Zambia
The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, in collaboration with UNC Global Projects Zambia and UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, is significantly expanding its impact in Zambia. Through the Zambia Hub, we aim to enhance global learning and increase the School’s influence within the country.
Since 2019, we have actively engaged 20 students in the Zambia Hub. This summer, two students worked with the Piloting Integration, Knowledge, and Acceptability of Baby Ultrasounds (PIKABU) Study team. Read about their experiences in the Gillings Around the Globe Blog:
- Fetal Age and Machine Learning Initiative (FAMLI): This study aims to develop a robust, affordable ultrasound device that can be deployed in limited-resource settings with minimal operator expertise.
- Improving Pregnancy Outcomes with Progesterone Study (IPOP): This randomized controlled trial will evaluate antenatal progesterone prophylaxis for the prevention of preterm birth among pregnant women living with HIV.
- Methods for Prevention Packages Program (MP3): This project explores whether the distribution of HIV self-test kits to pregnant women will increase HIV testing among their male partners.
- Virtual interactive system to enhance gynecologic oncology multi-disciplinary: This study focuses on a low-cost digital system to manage information related to cancer care, showing the feasibility of implementing these systems in low-resource settings.
- INSIGHT: This study aims to advance PrEP discovery and delivery for African women
- Scaling Up Nutrition – Learning and Evaluation (SUN-LE): a USAID project tasked with providing survey, research, evaluation, and data-dissemination services to the Zambian government with the goal of improving nutrition outcomes in Zambia, primarily decreasing rates of under-five stunting.
Vietnam
We are pleased to build on the School's longstanding involvement with UNC Vietnam and their partners at the Hanoi University of Public Health (HUPH) and Hanoi Medical University (HMU). Through the Vietnam Hub, we aim to expand global learning opportunities and strengthen our relationship with our Vietnamese partners.
This initiative will provide students with enhanced practice opportunities, fostering cross-cultural exchange and deepening our impact within the Vietnamese community. We had one student work with Hanoi Medical University this past summer.
HUPH specializes in public health with the mission “to become the leading institution in public health training, research and consultancy in Vietnam and the Asia-Pacific region”. The HUPH consists of 5 academic faculties, 7 centers, a Health Management Training Institute, and a Polyclinic/ Pham Ngoc Thach General Hospital.
The Center for Research and Training on Substance Use-HIV (CREATA-H) at Hanoi Medical University (HMU), established in 1994, is a leading Vietnamese institute focused on substance use and HIV research and training. The center provides in-service training in HIV/AIDS and addiction medicine, offers technical support to various departments, and specializes in research on high-risk populations, including people who use drugs (PWUDs) and men who have sex with men (MSM). The Sexual Health Promotion (SHP) Clinic, which is managed by CREATA-H, was founded in 2013 with NIDA grant support, aims to enhance sexual health and engage MSM, particularly male sex workers. It conducts street-based outreach, clinic-based counseling, and provides examinations, HIV testing, and STI screening and treatment.
Durham County Department of Public Health
At the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, we embrace the mantra that “global is local and local is global.” Our collaboration with the Durham County Department of Public Health (DCDoPH) exemplifies this approach. By leveraging successful public health strategies from around the world, we address critical health priorities within Durham County. As we implement successful approaches in Durham, we also learn from our local experiences to inform global health interventions. This reciprocal exchange benefits both our community and the broader global health landscape.
- Launched a seminar on global-local public health: We offered a seminar for graduate students at Gilings on global-local public health in collaboration with staff from DCDoPH. Students learned about theory and approaches to global-public health and applied what they learned to initiatives within the health department. They participated in a site visit to the health department to learn about priorities from the different divisions. They then developed a final project that was designed to address one of these priorities using a global-local approach.
- Bringing global perspectives to health priorities in Durham: One of the students from the global-local seminar developed a final project that focused on aging, one of the public health priorities of the DCDoPH. He proposed applying approaches to aging in place from Asia to the work in Durham. We funded this student to travel to Singapore for the MPH practicum to learn more about the aging in place programs and policies in this setting. The student will be supported further to intern with the DCDoPH to bring what he learned from Singapore to the Aging Well work in Durham.
- Embedding a Fulbright scholar in residence into the Durham Co Department of Public Health: During the 2023/24 academic year our Fulbright Scholar in Residence from Tanzania, Dr. Lusajo Kajula drew on her decades-long experience conducting HIV and mental health programs in Tanzania to support programs within the Community Health Education division of the DCDoPH related to adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and HIV testing.
- Providing practice-based opportunities for students to engage in global-local public health: We supported students to conduct their summer practicum in the DCDoPH on projects related to ACES, aging, and (health systems strengthening).
With UNC Global Projects Zambia and UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, the Gillings School is increasing its impact in Zambia, with Zambians.
