Tomorrow! Global Health Symposium: “Conflicting Loyalties in Medicine” with Len Rubenstein, Renowned Health and Human Rights Advocate

Blogosphere:

We are writing to invite you to the first ever Global Health Symposium, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Global Health Interest Group.

The Symposium will be a series of talks with renowned faculty, scholars, and advocates in the fields of international health. Join us for an evening of engagement, scholarship, and discussion.

Conflicting Loyalties in Medicine: Physicians, Torture, and Human Rights
Len Rubenstein, JD, Visiting Scholar at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Former President of Physicians for Human Rights
Cader Room, The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Tuesday, October 26th, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Dinner provided

About Our Speaker:
Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD, is a Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center for Human
Rights and Public Health. A graduate of Harvard Law School and Wesleyan University, Mr.
Rubenstein has spent thirty years engaged in scholarship and advocacy in human rights and health.
For twelve years he served as Executive Director and then President of Physicians for Human Rights
and prior to that as Executive Director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. He spent the
2008-09 academic year as a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. His work has
embraced human rights and mental health, human experimentation, health systems in low-income
and post-conflict countries, race and ethnic disparities in health care, health professional engagement
in interrogation and torture, protection of health in armed conflict, and divided loyalties among
clinicians between patients and the state. He has written extensively both for scholarly publications
and major media.

Mr. Rubenstein is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the Committee on Scientific
Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He
serves on the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Health and Human Rights
Organizations and the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association. He is
recipient of numerous awards.

Supported by The Osler Fund for Scholarship, The Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, and MSS.

Come one, come all!

GHIG will be holding its first general body meeting of the school year this Wednesday, September 29, from 1-2pm in AMEB room 220. We will be announcing several exciting new initiatives as well as discussing opportunities for new members to get involved in our activities.

At these meetings we typically open by discussing a short article of global health relevance. Wednesday’s article from NEJM is of particular interest to students in the health professions: “An International Service Corps for Health – An Unconventional Prescription for Diplomacy.” We will have a few paper copies at the meeting if you don’t have time to read it beforehand.

Hope to see you there!

Girl power! With a catch?

As many of you Times readers likely already know, there has been somewhat of a breakthrough in the world of HIV prevention. Two studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa have demonstrated novel ways to reduce the risk of HIV infection among women and schoolgirls.

The first study gives us (at long last) an effective vaginal microbicidal gel. Women who used the gel, laced with tenofovir, before and after sex reduced their risk of contracting HIV by 39%. The second study provided small cash payments to schoolgirls and their parents, hoping it would prevent the girls from agreeing to sex in return for gifts and cash. By the end of the trial, HIV prevalence was 1.2% among girls who received cash, compared to 3% among girls who did not.

Both studies offer hope for African women, who suffer from higher rates of infection than African men and traditionally have wielded less power in society and in their relationships. Yet, is it just me, or is the vaginal gel study getting much more media attention than the cash program study? Many of the radio and print stories I’ve read today feature the gel findings exclusively, while only the NYT article linked to above covers both findings relatively equally.

Why is this? Is it because microbicidal gels have long been a public health hope for so many, and this study finally validates the idea? Is it because the gel intervention is more empowering to its users; women can apply it up to 12 hours in advance without telling their partners, thereby taking their health into their own hands? Or, is it because the gel represents a medicalized intervention, a 39%-”magic bullet” for women in the fight against HIV, while the findings about cash programs tell us something we’ve  known and been overwhelmed by all along – that extreme poverty, social injustice, and global health are inextricably intertwined?

Interesting talk on TB control in North Korea tomorrow

Humanitarian Engagement for Tuberculosis Control in North Korea:
The DPRK National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory Project

Sharon Perry, EdM, PhD
Senior Research Scientist

Stanford University School of Medicine

Tuesday, May 11, 2010
12:15PM-1:15PM
Room W4030

Wolfe St. Building

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
**Free Korean food**

Dr. Perry will give an introduction to the tuberculosis situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and its health system and share about her extraordinary experience of establishing North Korea’s first tuberculosis reference laboratory in December 2009 through a collaboration between Stanford University/Christian Friends of Korea, the DPRK Ministry of Public Health, and the World Health Organization.

Sharon Perry is a senior research scientist from the Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, Stanford University. Her research has focused on the immuno-epidemiology of tuberculosis, for which she is a recipient of an NIH K23 career development award. During 2008, in collaboration with CISAC and APARC, she organized the Bay Area Tuberculosis Consortium to host a delegation of North Korean physicians to visit Bay Area TB programs and discuss opportunities for mutual cooperation. Together with Dr. Julie Parsonnet, Stanford Professor of Medicine, and Dr. Jay Solnick of UC-Davis, she is a co-recipient of a Gates Grand Challenge award to explore chronic infections that may be associated with protective immunity against tuberculosis.

Let’s talk about TB

Starting tomorrow, Sexto de Mayo, Phillip C. Hopewell of UCSF will be giving a series of talks here at Hopkins about his work in TB epidemiology and control. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, May 6, 8am: Dr. Hopewell is giving Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Grand Rounds on “Critical Care in Resource-poor Environments.” Located in the Cader Room (Harvey 5 in the Hospital, take the elevators by the main hospital entrance to the 5th floor and the room is directly in front of you). Students are welcome. Coffee is free.

Friday, May 7, 12:15am: He’s giving another talk entitled  “Molecular epidemiology of TB.” Located in the SPH, Sheldon Hall, W1214.