SPH: UW Students Have Hard Conversations about Race & Disparity in London

Students share their experiences in a study abroad program examining health disparities in Great Britain in this School of Public Health news article. The program name, Dark Empire, refers to the shadow that existed after the fall of the British Empire and the health disparities seen today as a result of British imperialism. This is the program's 9th year and it is led by Adjunct Professor Clarence Spigner.

PBS NewsHour: Uncovering the Female Body's Secret Protection against HIV

By Heather Boerner

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — From where Linda-Gail Bekker sits as director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town, science has been losing ground against HIV for years, especially when it comes to young women. After all, in some parts of the country, girls who are 15 today have an 80 percent chance of acquiring HIV in their lifetimes.

“We’re really in the trenches here,” she said. “We have to bring all the technology, tools—you know, innovations—we can find to start turning that war around.”

The Globe and Mail: University of Victoria Researcher Close to Developing Syphilis Vaccine

By Andrea Woo

A University of Victoria researcher says she and a colleague are close to developing a vaccine for syphilis, a disease that has reached its highest rates in B.C. in 30 years.

Microbiologist Caroline Cameron and Sheila Lukehart, a professor in the University of Washington’s department of global health, have received a nearly $3-million grant from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. The grant will help fund preclinical trials.

Times Colonist: As Syphilis Cases Rise, UVic Leads Search for a Vaccine

By Richard Watts

A University of Victoria microbiologist and her American colleague are looking for a vaccine to prevent syphilis, a venereal disease on the rise worldwide.

UVic’s Caroline Cameron, a professor of biochemistry and microbiology, is joining with University of Washington’s Sheila Lukehart, a professor of medicine and global health, to develop a vaccine to stop syphilis before it gets started in a body.

“It’s a preventive treatment, not a cure,” Cameron said.

Wired: The Price of Zika? About $4 Million Per Child

By Emma Grey Ellis

To talk about Zika virus control is to talk about money. Vaccine development, mosquito abatement, and even the distribution of DEET repellant takes (and currently lacks) major federal dollars. When, last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services declared Zika a public health emergency in Puerto Rico, it was in part a means to a better-funded end.

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