Individuals for Global Health Facebook group

Check out the Individuals for Global Health Facebook group to network with others with similar interests and see posted topics of interest: http://tinyurl.com/5kzre9

Y Public Health Nutrition

For anyone interested in Public Health Nutrition, check out this blog! There is also a way to sign up for timely e-mail updates. http://yphnutrition.blogspot.com/

Public Health & Human Rights - Dec. 5, 1-5pm

Public Health and Human Rights: The Work Ahead of Us
Dec 5, 2008 -- 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
The New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St. at Barclay St., 40th fl.
1/2 day symposium; pre-registration $25, on-site $35
Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the New York Academy of Sciences
To register and for more information, please visit www.nyas.org/publichealth

For full agenda and speaker information, please download the brochure.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first international recognition that human rights are absolute and inclusive of all, and that they should concern the entire international community. This doctrine has served as the foundation of international human rights law, and it continues to inspire international human rights treaties and declarations, regional conventions, and national constitutions.

Please join us as we examine the progress we have made in the 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—and as we look ahead to navigating the roadblocks, contradictions, and challenges to public health and human rights at home and abroad.

Speakers include:

Joseph Amon, PhD, MSPH
Director, Health and Human Rights Division
Human Rights Watch

Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH
Director, Center for Public Health and Human Rights
Professor, Departments of Epidemiology and International Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Laurie Garrett
Senior Fellow for Global Health,
Council on Foreign Relations
Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Patricia Gatling, JD
Commissioner and Chair
New York City Commission on Human Rights

Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH
Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Gara LaMarche
President and CEO
The Atlantic Philanthropies

Robert S. Lawrence, MD
Center for a Livable Future Professor
Director, Center for a Livable Future
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Leonard Rubenstein, JD
President
Physicians for Human Rights

Navanethem Pillay, SJD, LLM
High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the High Commission for Human Rights

Ellis Rubinstein
President and CEO
The New York Academy of Sciences

Ruth Wedgwood, JD
Edward B. Burling Professor of International
Law and Diplomacy Director, International Law and Organizations Program
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

HIV Prevention debate: Oct. 24, 6-8pm

The NYU Master's Program in Global Public Health Presents
Rethinking HIV Prevention Strategy:
Debating What Works
A Conversations in Global Public Health panel discussion featuring:

Daniel Halperin, Ph.D.
Lecturer on International Health, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health

Bill Easterly, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, faculty affiliate of Africa House, Co-Director of Development Research Institute at New York University , Author of "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good" (Penguin, 2006).

Helen Epstein, Ph.D.
Noted HIV/AIDS expert and public health researcher, author of "The Invisible Cure: Africa , the West and the Fight against AIDS" (Viking, 2007)

Since the eruption of the HIV pandemic over two decades ago, global public health experts have long advocated for a few major approaches in preventing the spread of the deadly disease. Billions of dollars have been poured into these efforts, led by multilateral organizations like the United Nations and financially backed by governments worldwide. Now, a group of researchers and scientists are saying that recent evidence shows that some of these long held prevention strategies just don't work very well. They're calling for a different approach to preventing HIV-AIDS in regions like Africa , and charge that health officials are wasting money pursuing approaches that are largely ineffective and unexamined. Organizations like UNAIDS counter that the impact of these programs is undeniable and can be seen directly in the worldwide decline of the HIV epidemic - which they say can be linked precisely to interventions such as condom distribution and HIV testing. What doesn't work and what would work better when it comes to preventing the spread of HIV, especially in Africa ? Join us for an exciting evening as our three panelists confront this pressing issue.


Friday, October 24th, 2008
6:00 ­ 8:00pm
Doors open at 5:30pm; Program begins promptly at 6:10pm
Tishman Auditorium at NYU's Vanderbilt Hall
40 Washington Square South , between MacDougal and Sullivan Streets
Free and open to the general public; light refreshments to follow

Visit www.nyu.edu/mph/events to RSVP and for more information

Speaker Biographies:
Daniel Halperin, M.S., Ph.D.
Prior to joining the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Halperin served for over five years as the Senior HIV Prevention and Behavior Change Advisor at the US Agency for International Development. Dr. Halperin has conducted epidemiological and ethnographic research for over thirty years on a number of health and sociocultural issues in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions. Since completing his doctoral training in medical and cultural anthropology at the University of California , Berkeley in 1995, his work has mainly focused on the heterosexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. He has had extensive involvement in the design, management and evaluation of prevention, care and other HIV-AIDS programs, and continues to be actively engaged in collaborative endeavors with UNAIDS, WHO, CDC, UNICEF, Gates Foundation and other international partners in developing and disseminating policy-setting technical consultations, guidance documents, etc.
Most of Dr. Halperin's research and scientific publications (including in leading journals such as The Lancet, British Medical Journal, AIDS, and Science) have dealt with some of the previously more neglected HIV co-factors, such as concurrent sexual partner networks, lack of male circumcision, "dry sex" practices, alcohol use, and heterosexual anal intercourse. He has conducted field research and consultations over the years in a number of countries, including Brazil , South Africa , Botswana , Zimbabwe , Mozambique , Haiti , the Dominican Republic , Peru and in various inner-city U.S. communities, and has an extensive background working with at-risk youth, particularly socially disadvantaged young men.

Bill Easterly, Ph.D.
William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University , joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also a non-resident Fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington DC and Visiting Fellow at Brookings during the academic year 2007-2008. William Easterly received his Ph.D. in Economics at MIT. He was born in West Virginia and is the 8th most famous native of Bowling Green , Ohio , where he grew up. He spent sixteen years as a Research Economist at the World Bank. He is on the board of the anti-malaria philanthropy, Nets for Life. He is the author of The White Man’s Burden: How the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin, 2006), The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (MIT, 2001), 3 other co-edited books, and 59 articles in refereed economics journals. His work has been discussed in media outlets like the Lehrer Newshour, National Public Radio, the BBC, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the Economist, the New Yorker, Forbes, Business Week, the Financial Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, and the Christian Science Monitor. Foreign Policy magazine inexplicably named him one of the world’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals in 2008. Easterly's areas of expertise are the determinants of long-run economic growth, the political economy of development, and the effectiveness of foreign aid. He has worked in most areas of the developing world, most heavily in Africa, Latin America, and Russia . Easterly is an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economic Growth, and of the Journal of Development Economics.

Helen Epstein, M.Sc, Ph.D.
Helen Epstein is a molecular biologist by training. In the early 1990s she worked at Makerere University in Uganda . She was until recently visiting scholar at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University in the US and is currently working for Human Rights Watch. She has written extensively about public health issues in developing countries. Her public health-related articles have been published in both academic journals and popular magazines such as The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and Granta. Dr. Epstein earned a PhD from Cambridge University , UK , and an MSc from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is the author of The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight against AIDS, (Viking Books, New York , 2007).

This event made possible in part by the generous support of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation

Health Care: Obama & McCain - Friday 10/24, 7-9pm

Health Care Policy Panel: Comparing Obama & McCain [10/24]
Come attend a panel discussion of experts comparing McCain's vs. Obama's health care policies. This event is free and open to the public.

NYU Kimmel Center Room 802 (Student Life)
60 Washington Square South
New York, 10012
Friday, October 24th
Time: 7PM-9PM

WHAT THE NEXT PRESIDENT WILL FACE
*Controlling spiraling costs of health insurance
*Expanding access to health coverage
*Reining in growth in Medicare and Medicaid budgets
*Modernizing record keeping and tracking treatment outcomes

How health care costs have increased since the last presidential election
THE UNINSURED
2004: 43.5 million
2008: 45.7 million
(2007 sample)
5 percent increase in uninsured people

U.S. HEALTH CARE SPENDING
2004: $1.9 trillion (15.9 percent of GDP)
2008: $2.4 trillion (projected)
(16.6 percent of GDP)
29 percent increase in spending

MEDICARE COSTS
2004: $309.3 billion
2008: $460.7 billion (projected)
49 percent increase in spending

Listed below are the panelists:
Minalkumar Pate,l MD, MPH
CEO, Care Management International Inc.

Irwin Redlener, MD
Professor of Population and Family Health
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; President, Children's Health Fund, Senior Advisor for Doctors for Obama

Eric Adler, MD
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Cardiology

Niketa Sheth, MPA
Senior Strategic Planner
NYU Langone Medical Center

Jamalia L. Brashears, MPA
Senior Consultant
Ernst & Young, LLP, Health Sciences and Advisory Services

Friday, October 24th: After-Midterms Social at Slate

Join other students and faculty for the Public Health Student Group After-Midterms Social on Friday, October 24th! We will be meeting at Slate from 6-8pm for happy hour drink specials, food, and billiards or ping pong. We will meet outside at 6pm, but if you come later, just find us inside.

Slate is at 54 West 21st Street, closest to 6th avenue. Map!

For questions or to RSVP, email PublicHealthStudentGroup@gmail.com

All are welcome! Hope to see you there!

Jacob Zuma - Oct. 24, 5:00-6:30pm

New York University's

Africa House

Presents
Jacob Zuma President of the African National Congress

Former Deputy President of South Africa

WHEN: Friday October 24, 2008

5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

WHERE: 60 Washington Square South, Kimmel RM 914

New York University

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Jacob Zuma became involved in politics in his country at a very early age, joining the African National Congress in 1959. In 1963 he was convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government, and was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, which he served on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela and other notable ANC leaders. After his release he continued his work with the liberation movement both in the country and later while in exile. Jacob Zuma was elected in 2007 as the President of the African National Congress after serving in its National Executive committee for 30 years. He is a very popular politician in South Africa, and most expect him to win the upcoming national elections to become the next President of South Africa.

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Brief Q & A

followed by a Wine and Cheese reception

Please RSVP on or before October 23rd, 2008

ps1499@nyu.edu

For questions: africa.house@nyu.edu