The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene announced Joel G. Breman, MD, DTPH, FASTMH, as its new president today at the Society’s 2019 Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. Dr. Breman is retired from the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health. Julie Jacobson, Affiliate Associate Professor of Global Health MD, is President-Elect.
While completing a Masters of Public Health in the Department of Global Health, students have several ways to gain research and fieldwork experience around the world. Students have fellowship opportunities that allow for hands-on training in a multitude of countries, but the Peace Corps represents another way to apply classroom curriculum at UW to the real world.
Keshet Ronen of the University of Washington School of Public Health recently received a $200,000 Technology and Adolescent Mental Wellness grant from the University of Wisconsin to develop an innovative program that uses social media to prevent depression in young pregnant women or women who have recently given birth.
The grant was awarded by the university’s Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team. Ronen is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Global Health, which bridges the UW Schools of Public Health and Medicine.
"It's really expensive. When all this started, I had to sell everything I owned," says cancer patient Awa Florence. "I don't have anything left. I'm a widow and I don't have the means to pay for further tests."
Climate change is already causing widespread harm to the health of all people living in the United States, with extreme heat making workers less productive and toxic air contributing to 64,000 deaths in a single year. In a new brief on climate change and health in the U.S. published Nov. 13, University of Washington and Harvard University researchers say it is still possible to prevent some health effects and mitigate others, and that aggressive action on climate is also action to protect health.
A biometric system that will use a patient’s iris for identification has been tested and reported ready for deployment. The system tested among 8,794 HIV patients is reported to have been highly effective, acceptable and friendly to use.
This is a big boost to HIV programs, as the US had threatened to cut funding if Kenya did not adopt biometric identifiers. The testing has been carried out by the Ministry of Health, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and University of Washington, US.
Wound healing events in mucous tissues during early infection by Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, or SIV, guard some primate species against developing AIDS, a recent study has learned. The research looked at why certain species can carry the virus throughout their lives, and still avoid disease progression.
SIV is closely related to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is used as a laboratory model for many studies seeking AIDS and HIV cures and preventions.
A core tenet of the Department of Global Health’s mission is understanding the causes of health inequities at multiple levels, including ways that health intersects with other pressing issues facing the global population. For David Frantz, a third-year undergraduate student in the University of Washington Global Health minor, that meant exploring ways that health can be weaved together with his other academic interests.
With urban populations surging around the world, cities will struggle to keep residents safe from fast-growing heat risks turbo-charged by climate change, scientists and public health experts warned this week.
Heat is already the leading cause of deaths from extreme weather in countries including the United States. The problem is particularly severe in cities, where temperature extremes are rising much faster than the global average, they said.
Andrew Trister, Deputy Director of Digital Health and Innovation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Reflects on a Meandering Path to the Field