As disparities in health between wealthy and poor nations continue to grow, confronting public health issues at a global level has become increasingly important. The Mailman School addresses today’s health challenges through a broad lens, creating public health programs that can serve as models and be replicated across the country and around the world in order to reach large numbers of people with life-saving interventions.

With Mailman School activities and programs in more than 80 countries, students focused on global health are able to work in the field through the School’s many international initiatives, including addressing arsenic poisoning in children and adults exposed to contaminated well water; increasing the awareness, prevention, and treatment of HIV/AIDS; providing relief services to those living in countries devastated by man-made and natural disasters; and developing interventions to avert maternal death and disability.

Students participate in international practica and internships through partnerships with international NGOs, government agencies, and health ministries in other countries. Over the past year, students have traveled to 48 countries, collecting data, conducting research, and providing health services and training.

Global Practica
Geoffrey Garst, MPH ’08, an Environmental Health Sciences student in the Global Health track, is completing a practicum through the Millennium Villages Project with a team of researchers based in the village of Sauri, Kenya. While there, Geoffrey is organizing village wide surveys and assessments and helping to train and educate community health workers and school teachers, primarily in the field of malaria control.

For her practicum experience, Sociomedical Sciences student Kwanza Price traveled to La Romana, Dominican Republic, to conduct research on pediatric adherence to an oral form of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for Columbia University’s International Family AIDS Program. In addition to identifying socioeconomic barriers to adherence, Kwanza explored how the taste of liquid antiretroviral drugs affects Dominican children’s willingness to take their medications. “Not only did I gain an appreciation for cultural understanding in a clinical setting, but my practicum experience in the Dominican Republic allowed me to ‘rediscover’ what I had learned in class, notes Kwanza Price, MPH ’07.