Global MPH Public Health Practice Coordinator Amy Joyce has contributed to Plan Canada's second annual report in their nine-year initiative examining gender discrimination and girls' rights around the world.

Released in commeration of the International Day of the Family, the report, Because I am a Girl: Girls in the Shadow of War, reveals why and how girls' rights are being violated in countries affected by armed conflict. It shows clearly what is lost when girls' voices are ignored and their capacities and skills go unrecognized and underdeveloped.

Amy served as a global researcher for both the newly relased 2008 report and the 2007 version, The State of the World's Girls.

Plan Canada is one of the world's largest international, child-centered development organizations. For more information, visit http://plancanada.ca.

Current GMPH students along with recent graduates will present their work at the 136th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Exposition, taking place October 25-28 in San Diego, CA.

A team of recent graduates including Besa Bauta, Ricardo Restrepo-Guzman, and Dagmar Kostkova will present on their project Needs Assessment of Elderly Colombian Population in Jackson Heights (Queens), New York . Their study assessed the needs of the elderly Colombian population in Jackson Heights, Queens and focused on the perceptions of community and availability of services in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood which contains the largest Colombian population in New York City. Findings identified in their study provide useful information for further development of research, program planning and advocacy to close the gaps observed in the Latino population, especially Colombian elderly living in urban settings.

A group of current students, including Joan Combellick, Lalitha V. Ramanathapuram, Moneesha Kamani, Nok Chhun, and Vanesa Rios will present their research on Maternal Mortality in Honduras and Peru: Meeting the Millennium Development goal target of 2015 The project recognizes that as maternal mortality throughout the developing world remains stubbornly resistant to improvement, the remarkable, short-term advance in Honduras holds out hope for the possibility of significant progress before the Millennium Development Goal target of 2015. At the end of their comparative analysis, the group sees political prioritization of funding towards infrastructure, accurate census data, sustained commitment to accessible primary health care, and accountability in health systems development to be chief role players.

Current MD/MPH dual degree student Laura Rueff will also be on hand at the APHA meeting and expo to present on A Comparison of Tobacco Control Policy in Two Newly Independent States: Lessons Latvia Can Learn from Poland, a group final paper she worked on with fellow GMPH students Marty Putenis and Huub Gelderblom . The paper was produced as part of Dr. Victor Rodwin's course Global Health Policy and Management.

More info on the 2008 APHA Annual Meeting and Expo can be found at http://www.apha.org/meetings/.

The cumulative death toll from AIDS has reached over 25 million people, and more than 33 million persons are currently living with HIV-1. Although it is one of the most-widely studied viruses, many mysteries remain about this pathogen. Global MPH student Erin Murphy (Epidemiology) is helping to shed light on those mysteries, most recently by authoring a chapter in the just published book "HIV-1: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis to Women's Health", edited by August, Murad and Jeang and published by Academic Press. Ms. Murphy's chapter, "Current Clinical Treatments of AIDS", is meant to help clinicians understand the underlying data that inform current HIV treatment guidelines. In the textbook, leading investigators in HIV research present a timely picture of the molecular mechanisms which guide HIV-1 expression and replication and provide the most current clinical strategies for combating the virus.

Global MPH student Dr. Ricardo Restrepo-Guzman (Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Human Migration, '08) is the author of two chapters in the recently published book "The 5-Minute Clinical Companion to Women's Health", edited by McGarry and Tong and published by Wolters Kluwer Health / Lippincot Williams and Wilkins. Dr. Restrepo-Guzman is the author of the chapters "Alcohol Use and Abuse" and "Abuse and Sexual Assault". The book is a quick-reference guide to the diagnosis and management of symptoms and disorders that commonly occur in women.

A study by a New York University dental research team has discovered evidence that pregnant women with periodontal (gum) disease are more likely to develop gestational diabetes mellitus than pregnant women with healthy gums.

The study, led by Dr. Ananda P. Dasanayake, a Global MPH faculty member and professor of epidemiology & health promotion at the NYU College of Dentistry, followed 256 women at New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center through their first six months of pregnancy. Twenty-two women developed gestational diabetes. Those women had significantly higher levels of periodontal bacteria and inflammation than the other women in the study.

The findings, published in the April 2008 issue of the Journal of Dental Research, underscore how important it is for expectant mothers to maintain good oral health.

A team of researchers, including NYU Global MPH Director and NYU School of Medicine Professor of Medical Parasitology Dr. Karen Day, believe they have figured out why a genetic blood disorder found in the tropics protects against death from malaria. Their work was featured in the March 18, 2008 editions of The New York Times and New Scientist magazine.

Their research focused on a disease called alpha thalassemia that causes children to produce abnormally small red blood cells. It has long been known by parasitologists that the disease protects against malaria, and it has been speculated that it somehow blocked the malaria parasite from entering the cell.

But Dr. Day and the rest of the research team from NYU and Oxford University studied 800 children in Papua New Guinea and found parasites in the blood cells of children with thalassemia. Children with thalassemia produce more red blood cells than average, with less hemoglobin per cell. Dr. Day and her colleagues propose that this protects them because parasites destroy a smaller percentage of their blood cells.

Their paper, "Increased Microerythrocyte Count in Homozygous {lower case alpha}⁺-Thalassaemia Contributes to Protection against Severe Malarial Anaemia" (manuscript number 07-PLME-RA-0238R2) was published in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine, and can be viewed online at http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050056

Global MPH student Vincent Guilamo-Ramos (Epidemiology, '11) has developed a new guide for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The guide is called "Parent-Adolescent Communication about Sex in Latino Families: A Guide for Practitioners" and is available online at http://www.teenpregnancy.org/espanol/PDF/Parent_AdolFINAL.pdf. A national conference call will also be held on March 4th. Participants can register by visiting http://guest.cvent.com/i.aspx?1Q,P1,591A150D-C7B2-4F36-BF54-F4C3B1B83897

Global MPH faculty members Beth Dixon and Domingo Pinero are part of a team which have received a contract for $49,000 from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygeine for the project titled "Evaluation of Menu Calorie Labeling in Fast Food Restaurants in New York City." City health officials believe this information would help consumers make healthier food choices, thereby reducing obesity and incidences of other ailments related to poor diet.

Dr. Ana Krieger, HMPT '08, is part of a team of researchers from the NYU College of Dentistry and the NYU School of Medicine who are partnering with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey on a major NIH grant to fund the most comprehensive study to date on the underlying causes of temporomandibular disorder - popularly known as TMD. Dr. Krieger, a second year Global MPH student studying Health Policy and Management, directs the NYU Sleep Disorders center, which received $845,000 from te grant to observe the subjects while sleeping.

Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford, Professor of Public Service, Health Policy and Management at Wagner, President of the New York Academy of Medicine and founding Co-Director of the NYU Master’s Program in Global Public Health has been named one of Crain’s top 100 most influential women in New York business.