University of Washington Archives - Humanosphere

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A King County Yankee amid Kenya’s Electoral Count |

Apologies to Mark Twain, for bastardizing the title of his novel about a Connecticut engineer transported back to King Arthur’s time. But it seemed like a nice, phonetic headline for this guest column by Michael Golomb, a University of Washington student who, with his physician fiance Aliza Monroe-Wise, is in Kenya working on a variety of development & health issues. I asked Mike for his perspective on Kenya’s recent elections. More about both of them at bottom.

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By Michael Golomb

As an American student temporarily living in Kenya and witness to the recent elections here, I’ve gained a unique perspective on how distinctly different a story looks depending upon how it’s covered and by whom.

: Polling station in a Maasai village. Laikipia district, central Kenya; Mike Golomb

Leading up to Kenya’s election, western media mostly ran with headlines playing up the fear of political violence while Kenyan newspapers reported on the problems, but also on the progress being made, the many peace parades and positive political dynamics.

On March 9^th, Uhuru Kenyatta was announced the winner of the election by both the Kenyan government and international observers. His challenger, Raila Odinga, condemned the process as fraudulent – but also called upon his supporters to refrain from violence and said that the matter would be taken up by the Kenyan judiciary at a later date.

So far, only isolated demonstrations have occurred. There have been no widespread demonstrations or violence like what took place here in 2007 and 2008. Odinga’s camp has made numerous public statements urging peace and denouncing violence as a roadblock to electoral justice.

In Nairobi, the day after the announcement of Uhuru’s win, one Kenyan told me, “We are just happy to move past this. It is time for Kenyans to go back to our lives.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, elections, global health, Kenya, Mike Golomb, University of Washington

December 13, 2012 | 9:02 AM | By Tom Paulson |

The burden of a new global health agenda |

Flickr, Oliver Erdmann

A massive study of death, disability and disease on Earth, coordinated out of Seattle and to be officially published in The Lancet on Friday, could do for global health something like what Galileo did for the solar system.

It’s called the Global Burden of Disease (technically, the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factors Study 2010) and it is, like its earlier incarnations dating back to 1990, almost guaranteed to provoke and disrupt the international community’s approach to improving global health.

The good news is that people, in general, are living longer. The bad news is more of them seem to be fatter, still smoking too much and suffering from disabilities.

Just as the 16^th century astronomer Galileo – much to the dismay of the religious orthodoxy of the time – displaced Earth from its celestial prominence in favor of the Sun, the new Global Burden of Disease may displace infectious disease from its position as the categorical center of the global health universe.

Think the top three killers in the world are scourges like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria? Think again, of heart disease, respiratory infections and stroke.

Think preventing death is the best way to tell if we’re winning the war on disease? You better think again about that as well since rates of obesity, chronic pain, injury and mental illness may say more….

Chris Murray

“We were surprised by many of the findings,” said Chris Murray, one of the founders of the study and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

“The simple purpose of this study has always been to provide the best scientific evidence on patterns of disease and disability to help us make sense of what’s happening out there and set priorities,” Murray said.

Sounds simple enough. So why did it take some 500 researchers more than five years to do it? Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Science, Alan Lopez, Chris Murray, Global Burden of Disease, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington

October 4, 2012 | 11:30 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Seattle talk: Philanthro-capitalism and the politics behind the global health agenda |

On Friday, 3:30-6 pm, UW Health Sciences Hogness Auditorium, historian Anne-Emanuelle Birn gave the Stephen Stewart Gloyd endowed lecture, “Philanthrocapitalism, Cooption and the Politics of Global Health Agenda-Setting.”

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The words “global health” usually conjure images of health workers vaccinating children in Africa, major initiatives aimed at getting anti-HIV drugs or anti-malaria bed nets out to people in poor communities across the globe or any number of other noble efforts aimed at fighting diseases of poverty.

Most don’t think of global health as a means to also advance corporate or political agendas.

Anne-Emanuelle Birn

But Anne-Emanuelle Birn does and on Friday, at a UW symposium, she explained why.

Birn’s a historian who literally wrote the book on global health! (Well, okay, she’s first author on the 3rd edition of it … known as the Textbook of International Health). The popular narrative of global health, she says, is too often a simplistic portrayal of the field as a charitable enterprise largely devoid of political and economic power or social conflict.

“There’s an incredible amount of naivete and lack of knowledge about all this,” said Birn. “To begin with, it’s important to recognize that philanthropy emerged in the United States in the early 20th century as an alternative to the welfare state.”

That’s important, she explained, because it provides a lens through which to evaluate the strategies and choices made by philanthropists to advance their goals. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, global health, philanthropy, politics, Rockefeller Foundation, University of Washington

July 16, 2012 | 1:00 PM | By Tom Paulson |

The Seattle science that led to FDA approval of HIV-prevention drug |

Gilead

The FDA today 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 I reported almost exactly a year ago, played a critical role in demonstrating the drug’s effectiveness in Kenya and Uganda studies.

It’s not a new drug and its use is not without some potential complications. But this still represents big news today:

FDA approves first drug to prevent HIV

FDA approves ‘landmark’ HIV prevention drug

As NPR’s Scott Hensley reports, one of the ‘complications’ of Truvada will be its expense of anywhere from $11,000 to $14,000 per year.

In addition, the drug needs to be taken daily to be effective, so adherence may become a problem — and lack of adherence could pose a risk for creating drug-resistant HIV. Some studies have indicated Truvada is about 65 percent effective at preventing HIV infection and it does have some side effects.

Connie Celum

Still, in a recent Q&A (see below) with the University of Washington’s Connie Celum, the UW scientist says this drug represents a powerful new tool for preventing HIV among those now at high risk for the infection. Millions of people continue to become infected with HIV every year (some 50,000 in the U.S. alone) so new prevention weapons are needed.

Celum, who has done some of the most critical scientific studies supporting the concept that Treatment is Prevention, notes that drug maker Gilead has agreed to steep discounts for Truvada in poor countries, making it accessible to those most in need.

Here is an excerpt from the UW’s chat with Celum re Truvada:

Q: The drug needs to be taken every day. Won’t that be difficult for some people?

We need to make it clear this isn’t something for everyone. People need to be at sufficient risk to benefit from it. So far, the data from the trials suggests that people either took it or they didn’t take it. There weren’t a lot of intermittent users. The risk of resistance is if people take this drug when they are in the process of becoming infected. The other concern would be if people took it sporadically or they weren’t tested frequently enough for HIV.

FILED UNDER: Health, Science, Connie Celum, HIV-AIDS, Jared Baeten, prevention, Truvada, University of Washington

April 30, 2012 | 1:33 PM | By Tom Paulson |

One student’s view of the UW global health and justice confab: Watermarks |

Over the weekend, the University of Washington held a student-run conference on global health. This was the 9th year for the Western Regional International Health Conference and this year’s theme was on social justice and health. Here’s one UW student’s perspective as she jumped from one session to another.

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By Cyan James, special correspondent

Quick: tell me what’s watermarked on Angola’s 5-kwanza note?

Stumped? I thought so.

Turns out there’s a statue portrayed on every Angolan 5-kwanza, and it’s no Venus de Milo or David—it’s The Man Who Thinks Too Much, a bent, stylized figure who cradles his head in his hands (a little like Rodin’s ‘Thinker,’ but with more of a headache.)

www.randafricanart.com

In Angola, ‘thinking too much’ is an expression for depression. One of the panelists at the UW conference speaking on mental health, Dr. Paul Bolton of Johns Hopkins University, said jokingly: “Dumb people don’t get this disease.”

More seriously, Bolton pointed out that if Angola saw fit to watermark their currency with a symbol for depression, it could mean Angola takes depression seriously. Or at least knows about it.

It still surprises people to hear that depression is, in fact, one of the world’s biggest killers and causes of disability. Yet it remains neglected on the global health agenda. In 1990, health researchers — now based in Seattle — looked at the leading causes of death and disability and found mental illness was one of the most damaging diseases globally.

As I jumped from session to session at the University of Washington’s 9^th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference, I found myself persuaded that mental health on a global scale remains both an important and largely invisible problem. One of the themes of the meeting was finding hidden paths to improving global health.

Like the watermark on Angola’s paper currency, mental illness is always there but often unseen.

I study mental health genetics in UW’s public health genetics PhD program. And I study a lot, so maybe I wasn’t exactly thrilled about spending a semi-rainless weekend back at school. But I went, mostly for the chance to talk about mental health and other ‘hidden’ global health subjects.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Justice, Cyan James, Kavita Ramdas, mental illness, Paul Bolton, students, University of Washington, Western Regional International Health Conference

April 24, 2012 | 9:30 AM | By Guest |

UW conference explores the intersection of justice and health |

Kavita Ramdas, Executive Director of the Program on Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford, will set the tone.

By Claudia Rowe, special correspondent

The relationship between social justice and human health is at the heart of an upcoming conference at the University of Washington expected to draw hundreds of students and policy experts to Seattle at the end of this month.

Co-sponsored by more than two dozen colleges and universities, The 9th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference highlights global perspectives on mental health; marginalized populations; clinical issues; funding; communications; and the environment. It runs April 27-29.

“You’ll have people with PhDs and MDs sitting on panels with graduate students, all of them talking about the research they’re doing,” said Lisa Lester, an organizer and UW senior majoring in Spanish and international studies.

“It’s just very exciting and we’ve gotten just huge amounts of support. I definitely get the sense that in Seattle global health is a field that’s on the rise.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Justice, global health, Kavita Ramdas, University of Washington

September 30, 2011 | 11:11 AM | By Tom Paulson |

The UW’s first full year of its global health minor starts … now! |

Speaking of Millennials, those young people in their 20s and early 30s we in the media have (annoyingly?) labeled as such, here’s more evidence that this generation is intensely interested in doing some serious global good.

The University of Washington’s Global Health Department’s new undergraduate program.

Started last January, mid-school year, the global health minor was launched largely due to undergraduate students’ desire (here’s a story featuring one of the ring-leaders, Sarah Dawson) to get going now rather than wait to work on global health issues as graduate student in public health, medicine or some such.

This week marks the start of the first full year of the UW’s global health minor.

Tom Paulson

UW students wandering around looking for direction at start of 2011 school year

While hordes of students wandered around campus looking for direction, or for those free granola bars from some church organization I’d never heard of, others were hunkered down playing a game of global health and development trivia.

“What percentage of our GDP, our gross domestic product, is spent on overseas development?” asked UW civil engineering student Dean Chahim, one of the organizers of the event. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Critical Development Forum, Dean Chahim, global health undergraduate, Jennifer Lucero-Earle, Lauren Summers, Millennials, Sarah Dawson, University of Washington