All About the Global Health Conference

The Global Health Conference was held on the 17th and 18th of April in 2015 at Binghamton University. Over the two-day conference, starting with a formal discussion on Friday, and a more intimate workshop on Saturday, there were several panels featuring prominent members of global health studies. One of these panels on the first day of the conference was the Physician Panel, which included Tariq N. Gill, Claire Beetlestone, and Douglas Kerr.

The first speaker of the physicians panel was Tariq N. Gill. He is currently working with the Radiologists Without Borders on their ongoing project. This project has assisted in multiple countries across the world, including but not limited to: Haiti, Tanzania, Honduras, Ukraine, Kenya, and Iraq. His work in Haiti and Tanzania involved establishing connectivity for electronic communications in medical imaging. In Honduras, the first breast cancer-screening program was implemented for the use of the general public. This marks the first time that women have free access to breast screening in history. Radiologists Without Borders has donated various medical equipment to both Ukraine and Kenya, specifically the Kikuyu Orthopedic Rehabilitation Center in Kenya. In the city of Tikrit in Iraq, the Radiologists Without Borders provided a Women’s Health Program.

The second speaker of the Physician’s Panel, Claire Beetlestone, discussed the problems facing the world’s water supply. There are various causes of people dying from disease that involves water. People have died either due to no water being available to them, or having only unhealthy water available to them. In many countries, animal feces contaminate bodies of water, and some regions of the world had acres of land strewn with dead animals. An alarming fact brought up by Beetlestone was that contaminated water kills more women yearly than breast cancer worldwide.

Infant deaths are also a concern in the global community. In the U.S., one in 13,000 infants die, but in Mali, the statistics show that every one in 17 infants die. Beetlestone declared, in a very somber tone, “Every 3.5 seconds a child dies because of polluted water. Just think how many have died during the course of this conference.”

Beetlestone concluded her speech by talking about the various reasons for polluted water around the world. One of these reasons is global desertification. Another reason is a broken water cycle. This broken water cycle refers to the changing use of water around the world, and the increased use of water because of modern changes in technology. Also, water use is doubling on a global scale. The two final reasons given by Beetlestone were the growing of crops in inappropriate places and the increasing amount of industrial mining.

The final speaker of the Physician’s Panel was Douglas Kerr. He studied the Kikuyu Clinical and Orthopedic Practice in a hospital in Kenya. Kerr began with social and financial factors of Kenya, stating that the average annual salary in Kenya is currently $1,100 and very few people have insurance. Kerr studied clinical patterns of orthopedic practice by evaluating clinic visits for one week. There were a total of 316 people in this study. In conclusion of Kerr’s presentation, he found that trauma is the most frequent surgical indication in the data found, and that low back pain is universal in the patients studied.

References:

1. “Hepatitis B - Diagnosis and Treatment - Mayo Clinic.” Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hepatitis-b/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20366821#:%7E:text=Treatment%20for%20chronic%20hepatitis%20B%20may%20include%3A,ability%20to%20damage%20your%20liver. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
2. “Hepatitis.” World Health Assembly, www.who.int/health-topics/hepatitis#tab_3. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
3. “Alcoholic Hepatitis - Diagnosis and Treatment - Mayo Clinic.” Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alcoholic-hepatitis/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20351394.
4. “Hepatitis D.” World Health Assembly, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-d. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
5. “Hepatitis E Questions and Answers for Health Professionals | CDC.” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/hev/hevfaq.htm#d4. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
6. “Alcoholic Hepatitis - Diagnosis and Treatment - Mayo Clinic.” Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alcoholic-hepatitis/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20351394.
7. World Health Assembly, 67. (2014). Hepatitis. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/162765