News Global Health Center

Global Health Center awards funding

The Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis has awarded funding for a public health project.

Joaquin Barnoya, MD, MPH and  William G. Powderly, MD, from Washington University and Carlos Mejia, MD, from Roosevelt Hospital Guatemala were awarded $15,000 for their project proposal, “Cardiovascular disease risk, tobacco use, and quit attempts among HIV-positive patients in Guatemala.

Their project will assess the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among HIV-positive patients who attend the Infectious Diseases Clinic at Roosevelt Hospital, one of the largest outpatient HIV clinics in Guatemala. In addition to CVD risk evaluation, they will also describe tobacco use and quit attempts in order to determine the feasibility of a smoking cessation intervention based on the stages of change.


The Institute for Public Health and its Global Health Center is saddened by the recent sudden death of our colleague, Dr. Carlos Mejia. Dr. Mejia was one of the pioneers of HIV/AIDS treatment in Guatemala and he collaborated on several projects with Washington University residents, fellows, and faculty examining issues related to AIDS in Guatemala. Most recently he collaborated with Drs. Joaquin Barnoya and Bill Powderly on a grant from the Institute examining smoking cessation in HIV-infected patients in Guatemala. At this time, Johanna Samayoa, RD, has joined the grant project.