So I'm sure most of y'all were like me and spent your time this Sunday night glued to the tv watching the 2014 Oscars. And if you did this for even 5 minutes you probably saw 12 Years a Slave winning every award possible. What you might not know is that Lupita Nyong'o, the winner of "Best Supporting Actress" for her role as Patsey, actually started her career in the Kenyan TV show, Shuga.
Shuga is actually a show produced by MTV with the goal of using popular entertainment as a vehicle for communicating and promoting messages about healthy sexual behavior among African Youth. Not only was Lupita an actress in the series, but she is also a co-director. After the Oscars ceremony, the president of Kenya went so far as to tweet that Lupita is the "Pride of Africa", demonstrating just how much Lupita means to the country
If anyone wants to check out this incredibly entertaining TV show- that also has a great public health message- here's the link to the first episode! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo4l1VJUFkQ
I know I actually watched some episodes in the U-Tena office this summer and would strongly recommend it!
- Maggie
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Some Reflections on Ugandan HIV/AIDS...
Hey guys!
So last week in ghU, Annabel, our lovely coordinator, brought in a TED talk to share (http://www.ted.com/talks/emily_oster_flips_our_thinking_on_aids_in_africa.html). Emily Oster, a UChicago economist, presents data to show that HIV prevalence relies on more than success or failure of prevention campaigns. She focuses solely on Uganda to show the correlation between economic well-being and decreases in HIV prevalence; coffee exports in Uganda increased with decreased HIV levels.
Our discussion last Tuesday brought up some key points. Clearly, as Oster states, high HIV prevalence should not be completely attributed to prevention campaigns themselves. Cultural and economic well-being should be considered as well. However, the example of Uganda may just be a unique case study that does not provide blanket statements on how other countries should handle the HIV problem.
This TED talk was filmed in 2007--therefore some of Oster's data is outdated. According to the AIDS Indicator Survey conducted by Demographic and Health Surveys, rates of HIV infection increased from 6.4% to 7.3% from 2004 to 2011. Though this increase may not be as statistically significant as the drop in rates from the 1990s to the 2000s, this is significant nonetheless. Uganda may not be a success story at all. According to Oster's position, one may blame this on the recession in the latter part of the decade. However, this increase was not significant enough to have it linked to such a large economic problem. Uganda is a large portion Christian, and church-goers have voiced negative opinions on prevention campaigns. Stigma and risky sexual behavior (see AIDS Indicator Survey in 2004 and 2011) has also increased.
Therefore, each case of HIV/AIDS is different, and to solely attribute the prevalence rates to one reason may need some reconsideration. There are many factors, and addressing all the nuances of individual countries might tackle the HIV epidemic more effectively than what Oster has managed to suggest.
Hopefully this triggers some thought on a relevant public health concern.
~Erica
So last week in ghU, Annabel, our lovely coordinator, brought in a TED talk to share (http://www.ted.com/talks/emily_oster_flips_our_thinking_on_aids_in_africa.html). Emily Oster, a UChicago economist, presents data to show that HIV prevalence relies on more than success or failure of prevention campaigns. She focuses solely on Uganda to show the correlation between economic well-being and decreases in HIV prevalence; coffee exports in Uganda increased with decreased HIV levels.
This TED talk was filmed in 2007--therefore some of Oster's data is outdated. According to the AIDS Indicator Survey conducted by Demographic and Health Surveys, rates of HIV infection increased from 6.4% to 7.3% from 2004 to 2011. Though this increase may not be as statistically significant as the drop in rates from the 1990s to the 2000s, this is significant nonetheless. Uganda may not be a success story at all. According to Oster's position, one may blame this on the recession in the latter part of the decade. However, this increase was not significant enough to have it linked to such a large economic problem. Uganda is a large portion Christian, and church-goers have voiced negative opinions on prevention campaigns. Stigma and risky sexual behavior (see AIDS Indicator Survey in 2004 and 2011) has also increased.
Therefore, each case of HIV/AIDS is different, and to solely attribute the prevalence rates to one reason may need some reconsideration. There are many factors, and addressing all the nuances of individual countries might tackle the HIV epidemic more effectively than what Oster has managed to suggest.
Hopefully this triggers some thought on a relevant public health concern.
~Erica
Monday, February 24, 2014
Hey everyone,
In current
Global health news, a new report has been written on attempting to reduce
maternal and neonatal deaths from childbirth in Indonesia, where childbirth
related deaths are still incredibly high. Indonesia signed the Millennium
Development Goals, but it is estimated that they will not achieve these goals
by the target date. The country is spread out over an archipelago of thousands
of islands, and though the country has been greatly urbanized into over 10
megacities, most of the population lives in rural areas in islands where
medical attention is really hard to get. Though there are many midwives in
Indonesia that can attend to women in childbirth, most of them are not properly
trained to deal with crises. In those cases women must be sent to hospitals,
but transportation problems between islands continue.
The report indicates
that Indonesia needs hundreds more clinics to treat emergency patients for
cesarean sections, blood transfusions, and neonatal intensive care. Dr. Adashi,
an obstetrics professor at Brown’s Alpert Medical School, was a part of the
committee writing the report and says that he expects the Indonesian government
to embrace the goals.
~ Catherine
MIT's Grassroots Initiatives for Global Health Conference (Saturday February 8, 2014)
Hi everyone,
Two weekends ago, Meygan, Ilkania, and I took a day trip to MIT's campus in Cambridge, MA to attend MIT's first GlobeMed and global health conference: Grassroots Initiatives for Global Health.
Our day began at 10 AM in an auditorium in MIT's Green Building (aesthetically, the MIT equivalent of Brown's SciLi) with opening remarks by members of MIT's GlobeMed chapter, followed by a touching personal story (relevant to global health) by Liana Woskie of the Harvard Initiative on Global Health Quality. While munching Dunkin' Donuts Munchkins and sipping hot coffee, we attendees expressed our inquisitiveness and passion for the subject of global health by asking challenging and complex questions of a panel of Boston-area global health organizations. The members of this panel were Owen Robinson of Haiti Cardiac Alliance (the moderator of the panel), Adam Korn of Save a Child's Heart, Ann Peralta of the Peace Corps, and Partners in Health. After an hour of mentally stimulating panel-audience Q&A, we broke for lunch and small-group discussion.
The auditorium-sized audience split up into four groups of about 25 people each, and each of these groups went to a smaller classroom for discussion. In my group, I had the chance not only to talk to undergraduate GlobeMed members from other schools, but also to grad students and adults in global health-related careers who hadn't even necessarily known before what GlobeMed is about. Between swapping stories with these attendees, we were fed a tasty Whole Foods buffet lunch and got to hear Amee Amin and Suchitra Kulkarni talk to us about Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: that "(1) everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessarily social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control and (2) motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance; all children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection." Once they finished, Jon Shaffer of Partners in Health told us a little of his background and how his experience as a GlobeMed member has been incredibly beneficial to his work with Partners in Health.
After a little over an hour in the small groups, everyone returned to the auditorium to watch a screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell (and a Q&A with the director, Gini Reticker), which was followed by closing remarks by Peter Luckow of Last Mile Health, GlobeMed at MIT, and others. Meygan, Ilkania, and I decided to head back to Brown after the small group discussion, however, so unfortunately we did not participate in this portion of the conference. Still, from what we did get to see of the conference, it was a very fun, educational, and inspiring day –– listening to real global health leaders describe how they got into their work, meeting others in the Boston area who are interested in global health, and seeing the GlobeMed network come together as a community to discuss all that GlobeMed stands for and how we can make the world a better place.
Marisa
Two weekends ago, Meygan, Ilkania, and I took a day trip to MIT's campus in Cambridge, MA to attend MIT's first GlobeMed and global health conference: Grassroots Initiatives for Global Health.
Our day began at 10 AM in an auditorium in MIT's Green Building (aesthetically, the MIT equivalent of Brown's SciLi) with opening remarks by members of MIT's GlobeMed chapter, followed by a touching personal story (relevant to global health) by Liana Woskie of the Harvard Initiative on Global Health Quality. While munching Dunkin' Donuts Munchkins and sipping hot coffee, we attendees expressed our inquisitiveness and passion for the subject of global health by asking challenging and complex questions of a panel of Boston-area global health organizations. The members of this panel were Owen Robinson of Haiti Cardiac Alliance (the moderator of the panel), Adam Korn of Save a Child's Heart, Ann Peralta of the Peace Corps, and Partners in Health. After an hour of mentally stimulating panel-audience Q&A, we broke for lunch and small-group discussion.
The auditorium-sized audience split up into four groups of about 25 people each, and each of these groups went to a smaller classroom for discussion. In my group, I had the chance not only to talk to undergraduate GlobeMed members from other schools, but also to grad students and adults in global health-related careers who hadn't even necessarily known before what GlobeMed is about. Between swapping stories with these attendees, we were fed a tasty Whole Foods buffet lunch and got to hear Amee Amin and Suchitra Kulkarni talk to us about Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: that "(1) everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessarily social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control and (2) motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance; all children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection." Once they finished, Jon Shaffer of Partners in Health told us a little of his background and how his experience as a GlobeMed member has been incredibly beneficial to his work with Partners in Health.
After a little over an hour in the small groups, everyone returned to the auditorium to watch a screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell (and a Q&A with the director, Gini Reticker), which was followed by closing remarks by Peter Luckow of Last Mile Health, GlobeMed at MIT, and others. Meygan, Ilkania, and I decided to head back to Brown after the small group discussion, however, so unfortunately we did not participate in this portion of the conference. Still, from what we did get to see of the conference, it was a very fun, educational, and inspiring day –– listening to real global health leaders describe how they got into their work, meeting others in the Boston area who are interested in global health, and seeing the GlobeMed network come together as a community to discuss all that GlobeMed stands for and how we can make the world a better place.
 |
| Jon Shaffer in small group discussion, talking about the impact of GlobeMed in his life and his work with Partners in Health |
Marisa
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The New Global Health Security Agenda
Hey all,
Just wanted to give you an optimistic update on the global health front. A little over a week ago, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the Global Health Security Agenda. Involving twenty-six countries, various departments of the U.S. government, and American global health organizations, the GHSA is an international effort to improve prevention, reduction, and response techniques to pandemics. Despite the existence of effective antibiotics, the leading cause of mortality worldwide is still infections--bacterial,viral, parasitic--leading to one-third of all deaths. What was equally alarming to me was that the GHSA is also a response to the increasing threat of not only natural outbreaks of disease and the rise of drug-resistant pathogens, but also terrorist attacks that release harmful biological or chemical agents. While the specifics of the agenda are yet to be revealed, it is a hopeful first step that so many leading countries have acknowledged global health security as an urgent priority, and are working together towards eliminating these devastating infectious diseases.
-Kaori
Monday, December 9, 2013
Hi all,
Today I thought I'd take the chance to introduction y'all to one of my favorite global health NGO's (other than U-Tena of course!) called Nyaya Health. Nyaya Health is also the partner organization for Tuft's Globemed chapter so it's relevant in more than one way. They are a 'for purpose' health organization that dedicates themselves to working for the right to health in rural Nepal. One of the reasons Nyaya sticks out in my mind is because of their dedication to transparency. Nyaya Health founded itself on the principle of "being transparent until it hurts". They want to end the age-old image of the perfect aid organization that is secretly collecting money and allocating large portions to overheads. To do this not only does Nyaya have a public wiki with all financial and day to day activities of its staff, but they also write blog articles about both their failures and successes. Today I want to share with you one of my favorite such pieces, entitled "Walls and Flies" and written by their co-founder Duncan Maru.
http://www.nyayahealth.org/blog/walls-and-flies/
Today I thought I'd take the chance to introduction y'all to one of my favorite global health NGO's (other than U-Tena of course!) called Nyaya Health. Nyaya Health is also the partner organization for Tuft's Globemed chapter so it's relevant in more than one way. They are a 'for purpose' health organization that dedicates themselves to working for the right to health in rural Nepal. One of the reasons Nyaya sticks out in my mind is because of their dedication to transparency. Nyaya Health founded itself on the principle of "being transparent until it hurts". They want to end the age-old image of the perfect aid organization that is secretly collecting money and allocating large portions to overheads. To do this not only does Nyaya have a public wiki with all financial and day to day activities of its staff, but they also write blog articles about both their failures and successes. Today I want to share with you one of my favorite such pieces, entitled "Walls and Flies" and written by their co-founder Duncan Maru.
http://www.nyayahealth.org/blog/walls-and-flies/
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Kenya's Health Care System
Hey everyone,
Just thought it would be a good idea to kind of just take a step back and get a little background knowledge about what the health care system is like in Kenya. Just to look at the basis of the system and its main goals and funding, and compare it to our system. I found this link with the general info:
Just thought it would be a good idea to kind of just take a step back and get a little background knowledge about what the health care system is like in Kenya. Just to look at the basis of the system and its main goals and funding, and compare it to our system. I found this link with the general info:
Enjoy!
-Rachel
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