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No easy answer for health void in Syria
Professor Jennifer Leaning, co-chair of a new committee set up to examine the health consequences of Syria’s civil war, talks about the country’s prospects for stability and recovery.
Ingenuity in public health
Inaugural winner Chelsea Clinton was on hand as the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recognized Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes with this year’s Next Generation Award.
Gates Foundation CEO challenges students
Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shared the “Big Bet,” an ambitious series of goals the Gateses issued in their annual letter. Desmond-Hellman challenged Harvard Chan students to help make the bet pay off during her talk as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture series.
Sick with measles, again
Dyann Wirth, chair of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, discusses what’s behind the resurgence of measles in the United States.
Hotamisligil to receive Endocrine Society’s 2015 Laureate Award
Gökhan S. Hotamisligil, J.S. Simmons Professor of Genetics and Metabolism, chair of the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases, and principal ...
Saving neonatal lives
Günther Fink, a health economist with expertise in child health and development, thinks that all countries should aim to reduce neonatal mortality by 70 ...
More whole grains linked with lower mortality
Eating more whole grains is associated with up to 15% lower mortality—particularly cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality, according to a large new ...
Air Force reservists possibly exposed to Agent Orange from planes
Between 1,500 and 2,100 U.S. Air Force reservists who trained and worked on C-123 cargo planes that were used during the Vietnam War to spread the toxic ...
The heat is on: Causes of hospitalization due to heat waves identified
In the largest and most comprehensive study of heat-related illness to date, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers have identified a handful ...
PTSD doubles diabetes risk in women
Women with post-traumatic stress disorder are nearly twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared with women who don’t have PTSD, according to ...
Fine particulate air pollution linked with increased autism risk
Women exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter specifically during pregnancy—particularly during the third trimester—may face up to twice the risk ...
A cross-disciplinary approach to eradicating malaria
There is an arsenal of cost-effective tools available to combat malaria but getting people to adhere to treatment regimens can be challenging, said Jessica ...
Leading role for Murthy
With Harvard’s Vivek Murthy confirmed as the next surgeon general, health experts shared their views on areas where his focus and influence are most needed.
On the ground: Alumnus battles the nightmare in Liberia
As the deadly infection rages through West Africa, faculty, students, and alumni are waging a counterattack: on the ground, in the lab, on the humanitarian ...
HSPH faculty member, alumnus, among Ebola fighters named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’
Pardis Sabeti, associate professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and Mosoka Fallah, ...
Getting to universal health coverage
Julio Frenk is dean of the Faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health and T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International ...
Simple preventive measures may help stem Ebola
The rush to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in the last few months has generated years’ worth of new information about the previously little ...
Probing genes for disease risk
New research by Alkes Price, associate professor of Statistical Genetics at Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues focuses on new approaches to ...
Boosting comprehensive women’s health care in Sub-Saharan Africa
To stem the spread of HIV among women in Sub-Saharan Africa and to boost their overall health and the health of their families, it’s crucial to improve not ...
Poll finds many in Massachusetts have firsthand experience with a medical error
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the tragic death of Betsy Lehman, a health care reporter for the Boston Globe. She died from a medical error ...
The state of AIDS
The first World AIDS Day was December 1, 1988. That same year, the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative (HAI) was established to help end the ...
HSPH ‘molecular pathway’ discovery may lead to type 2 diabetes treatment
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found a novel mechanism causing type 2 diabetes that could be targeted to prevent or treat the ...
Police at higher risk of sudden cardiac death during stressful duties
Police officers in the United States face roughly 30 to 70 times higher risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) when they’re involved in stressful situations — ...
Comprehensive African health initiative needed
As Ebola hysteria dies down in the United States, the international community should not lose sight of a larger issue highlighted by the epidemic — the ...
Text messages effective in treating malaria
Simple text message reminders to take medication can help malaria patients stick to their medication regimen, according to a new study by researchers at ...
Risk of birth defects appears low for women on antiretrovirals during early pregnancy
Among pregnant women infected with HIV, the use of antiretroviral (ARV) medications early in pregnancy to treat their HIV or to prevent mother-to-child ...
Report urges investment in health, well-being of young adults
Young adults in America are plagued with debt, low-paying jobs, poor physical health, and psychological burdens, according to a new report from the ...
Helping doctors talk to patients about guns
Doctors don’t have good ways to talk to their patients about guns — and that’s why an upcoming conference aimed at helping them do so is important, ...
Rolling back school lunch nutrition standards a bad idea
Congressional efforts to undermine school lunch nutrition standards implemented in 2012 could threaten progress in the fight against childhood obesity, ...
Report urges investment in health, well-being of young adults
Young adults in America are plagued with debt, low-paying jobs, poor physical health, and psychological burdens, according to a new report from the ...
Cracking Ebola’s genetic code
Pardis Sabeti has been a leader in the effort to analyze Ebola’s genetic code and track its mutations. Sabeti, who is an associate professor in the ...
Replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat linked with lower risk of heart disease
People who swap 5% of the calories they consume from saturated fat sources such as red meat and butter with foods containing linoleic acid—the main ...
Red meat consumption and breast cancer risk
Maryam S Farvid, a visiting scientist and Takemi fellow at Harvard School of Public Health, was first author on two recent studies that found that young ...
Support for Medicaid expansion strong among low-income adults
Low-income adults overwhelmingly support Medicaid expansion and think the government-sponsored program offers health care coverage that is comparable to or ...
HSPH Professor Donna Spiegelman wins Director’s Pioneer Award
Donna Spiegelman, professor of epidemiologic methods at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), has received a Director’s Pioneer Award from the National ...
Ebola’s disastrous effects could ramp up significantly
West African nations like Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia could suffer exponentially more disastrous effects from the Ebola virus if the international ...
Power plant standards could save thousands of U.S. lives every year
Power plant standards to cut climate-changing carbon emissions will reduce other harmful air pollution and provide substantial human health benefits, ...
Public health politician
When she was running for a seat in Japan’s house of representatives, Mayuko Toyota, SM ’02, one day found herself standing in the rain on crutches, giving ...
Breathing easier over electricity
The Environmental Protection Agency’s release of draft regulations that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 will have a significant impact on human health, Harvard analysts say.
Guns, public health, and politics
Because the White House’s nominee for surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, tweeted in 2012 that “guns are a health care issue,” the gun lobby took issue and ...
Fund to tackle climate change
In an effort to catalyze research into sustainable energy sources, Harvard President Drew Faust has challenged University friends and alumni to raise a $20 million Climate Change Solutions Fund and seed new approaches to confronting the threat of climate change.
The bright side of Pakistan
A January conference in Pakistan on urbanization was the first of five in the region and a result of Harvard’s South Asia Institute’s growing work there.
Engineering a better life
When Kathy Ku ’13 proposed to build a water-filter factory in Uganda for $15,000 last year, her contacts advised her to double her budget. If all goes to plan, by next August Ku and her classmates will have created a fully functional and self-sustaining water-filter factory, supplying clean water at half the cost of imported filters.
Collaboration key in health gains, Clinton says
Former President Bill Clinton, at the Harvard School of Public Health to accept a Centennial Medal, hailed the networks active through the global health community as critical to gains made in recent decades.
Large-scale ethics
Dan W. Brock of Harvard Medical School on Wednesday delivered the 63rd George W. Gay Lecture in Medical Ethics at the School, focusing on population bioethics.
Conservation’s siren song
The Harvard University Police Department rolled out six new patrol cars last month. But it wasn’t the flashing lights or fresh paint jobs that were turning heads. It was the 47 mpg, gas-electric hybrid motor under the hoods.
Driving global issues home
In an ever-more-crowded media landscape, journalists and academics alike must think creatively about how to bring overlooked human-rights issues to Americans’ attention, said Nicholas D. Kristof ’81 as he accepted the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Tracking disease in a tent city
At India’s Kumbh Mela, the largest temporary city in the world, public health researchers from Harvard and beyond staged a small but nimble operation to follow health measures and disease outbreaks. The results will hold lessons not just for future Harvard students, but for urban health planners in India and elsewhere.
Inside India’s pop-up city
Every 12 years, the Kumbh Mela, a centuries-old Hindu pilgrimage, temporarily transforms an empty floodplain in India into one of the biggest cities in the world. This month, an interdisciplinary team of Harvard professors, students, and researchers set out to map the gathering for the first time.
Gun violence in America
The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School should galvanize Americans to view gun violence as a public health crisis, says David Hemenway, professor of health policy and author of “Private Guns, Public Health.”
