UW Global Health Professor Kristie Ebi presented Aug. 27 at the World Health Organization conference on health and climate in Geneva.
The Washington Global Health Alliance announced its Second Annual Pioneers in Global Health Awards, three prestigious awards selected by a panel of judges including last year’s Impact Award Winner, Department Chair Dr. King Holmes. Congratulations to Kenneth Stuart, Pathobiology faculty and founder of Seattle Biomed, for winning the Award for Impact!
From the WGHA website:
Ukraine has one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and is experiencing one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world. The first case of HIV was identified in 1987; since that time 245,216 cases have been officially recorded, with 31,999 deaths. As of January 1, 2014, more than 134,000 HIV-positive patients were registered with and receiving care and treatment from the state health care facilities.
The key to removing the stigma surrounding mental illness can be summarized in one word — empathy.
“If I could inspire a little bit of empathy toward this issue, my work is complete,” said Delany Ruston, a physician and filmmaker from Seattle.
Ruston says that global mental illness is not very different from the mental illness that is around us in the US. The woman we avoid at the bus stop, the man muttering to himself on the sidewalk; these people are often hidden from view, not only because we choose not to see them but also because they are tucked away by society.
"I want to tell a story of something that happened this week, Monday, in my country,” Dr. Stella Nyanzi told the crowd as she began her keynote speech to kick off the 11th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference.
“People marched through Kampala, carrying banners and posters with the most shocking messages for those of us who had been working with the LGBTIQ community in Uganda, messages that said things like, ‘Uganda belongs to God,’ or, ‘Musevini, we the children thank you for saving our future.’”
“Global health and social movements must be anchored at the local grassroots level,” said Walter G. Flores, the first panelist to speak this Sunday at the WRIHC’s final plenary session.
Flores, who works for the Center for the Study of Equity and Governance in Healthcare Systems, was one of four distinguished keynote speakers who wrapped up this weekend’s global health conference in the spirit of social justice and activism.
I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with a panel title, “Taboo Topics in Film: Social Justice in Gender Identity and Sexual Health.” Even the word taboo made me think of fishnet stockings. Instead, this engaging panel addressed two very distinct and important issues: female condoms as a preventative tool for women, and the financial barriers to medical procedures faced by transgender people.
Sean Bernfeld, a first-year medical student on the Global Health Immersion Program (GHIP), went to Uganda to work with Hospice Africa Uganda, which provides support for patients with HIV/AIDS and cancer. Bernfeld said he wasn’t sure what he was going to do while he was there, but he had brought his camera, and a photo project was born.
Last month, a distinguished group from the University of Washington’s International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) and Department of Global Health (DGH) visited Addis Ababa and Gondar, Ethiopia, for several days of discussion, workshops, events, and celebration — including the University of Gondar’s 60th anniversary Diamond Jubilee and the inauguration of the University of Gondar Comprehensive Outpatient Center.
In the fall, Health Equity Circle (HEC) students are working directly with Sound Alliance under the supervision of Dr. Rick Arnold to offer UCONJ 624: Health Equity and Community Organizing in Autumn 2014. This course will equip students from the six health sciences schools to work together to develop community organizing skills focused on upstream action for health equity.