related Sustainable Development Goals in China: A systematic analysis.

Journal Article PLoS Med · November 2019 BACKGROUND: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all United Nations (UN) member states in 2015, established a set of bold and ambitious health-related targets to achieve by 2030. Understanding China's progress toward these targets is critic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Over- and under-treatment of TB patients in Eastern China: an analysis based on health insurance claims data.

Journal Article Trop Med Int Health · September 2019 OBJECTIVE: Poor compliance with existing guidelines for tuberculosis (TB) care and treatment is an issue of concern in China. We assessed health service use by TB patients over the entire treatment process and compared it to the recommended guidelines. MET ... Full text Link to item Cite

10 years of health-care reform in China: progress and gaps in Universal Health Coverage.

Journal Article Lancet (London, England) · September 2019 In 2009, China launched a major health-care reform and pledged to provide all citizens with equal access to basic health care with reasonable quality and financial risk protection. The government has since quadrupled its funding for health. The reform's fi ... Full text Cite

Complications of diabetes in China: health system and economic implications.

Journal Article BMC public health · March 2019 BackgroundThe prevalence of diabetes and diabetic complications increased alarmingly which also brought heavy burden to patients and health system.MethodsWe used mix approaches to summarize evidence from published articles and policy docu ... Full text Cite

An analysis on rational use and affordability of medicine after the implementation of National Essential Medicines Policy and Zero Mark-up Policy in Hangzhou, China.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2019 BackgroundThe National Essential Medicine Policy and the Zero Mark-up Policy was introduced to improve the rational use and affordability of medicine. This study analyzed the changes of medicine use at different Health Care Institutions in Hangzho ... Full text Cite

Availability, use, and affordability of medicines in urban China under universal health coverage: an empirical study in Hangzhou and Baoji.

Journal Article BMC health services research · March 2018 BackgroundThis study aimed to examine the availability, use, and affordability of medicines in urban China following the 2009 Health Care System Reform that included implementation of universal health coverage (UHC).MethodsThis longitudin ... Full text Cite

Financial burden of healthcare for cancer patients with social medical insurance: a multi-centered study in urban China.

Journal Article Int J Equity Health · October 10, 2017 BACKGROUND: Cancer accounts for one-fifth of the total deaths in China and brings heavy financial burden to patients and their families. Chinese government has made strong commitment to develop three types of social medical insurance since 1997 and recentl ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Progress and policy implication of the Insurance Programs for Catastrophic Diseases in China.

Journal Article The International journal of health planning and management · July 2017 The State Council encouraged the involvement of commercial insurance companies (CICs) in the development of the Insurance Program for Catastrophic Diseases (IPCD), yet its implementation has rarely been reported. We collected literature and policy document ... Full text Cite

Systematic review on irrational use of medicines in China and Vietnam.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2015 BACKGROUND: Irrational use of medicines has been an issue concerned all over the world and the outlooks in developing countries are more severe. This study aimed to assess the different patterns of irrational use of medicines and its influential factors in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Does economic incentive matter for rational use of medicine? China's experience from the essential medicines program.

Journal Article PharmacoEconomics · March 2014 BackgroundBefore the new round of healthcare reform in China, primary healthcare providers could obtain a fixed 15 % or greater mark-up of profits by prescribing and selling medicines. There were concerns that this perverse incentive was a key cau ... Full text Cite

Does perverse economic incentive lead to the irrational uses of medicines?

Journal Article Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res · December 2013 Full text Link to item Cite