Medsin Global Health Conference: Part 1
The annual Medsin (UK branch of the IFMSA) Global Health Conference took place this weekend at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. I was there and was seriously impressed and inspired by everyone’s enthusiasm for all things global health. Gerard Millen, a medical student from Queen’s University, Belfast, was there too and gives an account of the first day of the conference below. His report on the second day is coming soon!-Rhona
Oxford
The annual Medsin Global Health Conference took place this weekend in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford The conference was a massive success with over 450 students and 50 speakers, many of them world experts. The organising committee were able to use the “Oxford Pull” to encourage many huge names in the field of global health to attend the conference.
Over the course of two days there were two keynote speakers, four plenaries and over 50 workshops. In this first blog I will discuss some of Saturday’s key events and I will do another blog to discuss Sunday’s main points.
The keynote speaker on Saturday was the world renowned Professor Hans Rosling. Prof Rosling delivered a very interactive talk with the help of the website Gapmider (1) which he co-founded. Through a series of moving graphics he described some of the key determinants of health and the links between poverty and health. He described the three most important health determinants as the “bedroom, bathroom and kitchen”. That is, the bedroom is a link to a countries fertility rate, the kitchen is a reference to the amount and quality of food available to eat and the bathroom is a reference to the importance of clean water and sanitation. He also suggested that the commonly used terms of developed and developing world are misleading. Singapore is still classified as a developing country yet it has the lowest child mortality in the world.
The first plenary session was entitled “Tackling HIV/AIDS in a resource-poor setting.” The three speakers were Professor Harold Jaffe, head of Public Health at Oxford University, Hope Chigudu, a Ugandan born activist now living in Zimbabwe who tackles issues such as the empowerment of women and Dr Helen Weiss, a lecturer from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a researcher into the impact of male circumcision on the spread of HIV.
Prof Jaffe discussed the origins of the HIV virus from monkeys, the crippling effect the virus has had on the life expectancy of many sub-Saharan African countries and the reduction in the cost of first line anti-retro viral drugs to treat the condition. He then discussed some problems for the future management of the virus, most notably the increasing resistance to first line therapy for many in Africa and the continued failure of any attempts to develop a vaccine for HIV.
Hope discussed three interventions that can be used to tackle HIV at a local level. She discussed a combination of home care and herbal treatment, as well as the role that the Treatment Action Campaign have played in campaigning for equality of access to treatment for all people with HIV/AIDS as well as educating people on some of the issues.(2) The other intervention that she described is called the Circle of Hope and is a programme designed to help the many children orphaned as a result of AIDS. The Circle of Hope is a community based support network based on helping these children with their development.
Dr Weiss discussed the potential role of male circumcision as an adjunct in the fight against HIV. A systematic review that Dr Weiss published suggests that circumcision may have up to a 70% decrease in the risk of transmission in high risk populations3. She also discussed some of the proposed problems with implementing this on a large scale. These include the fact that it is a surgical treatment so is risky in itself as well as a potential increase in risk-taking behaviour.
The second plenary looked at Disaster Relief and Emerging Epidemics. This was a hugely interesting plenary that looked at the risk of a global influenza pandemic amongst others. Dr David Nabarro is an Assistant Secretary General at the UN and is the senior system coordinator for the global response to an influenza pandemic. In an interesting speech, he discussed issues as diverse as the pandemic and climate change with particular emphasis on the role of disaster management.
Dr Alexander van Tulleken worked in the war torn region of Darfur with Medecins du Monde. He described his time in Darfur and discussed the role of NGOs in disaster situations like that in Darfur. He talked about the problems that NGOs face in a situation such as Darfur. By running a hospital in a refugee camp, does that encourage displaced persons to settle even the camp is unsuitable? Does feeding and treating displaced people strengthen them so that they can continue to fight? Does the camp itself become a target because so many people gravitate to it? This was a hugely interesting discussion that looked at these issues in more detail.
The final speaker in the plenary was Dr Siti Fadilah Supari, the Indonesian Minister for Health. Dr Supari shot to fame in 2007 when she refused to release samples of avian influenza that had infected people in Indonesia without concessions from the WHO. Dr Supari feels that some in the developed world all too often exploit the countries in the developing world. She believes that the WHO wanted the virus samples so that expensive vaccines could be developed that would be sold back to developing countries at a huge cost. She has written a book, “It’s time for the world to change – the divine hand behind avian influenza”. In the book she reiterates her belief that developing countries like Indonesia should have equal access the rights for the virus material so that they do not suffer huge costs at the hands of developed countries. There was an interesting sub-debate afterwards fuelled by questions from the audience between Dr Nabarro and Dr Supari.
See my next blog for a discussion about the second day of this hugely interesting conference. Gerard Millen: gerard.millen@googlemail.com
(2) http://www.tac.org.za/community/
(3) Weiss HA, Quigley MA, Hayes RJ. Male circumcision and risk of HIV infection in sub- Saharan Africa: a systematic review and metaanalysis. AIDS. 2000 Oct 20;14(15):2361-70.