The capital of the Peruvian Amazon is only accessible by water or air travel, leaving it inherently isolated from the world. This city, Iquitos, Peru is the largest in the world that cannot be reached by road. Because of its geographic limitations, Iquitos also faces several logistical challenges, something postdoctoral fellow Olaf Recktenwald became very familiar with in his time spent studying the effects of communal meeting spaces on a floating river population’s mental health conditions.

As the academic year kicks into high gear, the Department of Global Health welcomes back students who recently conducted international fieldwork in global health. With work in Timor-Leste, Peru, South Africa, and more, these students share their stories (and photos!) from their time abroad.

Predicting where Ebola might strike next could become easier, thanks to a new computer model. The model tracks how changes in the environment and in human societies could affect the deadly virus’s spread. It predicts that Ebola outbreaks could become as much as 60 percent more likely by 2070 if the world continues on a path toward a warmer climate and a cooling economy.

Even successful methods for diagnosing, treating and caring for people who are suffering from cancer are not enough without effective, practical tools and guidance for putting those methods into practice.

Today we have the great pleasure of sharing the news that UW has named our future home, the Population Health Initiative building, after the Swedish physician and 'very serious possibilist' Hans Rosling.

Next year, the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health will become home to the Department of Global Health (DGH), the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the School of Public Health, and the UW's Population Health Initiative.

Analysis from leading researchers shows there could be significant benefits from a presidentially-led initiative focused on combatting pandemics. With the 2020 Presidential race under way, the researchers provide new evidence on the potential for a pro-active U.S. foreign policy effort to halt current pandemics, prevent new outbreaks from becoming pandemics, and address disease threats linked to climate change.