photo of students in Dark Empire study abroad program
Clarence Spigner Study Abroad Race Equity Great Britain Student Experience
August 22, 2016 | Department News

SPH: UW Students Have Hard Conversations about Race & Disparity in London

Students share their experiences in a study abroad program examining health disparities in Great Britain in this School of Public Health news article. The program name, Dark Empire, refers to the shadow that existed after the fall of the British Empire and the health disparities seen today as a result of British imperialism. This is the program's 9th year and it is led by Adjunct Professor Clarence Spigner.

BIRCH team
HIV/AIDS Vaginal Microbiome Alison Roxby Scott McClelland Center for Aids Research (CFAR)
August 19, 2016 | Health News

PBS NewsHour: Uncovering the Female Body's Secret Protection against HIV

By Heather Boerner

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — From where Linda-Gail Bekker sits as director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town, science has been losing ground against HIV for years, especially when it comes to young women. After all, in some parts of the country, girls who are 15 today have an 80 percent chance of acquiring HIV in their lifetimes.

“We’re really in the trenches here,” she said. “We have to bring all the technology, tools—you know, innovations—we can find to start turning that war around.”

BIRCH team
Syphilis Infectious Disease Sheila Lukehart Pathobiology
August 18, 2016 | Health News

The Globe and Mail: University of Victoria Researcher Close to Developing Syphilis Vaccine

By Andrea Woo

A University of Victoria researcher says she and a colleague are close to developing a vaccine for syphilis, a disease that has reached its highest rates in B.C. in 30 years.

Microbiologist Caroline Cameron and Sheila Lukehart, a professor in the University of Washington’s department of global health, have received a nearly $3-million grant from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. The grant will help fund preclinical trials.

BIRCH team
Sheila Lukehart Syphilis Infectious Disease Pathobiology
August 18, 2016 | Health News

Times Colonist: As Syphilis Cases Rise, UVic Leads Search for a Vaccine

By Richard Watts

A University of Victoria microbiologist and her American colleague are looking for a vaccine to prevent syphilis, a venereal disease on the rise worldwide.

UVic’s Caroline Cameron, a professor of biochemistry and microbiology, is joining with University of Washington’s Sheila Lukehart, a professor of medicine and global health, to develop a vaccine to stop syphilis before it gets started in a body.

“It’s a preventive treatment, not a cure,” Cameron said.

BIRCH team
Zika Virus IHME David Pigott
August 16, 2016 | Health News

Wired: The Price of Zika? About $4 Million Per Child

By Emma Grey Ellis

To talk about Zika virus control is to talk about money. Vaccine development, mosquito abatement, and even the distribution of DEET repellant takes (and currently lacks) major federal dollars. When, last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services declared Zika a public health emergency in Puerto Rico, it was in part a means to a better-funded end.

Measuring a child
Patricia Pavlinac Judd Walson Diarrheal Disease Global WACh Christine McGrath
August 10, 2016 | Department News

Department Part of Major Study to Test Antibiotics as a Treatment for Diarrheal Disease in High-Risk Children in Low Resource Settings

By Amelia Vader

Researchers at the University of Washington and Kenya Medical Research Institute are working to determine if antibiotics could help save thousands of children from dying of diarrheal disease thanks to a four-year $2.5 million grant from the World Health Organization.

The Antibiotics for Children with Severe Diarrhea (ABCD) Trial is the largest clinical trial addressing diarrhea management to date; and it will not only answer the question of the potential benefits of antibiotics it will also address any potential harm, such as antibiotic resistance.

Pages