A Talk with Umar Ndiwalana

On Friday, 12 April 2013, our class was lucky enough to have a guest speaker, Umar Ndiwalana. Umar is traditional healer, a role he received as a birthright, from Uganda. He is here in the States furthering his education for the eventual purpose of better serving his home community.

Please read on...

Global Health on NPR

NPR's Global Health page is a fantastic resources for anyone seeking news and information on global health. Check it out!

10th Annual Western Regional Health Conference

I recently attended this Health Conference event that pinpointed major changes in health that are coinciding with changing environments on a global scale.   They had several tracks that you could follow during this weekend event, I mostly followed the policy, ethics and and human rights tracks, which are topics that I found interesting, they had other tracks which included Sharing the Worlds Resources; Human Rights and Health; Migrant, Refugee and Displacement Health; Policy, Law, Health and Wellbeing; Ethics in Global Health; Changing Patterns of Disease; and Technology Revolution and Health. I recommend it for anyone, next year they will be in Seattle.

First of all there was way to much interesting information to put into one little blog page so i choose, instead to talk about one of the lectures that I found particularly interesting and very applicable to Dawn's global health class. It was a lecture by Abraham Flaxman. Abraham is the Assistant Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics And Evaluation (IHME), his lecture was on the Big Data Revolution in Global Burden Of Disease Measurement.He spoke about the amazing new innovations in how we are using DALYs to measure the burden of disease and how we can use this technology to better allocate foreign aid monies to higher priority global issues.

One thing that I found particularly fascinating was when Flaxman displayed a recent GBD comparison map that compares the different diseases and causes of death. I spent about 2 hours messing with the different details of this map. I recommend anyone interested in how the global burden of disease is distributed to check it out and share some of your findings. Beware this is a weapon of mass distraction! There is also a massive amount of research data on GBDs on the IHME website that is fascinating and filled with great new measuring tools and some of the most recent research that is being done to improve on DALYs worldwide.

Flaxmen also discussed how they are now using a cellphone app to collect data on deaths in areas that have no data collection! They are calling a verbal autopsy. The interviewers asks close family questions about events lending to the death of their loved one and the app provides probable cause of death instantaneously! This is improving accuracy of vital registration immensely!

Finally, Flaxmen talked about how it is up to us as students and future global health advocates to turn this data revolution into information and eventually, into knowledge and evidence!

Thanks for letting me nerd out :)

An Evening with Tim Wise at PSU

If anyone is interested Tim Wise is speaking at PSU's Stott Center this Wednesday, 4/10 at 6:00PM. From PSU's website:

Wise was recently named by Utne Reader as one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World.”  He is the author of six books, including his newest “Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority.” He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs, is a regular contributor to discussions about race on CNN, and has been featured on ABC’s “20/20.”

Tickets are required for all attendees, and can be obtained at the PSU Box Office inside the Broadway entrance of Smith Memorial Student Union.  The event is free to PSU students, faculty and staff.  

The cost for the general public is $5. 

The event is presented by the Associated Students of Portland State University,  DMSS Cultural Centers, SBA Diversity Programs, Food Action Collective, Cesar Chavez Committee and the Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion. For additional information click here.

Potential Changes to US Food Aid Programs

And the controversy over US food aid programs continues! NPR reports that the Obama administration will be announcing details of its food aid proposal next week, and with anticipated change comes much debate. US food aid endeavors have variously been described as generous, strategic, self-serving, and tragic, of course depending on who is offering the description. It should be interesting to keep an eye on this debate over the next few weeks.

Nicholas Kristof: Reed College Lecture. (Audio Recording Available)

First of all, thank you Professor Richardson for being thoughtful enough to e-mail your past students about the Kristof lecture at Reed, I would not have known about it otherwise.  It was an amazing experience seeing someone you admire only a couple feet away and later speaking with at the book signing!

Kristof gave a great lecture that basically summarized key points and issues from his book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.  Kristof spoke about these issues by presenting real stories that connected to each issue, whether it was maternal health (he spoke about obstetric fistulas) or sex trafficking/slavery (brothels).  My favorite part of the event was during the end of the lecture when the audiences had a chance to ask Kristof questions that things got interesting.  Kristof was asked about his controversial stance on Female Genital Mutilations (FGM) in terms of it being a cultural practice.  Kristof gave a great answer, one that changed my mind on the topic, about how there should always be a line in terms of human behavior even when it is related to culture.  Cultural relativism is important just as boundaries are important when it comes to cultural practices that are gruesome and impinge on an individuals human rights.  And we all are aware that FGM violates human rights in multiple ways.  A great example Kristof brought up was on the practice of feet bounding in China and how western influences led China to discard this unhealthy, gender discriminating practice.  Kristof believes that FGM should follow suit as well.
Lastly Kristof wanted to spread the message to college students to get out of their comfort zone.  He urged students to seize opportunities to travel abroad or even help out locally in places that you may never have thought of because by doing this you learn things on a whole new level.  I couldn't agree more!

P.S
And yes, I most definitely got my book signed!  (I had Kristof sign it for my younger sister - it is for her when she is ready to read it)  :]

I recorded the lecture and it is available for listening below.

Nicholas D. Kristof at Reed College 4/1 7:00PM

A very exciting opportunity for Portlanders interested in global health equity and women's empowerment! Nicholas D. Kristof will present "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" tonight (4/1) at 7:00PM in Reed College's Kaul Auditorium. This will be a fantastic change to hear Kristof discuss his work in person! Additional details here.

During previous terms, this book and the film have come up often in class discussions and on the blog, so I especially encourage new Global Health students to attend and post about your experience!

National Public Health Week & Careers in Global Health

As you may be aware, the first full week of April is National Public Health Week, and this year's theme is: "Public Health is ROI: Saves Lives, Saves Money." As part of efforts to focus attention on public health, there will be a webinar today (4/1) on Careers in Global Health.

This is a great opportunity to take advantage of this week's momentum to be a global health advocate and to learn about careers in public and global health!

In India, Continued Access to Best Meds for the Poor

As the New York Times reports today, India's Supreme Court rejected the patent application submitted by Novartis, which means that generic drug makers in India can legally continue producing and selling versions of Novartis meds at a much lower cost. This means that poor patients will have continued access to the generic version of Gleevec, a highly effective leukemia treatment, since Indian versions run approximately $2,500 annually, compared with the brand name version at $70,000/year.

Promoting Exclusive Breastfeeding: A Global Health Intervention

Yesterday in class we identified that a key public health issue to address worldwide is the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for infants. We then discussed how aggressive infant formula marketing is problematic in developing countries. I wanted to elaborate here on my comment during class about this, and give some concrete information for you guys to find and reference as we finish the term and part ways.

Soda Ban: Update in NYC and Mississippi's New Bill

I read an article on NPR this morning about a new bill in Mississippi that many are referring to as the "anti-bloomberg" bill (*bloomberg's bill has now been overturned by a judge).  This bill if passed - which many are speculating will, will basically buffer against governmental regulations on food.  The article does states some examples of certain regulations that this bill will help to avoid.  An important thing to keep in mind is that Mississippi has the highest rate of obesity in the US and the second highest African American population per capita! This article really made me think back to when went over the very individualistic culture that the US has because this bill is basically that.  People want to make their own choices and well companies want more money.  But making choices isn't simple when it comes to food - you have to have knowledge and be informed, since this bill may eradicate nutrition labels on food, how is a consumer supposed to make the right choice?

I feel like this is creating a messy controversy over something as simple as maintaining a healthy diet - Bloomberg just shouldn't have implemented the legislation in the first place.  As this CNN article states smartly: "The so-called 'war on sugar' is not a culture war, it is a public health imperative backed by science." But because of Bloomberg's legislation or the usage of law to prevent people on buying something as basic as "food", it is turning out be a culture war.  Which is a huge mistake in my opinion - there are other smarter ways to go about it.

"Girl Rising: One girl with courage is a Revolution"

Over the weekend I stumbled upon an article from Oregonlive.com describing a new film that encompasses much of what we've talked about in class. The film, Girl Rising, follows the true stories of nine different girls around the world. "There is no miracle here. Just a girl with dreams," proclaims one. Each girl fights to change her own reality.

The film even has some local ties because it was produced by Intel. There are some screenings coming up, but more can be requested. Information on showings can be found here.

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Vandana Shiva on Int’l Women’s Day: "Capitalist Patriarchy Has Aggravated Violence Against Women"

I noticed several postings about how being a woman is detrimental to your health in a global context. This is timely for several reasons but the most important one is that yesterday, March 8th, was International (Working) Women's Day. In an attempt to deepen and further the discussion on Women's Rights, Global Health, and global economies, I wanted to highlight an internet article I came across on Democracy Now.

Health in Haiti

           On Jan 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Caribbean nation Haiti. Its immense power left 1.3 million people homeless, and an estimated death toll of 220,000. With an estimated 70 % of the population living on less than two dollars a day, the nation has solely relied on international aid in the attempt to rebuild their country(DEC, 2011). As of last month, over 7.5 billion in aid had been donated but this amount is nowhere near what has been promised by the international community (Sontag, 2012). Despite this sum of money and being in the United States’ back yard, the people of Haiti are still suffering from extreme poverty, unacceptable living conditions and little access to health services. Each member of group 12 has taken it upon themselves to connect Haiti’s current predicament to one of the many key concepts that has been presented to us during the past 10 weeks. As you will soon see from the information provided, the world has failed in its response to the Haitian earthquake and conditions seem to only be getting worse.

Derek Summerfield: Critic of ‘Global Mental Health’

Derek Summerfield, a researcher and academic of London’s Institute of Psychiatry, is a fundamental critic of the idea of ‘global mental health’. Due to his deeply rooted criticism of the history of the westernization of the world at large, Summerfield believes the West’s infiltration across the globe is a toxic force, plaguing humans worldwide. His main opposition to the idea of global mental health is that we, as the West, have little understanding of mental health in our own countries let alone a good grasp of what others in different cultures, and therefore invariably different worlds, are struggling with on a psychosocial level. Before the West finishes grappling with its own understanding of mental health does it have any right deploying it on a larger, global sphere. Derek Summerfield believes the global epidemic of mental disorders is a false positive and a true detriment to human beings everywhere.

Maternal Health

                                                     Fetal Origins of Disease

            The fetal origin of disease theory is what happens to a person in the womb affects their health for the rest of their lives. So in regards to mother’s maternal health the stress, nutrition and overall health of the mother directly affects the health outcomes for her child in regards to chronic diseases such heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, osteoporosis and cancer. Birth weight is directly affected by the health of the mother. Low birth weight babies are more prone to becoming insulin resistant later. Also low birth weight babies are twice as likely to have high blood pressure. This relates to fetal origin of disease theory because smaller birth weight babies have less nephrons in their kidneys at birth. Over our lives these start to diminish which leads to increased blood pressure. Babies who start out with less nephrons because of being a low birth weight will have an increased risk of high blood pressure. The mother’s maternal health directly relates to her child’s birth rate so protecting the child in to womb is the best solution to avoiding chronic disease later in life. This is a link to David Barkers research on fetal origins the web site will give you an in depth understanding about this theory.                                     

Pathways to a Career in Global Health

           
           Many students are inspired to pursue a career in global health when introduced to the impact the field has on large populations.  There are three main areas one might research when looking into pursuing career in global health. 

Being Born a Woman: A Dangerous Prospect for your Health

"Poor health shreds communities, undermines economic opportunity, and holds back progress."

                                                         -Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of  State

To be born a woman can be a serious hazard for your health. Depending on her place of birth a woman will likely face adverse health effects in numbers far higher than her male counterparts. In many nations women face a myriad of barriers to health including poverty, lack of autonomy, violence, lack of access to healthcare, work hazards, harmful traditional practices, lower legal status, lack of proper maternal care and lack of access to education to name a few. 

Poverty has well documented effects on health outcomes and over 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty are women ( Craft, British Medical Journal). When women are malnourished it create a vicious cycle since the maternal health of the mother is effected and often the child she bears will have lifelong negative health outcomes from the mother’s lack of nutrition. If a woman lives in a low income country that has an undeveloped health care system she may lack the access she needs to proper care as well. In some countries with failing health care systems, women can even fall prey to practices like the women targeted for unnecessary hysterectomies performed in poorer rural parts of India by unscrupulous health clinics.

Global Health and Human Rights

Most people can probably agree that it is a right to be free of torture and inhumane degrading treatment and violence. How about the right to food and nutrition, and the right to information? If you find yourself agreeing with the fact that these are human rights, then you can probably agree with the statement that human rights are explicitly connected with health care. Health goes beyond eating the right foods or getting enough exercises. Health is about reducing ill health with the promotion of education and access to information, especially having the ability to inform one's self. It is allowing everyone to actively participate in the health of their families as well as their communities. It is about being free from discrimination, and the ability for movement; the promotion of human rights through health development. Health care is about not only keeping people healthy but protecting and assuring their well being is safe. Protecting them from inhumane torture and slavery, as well as having the ability to prevent preventable deaths; diarrheal diseases, malaria, childbirth complications etc. Once delving into the issue, it is evident that healthcare are human right.

The Landfill Harmonic "A violin is worth more than a house here"

The Landfill Harmonic is really an inspirational and phenomenal concept that has been made into a documentary. I just found out about this the  other day and had to share. Most of the background information is in the film but essentially a young group of people in Cateura, Paraguay are creating amazing instruments out of trash and playing them beautifully. They call themselves "Los Reciclados", or The Recycled Orchestra.