The Latest News from VIGH

Congratulations to the Class of 2021! We celebrate this year's Master of Public Health, Global Health Track students and recipients of the Graduate Certificate in Global Health. Class of 2021 Global Health MPH and Certificate Graduates

Effective teaching, mentorship, and leadership skills are essential for faculty success in academic medicine, but these skills are rarely taught in medical school and residency training programs, particularly in low-resource settings. To address this gap among anesthesia educators in Ethiopia, a 13-week course was developed and piloted in a virtual platform from September 2020-January 2021.

Severity of illness, history of stroke, and being divorced or widowed were independently predictive of delirium in hospitalized patients in Zambia, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.

In continuing, longstanding research collaborations between the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) and Bayero University Kano (BUK) in Kano, Nigeria, and the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH), the three institutions are partnering on a new Infrastructure Development Training Program from the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project will strengthen infrastructure capacity in research administration and research ethics in Nigeria.

Two Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty and a 2017 alumna of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Master of Public Health program have recently been recognized for their global health accomplishments from the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH).

Working in collaboration with faculty from UEM, the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) will work to build UEM’s institutional research capacity with support from the NIH Fogarty International Center (FIC).

A Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigator is hoping to improve access to HIV testing in South Africa, where more than 7 million people are known to have the virus, by training traditional healers to perform the tests. Carolyn Audet, PhD, assistant professor of Health Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Institute for Global Health, has partnered with Ryan Wagner, PhD, a research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, to develop a novel HIV testing strategy for individuals living in rural communities.

World Health Week at VUMC  February 22 - 25 (virtual events) Presented by VU School of Medicine Global Health Organization World Health Week is a week dedicated to spreading awareness about global health and features panels and talks given by prominent clinicians involved in global health. This year’s theme is “Global Health and Pediatrics”. Listed below is the schedule; click on the RSVP / Anchor Link event for more details about each speaker.

The Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) has received a new research grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Fogarty International Center of the NIH to establish a large childhood status epilepticus (SE) cohort in northern Nigeria with key partners Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) and Bayero University, and with the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa.

Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) and collaborators at the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt) at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa have received a new research development grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to compare novel implementation strategies to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition among traditional healers in South Africa.

The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Subcommittee on Masters and Undergraduate Degrees in Global Health (SMUDGH) has elected Marie Martin, Ph.D., M.Ed., assistant professor of Health Policy and associate director for Education and Training for VIGH to serve a 2-year term on the committee, which focuses on helping universities develop high-quality programs in global health for both undergraduate and graduate students.

As part of the renewal of the Tennessee Center for AIDS Research (TN CFAR) grant, VIGH core faculty members were awarded a supplement for the HIV Mobility and Engagement in Care in TN project. It will be directed by Aimalohi (Aima) Ahonkai, M.D., MPH, and Kate Clouse, PhD, MPH.

Stroke is a devastating complication of sickle cell anemia (SCA) occurring in approximately 11% of children affected with the disease in resource-limited countries, compared to 1% in high-income countries. Nigeria bears 50% of childhood SCA's global burden, and stroke is a frequent complication leading to increased death and disability.

Sickle cell disease (SCD), an inherited blood disorder, is prevalent throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 240,000 children are born with SCD each year across the continent of Africa, and up to 70% of those infants born with sickle cell disease die before the age of five. 

A recent study co-authored by Dr. Muktar Aliyu, M.D., MPH, DrPH, professor of Health Policy and Medicine and associate director for research for VIGH, assessed the willingness of students at Bayero University in Nigeria to self-test for HIV. The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages the use of HIV self-testing, especially in areas such as West and Central Africa where 64% of people living with HIV are unaware of their status.