Harvard Public Health

There are widespread power outages and shortages of food and water in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The storm is being blamed for at least two dozen deaths. It also devastated the island’s infrastructure, destroying the power grid and leaving millions without electricity. According to estimates from the U.S. military, half of the island does not have access to clean drinking water. To get some perspective on the public health and medical challenges facing the island we spoke with Stephanie Kayden, vice-chair and chief of international emergency medicine and humanitarian programs in the department of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Kayden is also an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard Chan School. Kayden has delivered emergency medical care around the world—including constructing a field hospital for survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

A recent report published in The Lancet finds that health systems in sub-Saharan Africa are largely unprepared to deal with that region’s rapidly expanding epidemic of diabetes. According to the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission nearly a quarter of adults in some countries now have diabetes, but only half of those with diabetes are diagnosed, and of those, only 1 in 10 are receiving treatment. More than 90% of cases of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa are type 2 diabetes, suggesting that modifiable risk factors are major contributors to the burden of disease. In this week’s podcast we’ll speak with Rifat Atun, professor of global health systems at Harvard Chan School and one of three lead authors of the report. Atun will explain what’s driving this rapid increase in diabetes and what health systems can do to respond effectively.

More than 90,000 schools in the U.S. have participated in the Box Tops for Education program—one of the largest school-based brand marketing initiatives. The program was launched by General Mills in 1996, and participating schools can earn money by collecting Box Tops from select products. While eligible goods include paperware and office supplies, Box Tops are featured on a wide array of packaged foods and beverages. Because these products are not actually sold in schools, they're not subject to federal nutrition standards. But if they were, how would they stack up nutritionally? New research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and MassGeneral Hospital for Children finds that less than a third of the products would meet federal "Smart Snacks" standards. In this week's episode we speak with Elsie Taveras, Division Chief of General Academic Pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and professor of nutrition at the Harvard Chan School, and Alyssa Moran, a doctoral student at the Harv

In Texas the focus is shifting from saving lives to recovery in the wake of Harvey. The storm is being blamed for at least 64 deaths and the devastating flooding caused billions of dollars worth of damage. The region faces a long and difficult recovery—one that will be complicated by Hurricane Irma. The category 5 storm has already caused widespread devastation across the Caribbean and is bearing down on Florida. In this week's podcast we're focusing on disaster recovery from two angles. First, Eric McNulty, director of research and professional programs at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School, will explain why the recovery from a disaster like Harvey is so difficult. And in the second part of the episode, we'll explore the best ways to help support the recovery effort. Julia Brooks, legal research associate at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, will explain why it's almost always better to donate cash, instead of clothes or

August 31, 2017 — Tropical storm Harvey has caused devastating flooding around Houston, Texas since making landfall as a hurricane on August 26. The storm has dumped nearly 50 inches of rain—and is being blamed for more than two dozen deaths—though that number is likely to rise. Houston is now assessing the damage as Harvey moves to Louisiana. In this week's episode we speak with Richard Serino, distinguished visiting fellow at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School and former deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Serino says that the focus in Texas and Louisiana right now is still on saving lives—then emergency responders can turn their attention to a recovery that is likely to take years.

More than half of the world's population lives in so-called emerging markets—countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Mexico. These are middle-income countries on the rise, experiencing rapid economic and population growth—and in many cases improvements in health. These nations wield enormous economic power, but experts say that has come with environmental consequences. In this week's podcast, we'll be speaking with two of the authors of a new report warning of the dangers of unchecked economic growth: Ian Scott, executive director of the Emerging Markets Symposium, and Ana Langer, director of the Women and Health Initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Scott and Langer will explain how emerging markets can balance rapid economic growth with the need to protect the environment and natural resources.

esarean delivery of a baby—or C-section—is the world's most commonly performed surgery. Rates have been rising across the globe, but there has been a particularly notable increase in the United States. The C-section rate in the U.S. has jumped 500 percent since the mid-1970s and 1 in 3 babies are now born via C-section. C-section is incredibly common, but the surgery comes with risks for mothers, including hemorrhage and infection. In this week's episode, we'll take a look at efforts to figure out what is driving rising C-section rates, and what can be done to prevent them. Neel Shah, director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariadne Labs, will explain why the hospital where a woman gives birth may the single most important factor in whether or not she has a C-section.

In this week's episode we're revisiting two stories on important mental health issues. First, the importance of changing the language surrounding addiction. Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, and Michael Botticelli, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will explain how the words we use to describe addiction can affect the treatment people receive—and why changing language is critical to reducing the stigma surrounding substance use disorders. In the second part of the podcast, we speak with Morgan Shields, SM '16, who recently authored a paper raising concerns about the psychiatric care that veterans receive.

In a new advisory the American Heart Association (AHA) strongly urges people to swap out saturated fats in favor of healthier unsaturated fats. The AHA says doing so can lower a person’s heart disease risk as much as cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. In this week's episode we speak to one of the authors of the advisory, Frank Sacks, professor of cardiovascular disease prevention. Sacks and other researchers reviewed decades worth of evidence on saturated and unsaturated fats, and we spoke to him about the state of the science on dietary fats—and some simple swaps you can make to include more healthy fats in your diet.

A new study of 60 million Americans is strengthening the link between air pollution and premature death. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers found that long-term exposure to airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone increases the risk of premature death, even when that exposure is at levels below the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) currently established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In this week's episode we speak with two of the study's authors, Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics at Harvard Chan School and co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and doctoral student Qian Di about why the U.S. needs stricter standards to keep the air clean.

Dry cleaning is an industry that dates back to the 1600s—when turpentine was used to clean fabrics. But now it's an industry in transition amid growing demand for dry cleaning solvents that are less harmful to humans and the environment. At the center of this is a push to replace perchloroethylene (PERC), which is the most commonly used dry cleaning solvent. A range of new chemicals have come on the market, but there are risks because scientists are rarely able to assess a solvent's long-term health effects before it's used commercially. In this week's episode we speak with Diana Ceballos, research scientist at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We'll discuss why new dry cleaning solvents pose challenges for the industry and regulators, and what the U.S. can learn from Europe when it comes to chemical safety.

In this week's podcast we explore a new discovery in the fight against tuberculosis(TB). It's a disease that infects more than 10 million people a year—killing nearly two million. And while TB is preventable and curable, treatment for the disease can take several months. In this episode we speak with Eric Rubin, Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, about new research that could one day open the door to much faster treatment of the disease.

It's now been more than a year since the Zika virus gained global attention, sickening a million people in dozens of countries. The epidemic began in early 2015 and was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2016. WHO declared an end to that emergency in November 2016, but concerns over Zika have lingered, even as new cases have waned. In this week's episode, we speak with Marcia Castro, associate professor of demography in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard Chan School. With Castro's help, we’ll take a look at the lingering impact of Zika, what we’ve learned about the virus, and the likelihood of new cases as we enter summer in the United States.

June 1, 2017 — Health officials in Minnesota are now grappling with that state’s largest measles outbreak in several decades. As of May 31, the Minnesota Department of Health had confirmed 70 cases of the disease. The outbreak is being blamed in part on anti-vaccine groups who targeted Somali-Americans, leading to a sharp drop in the number of children receiving the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In this week’s podcast, we get perspective on the outbreak from childhood vaccine expert Marie McCormick, Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health, at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We spoke with McCormick about the roots of the anti-vaccine movement, as well as communications strategies to ensure that children receive critical immunizations.

Deepali Ravel, PhD '17, studies the malaria parasite and believes biology can be a powerful tool for addressing global health problems. In this week's podcast we speak with Ravel about the challenges scientists face in eradicating malaria—and why she believes that teaching basic biology at an early age is so critical.

May 18, 2017 — Pedro Lamothe-Molina, PhD ’17, is an HIV researcher, aspiring physician-scientist, and an accomplished triathlete. He's also one of the hundreds of future public health leaders who will graduate from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on May 25, 2017. In this week's podcast, we sit down with Lamothe-Molina to discuss his research, which focuses on a lingering question surrounding HIV: Why do some people with the virus never get sick?

In this week's podcast we share an in-depth interview with Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and currently a Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. During her nearly four years at the helm of the EPA McCarthy helped spearhead the Obama Administration’s efforts to address climate change and increase use of renewable sources of energy. McCarthy has become a vocal advocate for the need to address climate change—and has called on scientists to be more outspoken on the issue. We spoke with McCarthy about the EPA’s critical role in protecting the public’s health, the challenges the agency faces in protecting our water and air—especially in the wake of Flint’s water crisis, and why we should view climate change as an opportunity for innovation.

Structural racism is often called an invisible evil because it's so pervasive, but also hidden in some ways. It involves interconnected institutions—housing, education, health care—that foster discrimination against racial groups. And this structural racism can play a role in health disparities across the United States. In this week's podcast we speak about structural racism and its health effects with Zinzi Bailey, ScD, '14, director of research and evaluation in the Center for Health Equity at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Bailey was recently co-author on a paper in the Lancet, that explored the history of structural racism and health inequities in the United States, and also ways to combat this discrimination moving forward.

In this week's podcast we bring you two stories of disturbing human rights abuses: one developing in real-time, and another that's been lingering for centuries. In the first half of the episode, we speak with Vasileia Digidiki, research fellow at the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights, and Jacqueline Bhabha, director of research at the center, about a disturbing report showing that refugee and migrant children in Greece are turning to prostitution to escape dangerous conditions. And in the second half of the podcast, Bhabha will tell us about a renewed push to address centuries of racism and discrimination targeting the Roma in Europe.

We're now in the midst of a golden era of data. and scientists are constantly finding news ways to harness this information with applications across health care, the environment, commerce, urban planning, finance, and more. In this week's podcast we speak with Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and David C. Parkes, George F. Colony Professor and area dean for computer science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Together they will lead Harvard's new Data Science Initiative, applying the theories and practices of statistics and computer science to extract useful knowledge from complex and often messy information sources. Dominici and Parkes will explain how the field of data science has grown, where it’s going, and how it will affect our lives in vast ways over the coming years.