Daily Newsletter Provides COVID-19 Literature Situation Report

The UW Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness has released a new daily newsletter that provides a succinct summary of the latest scientific literature related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each day, there is a firehose of new scientific information emerging about COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2. This initiative is an attempt to focus that hose to highlight new findings that are most relevant to the public health response.

Washington and Kenya: Opportunities for Joint Learning on the COVID-19 Pandemic

The UW Department of Global Health and MetaCenter for Pandemic Disease Preparedness and Global Health Security are partnering with Kenyatta National Hospital to host a webinar series, "Washington and Kenya: Opportunities for joint learning on the COVID-19 epidemic". The series, developed by Keshet Ronen and John Kinuthia in response to requests from our long-time partners in Kenya, seeks to share lessons learned from Washington’s early experience of the pandemic, and engage with clinicians, public health practitioners and policymakers in Kenya as they develop Kenya’s response.

STREAM Study Shows Point-of-Care Viral Load Testing Can Improve HIV Outcomes

The Simplifying HIV TREAtment and Monitoring (STREAM) study, led by Global Health professor Paul Drain and recently published in The Lancet HIV, found that point-of-care HIV viral load monitoring and task shifting significantly improved viral suppression and retention in HIV care, as compared to standard laboratory-based HIV viral load testing. This study was the first randomized controlled trial to compare rapid point-of-care HIV viral load testing against standard of care lab-based HIV viral load testing, which usually takes several weeks to return results to patients.

Health Alliance International: A COVID-19 Information Hub

Health Alliance International (HAI), a center of the University of Washington Department of Global Health, has launched their spin on a COVID information hub. The hub is providing updates on the pandemic in Mozambique, Timor-Leste, and Côte d’Ivoire, while also highlighting the adaptation and resilience of health workers and resource-limited health systems. 

Amid Hydroxychloroquine Uproar, Real Studies of Drug Are Suffering (New York Times, quotes Christine Johnston)

President Trump’s enthusiastic embrace of a malaria drug that he now says he takes daily — and the resulting uproar in the news media — appears to be interfering with legitimate scientific research into whether the medicine might work to prevent coronavirus infection or treat the disease in its early stages.

DGH Grad Student Wins Population Health Fellowship, Will Help Launch Clean Drinking Water Tech (UW School of Public Health, includes Juan Osorio-Valencia)

Juan Osorio-Valencia from the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine is one of four graduate students from the UW awarded Social Entrepreneurship Fellowships by the Population Health Initiative.

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