Partnership to increase access to Cervical Cancer Screening in Uganda

Naima Joseph, MD

Dr. Naima Joseph is a Global Women’s Health Fellow at BWH. Through her research and clinical practice around issues of cervical screening, Dr. Joseph is contributing towards improving cancer related morbidity worldwide and improving healthcare for women.

Rights to quality health care sign on the Kampala-Masaka Road, Mpigi, Uganda

On Kampala-Masaka road, approximately 420 kilometers from Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, lies the Equator. The Equator is in Kayabwe, a bustling village in Mpigi District, and is a known as a destination of sorts. There, you can conduct scientific experiments to estimate the Coriolis effect, or earth’s rotational forces on weather. You can weight yourself and find that you are one lb. lighter on either side. And of course, you can buy souvenirs, or a latte. My favorite stop along the Equator is a seemingly innocuous billboard that boldly proclaims, “You have rights to quality health care.”
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Dr. Keshavjee Pushes the Boundaries of Tuberculosis Care with the Zero TB Initiative

by Brittany Stopa

Brittany Stopa is a Clinical Research Regulatory Coordinator in the BWH Department of Neurosurgery, and she holds a Masters of Public Health in Global Health. She is a contributor to the BWH Global Health Hub.

Dr. Salmaan Keshavjee, Associate Professor, Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

The BWH Global Health Delivery Partnership Grand Rounds, offered monthly, are open to all staff and clinicians at BWH. I attended the September 2017 Grand Rounds where Dr. Salmaan Keshavjee captivated an audience of global health and health equity supporters with his talk about the Zero TB Initiative. In addition to his appointment as Associate Professor in the BWH Division of Global Health Equity, Dr. Keshavjee serves as Director of Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery-Dubai and Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Keshavjee had our attention immediately when he declared that there are 10.4 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) each year, but only 6.1 million of them are diagnosed and treated. Further, 1.8 million of those cases result in death each year, making TB the biggest infectious killer of adults globally. That’s a staggering 4,000 people each day that die from TB, a disease that has been treatable since 1947.

“TB is the biggest infectious killer of adults globally. A staggering 4,000 people each day die from TB, a disease that has been treatable since 1947.”

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