h/t Amanda Makulec
Video: “It’s a Girl” Documentary Trailer
h/t Amanda Makulec
ASPH Calls for Comments on its Draft Global Health Competencies
ASPH has recently released a draft of its Global Health Competency Model, a set of competencies recommended for graduates of master’s level programs in global health. They are based on the organization’s MPH core competencies and are divided in to seven “domains,” or categories. According to the draft,
…formal educational programs for global health professionals are highly fragmented in terms of the institutions offering such programs and quite varied in terms of the outcomes and qualifications expected of graduates. As the number of institutions offering formal training in global health grows, ASPH has taken leadership in developing a competency model based on the necessary roles and functions of the global public health system of the future. This approach recognizes that global health and public health represent a unified front with a long tradition of bringing scientifically-validated programs, policies, and services to bear upon the world’s most pressing health needs. A Lancet article in February 2010, in which ASPH global health leaders sought to emphasize the common framework of global health, international health, and public health, stated that “[g]lobal health and public health are indistinguishable,” further defining the scope of this initiative.
The document (pdf) can be viewed here. Below is a screen grab of the competencies.
ASPH is calling for comments on the draft by Friday, September 23. Comments may be sent to ghcompetency@asph.org.
CDC Evaluation Fellows Program (Atlanta, GA)
Evaluation Fellows Program
Office of the Associate Director for Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA)
CDC-OADPG-2011-0032
Project Description:
CDC seeks applicants for the inaugural class of the CDC Evaluation Fellows Program. This is a new initiative within CDC and represents a major commitment by the Agency to program evaluation and program improvement. Fellows will be selected and will be housed in the newly-created Office of the Associate Director for Program and collaborate with the evaluation team under the leadership of CDC’s Chief Evaluation Officer. Fellows selected for this new initiative will be assigned out to CDC programs to help develop and implement program evaluations and evaluation studies. These host programs will be selected through a competitive process to ensure Fellows are being assigned to important and productive evaluation projects that will build the knowledge base of the program and enhance the professional development of the Fellow.
Fellows will conduct evaluations and help to build the evaluation skills and capacity of the staff in the program to which they are assigned. Fellows may be assigned to one program/project for the duration of their fellowship or may rotate to several programs, depending upon the duration of the project. Fellows will have a point of contact within the program as well as mentoring and support from AD Program staff. In addition, we have reserved some dedicated resources for training and professional development of Fellows.
The participant will receive a monthly stipend depending on education level and experience. The participant must show proof of health insurance. The appointment will be full-time at the CDC in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Participants do not become employees of CDC or the program administrator, and there are no fringe benefits paid.
Additional details regarding the ORISE Research Participation Program can be found at http://www.orau.gov/cdc
Qualifications:
The ideal candidate has a PhD in evaluation, social sciences, public health, or other relevant discipline plus some experience with applied evaluation projects. Master’s-level candidates with significant experience in applied evaluation projects are also welcome. Candidates must have received their degree within the past five years to qualify for this program.
Technical Questions:
The Research Participation Program for CDC is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. To be considered, send a current resume to Tasha Powell via email at Tasha.Powell@orau.org or via fax at (865) 241-5219. Please reference Project # CDC-OADPG-2011-0032 in all communications.
Global Health News Last Week
SECTION NEWS
The following announcement is from Peter Freeman, chair of the section’s Advocacy and Policy Committee, regarding their first Advocacy Day to take place in conjunction with this year’s Annual Meeting in Washington,DC.
To all International Health Section Members:
The Advocacy/Policy Committee would like to invite you to participate in our first Advocacy Day, led in partnership with the Global Health Council. The day, scheduled for Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, will be an opportunity for us to voice support for a continued focus on international health to our elected officials. With the intense Congressional pressure to cut the budget, our voices can make a real difference. As a participant during this exciting day, you will be provided with training materials on effective advocacy techniques to ensure your message is clearly heard. Even if you do not have advocacy experience, you need not hesitate to sign up because you will be teamed with others. Please consider joining your fellow International Health Section members on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 on Capitol Hill to advocate for a healthy globe.
Interested parties should contact Peter Freeman, Advocacy/Policy Committee Chair, at pffreeman@gmail.com or 773.318.4842 with their name, phone number and e-mail address. A registration link for the Advocacy Day will be sent out to the section by mid-September; please be on the lookout for it.
August 20 was World Mosquito Day.
On August 22, the Gates Foundation celebrated its 12-year anniversary (well, sort of).
POLITICS AND POLICY
- Hospitals in Portland and elsewhere are banning elective inductions and c-sections before 39 weeks of pregnancy. New research suggests that critical organ and brain development is still occurring in developing fetuses during the last weeks of pregnancy.
- 10 Things You Should Know About the State Department and USAID: Do you ever wonder what the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) do every day and what it means for you? Well, funny you should ask. They’d like to tell you.
- The Global Fund, which has come under pressure to clean up corruption, has ended its dispute with Chinaand will resume hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for programs to fight AIDS and other diseases.
- Slate examines the growing popularity of the IUD in the United States in light of a health care reform law that will make the device effectively cost-free.
- A group of parliamentarians from six Asia Pacific countries have agreed to advocate for the allocation of Official Development Assistance to sexual and reproductive health programs in their respective countries.
PROGRAMS
- Donor funding for AIDS has decreased by 10 percent during the recent economic recession. The overall decrease in global AIDS funding marks a stark reversal in trends for previous years.
RESEARCH
- Proposals for Round 8 of the Grand Challenge Exploration, a $100 million grant initiative to encourage innovation in global health and development research, are now being accepted. Proposals can be submitted until November 17, 2011 at 11:30 am Pacific Daylight Time.
- Researchers from Michigan State Universityare working on bringing a low-cost, hand-held device to nations with limited resources to help physicians detect and diagnose cancer. The Gene-Z device is operated using an iPod Touch or Android-based tablet and performs genetic analysis on microRNAs and other genetic markers.
- The problem of obesity is spreading around the world and poses serious health threats. The finding is part of a new special report on obesity, and how to combat it in the medical journal the Lancet.
- A team of Australian researchers have discovered a breakthrough in the reduction of dengue. By injecting mosquitoes with a bacteria, they were able to block them from transmitting the virus that kills 20,000 people a year.
- Nanotechnology, the science of manipulating tiny particles, has is rapidly finding wide application. Developing countries that embrace nanotechnology should not overlook possible risks and must regulate products that contain nanoparticles.
- A study has found that nasal spray vaccines for influenza delivered to children between the age of six months and three years old are more effective than other vaccines.
- In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.
DISEASES AND DISASTERS
- The current famine in the Horn of Africa has again brought to our attention the interaction between climate change, food prices and extreme weather conditions on the African continent.
- Most of the world’s population growth today is in urban areas creating what some are dubbing unstable, unsustainable “mega-cities.” A new report by the World Wildlife Fund says that by 2050, about 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas creating “horrendous” problems.
- In Sub-Saharan Africa, a combination of inaccurate testing and patients quick to seek treatment has lead to a worrisome trend: treating patients for malaria when they do not have the disease.
- HIV epidemics are emerging among men who have sex with men in the Middle East and North Africa, researchers say. It’s a region where HIV/AIDS isn’t well understood, or studied. More than 5 percent of men who have sex with men are infected by HIV in countries including Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, according to a recent study in PLoS Medicine. In one group of men in Pakistan, the rate of infection was about 28 percent.
INFOGRAPHICS AND OTHER INTERESTING VISUALS
- The online international news organization GlobalPost has published this useful interactive map of the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, based on data from the UN’s World Food Programme.
- New this fall, an online Image Library will make over 10,000 Hesperian illustrations available to all.
Thanks to Tom Murphy and Mark Leon Goldberg, Tom Paulson, and Isobel Hoskins.
Global Health News Last Week
SECTION NEWS
The following announcement, from Eric Williams, calls for any IH section members interested in assisting efforts to address federal global health and HIV/AIDS funding. Please see the text of the announcement below. Eric can be contacted by e-mail at ericwms@gmail.com.
Dear Colleagues,
I’m writing to request assistance in a “grasstops” effort to address federal global health and HIV/AIDS funding. As you are likely well aware, there have been serious threats and concerns regarding global health funding over the last several years. There is a real need to mobilize influential members of our community in an effort to ensure that Congress does not backtrack on our global health commitments.
I am doing some consulting work with amfar and they want to identify experts, donors, high-profile individuals and/or organizations in select states who can reach out to key Senate leadership. We need these individuals/organizations to show and voice their support for continued and sustained commitments for global health.
States of focus include Nevada (Sen. Harry Reid), Iowa (Sen. Tom Harkin), and Washington (Sen. Patty Murray). We believe these senators are in key positions to influence appropriations decisions and sure up support for global health.
The aim of this effort is to:
- identify grasstop individuals/organizations and
- plan, coordinate, and carry out outreach efforts to Senate leadership in a variety of ways, including state-level meetings, Hill visits, op-eds, sign-on letters, and so forth.
If you are interested or able to provide assistance in helping to identify and/or reach out to the above stakeholders, I would be very interested in speaking. If there is strong support for this I would be happy to facilitate a conference call to discuss in full.
August 19 was World Humanitarian Day.
POLITICS AND POLICY
- The CDC has made updates to its flu vaccination recommendations aimed at children and people with egg allergies.
- The United Nations has released a list of 248 organizations from 48 nations that are accredited to attend the UN High Level Meeting (HLM) on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) during September 19-20, 2011. Meanwhile, as has been widely reported (including here and here), negotiations have stalled over an “outcomes document” that is to be approved at the meeting.
- The World Health Organization is calling for a ban on a common blood test for TB, saying the test is unreliable.
- Twenty-two children in Kancheepuram, Indiawho were not allowed to go to school because they are HIV positive have been ordered to return to school after a court ruled in favor of the students.
- International funding for HIV fell by 10 percent in 2010 from the previous year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS; activists worry that a continued reduction will undermine progress in global HIV prevention and treatment efforts.
PROGRAMS
- A study from Senegal published in the Lancet at the beginning of this month raises doubts over Gates’ plant to beat malaria, blaming mosquitoes’ growing resistance to insecticide and decreased immunity to malaria among the local population.
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have announced a strategic partnership to ensure continued progress in the fight against polio, including an innovative financing agreement to support polio-eradication efforts in Pakistan.
- USAID announced the expansion of its Indoor Residual Spraying program. The $189 million, there-year contract awarded by USAID to Abt. Associates will cover the implementation of IRS activities in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
- WHO has released Psychological First Aid: Guide for Fieldworkers, a guide intended to provide field workers the tools to provide psycho-social support to themselves and those affected by a disaster or humanitarian crisis.
- The first comprehensive etiology study of childhood pneumonia in 3 decades has been launched. Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) will be a collaboration between sites in Africa, Asia and the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
RESEARCH
- USAID has announced a partnership with the Infectious Disease Research Institute that will provide support for the research of a malaria vaccine at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
- UNDNJ researchers have discovered a link between TB and parasitic worms which act to thwart the body’s natural defenses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
- A Canadian study has found that a pregnant woman suffering from depression can lead to brain changes in their children.
- Researchers have identified 17 new antibodies with broad activity against HIV; some of which are 10 times more potent than previously discovered antibodies.
- The recent news about hiding vegetables by puréeing them and then adding them to recipes may make meals healthier, but if children don’t know they are eating vegetables, they won’t know to seek out those foods and eat them in future, says Isobel Hoskins on the CABI Global Health blog.
- Microcalorimeters may be the key to achieving TB diagnosis in a quicker and cheaper manner, say researchers in a recently published article in the Journal of Applied Microbiology.
- According to a recent UN study, 9 million lives can be saved over the next 10 years if average global salt consumption levels dropped by 15%.
DISEASES AND DISASTERS
- The WHO Says Libya is facing a medical supply crisis.
- The United Nations food agency called on Thursday for long-term aid for farmers in the Horn of Africa, saying constant crises in the region should shame the world.
- A report by the National Institute of Malaria research in Delhi has found that climate change will enable malaria to move to new areas.
- New research finds that radiation from the nuclear plant accident in Japanin March reached Californiawithin days, showing how quickly air pollution can travel, but scientists say the radiation will not hurt people.
- According to an article published in Science, 19 August, cases of Chagas disease are rising outside Latin America, because large numbers of people who are already infected are migrating fromLatin America.
- Len Rubenstein comments on the attacks on healthcare personnel inBahrain and the recent progress made to protect healthcare workers in conflict zones.
INFOGRAPHICS AND OTHER INTERESTING VISUALS
- Sarah Arnquist at the Global Health Hub has put together an open source timeline of global health milestones from the past century.
- The GAVI Alliance has released this infographic on the importance of childhood vaccines.
- This infographic on maternal mortality from Maternal Health Taskforce has caught the attention of Jen Quraishi at Mother Jones for the choice of data used to fill it out. She argues that comparing total maternal deaths rather than per capita rates makes it hard to assess nations side by side.
Thanks to Tom Murphy and Mark Leon Goldberg, Larry Johnson (filling in for Tom Paulson), Isobel Hoskins, and Jeff Meer.
IH CONNECT 
