The Globe

Department Newsand Highlights

Vaccine DaySeptember 19, 2008

Student Profileand Awards

Newsletter of the DepartmeNt of INterNatIoNal health l fall 2008 l www.jhsph.eDu/Dept/Ih

THE NEW JOHNS HOPKINS VACCINE INITIATIVE (JHVI)

IH FACULTY FORM THE INTERNATIONAL INJURY RESEARCH UNIT (IIRU)

from the ChairRobert Black, MD, MPH

Fall 2008

3 The JH VaccineInitiative (JHVI)

6 News & Highlights

10 InternationalInjury ResearchUnit (IIRU)

11 The 6th AnnualSymposium onPneumococci andPneumococcalDiseases

12 Gwenyth LeeMHS ‘08, new PhdStudent

About theDepArtment

From a modest beginning in 1961, the JohnsHopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’sDepartment of International Health hasgrown into a global leadership role in healthresearch, policy analysis, and program imple-mentation. e Department is divided intofour areas: Global Disease Epidemiology andControl; Health Systems; Human Nutrition;and Social and Behavioral Interventions. Weoffer master’s and doctoral level training inthese areas of international health, as well asdoctoral training in public health practice.

IH faculty form new research unit to re-duce injuries and promote safety in un-derserved populations of the world

e Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative(JHVI) commences with Vaccine Dayand its new Web site

Faculty honorsStudent honors and scholarshipsResearch briefs

Cover photos from top left: © 2007 NaveedKhan, Courtesy of Photoshare, Kashmir, Pak-istan; Vaccine delivery photos by Terrence Lo,Bangladesh, 2006, WHO Stop Transmissionof Polio program; RSV dosing at clinic site,courtesy of the Center for American IndianHealth

Immunization to prevent disease is the quintessential public health inter-vention. In the 200 years since Jenner tested the first vaccine for preventionof smallpox, immunizations have become the cornerstone of public healthglobally. Recent decades have seen an explosion of the knowledge about theprinciples of immunization and the application of vaccines to prevent manydiseases.

In 1985, our department established the Center for Immunization Researchto provide new leadership in this growing field of research and study. isCenter has made many contributions in the clinical evaluation of the safetyand efficacy of new vaccines and related immunology and microbiology, di-rected at important world-wide infectious diseases, such as influenza, ro-tavirus, dengue and malaria.

Faculty of our department often conduct large-scale field studies and havedone pivotal trials of vaccines to prevent H. influenzae type b, pneumococ-cal disease, respiratory syncytial virus, rotavirus, and enterotoxigenic E coli inthe USA and in developing countries. ese vaccines address the predomi-nant global causes of respiratory and diarrhea mortality.

We rightly think of immunizations as preventing infections, but it is nowclear that these infections can lead to cancer as well. Our faculty have con-tributed to the evaluation of vaccines to prevent two major causes of cancer,liver and cervical, through prevention of hepatitis and human papillomavirusinfection.

Consistent with our public health mission, our faculty and students are notcontent to prove the efficacy of new vaccines, rather they are involved in alladditional steps that will lead to full utilization of important existing andnew vaccines. is includes work on the safety of vaccines, a common con-cern of the public and an area in which is critical to identify the rare seriousadverse effects and communicate the safety when this is the case to dispelmisconceptions and encourage appropriate consideration of benefits andrisks.

Our faculty’s work also includes disease surveillance to direct vaccine devel-opment, assessment of the burden of disease attributable to potentially vac-cine preventable diseases, cost-effectiveness analyses, ethical and legalconsiderations, technical support and evaluation of immunization programsin developing countries, development of new financing mechanisms for vac-cines and advocacy for vaccine research and application.

I am pleased that our department now has a broad-based program of vaccineresearch and offers many related courses and opportunities for students. I amfurther pleased that the Dean and our school have made the commitment tothis area by the establishment of the Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative withthe intention of promoting even broader and deeper interdisciplinary andinterdepartmental research and academic programs in the School.

It seems fitting to close with a quote from Louis Pasteur, the developer of thesecond vaccine, for rabies, 80 years after Jenner: “Science knows no countrybecause knowledge belongs to humanity and is the torch which illuminatesthe world.” Vaccine science is important for global public health and is a pri-ority for our department in collaboration with others in the University andaround the world.

PneumoADIP co-hosts event

September 19, 2008, marks the launch of the JohnsHopkins Vaccine Initiative (JHVI), a new effort topromote collaborative and interdisciplinary vaccine

research, education and implementation efforts at theSchool. JHVI will mark its commencement with the firstannual Vaccine Day on September 19, 2008. e Day’s ac-tivities will celebrate the vaccine research efforts by faculty,staff and students. More information can be found athttp://www.jhsph.edu/vaccineinitiative.

JhVI’s beginningse School’s faculty members, and particularly IH faculty,have been highly successful in pursuing and obtainingfunding for discrete vaccine-related research activities. eJohns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative will continue to promoteand enhance these programs, but will also identify new op-portunities in vaccine research and policy development thatrequire a coordinated multidisciplinary approach.

e School is unique in that it has substantial and unusualstrengths in the areas of vaccine policy, finance, imple-mentation, ethics, and vaccine safety, as well as the moretraditional areas of preclinical and clinical vaccine research.e Initiative will provide a forum for the exchange of ideasand for project development by individuals with expertisein various disciplines. is will help the School

• ensure that it remains competitive in its tradi-tional areas of strength

• facilitate the development of new research pro-grams

• continue to provide exceptional training oppor-tunities on campus and around the world

• enhance the competitiveness of JHSPH facultyfor funding in vaccine research and policy-relatedareas.

JhVI’s missionVaccine efforts have always been an important part of theDepartment of International Health. Many IH facultyconsider vaccine-related work to be a central component oftheir research and teaching efforts. In addition, the De-partment is home to the Center for American IndianHealth, the Center for Immunization Research, the HiBInitiative, the Institute for Vaccine Safety, and the Pneu-

moADIP, each of which is internationally recognized for its rolein vaccine research, education, and/or implementation.

Yet, even within our own Department, vaccine researchers aren’talways aware of others’ work due to the sheer number of proj-ects based here. Furthermore, many innovative projects arehoused in other departments and schools in the University,which compounds the potential for missing opportunities tocollaborate. JHVI will address this issue by providing informa-tion about faculty research interests grouped by vaccine-relateddiscipline:

• preclinical vaccine development• phase I and II clinical trials• field trials, implementation• vaccine safety• vaccine ethics

Individual projects will be highlighted, and regular updatesabout funding opportunities will be provided.

JHVI will also promote awareness of the impressive scope ofvaccine research conducted at the School. Very few vaccine re-search institutions can boast that they work in the full range ofvaccine development, from pre-clinical trials, to finance and im-plementation, to safety and ethics. However, there has neverbeen a unifying identity within the School that can highlight

Page 3THE GLOBE | Fall 2008

THE JOHNS HOPKINS VACCINE INITIATIVE (JHVI)--IH Faculty Help Launch New Initiative to promote

Vaccine Research at the School

ruth Karron, mDprofessor, GDeCDirector, Johns Hopkins Vaccine InitiativeDirector, Center for Immunization Research

Dr. Karron is trained in pediatric infec-tious diseases and virology and has aparticular interest in respiratory virusesand respiratory virus vaccines.

She was a member of the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Bio-logical Products Advisory CommiEee from 2003 to 2008,and served as chair from 2006 to 2008.

Dr. Karron conceived of the Johns Hopkins Vaccine Ini-tiative about two years ago. “When it comes to vaccine re-search and teaching, the School of Public Health hasunique strengths. We are missing opportunities for inter-disciplinary collaboration by not fully capitalizing on thesestrengths. I am grateful to the Dean and to Dr. Black forsupporting this initiative.”

IH faculty have beenhighly successful

in obtaining funding forvaccine-relatedresearch activities

this advantage, and no structure has existed to build onthis institutional strength.

JHVI will not only serve faculty interests. Many of itsefforts will be geared to helping students find fundingand gain experience. On top of conducting cutting-edge research, the School, and the Department in par-ticular, offers unsurpassed training in all areas of vaccinedevelopment.

Over the last year, Laveta Stewart MPH, MSc, researchassociate, GDEC, has been working closely with Dr.Karron and other IH faculty and staff to launch JHVI.Please join the JHVI team in kicking off the Initiativeon Vaccine Day—September 19, 2008. Also, pay closeattention to the Wall of Wonder—the large screen onthe first floor of the Bloomberg School. It will be show-casing current and past milestones in vaccine develop-ment at Hopkins.

JhVI Coordinating Commi?eemembers and Staffruth Karron, professor, GDEC, is the director ofJHVI and the Center for Immunization Research.

ruth r. faden, is the Philip Franklin Wagley Profes-sor of Biomedical Ethics and Executive Director ofJohns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Neal halsey, professor, GDEC, is the director of theInstitute for Vaccine Safety.

orin levine, associate professor, Health Systems, is theexecutive director of the Pneumococcal Accelerated De-velopment and Introduction Plan (PneumoADIP).

THE GLOBE | Fall 2008Page 4

A health worker prepares to start his delivery routein Bangladesh. Photo credit: Terrence Lo, 2006, WHOStop Transmission of Polio program.

Kate o’Brien, associate professor, Health Systems, is the associ-ate director of Infectious Disease Studies for the Center for Amer-ican Indian Health and the deputy director for the PneumococcalAccelerated Development and Introduction Plan (PneumoADIP).

fidel Zavala, is a professor in the Department of Molecular Mi-crobiology and Immunology.

laveta stewart, research associate, GDEC, is the program man-ager of JHVI.

Affiliated Centers and Institutese Berman Institute of Bioethics consists of more than 30 coreand affiliated faculty from the Johns Hopkins School of Medi-cine, School of Nursing, Bloomberg School of Public Health andthe Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Faculty work col-laboratively on scholarship and teaching in the Institute’s five areasof focus: biomedical research and discovery; clinical ethics; pub-lic health ethics and health policy; research ethics; and globalhealth ethics and research. http://www.bioethicsinstitute.org/

e Center for american Indian health works in partnershipwith American Indian tribes to raise the health status and self suffi-ciency of American Indian people to the highest possible level.http://jhsph.edu/caih/

Center for Immunization research (CIr) was established in1985 by Dr. Mary Lou Clements-Mann. CIR investigators areexperts in the conduct of phase I and II vaccine trials and in train-ing in Good Clinical Practice related to vaccine trial conduct.http://www.jhsph.edu/cir/

e Institute for Vaccine safety was established in 1997 in orderto provide an independent assessment of vaccines and vaccinesafety to help guide decision makers and educate physicians, thepublic and the media about key issues surrounding the safety ofvaccines. http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/

johns hopkins malaria research Institute (jhmrI), estab-lished in 2001, uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand-ing the Plasmodium parasite, the Anopheles mosquito, the genesand proteins involved in the transmission of malaria and the im-mune response. http://malaria.jhsph.edu/

pneumococcal accelerated Development and Introductionplan (pneumoaDIp) strives to improve child survival and healthby accelerating the evaluation of and access to new, lifesavingpneumococcal vaccines for the world’s children.http://www.preventpneumo.org/index.cfm

e hiB Initiative, composed of investigators from Johns Hop-kins University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medi-cine, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, aims to expedite and sustain evidence-informed decisions at the global, regional and country levels re-garding the use of Hib vaccination to prevent childhoodmeningitis and pneumonia. http://www.hibaction.org/

JHVI promotes collaborative andinterdisciplinary vaccine research, education,and implementation efforts to improve health

worldwide.

Page 5THE GLOBE | Fall 2008

Websitee JHVI website is a resource for Hopkins researchers, current andprospective students, and the vaccine-research community at large.More than a mere portal to the various vaccine centers and institutesat the School, it will also

• Post the latest vaccine news at the School• Collect and publicize funding opportunities at the School

and elsewhere• List courses in one place and by key topic area• Organize faculty by topic area and link to faculty pages and

projects

training and educationJHVI will post vaccine training opportunities at the Bloomberg Schoolincluding regular courses, institutes and special seminars. IH faculty arethe lead instructors in each of the four fundamental courses:

1. Vaccine Development and Application—Neal Halsey2. Vaccine Policy Issues—Orin Levine3. Biologic Basis of Vaccine Development—Anna Durbin4. Clinical Vaccine Trials and Good Clinical Practices—Karen

Charron

In addition, a sample of master’s and doctoral theses completed by stu-dents will be listed on the site, which will both underscore the breadthof the work done at the School and be a useful reference to prospec-tive and current students.

Vaccine DaySeptember 19, 2008, will be the first annual Vaccine Day at theSchool. e program is an exciting mix of formal presentations andposter presentations in Sheldon and Feinstone Halls. e event is de-signed to foster collaboration within the School and start conversa-tions among faculty and students who work in various areas of vaccinedevelopment.

Wall of WonderAs part of the launch of JHVI and to mark Vaccine Day, the mainscreen on the ground level of the Bloomberg School will feature a slideshow of vaccine milestones at the University. Many faculty from theDepartment will be featured. Look for a host of IH researchers in-cluding Karen Charron, Anna Durbin, Clayton Harro, Neal Halsey,Orin Levine, Larry Moulton, Kate O’Brien, David Sack, and Mathu-ram Santosham.

JhVI resources & eventsVaccine Day, Website, Wall of Wonder

The JHVI Website banner. http://www.jhsph.edu/vaccineinitiative/

VACCINE DAYSeptember 19, 2008

Keynote SpeakerDavid Heymann, MD,WHOAssistant Director-Gen-eral for Health Security and Environment, and Repre-sentative of the Director-General for Polio Eradication.His speech entitled, “Diplomatic Immunity: ImprovingGlobal Access toVaccines and Good Health,” will de-scribe new efforts to control polio and meningococcaldisease, and to develop in-country capacity for themanufacture of pandemic influenza vaccines.

Dean’s medalDean Michael Klag, MD, MPH, will honor Dr. Hey-mann with the Dean’s medal, which has also beenawarded to the likes of Princess Srindahorn of Thai-land and Queen Noor of Jordan.

Faculty and Student presentationsFaculty from International Health, Molecular Micro-biology and Immunology, and Health Policy and Man-agement will provide brief overviews of work beingconducted in each of the following areas: preclinicalvaccine development, phase I and II vaccine trials, fieldtrials, vaccine implementation, vaccine safety, and vac-cine ethics.

Following the formal presentations, a poster session(with refreshments) will be held in Feinstone Hall. Stu-dents, staff and faculty are strongly encouraged to sub-mit abstracts for poster presentation consideration.Funding is available to cover printing costs for stu-dents, and a prize will be awarded for the best studentposter.Email abstracts to: jhvi@jhsph.edu by Septem-ber 5.

WALL oF WonDerOne of the many slides with accompanying text thatwill be shown on the large screen onVaccine Day.

The Institute forVaccine Safety (IVS) promotes disease pre-vention using the safestvaccines possible.

IH Professors Neal Halseyand Larry Moulton andother IVS members helpguide decision makersand educate physicians,the public and the mediaabout key issues sur-rounding the safety ofvaccines.

new Faculty

News &Highlightsfrederick (skip) Burkle, MD, MPH,DTM, Senior Associate, Health Systems

mary Cwik, PhD, Assis-tant Scientist, Health Sys-tems, Center for AmericanIndian Health, advising inSocial and Behavioral In-terventions (SBI).

lauren tingey, MPH,MSW, Research Associate,Health Systems, Centerfor American IndianHealth, advising in SBI

antonio trujillo, PhD,Assistant Professor, HealthSystems

sean fitzwater, MHS, Research Associ-ate, Health Systems

Ingrid friberg, MHS,PhD(c) Research Associ-ate, Health Systems

Bobi janelle morris, MHS, ResearchAssociate, Health Systems

laura K. murray, PhD, Assistant Pro-fessor, Health Systems

julia m. powers, ResearchAssociate, Health Systems,Center for American In-dian Health, advising inSBI

prasanthi puvanachandra, MB BCHIR,MA, MPH, Research Associate, HealthSystems

Beulah sabundayo, Pharm.D., MPH,Research Associate, Global Disease Epi-demiology and Control

pamela surkan, ScD,PhD, Assistant Professor,SBI

andrea wilson, MS, Re-search Associate, HealthSystems

Faculty recognition

william Brieger, DrPH,MPH, Professor, HealthSystems, received the 2008Award of Merit for Con-tribution to the Develop-ment of Public Health inAfrica. e Faculty of

Public Health, College of Medicine at theUniversity of Ibadan, presented the awardto him at the university’s National Con-ference, “Public Health in Nigeria andthe Challenges of Achieving the Millen-nium Development Goals.”

adnan hyder, MD,MPH, PhD, AssociateProfessor, Health Systems,will be the James W.Bartlett Visiting Professorfor 2008 at the Universityof Rochester (and StrongMemorial Hospital) in Rochester, NewYork. He will also be presenting GrandRounds on behalf of the Department ofPsychiatry focusing on “intentional in-juries.”

jean Nachega, MD, PhD,Assistant Scientist, GDEC,was appointed ProfessorExtraordinary in the De-partment of Medicine, Di-vision of Internal Medicine,Stellenbosch University

where he is the Director of the Centre forInfectious Diseases.

Youfa wang, MD, PhD,MS, Associate Professor,Human Nutrition, wasappointed by the Gover-nor of Maryland to theState Advisory Council onPhysical Fitness. Dr. Wangalso recently received a 3-year researchgrant from the Nestle Foundation tostudy the assessment and promotion ofhealthy eating among adolescents inChina.

peter Winch, associ-ate professor andSBIProgram Director.Dr. Winch presentsresults during a dis-semination meetingfor the G#/WHOzinc study in Sikasso,Mali.

THE GLOBE | Fall 2008Page 6

News &HighlightsStudent Awards

Global health scholarshipse Johns Hopkins Center for GlobalHealth awarded eight scholarships in2008 to master of public health, masterof health science, and master of sciencestudents with a demonstrated interest inthe global health field. e recipientswere selected in a competitive processopen to all full-time students acceptedinto the MPH, MHS, and MS programs.A Global Health Scholarship covers fulltuition for the 11-month MPH programand for one year of the MHS and MSprograms. e awards are offered on anannual basis.

Jennifer CohnMPH student

Gifty KwakyeMPH student

SheguftaShefa SikderMHS student,

GDEC

Jenna RoseMHS student,

GDEC

Britt ehrhardt, MHS student, SBI, re-ceived the Dean's Alumni AdvisoryCouncil Scholarship.

Brandon Brown, MPH, PhD student,GDEC, received the Carol Eliasberg Mar-tin Scholarship in Cancer Prevention,which supports an outstanding doctoralstudent whose work holds promise forpreventing cancers that affect women.

lynne harris, DrPH student, receivedthe Lillian Hiss-Ethel Crosby Scholarship.

rebecca merrill, PhD Student, HumanNutrition, won the Harry J. Prebluda Fel-lowship in Nutritional Biochemistry,which fosters the careers of outstandingyoung scientists focusing on nutritionalbiochemistry and metabolism.

monica mispireta, PhD student, Hu-man Nutrition, received the Harry D.Kruse Fellowship, which supports a con-tinuing doctoral candidate in nutritionwho has displayed outstanding achieve-ment and promise.

Danielle pillsbury, MHS student, Hu-man Nutrition, was awarded the Centerfor Human Nutrition MHS Excellence inInternship.

muge Qi, PhD student, Human Nutri-tion, won the Elsa Orent Keiles Fellow-ship.

hee lee seung, PhD student, HumanNutrition, received the Bacon Field ChowMemorial Fellowship. e fellowship sup-ports outstanding doctoral students work-ing in the area of human nutrition re-search.

Olga HelenaJoos

MPH student

other Scholarships & Awards

maria au, DrPH student, received aJohnson & Johnson Community HealthScholarship.

Kathryn Berndtson, MHS student,SBI, received the Janice Eddy MickeyAward and the Berman Family Award.

liwei Chen, PhD student, HumanNutrition, received the Richard andBarbara Hall Award.

amy Desai, MHS student, HumanNutrition, won the Center for HumanNutrition MHS Academic Achieve-ment Award.

Ih Students Awarded Center fora Livable Future predoctoralFellowships for 2008-2009Carmen arriola, DVM,GDECField of study: e statusof pig farming in Peru: acomparative analysis of thepublic health and environ-mental impact of small-,medium-, and large-scale pork produc-tion.Doctoral advisors: Drs. Lawrence Moul-ton and Robert Gilman, InternationalHealth and Dr. Ellen Silbergeld, Envi-ronmental Health Sciences

edward Broughton, MPH,Health SystemsField of study: e associa-tion between Highly Path-ogenic Avian Influenza(HPAI) and integratedpoultry/aquaculture facili-

ties, including evaluation of the effec-tiveness and costs of HPAI risk-reduc-tion measures mandated by nationalpolicies.Doctoral advisor: Dr. Damian Walker,International Health.

Dr. manjunath shankar,Health SystemsField of study: e impactof kitchen gardens onwomen’s empowermentand food security using thecapability approach frame-work developed by Amartya Sen.

Doctoral advisors: Drs. Alan Sorkinand Carl Taylor, International Health.

Alumni newsKristen hurley, PhD, Human Nu-trition, was appointed Assistant Pro-fessor of Pediatrics at University ofMaryland Medical Center, Divisionof General Pediatrics.

Framework program inGlobal health

Deadline: november 17, 2008Ae Framework Program offers students short-termresearch experience to address global health issues.Ae program includes $3,000 for undergraduate stu-dents or up to $5,000 for graduate students to sup-port travel and Deld research. More information:h!p://www.hopkinsglobalhealth.org/

THE GLOBE | Fall 2008 Page 7

News &Highlights

home Countries of new and returning Ih Students

adnan hyder, MD, MPH, PhD; maria merritt, PhD; andNhan tran, PhD, MHS, were co-authors from IH of “Inte-grating ethics, health policy and health systems in low- andmiddle-income countries: case studies from Malaysia and Pak-istan,” published in the WHO Bulletin. e paper describesthe ethics processes in play when public-health mechanismsare established in low- and middle-income countries. It foundthat, while ethics are gradually being integrated into public-health policy decisions in many developing health systems,ethical analysis is often implicit and undervalued.

Youfa wang, MD, PhD, was a lead author of “Tracking ofblood pressure from childhood to adulthood: A SystematicReview and Meta-analysis,” which was published by Circula-tion: Journal of the American Heart Association. According toDr. Wang, “Our meta-analysis reinforces the concept thatblood pressure tracks from childhood to adulthood and thatelevated blood pressure in childhood is likely to help predictadult hypertension.”

abdullah Baqui, MBBS, DrPH; jennifer Bryce, EdD; androbert Black, MD, MPH, were IH co-authors of “Care atfirst-level facilities for children with severe pneumonia inBangladesh: a cohort study,” published in e Lancet. estudy recommends modifying the Integrated Managementof Childhood Illness (IMCI) guidelines on pneumoniatreatment. e authors found that local health facilities areable to correctly treat and manage severe childhood pneu-monia.

luke mullany, PhD; joanne Katz, ScD; steven C. leClerq,MPH; and james m. tielsch, PhD, were IH co-authors of“Maternal and Birth Attendant Hand Washing and NeonatalMortality in Southern Nepal,” published in the Archives of Pe-diatric and Adolescent Medicine. e study found that wash-ing hands with soap and water in preparation for deliverysignificantly reduced the risk of death for infants within thefirst month of life.

Lead author jee hyuan rah, PhD graduate in Human Nu-trition, along with IH co-authors Drs. parul Christian andalain labrique, published “Pregnancy and Lactation Hin-der Growth and Nutritional Status of Adolescent Girls inRural Bangladesh” in the Journal of Nutrition. e study waspart of the JiVitA Project which is funded by USAID, the Billand Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Sight and Life Re-search Institute.

CongratulationsSuccessful ;esis Defense

Shannon Grahek, GDEC, Epidemiology, Etiology, and Disease Manifes-tations of Travelers’ Diarrhea (TD) Occurring among U.S. Visitors toGuatemala and Mexico: Implications for Future Intervention Trials

Jennifer Moisi, GDEC, Mortality, Morbidity, Immunization Coverage andDistance to Health Facilities in KiliD District, Kenya

Mei Wen, Health Systems, Road Traffic Injuries in China: Time Trends,Risk Factors and Economic Development

research in brief

THE GLOBE | Fall 2008Page 8

THE GLOBE | Fall 2008 Page 9

News &Highlightsnew Staff

Dilalat Bello, Research ProgramCoordinator, Human Nutrition

Yvonne Davis, Research ProgramCoordinator, Center for AmericanIndian Health

omas Durkin,Administrative Coor-dinator, Human Nu-trition

Zunera Gilani, Research Data Ana-lyst, Health Systems

mari Griffioen, Research Nurse,GDEC

Barbora hnizda, Research Tech-nologist, GDEC

Cristina salazar,Academic ProgramAdministrator

stephanie saylor,Research Assistant,Human Nutrition

samuel shillcutt, Senior ResearchAssistant, Health Systems

adrienne suggs-Coleman, Re-search Program Assistant, HumanNutrition

Danielle tsingine, Training Coordi-nator, Center for American IndianHealth

tanya jones, Research Assistant,Center for American Indian Health

staci mcGonigal, Research Pro-gram Coordinator, Human Nutri-tion

rose reis, Commu-nications Associate,Health Systems

Vanessa rodas-eral,Financial Manager,GDEC

Debra a rukstelis,Financial Manager,Human Nutrition

Dr. Gilbert Burnham presenting as part of theSchool’s World Refugee Program, June 20, 2008.

Dr. Santosham meets with Bill Gates and offi-cials from the India Ministry of Health.

Join theCenter for Global health

on FacebookAe Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health now has a

group on Facebook. Everyone is welcome!h!p://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18986494363

Meet each other, keep up on events going on at theuniversity, discuss current global health topics.

THE GLOBE | Fall 2008Page 10

IH Faculty Found theInternational Injury Research Unit (IIRU)Convenes first International Injury Prevention Symposium

Department faculty, led by Associate Professor Adnan A.Hyder, recently founded the International Injury ResearchUnit (IIRU) whose mission it is to reduce injuries and pro-mote safety in underserved populations of the world. Based inthe Department of International Health, the IIRU draws onexpertise from departmental faculty, and is affiliated with theJohns Hopkins Center for Injury Research & Policy.

Today, the injury-related death rate is over 1.5 times higher inlow- and middle-income countries than in wealthy countries.And unlike in high-income nations, injuries are among thetop ten causes of death in all age categories. To better confrontthese inequities—and to help prevent the millions of deathscaused annually by injuries—IH faculty decided to formallyorganize their commitment and skills into the IIRU. estructure and composition of the Unit is designed to responddeftly to a wide range of needs, from research and evaluationto programming and policy.

First InternationalInjury prevention SymposiumOne of IIRU’s first activities was hosting an inaugural Inter-national Injury Prevention Symposium in June. WHO’s De-partment of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability(WHO VIP) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Re-search and Policy co-sponsored the event. e Symposium,entitled Strengthening Capacity in Violence & Injury Preven-tion: Global Perspectives, provided a rare opportunity for pro-fessionals from around the Mid-Atlantic region to concentrateexclusively on violence and injury prevention needs aroundthe world. e event attracted a diverse audience, includingrepresentatives from the WHO, UNICEF and USAID. Na-tional public health professionals interested in improving theircountries’ injury monitoring and prevention efforts, such asadvisers to ministries of health, and staff from prominentNGOs, including Safekids and Handicap International, werealso in attendance.

In addition to IH fac-ulty Prasanthi Pu-vanachandra, NhanTran and AdnanHyder, experts fromWHO (David Med-dings) and Aga KhanUniversity, Pakistan(Junaid Razzak) pre-sented on issues of ca-pacity development ininternational injury re-search and program-ming. e meeting

resulted in several new opportunities for IH faculty to collabo-rate with NGOs, governments, and donor organizations. esymposium also served to further strengthen and support the re-lationship between JHU and WHO. Recent efforts by WHOto strengthen capacity development in injury prevention werehighlighted through its MENTOR-VIP initiative. is is aninnovative and inexpensive program to train public health pro-fessionals on injury monitoring, evaluation and policy and pro-gram implementation.

Current Worke IIRU currently works in Latin America, Africa, Asia andthe Middle East and focuses on the following four key areas:

1) promotion of strategic research: to understand and doc-ument injury burden and risks, as well as to better under-stand communities’ beliefs and perception related to injuriesand disabilities

2) Implementation of field trials and evaluation studies:to conduct and to understand the effectiveness and processof implementing interventions

3) economic and policy analysis: to document the economicburden of injuries as well as to evaluate the cost-effectivenessand benefit-to-cost ratio of interventions for injury preven-tion.

4) research Capacity Development: to ensure the long-termsustainability by working with research institutes, academicinstitutions, and other partners to develop the capacity oflocal researchers

A billboard in Gaborone, Botswana, promotes safe driv-ing. © 2007 Lee Mantini, Courtesy of Photoshare.

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;e 6th InternationalSymposium on pneumococciand pneumococcal Diseases

e 6th International Symposium on Pneumococciand Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD -6) was held thisyear June 8–12 in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was co-hostedby the Department’s PneumoADIP together withWyeth, GSK, Merck/MSD, Intercell AG, PATH, de-CODE Genetics and Sanofi Pasteur. e largestISPPD conference yet included a total of 37 invitedspeakers, 43 oral presentations, 500 posters, and 980participants from 86 countries.

e symposium topics ranged from historical aspectsof pneumococcal disease to state-of-the-art advancesin the field.

IH Department students and staff of the Pneu-moADIP presented nearly 20 posters, many of whichcan be found on the PneumoADIP website at:http://www.preventpneumo.org/resources/isppd6.cfm

In addition, PneumoADIP Executive Director, OrinLevine co-chaired a session entitled “Global imple-mentation of pneumococcal vaccines and the value ofvaccination” as well as giving a talk on the subject.

Deputy Director of Research, Kate O’Brien, gave theconference’s opening talk on global epidemiology ofpneumococcal disease. Jennifer Moisi, a surveillanceofficer for PneumoADIP who recently successfully de-fended her PhD in the Department, presented a talkon the diagnosis of pneumococcal meningitis. HealthSystems Director, Mathu Santosham, co-chaired a ses-sion entitled “Use and effects of pneumococcal poly-saccharide and conjugate vaccines.” Abstracts fromthese presentations can be found on the conferencewebsite: http://www.congress.is/ISPPD-6/--Julie Buss, Communications Manager, PneumoADIP

PneumoADIP students and staff in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fromleft to right: Divya Parmar (MHS student), Joe Agostino (Fi-nancial Analyst), Benedicta Kim (Communications Manager),Zunera Gilani (PhD student), Matt Coles (Research ServiceAnalyst), Lindsay Grant (PhD student), and Emily Henkle(PhD Student)

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Future planse IIRU plans on convening similar symposiums on a quarterly basisthroughout the year, with the next one to be held during the latter halfof 2008. Planned topics for these symposia include trauma registriesin low- and middle-income countries and injury surveillance systems.

Selected Faculty Affiliated with IIru:adnan a. hyder, MD, MPH, PhD—Unit Director

Nhan t. tran, PhD, MHS—Lead Faculty, Research & Evaluation

prasanthi puvanachandra, MD, MPH—Lead Faculty, Programs& Policy

timothy Baker, MD, MPH—Health Planning/Injury Prevention

David Bishai, MD, PhD—Health Economics/Cost-Effectiveness

abdul Ghaffar, MD, MPH, PhD—Joint Faculty, Health Pol-icy/Health Management

richard morrow, MD, MPH—Epidemiology/Quality Assurance

For more information visithttp://jhsph.edu/dept/IH/Centers/Injury_Researchor email: ppuvanac@jhsph.edu

International Injury research unitproject map

Gwenyth Lee, mhS ’08new phD Candidate in GDeC

Student pro>le

mhS at hopkinse MHS program was an ideal degree for Gwen: she could still makeuse of her science background, but it also afforded her more hands-on application, something she realized she wanted during her timein the Peace Corps. After finishing her coursework, her internshiptook her to Peru, where she was able to conduct her own researchstudy—a daunting challenge but one that would help her decidewhich direction to go in next. e internship proved to be anotherpivotal moment in Gwen’s career path. While she was invigorated bythe hands-on opportunities of public health, she saw that she lovedthe research aspect of it as well.

Gwen’s research project assessed the relative accuracy of daily versusbi-weekly survey tools for monitoring childhood diarrhea in Peru.She worked within a larger multi-site project run by Prof. BobGilman, GDEC. Gwen developed a research plan and daily surveytools whose results could be compared to the bi-weekly data. She alsoorganized the staff and helped collect the data in the field. e dataare still being analyzed, but they indicate that the recall bias is morepronounced for symptoms in younger children and for more severesymptoms.

Advice for new StudentsAlthough she’s a new PhD student, she is an MHS grad and was will-ing to offer some advice to new students. First and foremost, she rec-ommends talking—to professors, other students, and visiting scholarsand speakers—because it’s a great way to figure out what your inter-ests are and to find opportunities for pursuing them. In the samevein, she thinks work-study is an excellent opportunity to see howcoursework relates to real world situations. “Even if you’re not ana-lyzing the data yourself, you’re working next to people who are. Andthat makes the coursework seem all the more real,” she explained.

Gwen’s desire to work in a more applied field like public health has,she noted with a sense of irony, taken her nearly full circle back to re-search. But the experiences in the field are what drive her now and sheis looking forward to combining research and practice whenever shecan.

Gwenyth Lee, MHS ’08 and PhD candidate, GDEC, in Cameroon asa Peace Corps volunteer.

A few years ago Gwenyth Lee thought she would now beconducting experiments in a chemistry lab, or maybeworking her way through medical school. Returning froma public health internship in Peru was certainly not on thehorizon. Even 3 years ago, she didn’t foresee herself enter-ing a PhD program. But now, a trainee under Joanne Katz’sInternational Maternal and Child Health grant, she startsthe year knowing this is exactly what she wants to be doing.

Like many students Gwen was a Peace Corps volunteer be-fore enrolling in the MHS program. And like many othersshe had a background in the sciences. But there was no setcourse that would lead her to Hopkins or to public health.In fact, her decision to volunteer in Cameroon meant thatshe was putting medical school, which she had been ac-cepted to, on hold. e Department of InternationalHealth at the Bloomberg School wasn’t even on her radar,yet.

peace Corps in CameroonHer main assignment in Cameroon was to teach chemistryand biology at a secondary school. Teaching in the class-room, however, didn’t seem to be enough, so she sought outother ways to serve. She discovered that local youth healthgroups needed mentors to help run their programs. esegroups were designed to help young people learn decision-making skills so they could make safe and healthy choicesas adults. is approach—developing skills rather thanteaching only facts—appealed to her. Gwen ended up lead-ing several youth groups, including one that wrote and pro-duced its own telenovela-like melodrama that the youngpeople performed at local fairs and events. e dramaproved to be an entertaining format for sparking discussions

about sensitive healthtopics affecting youth.

Colleagues who noticedher enthusiasm told herthat she might be inter-ested in a career in pub-lic health, a field sheknew very little about atthe time. e more shelearned about and sawfirst-hand what publichealth was all about, themore she was drawn toit. And so, as her time inCameroon came to anend, she decided toapply to the HopkinsMHS program inGlobal Disease Epi-demiology and Control(GDEC).

The Globe Fall 2008

johns hopkins Bloomberg school ofpublic healthDepartment of International health615 N. Wolfe StreetBaltimore, MD 21205410-955-3734www.jhsph.edu/dept/IH

robert Black, ChairAssociate Chairs:James Tielsch, Academic ProgramsJoanne Katz, Director, Global DiseaseEpidemiology and ControlMathuram Santosham, Director, Health Systems Laura Caulfield, Director, Human Nutrition Peter Winch, Director, Social and BehavioralInterventions

Writer/Designer, Brandon Howard

THE GLOBE | Fall 2008Page 12