Written by Rumi Kato Price, PhD, MPE, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine; and Porpong (Paul) Boonmak, student at the Washington University School of Medicine Did you know that, globally, severe episodic phase of major depression is judged even more disabling than untreated AIDS? The level of disability of severe major […]
Author: Global Health Center
The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015
The Lancet recently published the 2015 Global Burden of Disease Capstone papers including articles on global mortality, years living with disability, disability-adjusted life-years, risk factors for disease, and a baseline analysis of health-related sustainable development goals. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 (GBD 2015) brings together the most recent epidemiological […]
2016-17 Global Health Student Advisory Committee
The Global Health Center has formed its 2016-17 Global Health Student Advisory Committee. The committee is comprised of student representatives from Arts & Sciences, Olin Business School, Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences, Engineering, Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, McDonnell International Scholars Academy, the School of Medicine, Program in Physical Therapy, and the Brown School. The role of […]
Global Research Site Award to project on malnutrition in Haiti
Lora Iannotti, PhD, Associate Professor at the Brown School received funding to establish a Global Research Site in Haiti to work on malnutrition. “The goal of this award from the Global Health Center is to deepen already existing links in a resource-poor settings, in order to increase the involvement of Washington University faculty and students […]
Global Health & Infectious Disease 2016 event award winners
The 4th Annual Global Health and Infectious Disease Conference was again a great success. Thank you to everyone who joined us to present, listen, learn, and connect. Prizes were awarded for the best talk at the Trainee Oral Symposium on April 14th and best posters at the Conference on April 15. Oral Award Kristin Griffiths, PhD, Postdoctoral […]
Global health experts on shrinking the cure and prevention divide
The Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health is hosting its fourth annual Global Health and Infectious Disease Conference with a focus on “Shrinking the Cure and Prevention Divide that Separates Populations from Life-Saving Drugs and Vaccines.” The Institute approached a select group of conference presenters to get their thoughts on the cure/prevention […]
Healthy People 2020 and the Sustainable Development Goals
For public health experts and practitioners, creating large-scale goals and objectives can be one way to help inspire and motivate large-scale change. Initiatives such as Healthy People 2020, created by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations, represent two attempts to set some big targets […]
Project New Boundaries for Youth
Last year Nidhi Bhaskar, a junior at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School, contacted Jacaranda van Rheenen, PhD, manager of the Global Health Center, to discuss her new organization, Project New Boundaries for Youth (ProjectNBYOUTH). Nidhi created her non-profit organization to spread awareness and inspire youth about local health, education, and environmental issues […]
PEPFAR: A policy response to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic
Written by April Houston, MSW/MPH, graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis Progress on HIV/AIDS has been substantial in the last 15 years, thanks to increased attention and funding to combat its spread. It is important to review the past to determine best practices for our present and future. The first cases of HIV […]
Reflections from Global Health Week
Written by María Ruiz, a junior at Washington University and the President of the Steering Committee for Global Health Week After many months of planning, the first student-organized Global Health Week culminated at the end of September. We think it was a great success. As I stated in a previous piece about Global Health Week, global health is a […]
New book examines shifting health-care landscapes in Maya Guatemala
Written by Anita Chary, MD/PhD, student at Washington University School of Medicine Privatization and the New Medical Pluralism: Shifting Healthcare Landscapes in Maya Guatemala is based on experiences in health care delivery in rural Guatemala over the last decade. I worked with Peter Rohloff, an internist and pediatrician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and faculty […]
An adult choice? Corporate responsibility and the global face of tobacco
Tobacco has been a global industry for more than a century. But in the era of corporate social responsibility, how do tobacco companies justify their push to sell even more cigarettes around the world? Trade agreements like the currently proposed Trans Pacific Partnership make it easier for tobacco corporations to flood markets in low- and […]
Creating global health messages that work
One of the key components of any health program is communication. How do we let people know what we are trying to do? How do we get people involved? How do we get people to change? While every potential audience we work with is inherently different, many of the same principles apply when we talk […]
Global health fellowship opportunities and experiences
Written by Austin Wesevich, MD/MPH, student at Washington University in St. Louis I am an MD/MPH student at Washington University interested in global health, so I applied for several fellowships this past year to fund time abroad. I was fortunate enough to receive a few offers, so I was able to spend four weeks in […]
Redefining the standard of care in cancer treatment
Eduardo Gharzouzi , MD, surgical oncologist at the Instituto de Cancerología, Guatemala City and one of the 2015 Global Health Week speakers In 2012, there were an estimated 14.2 million cases of cancer worldwide. More than half of this cancer burden comes from developing countries. By 2030, 60% of new cancer cases and 70% of cancer […]
Global health – The next generation
Written by Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine; and keynote speaker for 2015 Global Health Week We are coming to the end of an incredible 15-year period of expansion in promoting global health. Beginning with the launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in […]
Global Health Week: A student perspective
The leader of the Global Health Week planning committee offers a preview of the events and activities and muses on the larger significance of global health.
Documentary features Congolese hospital successes
Written by April Houston, MSW/MPH, graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis The women of Congo have had it rough. Their country has been at war for decades, many of them have seen their families and even their bodies badly damaged and torn apart. There’s no shortage of sad stories coming out of the […]
Microfinancing Partners in Africa
Microfinancing Partners in Africa is a Saint Louis-based organization whose mission is to provide grants and direct funding to strengthen and expand microfinancing programs in Africa, and to empower those living in extreme poverty by providing access to financial services and education. The organization was founded by Sister Toni Temporiti in 2006 and has grown […]
Bringing a superfood down to earth
Genetically modified (GM) crops are mostly planted on large industrialized farms (mainly in the US, Brazil, and Argentina), but there continues to be keen interest in—and debate on—their utility for small farmers and poor consumers in the Global South. In this regard, “Golden Rice” has received the most attention. Golden Rice is a medical food, engineered […]
Project Peanut Butter
Project Peanut Butter works in Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Ghana to bring Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to malnourished children.
Contagion! Back to the past
Words carry the past. – I was reminded of this recently as I watched Contagion, a 2011 movie that follows a team of medical experts as they battle to stop a lethal airborne virus before it wipes out all of humanity. Who will win: the experts or the virus? We never find out, nor should […]
Language resource: Canopy medical translator app
The Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health has received free access to the NIH-funded Canopy Medical Translator premium app. Providers across the globe can communicate with patients/communities in 15 languages. The app includes translation help for phrases medical personnel use the most, and a live medical interpreter is available when you need […]
Videos from the Global Health & Infectious Disease Conference
A number of videos are now available from the talks at the April 10, 2015 Global Health & Infectious Disease Conference. These include: “Translational Medicine & Global Infectious Diseases – Need for Interdisciplinarity” with William Powderly, MD, Washington University “The Neglected Tropical Diseases Caused by Infections with Helminth Parasites” with Edward Pearce, PhD, Washington University “Using Genomics to […]
One postdoc fellow’s take on the Global Health & Infectious Disease Conference
Written by Rosanne Hertzberger, PhD, postdoctoral fellow and Morse Fellowship recipient in the Lewis Lab of Microbial Glycobiology and Women’s Health When my abstract was selected to present at the oral trainee session of the third annual Global Health and Infectious Disease Conference, I spent quite some time deliberating on how my research, my daily […]
Congrats to winners of global health infectious disease presentation awards
A number of participants in the 2015 Global Health & Infectious Disease Symposium and Conference on April 9 & 10 received awards for their outstanding work. These included: Trainee Oral Symposium Presentations Best postdoctoral fellow talkRosanne Hertzberger, PhD, cWIDR, Washington University, for: “Degradation and Metabolism of Glycogen During Bacterial Vaginosis” Best student talkPriya Pal, MD/PhD […]
Unearthing the potential of soil bacteria
Dr. Dantas and his team study the ecology, evolution and transmission dynamics of microbes and their antibiotic resistance genes across multiple habitats, towards building better predictive models of resistance selection and dissemination. Specifically he has recently focused on soil bacteria and solving the problems of antibiotic resistance. Can you describe what you mean by “soil bacteria,” and some of […]
Bench to implementation in the real world
Our Global Health Center contacted speakers from it’s 2015 Global Health and Infectious Disease Conference to gain their perspectives on the event’s theme of taking research from bench to implementation. We spoke with: Daniel Colley, PhD, Professor, University of Georgia and Director, Center for Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases Helen Fletcher, PhD, Senior Lecturer at […]
Aging with HIV
One of the most positive features of the current era of HIV, particularly in the Western world, is the fact that patients are aging successfully. In the 1980s, when the disease was first recognized, the average survival after someone was given a diagnosis of AIDS was approximately two years; indeed, on average, the interval between […]
Successful Open Streets program
During Open Streets events, cars are restricted from driving on certain streets so that people may walk, run, bike, skate, dance and play for a few hours each week, most commonly on Sundays. Common in Latin America, these events give communities a safe and affordable environment in which to come together for exercise and play. […]
Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections call to action
In late February 2015, the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections (GAFFI) convened thought leaders from around the globe met in Seattle, WA. The director of the Institute and its Global Health Center, Bill Powderly, was one of the speakers at this key event. Stakeholders concluded that the early detection and treatment of fungal meningitis […]
Ebola virus disease lessons learned
The emergence, rapid spread, and ongoing transmission of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa have taught us many lessons about this deadly disease that was virtually unknown in the developed world before 2014: EVD can cause very large, sustained epidemics. This outbreak, with 8000+ deaths and counting, is by far the worst in history for many reasons including introduction into a […]
A medical anthropologist in Paris
Between 2001 and 2009, I had the opportunity to interview West African women living in Paris, France, and consult for reproductive health care in the French public health system. Structured interviews with 130 women led to further informal questioning of those who were willing, and to a handful of intense personal relationships. These relations, in […]
2014 Summer Research Program in Global Health
The 2014 Summer Research Program in Global Health (SRPGH), from the Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis offered eight students (from undergraduates to medical students) the opportunity to work closely with outstanding faculty mentors focusing on global health. The goal of the program was to expose […]
Maternal-child health researchers offer their insights
Recently, the Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease at Washington University in St. Louis contacted some of the presenters at the 2014 CGHID conference to gain a deeper insight into their experiences in the field of maternal/child health. Here is what we learned: Describe your career path a bit. What drew you to the […]