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Greetings!
I am pleased to report that nearly 250 Duke students have applied to participate in Pandemic 2011 Winter Forum! That level of response is indicative of students' interest and passion for global health. It's now up to our terrific DGHI faculty to make Winter Forum a fun and worthwhile event. (They are definitely up to the challenge!)
Also, more than 900 global health leaders are at Univ. of Washington in Seattle this week for the annual meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. It has been a great opportunity to network with and learn from the more than 60 universities that have made a commitment to global health education and research. Read about the conference presentations, and see videos and photos of participants on the CUGH blog, www.cugh.wordpress.com.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI |
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Duke Aids Haiti Recovery with Innovative Humanities Research Lab
When it became clear that Haitian recovery efforts following the January earthquake would not take years but decades, a number of Duke departments and institutes pooled its resources to create one of the first humanities labs at US universities to bring innovative, interdisciplinary research more fully into the undergraduate experience, with the intention of positively impacting the Haitian community.
Initiative leaders held an info session in August. | "How do we as an institution work in a country that has experienced such a catastrophe and help with the rebuilding process? We are exploring that question with the Haiti Lab," said Kathy Walmer, a core faculty member of the new initiative and adjunct assistant professor of Global Health at DGHI.
Developed by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and housed at its offices in Smith Warehouse, the Haiti Lab is a three-year initiative that will pursue a diverse set of research and teaching opportunities that range from Haitian history, society and culture, to health, law and technology. It is the latest example of collaboration across Duke's schools, departments and seven signature institutes. The initiative is co-directed by Deborah Jenson, French and Romance Studies; and Laurent Dubois, History and Romance Studies. Core faculty members include Kathy Walmer, global health; and Guy-Uriel Charles, law.
"Through the Haiti Lab, we want to integrate more collaborative and innovative structures into humanities at the undergraduate and graduate levels, with more vertical integration of research and projects at Duke," said Jenson. "We're hoping to prepare students and assist researchers in making substantive and culturally- sensitive contributions to the recovery process, making a difference for the people of Haiti."
Learn more about the activities of the Haiti Lab, and hear from students who are involved in the initiative this fall.
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Conference Re-energizes University Commitment to Global Health
Because it takes trained and motivated leaders to make changes in global health, it is paramount to invest in students. This idea was reinforced at the 2010 annual meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global
Merson presents at CUGH 2010. | Health (CUGH) in Seattle, which attracted a record of more than 900 university leaders, global health faculty and students.
At a time when demand for global health academic programs is exploding, the three-day CUGH conference addressed the powerful role of universities in the advancement of global health as a field of study, research and service. Currently, only 2% of money spent on health worldwide is spent on education. But with one voice, global health units at universities across the US and the world are energized to work together to change that with their influential role in promoting research and innovation, disseminating knowledge and advocating for increased funding. The Consortium consists of 60 member universities, including Duke through DGHI, and conference attendees learned that in addition to its members, there are more than 260 universities in North America with some level of global health activity on campus.
The conference's interactive sessions focused on a diverse set of issues and challenges with regard to the role of universities in global health, including access to state-of-the-art medicines and technologies, climate change on human health, global health policy and diplomacy, injury and violence prevention and women and children's health.
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| UC-Berkeley Global Health Scientist Stresses Importance of Scientific Capacity Building in Developing Nations
It is the life's work of Eva Harris, founder and president of Sustainable Sciences Institute (SSI) and Professor of Infectious Disease at University of California-Berkeley, to develop scientific research capacity in areas with pressing public health problems.
 At Friday's Global Health Exchange, Harris talked about her dengue research spanning 20 years and the work of SSI, an international non-profit organization that helps biomedical scientists gain access to training, funding and resources to meet their own needs.
"Everything is possible; what's lacking are the resources. They need a little bit of knowledge and resources, and then you can eventually let them run with it," said Harris, who emphasized that a long-term commitment in the country is important, and the only way to encourage sustainability and instill confidence.
Since 1998, SSI has held more than 55 on-site training workshops, and trained 1,200 scientists in 26 low- and middle-income countries. Training is offered in epidemiology, grant-writing, manuscript writing, bioethics, and information technologies in health.
Harris' work in Latin America, particularly Nicaragua, focuses on molecular and epidemiological field studies of the dengue virus, a major public health concern and a common mosquito-borne viral disease in humans. Ongoing fieldwork projects include clinical and biological studies of dengue, a pediatric cohort study of dengue transmission, and community-derived interventions for prevention of dengue via control of its mosquito vector.
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Jerry Bloomfield | Global Health Research
Global Health Resident Presents Cardiovascular Risk Factors Research at Fogarty Alumni Symposium
Duke Cardiovascular Medicine Fellow Jerry Bloomfield was selected to make a special oral presentation at the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program (FICRSF) Alumni symposium on Thursday in Maryland.
As a Fogarty International Clinical Research Fellow in 2009-2010, Bloomfield conducted a study of the prevalence of hypertension and obesity among HIV patients in western Kenya. In addition to the traditional cardiovascular risk factors, the HIV infection itself and antiretroviral treatments have been implicated as a cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Bloomfield and his research team found that hypertension is common among HIV+ men, and obesity is common among HIV+ women in Kenya. Hypertension is directly related to higher BMI and older age, but not related to length of time on HIV treatment. More studies are needed to identify the mediators of excess cardiovascular risk among HIV+ patients in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Global Health Opportunities
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