Category: Caribbean
My journey into Global Health: Dr. Pragna Patel
Dr. Pragna Patel says “Taking the road less travelled and working for CDC on HIV and NCD has been a worthwhile journey” As a young girl growing up in New York City, I would often help out at my father’s pediatric clinic in an indigent neighborhood of the Bronx. My father was a caring and Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentA Life Dedicated to Public Health Service
In January 2010, Diane Caves was on a 3-week assignment from CDC to improve HIV/AIDS programs in Haiti when the massive 7.0 earthquake struck, killing her and 230,000 others on the island. She was 31 years old and the only CDC employee to die in the tragedy. Diane’s reasons for going to Haiti were typical Read More >
Posted on by 2 CommentsAn Important Partnership in Central America
On the streets of Tegucigalpa or San Salvador or Santo Domingo or in the capitals of five other Central American countries, few people would be able to provide an answer to this question: What is the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America’s (COMISCA)? Despite the understandable lack of awareness, COMISCA has emerged Read More >
Posted on byHaiti makes solid progress in reducing TB
On World Tuberculosis Day, a personal account from the frontline, Haiti, which has the highest reported rates of TB in the western hemisphere. There is a certain poetic symmetry to my return to Haiti this year as tuberculosis (TB) advisor. It was exactly 10 years ago that I first set foot on Haitian soil as Read More >
Posted on by 4 CommentsCDC Collaborations with the Ministry of Health in Dominican Republic Result in Measurable Public Health Gains
For a relatively small country where CDC established a full-time country office only five years ago, the Dominican Republic is suddenly drawing attention. It’s easy to see why. The Dominican Republic is a popular vacation destination with 1.4 million Americans visiting each year. The country has a unique relationship with its neighbor, Haiti, the poorest Read More >
Posted on byFresh Voices From the Field: HIV in the Caribbean
This is the fifth in our ongoing “Fresh Voices From the Field” series, where we hear from ASPPH (Association of School and Programs of Public Health) Global Health Fellows working throughout the world. Global Health Fellows are recent Master of Public Health or Doctoral graduates placed in CDC global health offices in Atlanta and abroad. Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentDengue in Haiti
There is arguably one place that was more affected by the January 2010 earthquake than Port-au-Prince, and that is Léogâne. A low-lying coastal town about a two-hour drive from the capital, Léogâne was the epicenter of the earthquake that devastated Haiti. As part of my Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fieldwork, I have been investigating Read More >
Posted on byHaiti is Saying Goodbye to Lymphatic Filariasis, In Spite of Earthquake
Our teams gave a two-medicine dose to Haitians in our capital city, Port-au-Prince—but most people had no water to swallow the pills. How would we overcome the ongoing cholera outbreak and displacement from the 2010 earthquake to finally rid Haiti of the horribly disfiguring and painful disease called lymphatic filariasis? Lymphatic filariasis, sometimes known Read More >
Posted on bySaying YES for Children
Imagine that you woke up this morning and the newspaper headlines said that scientists had discovered a new disease. The scientists went on to report that over 1 billion children throughout the world were exposed to this disease each and every year. Furthermore the scientists reported that those exposed to this disease were at Read More >
Posted on byProtect Your World – Get Vaccinated: World Immunization Week 2013
Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a disease that could be prevented with a safe and effective vaccine. Millions more children survive but are left severely disabled. Vaccines have the power not only to save but also transform lives by protecting against disease—giving children a chance to grow up healthy, go to school, and Read More >
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