* Pathobiology PhD: The Pathobiology program welcomed five incoming students this autumn. They came from Michigan, Seattle and even Nairobi. Their backgrounds range from studying in an interdisciplinary program at Evergreen to obtaining a Masters in Public Health from Oregon Health and Science University.
The University of Nairobi recently received a Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI)-linked award focused on research training in mental health. This three-year award. led by Dr. Muthoni Mathai from the University of Nairobi and Dr. Jurgen Unutzer from the University of Washington, builds upon the nearly 30-year research training collaboration between UW and the University of Nairobi. Dr. Deepa Rao is the UW program director.
Researchers are continuing to sound the alarm on the growing threat of multi-drug resistant gonorrhea in the United States, according to a perspective in the Feb. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“It is time to sound the alarm,” said co-author Wasserheit. “Though there is no evidence yet of treatment failures in the United States, trends in decreased susceptibility coupled with a history of emerging resistance and reported treatment failures in other countries point to a likelihood of failures on the horizon and a need for urgent action.”
The Seattle organization Health Alliance International at UW, which recently launched a Mobile Moms text messaging service aimed at improving maternal health in Timor-Leste, is the beneficiary of the funds raised by the event’s ticket sales (which looked to be at least $40,000).
The Seattle area is full of institutions working on the problems of global health: fighting malaria, delivering vaccines, making childbirth safer and combating diseases like dengue fever. Tuesday, a new exhibit highlighting these contributions will open in the Next 50 Plaza at Seattle Center.
The FDA approved the first drug, known as Truvada, for preventing HIV in people at high risk of infection due to ‘discordance’ – science lingo for being HIV negative but having a sex partner who is HIV positive. Seattle scientists, as Tom Paulson reported almost exactly a year ago, played a critical role in demonstrating the drug’s effectiveness in Kenya and Uganda studies.
UW seniors Christine Scullywest, Adam Tanaka, and Roshan Mahoney were recently among three first-place finishers in the Washington Global Health Alliance’s Be the Change student competition, thanks to their research proposal of employing the Evarcha culicivora spider to control malaria-spreading mosquitoes. The spiders are natural predators of female mosquitoes, which carry the malaria virus.
UW is playing a major role in a global health exhibit at the Seattle Center, showcasing the work of more than 30 area organizations at an exhibit at Seattle Center from June 19- Aug. 19.
Global Health Week May 7-11 was well-attended by many students across disciplines and majors. More than a dozen organizations were part of the "Futures in Global Health Day - Career Fair." The "Working Globally, Locally Career Panel" following the Career Fair was moderated by Dr.
More than 750 people from 31 universities and 17 states attended the 9th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference, “At a Crossroads: Choosing Hidden Paths in Global Health” held on the UW campus April 27-29. One of the highlights of the event was the inspirational keynote talk, "Nothing Less than a Revolution: Why I'm Preoccupied with Inequality, Social Justice and Health," by acclaimed human rights advocate and thought leader Kavita Ramdas, the executive director of a newly launched program on social entrepreneurship at Stanford University.