Department of Global Health 2019 Annual Report Highlights Global Health Programs and People

The just-released Department of Global Health 2019 Annual Report highlights DGH’s impacts, in collaboration with our partners around the globe, on transforming lives and improving health for all.

The report highlights innovative discoveries in science, efforts to improve global health systems and practices, and examples of how we are preparing the next generation of global health leaders through our world-class learning programs.

UW Pandemic Expert Explains Our Obsession with COVID-19 (Crosscut - by Peter Rabinowitz)

A viral illness spreads across Washington state, causing respiratory illness. Most cases are mild, but some are severe and even fatal. At the same time it causes many fewer illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths than the seasonal flu. So why are we obsessed with this COVID-19? Why is it that pharmacies have run out of surgical masks and hand sanitizer, and people no longer feel shy about wearing a mask in public? Why are conferences and classes getting canceled and governors declaring states of emergency when we don’t do that with seasonal flu?

Simple Method to Prevent HIV in South Africa and Uganda Works (EurekAlert! - Quotes Ruanne Barnabas)

In parts of Africa, where the rate of HIV is high, researchers found that using mobile vans to dispense antiretroviral treatment and other care greatly increased viral suppression.

Researchers enrolled 1,315 people living with HIV and not on antiretroviral treatment in a nearly three-year study in South Africa and Uganda using mobile vans to dispense treatment.

Spotlight: Pamela Collins - Director, Global Mental Health Program

Pamela Collins is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she directs the Global Mental Health Program (GMH), a joint effort of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Global Health. She is a psychiatrist and mixed methods researcher with 25 years of experience in global public health and global mental health research, education, training and capacity-building, and science policy leadership. Dr.

We're all in this Together: Coronavirus Lessons from Hong Kong (Seattle Times Op-Ed by Karin Huster, MPH '13)

HONG KONG — It’s been hard to be far away from home, watching a pandemic of panic over the new coronavirus ripple across the world.

A month ago I left Seattle for Hong Kong — a city of 7.3 million bordering mainland China and one of the planet’s most densely populated — as part of a Doctors Without Borders effort to rein in the widespread fear gripping the city as it began to wrestle with a virus the world knew little about.

That fear has now reached home.

Rising CO2 Levels are Making Food Less Nutritious. It Could Cause a Global Malnutrition Crisis (Business Insider - Quotes Kristie Ebi)

The huge amount of carbon dioxide we are producing and pumping into the Earth's atmosphere is causing much more damage than previously thought.

Rising CO2 levels aren't just responsible not for global warming; they also have a massive impact on the global food system, according to a Science Advances study. An increase in carbon dioxide can significantly reduce the level of micronutrients in certain plants. 

UW Global Health Director Dr. King Holmes Named Distinguished Professor Emeritus

54 years in medicine and public health, including 13 years of leadership in the UW Department of Global Health, has brought profound impacts on infectious diseases worldwide and solidified UW’s work in research, collaborative partnerships, mentorship of global health leaders, and grant funding.

Dr. King Holmes, Director of Research and Faculty Development and inaugural Chair of the UW Department of Global Health, has been named Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Point-of-Care HIV Viral Load Testing Combined with Task Shifting to Improve Treatment Outcomes (The Lancet - Includes Paul Drain, Ruanne Barnabas, and Connie Celum)

Point-of-care HIV viral load testing combined with task shifting can improve viral suppression and retention in care by up to 14% and enable rapid care decisions, suggest results of a clinical trial led by the University of Washington and the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA).

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