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Pitt unveils Center for Global Health
Pitt unveils Center for Global Health
Thursday, May 07, 2009
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In a world plagued by swine flu, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the University of Pittsburgh has launched a program to address health issues affecting populations around the world.
The university unveiled its Center for Global Health yesterday during an event in the University Club in Oakland.
Dr. Donald S. Burke, dean of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, said the new center will encourage international health research and scholarship and will include Pitt’s schools of public health, law, medicine and public and international affairs.
Center funding includes a $3 million grant from Pitt and an annual $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health over several years.
One emphasis involves tracing problems to limited health resources, and social, economic, political and environmental inequalities that make outbreaks and pandemics harder to control.
The swine flu, Dr. Burke said, "is yet another example of the need for a global response to address health issues that impact all of us."
The center will not be a research house that develops international health policy. Instead, it will educate graduate students and support faculty and students interested in traveling overseas to do research on global health topics.
Already Pitt is working on pandemic preparedness in Thailand, improvements in children’s health in India, control of mosquito-borne viruses in Brazil, and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique.
It also has been modeling the spread of swine flu while helping to develop a vaccine.
"The University of Pittsburgh is a national powerhouse in medical and public-health research, and this is an attempt to extend that capacity internationally so students have a boarder understanding of health issues and apply it to solving the problems of global health," Dr. Burke said.
Joanne Russell serves as center director with an advisory committee of deans from the participating schools. In addition to providing qualified students and faculty with travel grants, the program also will bring in faculty and speakers from other nations.
"The more international contacts we have, the better we will be able to deal with problems quickly," Dr. Burke said. "Activities on the ground and personal relationships with biomedical scientists allow you to work much more effectively when something does happen."
David Templeton can be reached at dtempleton@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1578.
First published on May 7, 2009 at 12:00 am