|
|
|
|
|
|
E-mail
to a Friend
Printer Friendly |
|
|
|
|
|
For
more than a decade now, leaders have looked to Atlanta as a powerhouse
for global health. With the presence of heavyweights such as Emory
University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
The Carter Center, CARE, and the Task Force for Child Survival and
Development, Atlanta does indeed rival Geneva on the world stage
in public health. That reputation just got another boost with establishment
of a new Global Health Institute (GHI) at Emory.
Funded with $110 million from university
resources, the institute will work globally to cure disease, develop
vaccines, develop health infrastructures, expand research collaborations,
and train scientists and students. In short, the effort—which
brings together existing strong programs in global health and powerful
partner alliances—allows Emory to take on some of the most
pressing health challenges around the world, particularly in poorer
countries.
Jeffrey Koplan, vice president for
academic health affairs and former director of the CDC, directs
the institute, bringing decades of on-the-ground experience in global
health leadership to the new initiative. He has worked on virtually
every public health issue, from smallpox and AIDS to the Bhopal
chemical disaster, and in dozens of countries. He has collaborated
on a commission on macroeconomics and health in the Caribbean, on
a study of childhood obesity in the United States and Mexico, on
a research advisory evaluation for academic public health in the
United Kingdom, and as a board member of a Nigerian journal of clinical
and biomedical research.
James Curran, another world-renowned
global health leader, dean of Emory’s Rollins School of Public
Health (RSPH), and former AIDS czar at CDC, will serve as chair
of the board of directors. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Win-win
partnerships
The inaugural program of the institute is the International Association
of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), an alliance of organizations
similar to CDC that are dedicated to improving public health infrastructure
around the world. Founded in 2006 by the directors of 39 national
public health institutes, IANPHI will now benefit from a five-year,
$20 million grant from the Gates Foundation to Emory in partnership
with Finland’s National Public Health Institute, KTL. IANPHI’s
goal is to enable low-resource countries to develop well organized
and successfully functioning CDC-like institutes of their own. IANPHI
teams are now working in Uganda, Mozambique, and Angola to develop
this capacity, and the organization is seeking further expansion
in Malawi and parts of Asia.
When public health institutes around
the world are bolstered, everyone benefits, says Koplan. “In
our increasingly interconnected society, the public health issues
of one country can quickly affect the entire world. Each country
can learn from all the others.”
Other programs the GHI is supporting
include the following:
A drug
discovery training program with the Republic of South Africa. Led
by Dennis Liotta, Emory chemist and co-inventor of several of the
most successful and commonly used anti-HIV/AIDS drugs, the program
will equip African scientists with skills to discover new drugs.
Visiting scholars from South Africa will receive training at Emory.
Projects will focus on research that impacts populations most affected
by diseases historically ignored by the pharmaceutical industry.
The government of South Africa, a supporter of this program, is
offering significant incentives to startup biotech companies, creating
an environment to nurture drug discovery in South Africa.
A vaccine
partnership with the International Center for Genetic Engineering
and Biotechnology in New Delhi, India. Led by Rafi Ahmed, director
of the Emory Vaccine Center and a world expert in immune memory
and vaccine development, the Center for Global Vaccines will focus
on vaccines for infectious diseases. Already, the partners have
made significant progress in researching vaccines for malaria, hepatitis
C and E, tuberculosis, and HIV. Currently, India has 5.7 million
people living with HIV, more than any other country. Each year,
India has 1.7 million new cases of tuberculosis, which causes more
illness and deaths in Indian adults than any other communicable
disease.
Expansion
of a collaboration between Emory and the Instituto Nacional de Salud
Publica of Mexico. Led by Reynaldo Martorell, Woodruff Professor
and Chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health at the RSPH,
the Partners in Global Health program is working for sustainable
strategies for research, capacity building, training, and student
exchange. In the past, collaboration has been limited to topics
such as nutrition, infectious dieases, environmental health, and
maternal and child health. However, the expansion will allow the
partners to take on more disciplines, particularly in the social
sciences.
A
global health attitude
Koplan, as an epidemiologist, cautions against claiming 100% probability
of success for the GHI. However, based on the programs it is building
and the partners it is bringing together, its probability of success
is high, he says. What is different about Emory’s effort,
he says, is its university-wide commitment to global health. “We
have an obligation to involve the entire university in building
collaborations that will benefit other nations as well as our own,”
he says.
The second element of success, according
to Koplan? A global health attitude. That translates into going
to the developing world without developed-nation dictates of how
good health should be attained. “Rather, we will behave as
partners and colleagues, learning from each other.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|