 |
 |
|
|
|
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
Director of Global Health Initiative sees BU in world leadership role
By Brian Fitzgerald
|
|
|
BU’s efforts in global health run the gamut; they include the SPH Master’s International Program, which allows students to earn up to five credits during 27 months of service in the Peace Corps. Kevin Fiori (SPH’03) (left), stationed in Kara, Togo, talks with members of the Association Espoir Pour Demain (Hope for Tomorrow), which provides comprehensive HIV/AIDS services at the community level. Photo by Anna Summa |
|
|
|
Gerald Keusch’s reputation as a leader in global health preceded his arrival at BU last year. In fact, his work in the field goes back almost four decades. His first position with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was in 1965 as a research associate at a lab in Bangkok — where cholera was a major killer — studying the biology of the intestinal disease.
After more than 30 years of research focused primarily on infectious diseases and nutrition, areas with particular impact in the developing world, he returned to the NIH in 1998 as the director of the Fogarty International Health Center, where he played a pivotal role in international health research and policy issues for more than five years.
Last fall Keusch was appointed SPH associate dean for global health and a professor of international health; he is also Medical Campus assistant provost for global health and a MED professor of medicine. And as director of the new Global Health Initiative, he welcomes the opportunity to tie together many constituencies in global health studies at BU.
Keusch says the multidisciplinary and multifaceted initiative will expand the University’s programs in global health, strengthening its position as a leader in research and education in the field.
“There is a lot of interest at BU in developing greater connections between the Charles River Campus and the Medical Campus,” he says, “and the Global Health Initiative is the perfect vehicle in which to forge these kinds of partnerships.”
The study of global health is inherently multidisciplinary, says Keusch, because now more than ever the health of the world’s population is affected by a combination of economic, social, behavioral, political, and technological factors. “Global health involves medicine and science,” he says, “as well as such disciplines as social and behavioral science, and political science, among others.”
Keusch points out that global health studies at SPH have flourished in recent years, thanks to funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the NIH, and other agencies — and the fact that more students are becoming interested in improving the health of other countries’ populations. More than a quarter of SPH students now are selecting international health as their area of study.
“Global health, because it deals with huge disparities between rich and poor, has a level of moral appeal, along with intellectual questions that a large research university can address,” he says. “It’s not just a case of altruism as a motivator for students, researchers, and professors. Pragmatism is also a huge factor. There are lots of difficult questions that have to do with governance issues in developing countries and their impact — for good or for worse — on the investments and programs that address the health of their citizens. Health is essential to quality of life, which is essential to economic growth and stability.”
A number of students entering BU these days “are looking at the world beyond their campus, Boston, and the United States,” Keusch says. Accordingly, he wants the University to offer an undergraduate course focusing on international public health. He says that BU is already regarded as a global university not only because of its extensive study-abroad opportunities or the fact that it has one of the largest international student populations of any school. “BU is also known for reaching out to public health scholars and practitioners worldwide,” he says, “and many students see issues revolving around the health of international populations as something they want to focus on. By coordinating activities across the University, the impact and the recognition will only grow.”
For example, SPH’s Center for International Health and Development (CIHD), under the direction of SPH Associate Professor Jon Simon, is involved in major research activities in Africa, the largest being an economic study on the costs of HIV/AIDS to business and government agencies in South Africa. CIHD is also looking at the effect of HIV/AIDS on the labor productivity of thousands of agricultural workers, as well as assessing the impact of the disease on agriculture and health care, in Zambia. In addition, it is helping to develop national policies and programs to ensure that millions of children orphaned by the Ugandan HIV/AIDS epidemic are cared for.
The global University
President ad interim Aram Chobanian says that recruiting Keusch “vaults Boston University and the School of Public Health into the first rank of programs that are working to address the increasingly important and difficult challenges of global health.”
|
|
BGerald Keusch, director of the new Global Health Initiative. Photo by Fred Sway |
|
|
|
BU is poised to take even more of a leadership role in this area, according to Keusch. With a three-pronged approach — teaching, research, and policy — he wants to increase the University’s stature in global health to the point where it can influence international policy.
“At Fogarty, I represented the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services at meetings and conferences with the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and other national and international foundations,” he says. “In those settings, I saw many scholars from universities such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Cal-Berkeley, Columbia. I would occasionally spot a BU person here and there, but there was hardly an overwhelming BU presence. So part of the goal of creating an initiative here is to spread the word — within the BU community, in Boston, nationally, and internationally — that this University has a tremendous amount to offer in the field of global health.”
To further BU’s engagement in the field, a meeting of University programs in global health is being planned on the Charles River Campus in the spring, and next fall a large international conference will take place at the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, according to Constance Cramer, deputy director of the Global Health Initiative.
Colleges and universities must take more of an interest in global health, Keusch says, because it is essential for the health and survival of people everywhere. The growth of international commerce and travel has hastened the spread of emerging and drug-resistant infectious diseases. About two million people move across national borders each day, and “diseases don’t recognize national boundaries,” he says. “Mosquitoes don’t carry passports either.” An ongoing redistribution of people is occurring around the world, and migration from developing to industrial nations has drastically changed patterns of epidemiology. Furthermore, diseases in other countries can cause political, economic, and social disruptions that can affect the United States. “Basically, there is no us and them anymore,” he says. “They are now us.”
Keusch also notes that what we learn about treating diseases abroad can often be relevant to treatment of diseases here. For instance, the study of cholera, a disease that is gathering strength outside the United States, has led to insight into the altered physiology of people with cystic fibrosis. “It’s an example of how the study of a disease that hasn’t existed in the United States for more than a century has provided a vast benefit for the population of this country,” he says.
A proven researcher — and leader
Under Keusch’s direction, the Fogarty International Health Center supported major research and training of scientists in developing countries on noncommunicable diseases, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis, and the impact of health on economic development and vice versa. Federal funding for international health initiatives more than doubled during his tenure. He has also served in the Health Office of the Harvard Institute for International Development, and as chief of geographic medicine and infectious diseases at Tufts–New England Medical Center.
A graduate of Columbia College and Harvard Medical School, Keusch has been involved in clinical medicine, teaching, and research for his entire career. His research has ranged from the molecular pathogenesis of tropical infectious diseases to field research in nutrition, immunology, host susceptibility, and the treatment of tropical infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS.
SPH Dean Robert Meenan (MED’72, GSM’89) is confident that Keusch’s leadership will boost BU’s already strong global health presence into a world-class role. “Dr. Keusch’s diverse experience in research — from the bench to the field — and its application to critical global health issues, combined with his policymaking experience at the NIH and his international contacts,” he says, “make him uniquely qualified to lead our University-wide commitment to address the great inequalities in health between rich and poor nations.”
19
November 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations