As you can see from the blog entries this week, there has been a lot going on.  This week’s Lancet Student podcast is now up and we cover a lot. I chat to Rafi Rogans-Watson about the Stop AIDS campaign day of action as featured in a blog entry this week. You can find out more about the campaign by going to the Stop AIDS and Medsin websites. Then Gemma Owens tells us more about last week’s IFMSA conference in Monterrey, Mexico (again featured in our blog this week) including the policy statements on Migration Health and the Right to Health which you can find in our new IFMSA section. Finally, Andrew Branagan joins us from Houston, Texas, to update us on all that is happening at the AMSA conference. You can also follow all that is going on at the conference in our daily blog as medical students Lily Gutnik, Chris Maki and Katie Pastorius are madly blogging away for us.

So no matter where you are, you can be more informed, and hopefully want to get more involved, in some of the the fantastic global health campaigns and conferences that are going on around the world- Rhona

Rhona MacDonald interviews Rafi Rogans-Watson about the Stop AIDS campaign day of action as featured in a blog entry this week. You can find out more about the campaign by going to the Stop AIDS and Medsin websites. Then Gemma Owens tells us more about last week’s IFMSA conference in Monterrey, Mexico, (again featured in our blog this week) including the policy statements on Migration Health and the Right to Health. You can find these policy statements on the new IFMSA section of our website. Finally, Andrew Branagan joins us from Houston, Texas, to update us on all that is happening at the AMSA conference. You can also follow all that is going on in our daily blog

 

 More about the Stop AIDS campaign and the IFMSA and AMSA conferences: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 More from the AMSA Conference from Lily Gutnik-Rhona Hundreds of more medical students arrived in Houston, Texas for the official first day of the AMSA convention. Reunions were made as well as new relationships formed among medical students and speakers throughout this busy day. The keynote speakers were Houston locals, Mayor Bill White and Director of Emergency Medical Services Dr. David Persse. They shared their heart-wrenching personal tales of trial, endurance, and lessons learned when they were faced with aiding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Later on in the evening, Dr. Evangeline Franklin, a New Orleans native and the current New Orleans Director of Director of Clinical services and Employee Health shared her poignant experience with Hurricane Katrina at the Women Leaders in Medicine Award and Reception.

Moving on from the environmental disaster in the Southern U.S. to a social disaster in Southeast Asia, Zafar Mithavayani uncovered the taboo subject of Thailand sex workers. (more…)

The next installment from Houston, this time from Chris Maki, a second year medical student at the Medical School for International Health.- Rhona

Welcome to the 58^th annual convention of the American Medical Student Association and Houston, Texas. I will be writing a bit about the sessions I find to be most pertinent to global health over the next few days. This is an exciting experience hearing perspectives from leaders and activists and seeing how medical students respond and in many cases mobilize. We will become physicians and treat patients. Why is the opening speaker at the American Medical Student Association’s convention talking about Global Warming? I thought Al Gore won a Peace Prize for that. (more…)

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) Conference in Texas starts today so I also want to draw your attention to a peer reviewed article we have just published about the global health work of AMSA-which is in our new AMSA section. Other Student Organisations please take note. The Lancet Student would be delighted to receive articles about your work too, which would also be reviewed by our student reviewers before being published in your own section on TheLancetStudent.com. But for now its over to Lily Gutnik, a first year student at the Medical School for International Health tells us more about what happened yesterday, at the action-packed AMSA pre-conference day -RhonaHouston, Texas
About 150 medical students from all over the U.S and abroad joined in Houston, Texas for the AMSA pre-conference “Voices from the Grassroots: Working for Health and Environmental Justice.” This high energy and informative day commenced at 9AM at Houston’s downtown Hyatt Hotel. Jill Stein M.D., a physician and environmental/social advocate opened today’s program saying she has waited 15 years for such an event. Dr. Stein, among other speakers of the day, strongly believes that justice and environment go hand in hand. We cannot ignore either one. (more…)

March 11th was the UK day of Action around the Stop AIDS campaign. Islean Kinghorn, Vice President of Brighton and Sussex Stop Aids Campaign,  reports on the day’s events with help from Nicola Bradley and Faye Tierney,-Rhona

In 2005 at the G8 summit in Gleneagles Scotland a pledge was made to the 33million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS, to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment and care. Three years have passed and large strides have been made. Before 2005 only 3% of those affected had access to treatment, this figure has now climbed to 25%. This however leaves 70% of those infected without access, in addition, 80% can not access basic prevention services, culminating in 5700 deaths each day. UNAIDS estimate that at the current rate of action, the target will be missed by over half.

On the 11^th of March the Stop Aids Campaign, a consortium of over 80 UK based HIV/AIDS organisations, declared a day of action. As a member of the Brighton and Sussex student Stop Aids Campaign, I joined students from all over the country in London to lobby for universal access. (more…)

More from Goran Mijaljica about the more official side of the IFMSA General Assembly and a chat he had with Becky Davis from Child Family Health International. This organisation does a lot of good work as shown it a feature article we previously published which explains more about their work-Rhona

Country (member) presidents of the IFMSA
As I wrote in my previous entry, 500 medical students across the globe attended the 57th IFMSA March Meeting in Monterrey, Mexico (MM08). Along with the theme events, guest speakers, standing committee sessions, the main part of the March Meeting were the Plenary sessions of the IFMSA General Assembly. There the presidents of the IFMSA member organizations decide on the key issues of our Federation. The Plenary Chair-person was Dr Jana Kammeyer, IFMSA Alumna from the Slovakian Medical Students Association, now living and working in the United States. (more…)

Gerard Millen gave us the highlights of the recent IFMSA General Assembly in a previous blog entry. Today, Goran Mijaljica, a 6th year medical student at the University of Split, Croatia and the Secretary General of the International Federation of Medical Student Associations (IFMSA) tells us more about what went on, including an interview with the President of Physicians for Human Rights-Rhona

IFMSA March Meeting 2008 (MM08) took place in Monterrey, Mexico, from 1st - 7th of March 2008. Prior to the MM08, several workshops took place at the University of Nuevo Leon Medical School. I will try to convey the athmosphere from this international conference, which brought together over 500 medical students from across the globe. (more…)

The 57^th Annual March Meeting of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) has just finished in Monterrey, Mexico. The theme for this General Assembly was Migration and Health. Gerard Millen, a medical student at Queens University, Northern Ireland was there and gives us a brief report on the main policy events here- Rhona
Migration and health is a huge topic that covers issues as diverse as migration of healthcare workers, disease pandemics, refugee health and the rights of asylum seekers. It is therefore fitting that a series of “theme events” were held on the second day of the General Assembly (GA). Eight different events were held and were attended by up to 200 participants. The type of sessions were very diverse and included talks by leading experts, a movie which was closely linked with the theme, or discussion in smaller groups about the wide ranging implications of migration on health. (more…)

Just to let you know that this week’s Lancet Student podcast is now up. This week we feature the work of the Engeye Clinic in Uganda which was set up by some medical students but is run by local nurses. You can also read more about it in a recent article. Medical Student Misty Richards who is currently at at Albany Medical College in New York, and involved in the work of Engeye Clinic, tells us more about it including the drastic need for funds. Just in case you are feeling generous! It is inspiring stuff and shows the MASSIVE difference just a few individuals can make.  I hope you have a good weekend- Rhona