Global Matters The newsletter of the Office of Global Health Volume 27, Summer 2014 Fall 2014 Global Health Lecture Series Please Join the Office of Global Health for the Annual International Programs Week Friday, October 3—Friday, October 10, 2014 12:00 Noon CT Friday, October 3 ACB 110 Beyond Borders Beyond Measure Photography Exhibit 6:00—9:00 PM Monday, August 18 Andrea Tenner, MD, MPH, FACEP Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Icehouse Gallery War, Disaster, and Death: Managing Complex Emergencies 511 Avenue K Wednesday, August 20 Monday, October 6 Peter Hotez, MD, PhD Breakfast Kickoff The NTDS, Blue Marble Health, and the Anitpoverty Vaccines 8:00—9:00 AM Wednesday, September 10 ACB Entrances Joel Dickens, MD Free Breakfast Burritos! Baptist Medical Center, Ghana Tuesday, October 7 Thursday, September 18 *ACB 100* Robert Gupta, TED Senior Fellow International Programs Fair The Medicine of Music Noon—1:00 PM Wednesday, October 8 *ACB 100* ACB 1st Floor Lobby Michael Russell, SOM, Class of 2017 Free Refreshments! Friday, October 10 Wednesday, October 8 Patti Patterson, MD, MPH Global Health Lecture—Michael Russell, SOM, Class of 2017 Pediatrics in Jinotega, Nicaragua Noon—1:00 PM Wednesday, October 22 Christina Esperat, RN & Sharon ACB 100 Decker Free lunch to the first 50 people! Collaborations with Silliman University, Phillippines Thursday, October 9 Wednesday, November 5 Global Perspectives Film Series featuring A Doctor of My Own Bryan Small, CEO, ACT Holdings, Noon—1:00 PM LLC The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe ACB 240 Economic Development Efforts Free Pizza! Wednesday, November 19 Kenn Freedman, MD Friday, October 10 Opthalmology in Vietnam & Global Health Lecture—Pediatrics in Jinotega, Nicaragua Cambodia Noon—1:00 PM Wednesday, December 3 Arthur Islas, MD ACB 110 Himalayan Rescue Association- Free lunch to the first 40 people! Everest ER Presentations with hyperlinks were recorded and can be viewed on the OGH website or checked out from the OGH library. TTUHSC Global Matters | 2 1. 5. Cameroon6. Côte d'Ivoire Available A Day in the Life of a Nursing Student in Jinotega, Nicaragua from the By Elizabeth Stephenson, School of Nursing, Class of 2015 OGH Library “La prensa, la prensa, topics such as the spread of school. The following resources are available for check- la prensa.” The sound of the germs, nutrition, fire safety, In addition to the vari- out: newspaper man’s voice re- and the importance of exercise. ous school clinics, we also Book cording coming out of a speak- I got to play “pato, pato, gan- conducted a women’s health Cutting for Stone er on the front so” (duck, clinic, helped in the mission’s By Abraham Verghese of his bike cart duck, goose) clinic, toured Jinotega’s hospi- was my daily with the chil- tal and clinic, taught expectant Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret wakeup call at dren, and I mothers at Casa Materna, and union between a beautiful the mission learned more trained community health Indian nun and a brash Brit- ish surgeon. Orphaned by where I stayed, about a recur- workers in topics related to their mother’s death and their located in the ring theme in reproductive health. In the father’s disappearance, middle of the Nicaraguan afternoons after finishing our bound together by a preter- natural connection and a market. Every- culture. I ob- work for the day, many of us shared fascination with medi- thing in Jinote- served during would get coffee or ice cream cine, the twins come of age ga happens about three hours the game that when a boy was and experience a more re- as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving earlier than in the US. The chosen to be the laxed aspect of from Addis Ababa to New market comes alive around “ganso” first, Nicaraguan cul- York City and back again, four in the morning and every- only boys were ture. Cutting for Stone is an unfor- gettable story of love and thing shuts down when the sun chosen, but During betrayal, medicine and ordi- sets around seven. After a when a girl was the trip the implica- nary miracles – and two delicious breakfast of fresh chosen as tions of Nicaragua brothers whose fates are forever intertwined. fruit, eggs, and gallopinto (rice “ganso”, girls being the second Movie and beans), I headed off in the and boys were poorest country in back of a truck. It was always evenly picked. the Western Hemi- The Ghost Army a surprise to see where we This represents sphere sunk in. During World War II, a hand- were going for the day. We the importance Lack of clean wa- picked group of American GI’s undertook a bizarre journeyed across rocky, steep of empowering ter is a major is- mission: create a traveling roads up into the mountains girls, helping to sue, and it, along road show of deception on usually for at least an hour. increase their with the lack of the battlefields of Europe, with the Nazi German Army This day we arrived to self-esteem, and aiding them in sanitation, is the cause of as their audience. The U.S. four small buildings with a total planning for the future. In order many of the common health 23rd Headquarters Special of five classrooms and excited to impact Nicaragua’s high issues in Jinotega such as Troops used inflatable rubber tanks, sound trucks, and children pregnancy parasites, dehydration, and dazzling performance art to who happi- and materni- infections. Another health is- bluff the enemy again and ly ty mortality sue that affects many children again, often right along the front lines. This little-known squeezed rate, girls is malnutrition. We saw sever- unit’s knack for trickery was their desks need to be al children that appeared crucial to Allied success in into anoth- made aware about half their actual age due World War II, but their top- secret mission was kept er class- of other op- to malnutrition-causing growth quiet for nearly 50 years after room so tions besides delays. the war’s end. we could Serving others is so having ba- have a bies. In Nica- much more than just giving place to ragua, edu- set up the clinic. I started off by cation, including college, is For more information about helping lead the children in free, but many drop-out early Continued on the top the resources available from health fair activities, covering or don’t continue after high the OGH library, visit our of page 3. website. GLOBAL MATTERS TTUHSC Global Matters | 3 International Medicine Club Column cont. Mark Your Calendar for the Global Perspectives knowledge are being trying to “improve” them and Film Series planted on topics such as their healthcare system. reproduction, hygiene, These two weeks were full of and child development. In incredibly valuable experi- addition, basic health ences that not only humbled screenings and services me, but improved my critical to people far from thinking skills, increased my healthcare access are cultural competence, and being provided. This enhanced my desire to help helps the underserved others. You’re invited to join the people immediately in Office of Global Health as one’s time, knowledge, and hopes that in the future the we host a screening of one effort. It includes taking in all source of many of their of the many films from our library. one’s experiences, learning hardships will be less- from the people you are there ened. to help, and finding ways to The trip re- 12:00 Noon enhance their culture and es- quired a fine balance CST tablished systems of living. It is of respecting the Nica- hard to see a major impact raguan culture and ACB 240 over a two week trip, but health practices and through this trip and others led working with the com- through TTUHSC, seeds of munity as opposed to Thursday September 25 Saving Face Thursday Country Close-up* *every issue OGH will select another country to feature October 9 A Doctor of My Republic of Djibouti jority, at 94%, are Muslim. assistance. An unemployment Own French and Arabic are the rate of nearly 60% continues to Djibouti is located at the juncture official languages of Djbouti; be a major problem. As of Au- Thursday of the Red Sea and the Gulf of however, Somali and Afar are gust 11, 2014, one USD is November 13 Aden between also spoken. equal to one hundred and Silcenced Voices Eritrea and Soma- Three-fourths of eighty-two Djiboutian Francs. lia. After gaining the population live According to the Thursday, in the capital city its independence World Fact Book, life expectan- December 4 due to the coun- cy at birth for males is fifty-nine from France in TBD 1977, Hassan try’s strategic years, while for females it is location as a deep sixty-five years. Gouled Aptidon installed an au- -water port on the The World Health Attendees are welcome Red Sea. thoritarian one- Organization (WHO) reports the to bring their own Djibouti non-communicable leading party state and lunch. served as presi- has few natural causes of death to be non- dent until 1999. That same year, resources and little industry. It communicable, maternal, peria- Free snacks will be Djibouti’s first multiparty presi- provides services as nal, and nutritional provided! dential election resulted in the both a transit port for conditions; cardiovas- election of Ismail Omar Guelleh the region and an cular diseases; can- as president. Guelleh still serves international trans- cers; chronic respirato- as president today. shipment and refuel- ry diseases; and dia- With a population of ing center.