Centre for Global Public Health



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Centre for Global Public Health: 2008-09

The Centre for Global Public Health has had a busy year since its inception in May 2008. It was created and nurtured by the Faculty of Medicine’s Departments of Community Health Sciences and Medical Microbiology, and is housed in Community Health Sciences. Under the leadership of Drs. James Blanchard (Director) and Stephen Moses (Associate Director), CGPH continues to expand its program of international health and development, and applied public health research. Although CGPH is a new entity at the University of Manitoba, Drs. Blanchard and Moses have been involved in international health and development projects and research for over a decade. Their work has taken them to Kenya, India, China and Pakistan, primarily in the areas of HIV and STI prevention. CGPH carries out this work through numerous grants received from funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, CIDA and CIHR. Drs. Blanchard and Moses have received more than $100 million in funding for projects in India alone since 2001. Their largest projects are currently in China and India, where CGPH is partnering with the West China School of Public Health at Sichuan University in Sichuan, China, and the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust in Bangalore, India. In 2009, CGPH also received funding from the World Bank for a project working with the Sri Lanka government on mapping and situational assessments for female sex workers and men who have sex with men.

The Centre’s other main area of focus is conducting and supporting applied public health research in the Canadian context. This is achieved through a public health data laboratory and analytical team located at CGPH. The data laboratory provides a secure environment for the analysis of public health data sets from around the world, and for the development and testing of new and innovative methods of public health research and surveillance. Dr. Nancy Yu manages the data laboratory and associated projects, which include epidemiological research on multiple sclerosis, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Souradet Shaw and Stella Leung provide analytical support to these projects.

Three new faculty members have been recruited to expand CGPH’s international projects. Dr. Robert Lorway is an anthropologist, and was recently awarded a CIHR New Investigator Award in the area of HIV/AIDS Services/Population Health research. Dr. Marissa Becker is a physician with a specialty in infectious diseases, and Dr. Lisa Avery is an obstetrician/gynecologist with a Master’s degree in International Health. Additional faculty members will be recruited as Associates of the Centre over the coming year.

The Centre held a Global Public Health Research Week from May 19-21, 2009 at the University of Manitoba. The purpose of the event was to increase awareness of those within and outside of the University of Manitoba about the University’s role in improving global public health, and to examine how CGPH and its global partners can continue to advance the contribution of academia to global public health. Over 100 researchers, experts and students from China, India, Pakistan, England, the United States and Canada exchanged knowledge and helped plan a research agenda for CGPH. UM President and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. David Barnard, opened the research week with a talk on the importance of global public health to the University’s mission. Drs. Sharon Macdonald (Acting Department Head, Community Health Sciences) and Joanne Embree (Department Head, Medical Microbiology) hosted a “meet and greet” for the international visitors and faculty of their respective departments. Three keynote addresses were given by internationally-renowned experts in HIV/AIDS: Dr. Sevgi Aral, Associate Director for Science, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, U.S.A.; Dr. Thomas Quinn, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health in Baltimore, U.S.A.; and Dr. Geoffrey Garnett, Professor of Microparasite Epidemiology at Imperial College in London, U.K. These scholars were all awarded Distinguished Visiting Lecturers from the President’s Office at UM.

Amidst the academic growth experienced over the past year, CGPH also constructed and moved into new offices located at R070 Medical Rehab Building. An official “ribbon-cutting” will take place in September, 2009.

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