DGHI News: Bringing Global Health Home: Preventing Obesity Among Children

New and Noteworthy

Dispatch from the Field:

Student Fieldwork Project Leaves Lasting Effect

Advances in science and medicine can help slow the spread of infectious diseases in underserved and marginalized communities around the world, but a group of Duke undergraduate students are realizing that education can be equally as important to health. Global Health Certificate students Tammy Chin, Wendy Lin and Austin Mattox completed a summer service-learning project in Tanzania, where they helped to clear up some common misconceptions about the transmission and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Wendy Lin records patient information at the dispensary's Maternal and Child Health clinic.

"We heard some startling misconceptions about HIV/AIDS that need to be addressed, like the idea that kissing can transmit HIV and that antibiotics help prevent HIV/AIDS," said senior Chin, a biology major.

Affiliated with Duke's long-standing collaboration with the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), the students worked at the Mwika Uuwo Lutheran Dispensary to survey more than 50 new and expectant mothers about their knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Tanzania is one of PEPFAR's 15 focus countries, which collectively represent approximately half of the world's HIV infections. From the survey, the students also found that many women believed washing after sex protects against HIV/AIDS, condom use cannot prevent HIV/AIDS, and the disease cannot be contracted by a sexual partner with a different blood type.

The students reported their results to dispensary staff and created an educational poster in Kiswahili for the walls of the clinic. The experience has given them an inside look at the vast health challenges facing people in sub-Saharan Africa, and how preventive education can play a role.

Read more about how the students tried to promote sustainability through their fieldwork project.

Duke Awarded Funding To Combat Chronic Diseases in China

Duke University is one of seven recipients of a Fogarty International Center grant that aims to tackle chonic diseases in low- and middle-income countries around the globe.

Duke will use the funds over a period of five years to establish a stroke prevention and treatment training project in China, where stroke is a major cause of death and adult disability. The principal investigator of the project is Danny Laskowitz, MD in Division of Neurology.

The seven new Fogarty grants totaling $6.8 million were awarded to US institutions to support research training in areas such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

See the announcement for details. Also, learn more about Fogarty's Non-communicable Chronic Diseases Research Training Program.

DGHI Works to Build Campuswide Collaboration on Global Health Efforts in Uganda

The Duke Global Health Institute has launched a new interest group for Duke faculty, trainees and students who have an interest in global health issues in Uganda.

As a growing number of Duke personnel are involved in multiple research, education, and service-related projects in Uganda, the new DGHI Uganda Interest Group aims to bring together an interdisciplinary team of people to facilitate improved communication and develop broader internal and external collaborations and lead to an overall amplified impact of Duke efforts in Uganda.

The group is open to faculty, trainees and students at Duke

who either work in Uganda or are interested in learning more about Duke activities there. The first meeting takes place this Friday, August 20 at 7:30 am in Room 124 of Trent Hall. RSVP to Kelly Deal by Wednesday.

From Duke's A World Together Initiative:

Study of 35,000 Households Worldwide Finds New Explanations for Poverty

A sweeping new review of poverty by a Duke University researcher who spent the past decade studying more than 35,000 households on four continents says policy makers are focusing too much on new ideas for lifting people out of poverty instead of coming to terms with why billions of people became poor in the first place.

A new book by DGHI affiliate Anirudh Krishna entitled "One Illness Away: Why People Become Poor and How they Escape Poverty," calls on government officials, economists and others to pay more attention to the everyday lives and ordinary events that underlie poverty. Beyond country-level statistics and political headlines that grab attention, he says, people in barrios and remote villages are confronting challenges whose solutions may not lie with economic growth alone. Read more from Duke Office of News & Communications.