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Weekly News and Notes
From the Duke Global Health Institute
Greetings!
There's only one week of classes remaining, yet there are many opportunities to participate in global health activities over the coming weeks.
On Monday, April 26 at 5 pm, the Global Health Certificate students will present posters on their Capstone projects. This event is preceded by a reception and send-off for the MSc-GH students. Both take place at the John Hope Franklin Center.
Finally, we NEED your input! The DGHI Communication Team is conducting a brief survey to gain input on its website, weekly newsletter, social media and special events. Complete the survey by May 15 and your name will be entered into a drawing for fun DGHI prizes. Click here to get started. It will take less than five minutes.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI |
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A Model for HIV/AIDS Prevention in India
Alyssa Zamora
It is hailed as one of the most successful HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives in India and the world. In 2003, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched Avahan, a program designed to reduce the spread of HIV in India where infection rates are high.
In a recent lecture at DGHI entitled "Scaling and Evaluating HIV Prevention for High Risk Groups in India: Experience of Avahan," Gina Dallabetta, Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation, explained the need for a targeted intervention on a large scale. In 2006, an estimated 2.5 million people were infected with HIV, with 65-70% of India's infection rates concentrated in the four southern and two northeastern states, which is a third of the country's population. Infection rates today are largely driven by sex work and injecting drug use.
Gina Dallabetta is Senior Program Officer for Avahan, a program to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in India
 | Avahan has used a focused prevention strategy over the past seven years to target female sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), and people who engage in injecting drug us (IDU) in India. Avahan has worked with many in-country partners, grassroots organizations, peer educators and outreach workers to distribute condoms and needles, and provide free clinical services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and risk-reduction counseling, including case management, peer-to-peer outreach and local advocacy.
Dallabetta, who has 20 years of experience in HIV programming, emphasized that community mobilization is paramount for raising a prevention program's quality, acceptability and reach. "There was great management work involved in Avahan," said Michael Merson, director of the Duke Global Health Institute. "The way to carry out an intervention is just as critical as the intervention itself."
With intense field engagement, routine data monitoring and a formal evaluation of program effectiveness among various Indian populations, Avahan has efficiently scaled up its prevention efforts to reach hundreds of thousands of people across six Indian states and 135 districts where HIV/AIDS rates are highest. This is no small feat for any nongovernmental organization.
Read more. |
Kate Whetten Reappointed Director of Center for Health Policy
Kate Whetten, PhD, associate professor of Public Policy Studies and Community and Family Medicine, has been reappointed to a second five-year term as director of the Center for Health Policy (CHP), effective July 1, 2010. The Center for Health Policy is an affiliate center of the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI), and one of the strategic university centers.
 Kate has done an outstanding job of growing the research and reputation of the CHP," remarked Susan Roth, vice provost for interdisciplinary studies. "I know she will continue to develop the Center and its integration into the DGHI, and Kate and her team will continue to produce innovate, interdisciplinary research with implications for global society." Whetten, who has been at Duke since 1993, focuses her research on health inequalities, and issues related to the poor, disenfranchised and chronically ill in the United States and around the globe. She has authored or co-authored more than 50 journal articles, the most recent detailing the results of her study of more than 3,000 orphaned and abandoned children in five Asian and African countries which analyzed the well-being of children in institutional orphanages compared to those who live in the community.
"The research undertaken by Kate and other scholars at CHP is helping DGHI accomplish its mission of addressing health disparities in North Carolina and around the world," said Michael Merson, director of DGHI. "Kate has also been a valued teacher and mentor to dozens of Duke students interested in pursuing careers in global health."
The Center for Health Policy is an instigator and facilitator of a broad range of research related to public health and the policies that address it. The Center administers the certificate in Health Policy for undergraduate students, as well as the North Carolina AIDS Education and Training Center.
Preview: Duke Surgery Global Health Symposium
The Duke Department of Surgery and the Duke Global Health Institute are sponsors of the upcoming Duke Surgery Global Health Symposium this Saturday, which will address important issues related to surgical care and underserved populations and their public policy, governance, funding and access to care implications.
The keynote speaker of the event will be Dr. Haile Debas, who is recognized internationally for his contributions to academic medicine and global health. He is the director of the University of California's Global Health Institute. Debas has also held a variety of leadership positions, including Dean of Medicine, Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs, and Chancellor. Dr. Debas is a gastrointestinal surgeon by training, is the Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor of Surgery, and has chaired the UCSF Department of Surgery.
Triangle Volunteers Make a Difference in Haiti
During the two and a half months since the earthquake in Haiti, Family Health Ministries (FHM), a Durham-based nonprofit, has sent five medical relief teams to Port-au-Prince. Nearly 60 volunteers served over 3,500 patients.
Duke physician Jim Snapper has been part of two Family Health Ministries medical relief teams since the Haiti earthquake in January. | The teams included 21 doctors and 10 nurses from across the US. Twenty-one other volunteers from varied backgrounds provided support. Each volunteer paid their own way and slept on the floor of Family Health Ministries' Blanchard Clinic, near the Port-au-Prince airport. Fortunately, the two-story clinic was not damaged in the quake.
While many of the volunteers were seasoned providers, some of the teams had members who had never been to Haiti. In addition absorbing scenes of the devastation caused by the earthquake, the team members had to adjust to the heat and humidity and the challenging living conditions.
"We named a "water carrier" for each team," explained Family Health Ministries' executive director, Kathy Walmer, herself a pediatric nurse practitioner with 10 years of experience offering health care in Haiti. Each team's "Aquarius" was responsible for treating the drinking water every day. Read more.
Policy Brief and Webcast Examine Issues Surrounding U.S. Global Health Initiative
The Kaiser Family Foundation released a new policy brief last week analyzing several key issues and questions on the Obama
The policy brief was released last Wednesday at a Kaiser forum on the Global Health Initiative. | administration's new Global Health Initiative (GHI), a six-year, $63 billion proposed effort building on existing disease-specific initiatives to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, while increasing attention to other areas, including maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health, nutrition, neglected tropical diseases, and the strengthening of underlying health systems.
The policy brief provides an overview of the GHI and raises the many issues that ultimately will shape the initiative's direction and effectiveness. These include:
- How will the leadership and governance of the GHI be structured to best coordinate across multiple agencies and programs?
- How much funding will the initiative receive over its six years, and how will the government allocate those funds across the global health portfolio?
- How should the U.S. government measure the impact of its global health efforts?
- How can the U.S. best partner with recipient countries to encourage "country ownership" in order to promote the long-term sustainability of the programs?
- How can the U.S. engage and coordinate with multi-lateral organizations, donor governments and the private sector to maximize their collective impact?
- How will the increased emphasis on women and girls be integrated into U.S. global health programs?
New Employment Opportunities
See our website for other employment opportunities. |
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Faculty News and Funding
Funding Opportunities
Grand Challenges Explorations: Accepting Proposals for Round 5
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for Round 5 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a US $100 million initiative to encourage unconventional global health solutions. Anyone can apply, regardless of education or experience level. Deadline May 19. Read more.
NEW! RFP: Identify and Test Innovative Solutions to Increase Access to Effective Malaria Treatment
The Clinton Health Access Initiative ("CHAI") is seeking rigorous and innovative operational research proposals that will test new solutions to improving access to and targeting of effective malaria treatment in order to inform policy and practice at national and global levels. Deadline June 1. Read more.
NEW! Pfizer Centennial Travel Award in Basic Science Tropical Disease Research
Individuals with doctoral-level degrees who seek travel to laboratories in the tropics to pursue studies in molecular, cellular or immunological aspects of tropical infectious diseases are invited to submit applications for this opportunity. Selected applicants will receive financial support for 1-2 years research experience in the tropics to leverage further career development. Deadline June 16. Read more.
Education/Training Opportunities
NEW! International Neuroscience Fellowship
The goal of the International Neuroscience Fellowship (INF) is to advance the training of qualified foreign neuroscientists and clinicians at the early or mid-career level, by enhancing their basic, translational or clinical research skills in a research setting in the US. Deadline August 16. Read more.
Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency
The Bellagio Center provides a platform for launching new ideas and solutions to some of the most difficult global problems. Residencies allow for disciplined work and collaborative action on these issues, uninterrupted by the usual professional and personal demands. Residency participants include scholars, scientists, artists, journalists, writers, non-governmental organization practitioners and policymakers from around the world. Deadline May 7. Read more.
Robert E. Shope International Fellowship in Infectious Diseases
Individuals with doctoral-level degrees who seek fellowship funding to support travel, living and research expenses to work in laboratories in the tropics to pursue studies in arbovirology and/or emerging tropical infectious diseases are invited to apply for the Robert E. Shope International Fellowship. Deadline May 20. Read more.
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Winners of Duke Global Health Case Competition Present at TGHC Event
Last Thursday, the winning team of the 2010 Duke Global Health Case Competition presented their proposal before a panel of professionals at a Triangle Global Health Consortium (TGHC) event.
The six-member team included Farah Akbar (Engineering), Brian Clement (Cultural Anthropology), Amanda Leahy (Divinity), Madeline McCrary (Cultural Anthropology), Alexa Monroy (Neuroscience), and Katherine Roemer (Public Policy). Watch their presentation below.
In addition to Duke's presentation, the event showcased the winners of Global Health Case Competitions at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill. Students also had the opportunity to interact with professionals from local companies in the global health-specific career fair portion of the event.
The Duke Global Health Case Competition was the first major initiative organized by the Duke Global Health Institute Student Council and was a resounding success. Teams worked for three days to prepare a 12-minute solution to the challenge of addressing chronic care in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
Click to watch the video. |
Global Semester Abroad in India and China: Call for Applications
Applications are now being accepted on a rolling basis as long as space permits for the Duke Global Semester Abroad program, which begins in 2011. Join your fellow students to expore health and development issues in India and China while being immersed in their cultures for a semester. The Sanford School of Public Policy, the Department of Cultural Anthropology and the Duke Global Health Institute partnered to offer this opportunity to undergraduate students. Read more.
Job Opportunities
LAST CALL! Field Research Manager: Water, sanitation, hygiene and health in Africa
A field researcher manager is sought to work on an NSF-funded project entitled "Multi-scale modeling of health behavior choices: Water, sanitation, and child survival in Africa". The researcher will work with Profs. Jenna Davis and Alexandria Boehm at Stanford University in the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, but will largely be based in Tanzania. Apply by April 23. Read more.
NEW! Career Opportunities from the Global Health Career Network
Are you graduating this semester? Are you interested in a career in global health? See the latest job opportunities available from the Global Health Council, which is a great resource for young adults entering the field. See their website. Also, see other global health career resources from DGHI.
Funding Opportunity
Grand Challenges Explorations: Accepting Proposals for Round 5
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for Round 5 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a US $100 million initiative to encourage unconventional global health solutions. Anyone can apply, regardless of education or experience level. Deadline May 19. Read more.
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FedEx Global Education Center, Chapel Hill
April 24 » 7:45 am-4:30 pm
Duke School of Nursing
Al Buehler Trail
April 26 » 4:30-5:15 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 028
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240
April 28 » 8:30 am - 4 pm
Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, RTP
April 29 » 12-1:30 pm
Rhodes Conference Room, Sanford School of Public Policy
April 30 » 2:30-4:30 pm
Westbrook Room 0015, Duke Divinity School
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Video Corner
"Meeting the Challenges of Global Health: Novel Concepts and Actions for New Realities"
University Seminar on Global Health featuring Julio Frenk, dean of the faculty, Harvard School of Public Health.
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"A Campaign Shows Signs of Progress Against Polio"
-The New York Times
Featuring the work of Muhammad Pate in Nigeria. Pate is an adjunct professor in DGHI.
Duke Study Says Claims Staked on Genome Could Derail Promise of New Technology
-The Wall Street Journal
With comments from DGHI affiliate Bob Cook-Deegan who heads the the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy.
DGHI Awards Fieldwork Fund
-The Herald-Sun
Featuring our news story on the Aalok S. Modi Global Health Fieldwork Fund, which has been awarded to economics major and global health certificate student Sneha Shah.
-Medical Tribune
Featuring David Matchar, program director for health services and system research at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.
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