Name: Hana, aka "Hana"
Email:
Web Site: http://www.globalpulsejournal.com
Bio: Hana Akselrod is a third-year MD/MPH student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She is currently Editor-In-Chief of Global Pulse Journal and a member of AMSA's AIDS Advocacy Network SC.
Posts by :
- Anand Reddi’s previous article about AIDS funding on Huffington Post.
- The CID journal article by Rochelle Walensky and Daniel Kuritzkes, from the Center for AIDS Research at Harvard Medical School, that Archbishop Tutu references in his letter.
- Denny CC and Emanuel EJ. “US Health Aid Beyond PEPFAR: The Mother & Child Campaign.” (JAMA, 11/2008.)
- “At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart” (NYTimes, 05/05/2010)
- “Donor AIDS” (The Lancet Student, 05/14/2010)
- Jennifer Weinberg’s post on the Administration’s effort to address global maternal, newborn, and child health needs (GP Blog, 06/17/2010)
- “Obama ‘hurt’ by AIDS funding criticism” (The Guardian, 06/21/2010)
- Some 50,000 protesters gather in Phoenix on May 29 to demonstrate against the law
- Immigrant groups and workers’ organizations (Hispanic and not) urge a boycott of Arizona
- The Sound Strike, a group of musicians and performers headed by Zach de la Rocha, boycotts AZ
- ACLU’s resources on torture
- The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)
- NRCAT, ACLU, and PHR: Working together against inhumane detention conditions at home?
- National Physicians Alliance
- Committee for Interns and Residents
- American College of Physicians-NY
- NY State Nurses Association
- NY Civil Liberties Union
- Center for Constitutional Rights
- Human Rights Watch
- Amnesty International
- Physicians for Human Rights
- I Have A Dream Foundation
- Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture
- (full list and statements at whenhealersharm.org/)
In Memoriam: Sujal Parikh
October 17th, 2010
(02/22/1985 – 10/12/2010)
In memory of our dear friend, colleague and activist, Sujal Parikh, whose brilliance was taken from us so unexpectedly. Your vision, dedication and passion will forever remain a shining beacon in this stormy world you worked so tirelessly to change.
We invite our readers to take some time to check out Sujal’s work, below, and to get in touch with us with any memories and thoughts you would like to share. Please email editorinchief.gp@gmail.com
Risk more than others think is safe,
Care more than others think is wise,
Dream more than others think is practical,
Expect more than others think is possible.
- Claude Bissel, quoted by Sujal Parikh
From HuffPo: Financing Global Health Aid and Protecting Wall Street
October 10th, 2010Today’s guest post by Anand Reddi was originally published on Huffington Post earlier this week.
Yesterday, the international donor community pledged $11.7 billion over the next three years to fund The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The fund had hoped to raise $20 billion. This shortfall in necessary funding will put at risk the 2015 goal to: eliminate HIV mother-to-child transmission worldwide, prevent the spread of multidrug resistant TB, and eradicate malaria as a public health issue.
A pressing question amongst global health advocates is how to finance global health in the midst of this global economic recession?
One solution proposed is the enactment of a financial speculation tax on the currency transactions market. The proceeds raised could fund global health initiatives such as the Global Fund and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Following the AIDS Funding Debate: Raising the Bar?
July 31st, 2010Today’s post continues to explore the debate over U.S. contribution to funding for combating global AIDS. It features contributions by Anand Reddi, author of the article highlighted earlier (United States global health policy: HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). A former Fulbright Scholar, Anand serves on the board of directors of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and is a student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
In a recent article on Huffington Post, Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, special advisor for health policy in the OMB, defends the Obama Administration’s decision to shift some of the funding away from successful AIDS treatment efforts:
This comprehensive and integrated approach is what the President’s Global Health Initiative is all about. It recognizes that we can’t treat our way out of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. The key to ending it is to reduce the number of those who become HIV-positive in the long-term – and that takes improving their overall health and the health systems around them. After all, patients don’t come to doctors with one disease or condition, and our response shouldn’t focus on one as well.
Dr. Emanuel writes in response to widespread criticism of the Obama Administration during the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, as well as to the July 20th New York Times op-ed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who writes:
During my life, I’ve witnessed amazing advances in medical science. New treatments turn H.I.V. infection from a death sentence to a manageable illness. The cost of treating it is a small fraction of what it was 10 years ago. Meanwhile, more and more African nations have invested in the public health infrastructure needed to distribute AIDS drugs. I appreciate that tough financial times require the United States government to cut spending. But scaling back America’s financial commitments to AIDS programs could wipe away decades of progress in Africa.
Anand Reddi responds on Huffington Post and specifically counters the argument that “we can’t treat our way out” of the epidemic:
Results by Dr. Julio Montaner published in The Lancet demonstrated that provision of antiretroviral therapy in British Columbia halved the rate of new infections. The Economist writes the study by Montaner is “the strongest confirmation yet that treatment and prevention are two sides of the same coin.” Treating our way out is indeed possible. In our recent article in AIDS, Sarah Leeper and I demonstrated the unique dynamic-reciprocal relationship that HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria have on maternal and child health and vice-versa in the resource limited setting. I salute Dr. Emanuel for forwarding the dialogue on global health and advocating for comprehensive, integrated, cost-effective models of care that advance not just HIV/AIDS but other important health priorities including maternal and child health. Given that the provision of antiretroviral treatment can actually lead to prevention, eradication of new HIV infections is possible if the world community remains fully committed to funding cost-effective antiretroviral treatment initiatives.
Further reading:
Beyond the Biological Basis of Disease
July 24th, 2010In today’s guest post, recent medical graduate Laura Janneck, MD, MPH reflects on an elective course in social medicine she took in Uganda. Dr. Janneck is an AMSA alum, and now a resident in Emergency Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston. For further information about the course, see details below.
Over the course of my involvement in global health during medical school, I began to narrow my interests toward humanitarian assistance and global health delivery in post-conflict settings. Last year, during my fourth year of medical school, I participated in a new course on social medicine being taught in Gulu, northern Uganda, a region that is recently recovering from a 20 year civil conflict. This course, called Beyond the Biological Basis of Disease: The Social and Economic Causation of Illness was very well organized, with didactics on a range of topics from the health consequences of internal displacement, to the portrayal of Africans in the Western media. We also were able to spend time on the wards seeing patients with a range of diseases and syndromes common in the region. The keystone of this course, however, is the international student body. Half of the medical students study at Gulu University and hailed from around Uganda. The other half were American and European. This enabled fantastic discussions with different perspectives on the issues we were studying, and planted the seeds of long-term friendships between colleagues from around the world. I enjoyed my time there so much that I went back to Gulu for another clinical rotation later that semester.
If you have any questions about the course or are interested in applying, please email the course directors at: social.medicine@yahoo.com. Applications are due July 30, 2010.
Countering the Arguments for Redirecting AIDS Funding
July 23rd, 2010Is funding for global HIV/AIDS programs too “vertical”? Faced with funding shortfalls, should donor countries put the brakes on AIDS funding in favor of other initiatives, ones that propose to address a broader range of health problems? This proposal has drawn the anger of AIDS activists the world over, and is now the subject of passionate debate in Vienna. Back home, two medical students examine the Obama Administration’s plan to let PEPFAR funding flatline while promoting a new Maternal and Child Health (MCH) initiative. In a commentary published in AIDS, Sarah C. Leeper (Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University) and Anand Reddi (University of Colorado School of Medicine) take on the claim one argument at a time:
The architects of the Obama administration’s Global Health Initiative recommend funding the Mother and Child Campaign at the expense of future funding increases for PEPFAR. The idea that differing global health initiativesmust compete with each other lacks not only ethical legitimacy but also scientific merit. Confronting illness in isolation – whether by funding PEPFAR at the expense of programs that targetMCH or vice versa – cannot be our way forward. Policies that de-emphasize PEPFAR threaten to undermine,rather than support, MCH in countries with high HIV/AIDS prevalence [PubMed; full-text].
The strongest scientific-journal rebuttal yet to the Obama Administration’s proposal to shift resources to maternal and child health at the expense of HIV/AIDS treatment scale up comes from two medical students, who in a commentary just published in AIDS make a clear and convincing case that such a move would actually undermine the health of women and children around the globe, not improve it.
UNAIDS estimates that the cost needed to continue global HIV treatment in 2009 will be about US$9 billion.
Related reading:
Arizona’s Immigration Law and Doctors
June 6th, 2010In this week’s issue of NEJM, Dr. Lucas Restrepo from the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, AZ, articulates concerns over the impact of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB 1070, on access to medical care in the state:
It can be argued that health care providers who neglect to report illegal immigrants under their care will violate the law and be considered criminals. The bill provides physicians with no guidance as to what constitutes “reasonable grounds” to suspect that somebody is in the country illegally, leaving the particulars of such scrutiny to anyone’s imagination (although the fact that Arizona shares a border with Mexico rather than a European country suggests that whites will not be “reasonable” suspects).
Dr. Restrepo and colleagues also published a letter in the Arizona Republic earlier:
As physicians, we are concerned about the immigration bill signed by Gov. Jan Brewer. We care for many patients who may appear foreign based on superficial impressions. It is unclear whether health-care professionals like ourselves will infringe on the law if we don’t report patients or their families to the police or immigration authorities based on a vague suspicion of illegality. . . . Senate Bill 1070 tacitly prescribes a break with one of the oldest traditions of medicine: Physicians shall protect patients regardless of nationality or race [emph. added].
In a statement released on May 18, the National Physicians Alliance and CIR/SEIU-Healthcare condemn the law as “an affront to human rights and a devastating step backwards for the health and well being of the entire nation,” and warn that it will “create new obstacles to obtaining needed health care.”
More on Arizona SB 1070:
Does Arizona’s law go too far? Do you think it is likely to affect the practice of medicine in the state? Do doctors have a role to play in this debate? Join the discussion by leaving a comment!
Update on NY Anti-Torture Advocacy: May 18th and a cross-post from the ACLU
June 3rd, 2010As a participant in the May 18th medical student day of action with the New York Coalition Against Torture, I would like to thank our readers for their support — whether in coming to Albany, contacting their NY state representatives, or signing the PHR petition. The event was very successful and inspiring, and we have received a lot of positive feedback. I look forward to updating the GPJ community on the effort’s progress. In the meantime, I have a more detailed review of the event at the ACLU’s blog:
During the white-coat advocacy day on Tuesday, the medical student group conducted over 25 meetings with lawmakers and staff, met with the bill’s sponsors, and hand-delivered copies of the petition signed by hundreds of their peers and fellow New York State residents. They also conveyed the support of state and national professional organizations for this landmark legislation…(more)
The medical student action event was also mentioned on the Huffington Post and on PHR’s Health Rights Advocate blog. Since then, NYCAT has also released a letter of support for the Gottfried-Duane Bill signed by prominent leaders of medicine in New York state, including medical school deans, hospital CEOs, and Nobel Prize laureates.
Medical students and NYCAT members with Assemblyman Gottfried in Albany
Related reading:
UPDATE [06-08-2010]: PHR’s newest report, Experiments In Torture, raises concerns that the actions of CIA doctors who participated in waterboarding and other methods amounted to illegal human experimentation. Read coverage of the report in The New York Times and commentary at The Washington Post and The Atlantic.
Looking for ways to get involved closer to home? NRCAT has a list of events across the country for the month of June.
Related: China bans the use of torture in extracting confessions.
ACTION ALERT: Join AMSA in Anti-Torture Action in NY on May 18th!
May 11th, 2010This event is organized by the New York Medical Student Coalition Against Torture (NYMSCAT@gmail.com). Email to learn more, request materials, and get involved!
As I have written previously, medical professionals, students, and human rights groups in New York State are teaming up for action to pass the nation’s first law holding medical professionals accountable for assisting torture and abuse of prisoners. AMSA is proud to join the list of organizations putting their support behind the proposed legislation:
ANTI-TORTURE LOBBY DAY in Albany: Join AMSA and PHR with medical students from across the state in our first Anti-Torture Lobby Day in Albany on May 18th! This is our chance to meet with our local lawmakers and tell them that ending torture is important to us as ethical medical professionals and Americans. We will meet at 9AM for a white-coat press conference and advocacy training with experts from the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, and follow up with advocacy meetings. If you are a NY State resident and a medical or pre-medical student, don’t miss this chance for real-time local action for human rights!
Don’t forget to sign the petition: Stop Torture NY.org
Read AMSA’s statement of support after the cut:
ACTION ALERT: Join AMSA at protest for AIDS funding in NYC!
May 5th, 2010Farheen Qurashi, AMSA’s Jack Rutledge Legislative Director 2009-2010, and Mary Carol Jennings, AIDS Advocacy Network Chair 2009-2010, contributed to this post. To join this event in NYC on May 13th, please contact Farheen at jrld@amsa.org.
However, since taking office, the Obama Administration’s budgets have flatlined funding for AIDS programs. Our commitments to fighting AIDS have not even kept pace with inflation: PEPFAR funding increased by only 2% in 2010, while annual inflation in most African countries is 7%. Now, clinics around the world are reporting turning away patients with clinical AIDS who would previously have been treated, due to funding cuts (ITPC, 2010).
On May 13th, AMSA will be gathering for a white-coat protest at a Democratic Party fundraiser at St. Regis Hotel in NYC, to remind President Obama of his promises. We will be joining activists from ACT UP, Africa Action, African Services Committee, NYC AIDS Housing Network, VOCAL-NY Users Union, Housing Works, Health GAP, Philadelphia Global AIDS Watchdogs, and other allies. Join us, and let the President know that extending AIDS funding to meet the global need is important to you! Please contact Mary Carol Jennings (marycaroljennings@gmail.com) for more details.
UPDATED: [05.11.2010] More information and disclaimer after cut. Read the rest of this entry “
Global Pulse Blog now on MedPedia
April 23rd, 2010
Some exciting news to share: Global Pulse Blog is now syndicated on MedPedia’s News & Analysis section! About MedPedia:
The Medpedia Project is a long-term, worldwide project to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health, medicine and the body among medical professionals and the general public. This model is founded on providing a free online technology platform that is collaborative, interdisciplinary and transparent. [Read more.]
As a fellow organization that believes in open-access publishing, peer review, and online innovation, we applaud MedPedia’s work, and are proud to be part of it. If you have a Medpedia profile, we invite you to check out ours, follow our blog and join our discussions!