Featured series 
Tag: Public Health
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Health
Surgical safety checklist drops deaths and complications by more than one-third
A group of hospitals in eight cities around the globe has successfully demonstrated that the use of a simple surgical checklist during major operations can lower the incidence of deaths and complications by more than one-third. The rate of major complications in the study operating rooms fell from 11 percent in the baseline period to…
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Health
Supply of board-certified emergency physicians unlikely to meet projected needs
The number of physicians with board certification in emergency medicine is unlikely to meet the staffing needs of U.S. emergency departments in the foreseeable future, if ever. In the December issue of Academic Emergency Medicine, the investigators report finding that staffing every emergency department with board-certified emergency physicians does not appear to be feasible, given…
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Health
South African AIDS policy tied to 330,000 lives lost
More than 330,000 lives were lost to HIV/AIDS in South Africa from 2000 and 2005 because a feasible and timely antiretroviral (ARV) treatment program was not implemented, assert researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in a study published by the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS). In addition, an estimated 35,000…
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Campus & Community
Two HSPH professors honored for their scientific contributions
Two members of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty have been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on human health issues. The IOM was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, and membership is a high honor in the health…
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Health
Study shows what smokers need to stay clean
Hospital-sponsored stop-smoking programs for inpatients that include follow-up counseling for longer than one month significantly improve patients’ ability to stay smoke-free. An analysis of clinical trials of programs offered at hospitals around the world finds that efforts featuring long-term support can increase participants’ chances of success by 65 percent.
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Campus & Community
Kuwait Program accepting grant proposals
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has announced the 15th funding cycle for the Kuwait Program Research Fund, which is supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). An HKS faculty committee will consider applications for one-year grants (up to $30,000) and larger grants for more extensive proposals to support advanced research by…
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Campus & Community
Smoking, burning solid fuels in homes in China projected to cause millions of deaths
If current levels of smoking and of burning biomass and coal fuel in homes continues in China, researchers estimate that between 2003 and 2033, 65 million deaths will be attributed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 18 million deaths to lung cancer, accounting for 19 percent and 5 percent of all deaths in that…
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Science & Tech
Smoking and solid-fuel-burning in homes in China projected to cause millions of deaths
If current levels of smoking and biomass and coal fuel use in homes continues, between 2003 and 2033 there will be an estimated 65 million deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 18 million deaths from lung cancer in China, accounting for 19% and 5% of all deaths in that country during this period.…
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Campus & Community
HSPH expands HIV/AIDS work in Tanzania
Nearly 150 years ago, the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam was known by another name — Mzizima, meaning “healthy town” in the local language. But over the decades, the city and the country of Tanzania have experienced mounting challenges to that health.
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Health
Incoming School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk Receives Clinton Global Citizen Award
Julio Frenk, who will become Dean of Harvard School of Public Health in January, 2009, has received a Clinton Global Citizen Award. In naming Frenk, along with four other individuals, former President William J. Clinton said: “The Global Citizen Awards are about honoring and inspiring service to humanity. Our award recipients were chosen from a…
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Health
HPV, cervical cancer link earns scientists Alpert Prize
Two scientists who discovered that specific types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, cause cancer of the cervix received the 20th annual Warren Alpert Foundation Scientific Prize on Sept. 15. As part of the day’s celebration, the prize winners Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann — both professors at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg…
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Science & Tech
New class of hormone from “healthy fat cells” benefits body metabolism in mice
Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have identified in mice a newly discovered class of hormones — lipokines. In tomorrow’s issue of the journal Cell they report that lipokine is a molecule in mice that helps stop, or even reverses obesity-related conditions such as insulin resistance and “fatty liver.” Lipokines are hormones…
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Health
Immune Disease Institute Wins Annenberg Grant to Support International TB and AIDS Care and Research
The Immune Disease Institute has received a two-year, $150,000 award from the Annenberg Foundation to support its ongoing work in international health. The funds will support efforts to combine basic scientific research and health care delivery with the goal of halting the twin epidemics of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Cambodia and other poor countries. The…
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Campus & Community
HMS’s Bruce Walker to speak on AIDS epidemic
The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics will present a lecture by Bruce Walker, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School on, Sept. 19 at 2:30 p.m. in the Science Center lecture hall. The title of the talk is “The AIDS Epidemic: Immune Selection Pressure, Viral Evolution, and Prospects for a Vaccine.” The talk is free and…
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Campus & Community
Inaugural Ibor Award granted to Leon Eisenberg
Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Leon Eisenberg will receive the first Ibor Award from the World Psychiatric Association on Sept. 23 in Prague. Named after pioneerning Spanish psychiatrist Juan José López Ibor, the award aims to recognize individuals or institutions whose professional efforts have improved the condition of those affected by mental…
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Campus & Community
Julius B. Richmond, former U.S. surgeon general, 91
Julius B. Richmond, a seminal figure in the history of American public health and pediatrics, and the first national director of the Head Start program, who held professorial positions at three Harvard Schools, died July 27 at his home in Chestnut Hill, Mass. He was 91.
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Health
Women in India abused by husbands at far greater risk for HIV infection
In a new study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that married Indian women who experienced physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their husbands were approximately four times more likely to become infected with HIV than married women who were not abused. This first large-scale, national study to…
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Campus & Community
Julio Frenk Named next dean of Harvard School of Public Health
Julio Frenk, an eminent authority on global health who served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, will become the new dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), President Drew Faust announced today (July 29).
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Health
Young smokers recruited with menthol, study finds
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) explored tobacco industry manipulation of menthol levels in specific brands and found a deliberate strategy to recruit and addict young smokers by adjusting menthol to create a milder experience for the firsttime smoker.
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Health
Tobacco industry used cigarette menthol to recruit new adolescents and young adult smokers
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that tobacco companies have deliberately adjusted menthol levels in cigarettes to recruit and addict young smokers by creating a milder experience for the first-time smoker. Menthol masks the harshness and irritation of cigarettes, allowing delivery of an effective dose of nicotine, the addictive chemical in…
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Health
Previously unknown regulator of fat and cholesterol production discovered in mice
Researchers have discovered an unknown regulator of fat and cholesterol production in the liver of mice, a significant finding that could eventually lead to new therapies for lowering unhealthy blood levels of cholesterol and fats. The team led by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) showed how this might work in an…
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Health
Decline in cigarette smoking in U.S. significantly offset by increase in other tobacco products
While trends in cigarette smoking and sales have declined in the U.S. for the past decade, sales of non-cigarette tobacco products have been on the rise. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, led by Professor Greg Connolly, director of the Tobacco Control Research Program at HSPH, and Hillel Alpert, research associate in the…
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Health
New pyramid puts oil, exercise, poultry in their place
The Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has relaunched its Web site, The Nutrition Source. One of the highlights of the improved site is a freely downloadable version of the Healthy Eating Pyramid, built by nutrition faculty at the School, which should appeal to educators and health professionals as well…
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Health
Passage of time reduces smoking mortality risk for women who quit
Women who quit smoking significantly reduce their risk ofdeath from coronary heart disease within 5 years and have about a 20percent lower risk of death from smoking-related cancers within thattime period, according to a study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). “Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in…
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Health
Life expectancy worsening or stagnating
One of the major aims of the U.S. health system is improving the health of all people, particularly those segments of the population at greater risk of health disparities. In fact, overall life expectancy in the United States increased more than seven years for men and more than six years for women between 1960 and…
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Health
‘Father of Aerobics,’ HSPH alumnus, receives Healthy Cup Award
The Nutrition Round Table of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) honored Kenneth Cooper, groundbreaking author of the best-selling book “Aerobics,” with its Healthy Cup Award this past Tuesday (April 22).
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Health
Life expectancy stagnating, worsening, for large segment of U.S. population
A new, long-term study of mortality trends in U.S. counties from 1960 to 2000 finds that an overall average life expectancy increase of 6.5 years for men and women is not reaching many parts of the country. Instead, the life expectancy of a significant segment of the population is actually declining or at best stagnating.…
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Campus & Community
Cambridge Health Alliance, HMS award honors Auerbach
John M. Auerbach, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, received the Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award April 15 at Harvard Medical School’s “Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities” celebration.
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Health
Louise Ivers: ‘I can’t sleep at night because of the things that I see.’
Louise Ivers gently lifted the 7-month-old by his forearms, hoping he would pull himself up as a healthy child a third his age might. But his head hung limply back, eyes wide, upper body slack. At 7 months, when a healthy child would be sitting up on his own and thinking about crawling, this baby…