Transforming Global Health - Continued

Dr. Gerald Keusch is Associate Provost for Global Health
He gave an insightful broad view of the state of global public health and BU’s mission through it’s Global Health Initiative.

Public Health is part of the 8 millennium development goals and is a major driver of GDP. Unfortunately, we often see how public health is divergent from other development metrics. India is off track in 7/14 MDG indicators. The traditional approaches are not working, so new tools are needed.

There is progress: innovation is being targeted towards global public health, and new technologies and strategies are being developed.

As economies develop, public health is challenged the an increasing gap between rich and poor, access to funding, finding ways for governments to buy into changing policies, and the need for innovation. We need to find ways for public health equity. A lot of progress has been made we now find that we have

• Epidimological transition differences
• New and complex patterns in which disease spreads
• And an unfiinished agenda---old sicknesses that we should have dealt with a lot time ago.

How do you attract young innovators to the field?
The Global Health Initiative at BU tries to address this concern. Modern public health challenges will require leapfrogging old solutions. Dr. Keusch used Polio to illustrate the point.
In the 1955 polio wards were filled with patients on iron lungs. The challenge being posed to health professional was how to find a better iron lung to keep up with polio. Four months later, the first Salk vaccine was approved for polio---leapfrogging the solutions.