Public Health On Call: A Conversation with Barkha Dutt

Renowned journalist Barkha Dutt, widely known as the "Indian Anderson Cooper," has dedicated her career to reporting from conflict zones, shedding light on issues of gender equity and violence against women. In recent years, she broadened her focus by traversing India during the COVID pandemic, engaging in meaningful discussions with individuals about their unique experiences. Dutt recently joined Lindsay Smith Rogers in a captivating conversation, delving into her remarkable career and offering insights into her future endeavors.

NEWS

Congratulations to Nexus Award Recipients!

Forty wide-ranging projects and programs to be anchored at Johns Hopkins University's new home in Washington, D.C., have been selected to receive funding support from the university's Nexus Awards program. Special congratulations to the following GKII affiliates:

• Pravin Krishna, School of Advance International Studies (SAIS) received a Convening Award for “555 Globalization Initiative,” with Mine Senses, Shoumitro Chatterjee, Ritam Chaurey, Ryan Kim, and Annie Lee all from SAIS 
• Sri Sarma, Whiting School of Engineering (WSE), received a Convening Award for “The Nexus of NeuroTech Translation and Inclusive Innovation,” with Adler Archer (WSE), Santosh Venkatesha (WSE), and Debra Mathews (Bioethics) 
• Benjamin Hobbs, (WSE), received a Convening Award for “How Can Energy Markets Best Enable and Assist the Transition to a Decarbonized Power Sector? Using 555 Pennsylvania Avenue to Magnify the Activities and Policy Influence of the JHU-Columbia Future Powers Markets Forum," with Mahdi Mehrtash (WSE), and Jonas Nahm (SAIS) 

Here’s how to make India’s health sector fighting fit

By GKII Ambassador Indu Bhushan, Times of India, June 3, 2023

India faces a monumental task to ensure equitable and quality healthcare for all. On almost all health indicators, we rank last among G20 countries.

Dr. Agarwala receives three new awards!

Rina Agarwala’s book The Migration-Development Regime: How Class Shapes Indian Emigration, has been named the Winner of:

• 2023 Best Book Prize, American Political Science Association (APSA) 2023, Migration & Citizenship Section
• 2023 Thomas & Znaniecki Best Book Award, American Sociological Association (ASA), International Migration Section
• 2023 Outstanding Book Award, ASA, Sociology of Development Section

Suniti Solomon: India’s Preeminent HIV Researcher & Activist

By The American Society for Microbiology: May 17, 2023

India’s efforts to control the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can be split into 2 eras: before the work of Suniti Solomon, M.D. (1939-2015), and after. The country’s response in the “before” era is easy to summarize—it didn’t exist. In fact, at the dawn of the 1980s when HIV was ravaging populations in the West, many considered the virus’s presence in India an impossibility. Solomon and her colleagues flipped that assumption on its head with their identification of the country’s first documented cases of HIV in 1986. The findings jumpstarted Solomon’s decades-long career at the forefront of the nation’s HIV epidemic, where she facilitated access to education, testing, treatment and support for those impacted by the virus.

NEWS OF NOTE

India's Strategic Shift?

Hopkins Podcast on Foreign Affairs

Russia and India have enjoyed a long history of friendly and mutually beneficial relations. The rise of China, U.S.-China tensions, the war in Ukraine, and the Russian-Chinese partnership, have had profound effects on Russian-Indian relations. Dr. Constantino Xavier, fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress and a nonresident fellow at the India Project at the Brookings Institution, joins POFA to discuss India’s foreign policy and its relationship with Russia.

Opinion: Why is a curable disease still allowed to kill millions?

By John Green, The Washington Post, May 16, 2023

Roughly 4,000 people on this planet died of tuberculosis yesterday. From a curable disease. We need not accept such a world. TB treatment must be made available to all, so that tuberculosis can become what it should have been long ago: history.

Efficacy and safety of three antiretroviral therapy regimens started in pregnancy up to 50 weeks post partum: a multicentre, open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial

The Lancet HIV: June, 2023

Drugs taken during pregnancy can affect maternal and child health outcomes, but few studies have compared the safety and virological efficacy of different antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens. We report the primary safety outcomes from enrolment up to 50 weeks post partum and a secondary virological efficacy outcome at 50 weeks post partum of three commonly used ART regimens for HIV-1.

Authors: Chinula L, Ziemba L, Brummel S, McCarthy K, Coletti A, Krotje C, Johnston B, Knowles K, Moyo S, Stranix-Chibanda L, Hoffman R, Sax PE, Stringer J, Chakhtoura N, Jean-Philippe P, Korutaro V, Cassim H, Fairlie L, Masheto G, Boyce C, Frenkel LM, Amico KR, Purdue L, Shapiro R, Mmbaga BT, Patel F, van Wyk J, Rooney JF, Currier JS, Lockman S; IMPAACT 2010/VESTED Study Team and Investigators.

Effect of the relationship between anaemia and systemic inflammation on the risk of incident tuberculosis and death in people with advanced HIV: a sub-analysis of the REMEMBER trial

The Lancet Discovery Science: June, 2023

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious morbidity that commonly occurs in people living with HIV (PWH) and increases the progression of HIV disease, as well as the risk of death. Simple markers of progression are much needed to identify those at highest risk for poor outcome. This study aimed to assess how baseline severity of anaemia and associated inflammatory profiles impact death and the incidence of TB in a cohort of PWH who received TB preventive therapy (TPT).

Authors: Mariana Araújo-Pereira, Sonya Krishnan, Padmini Salgame, Yukari C. Manabe, Mina C. Hosseinipour, Gregory Bisson, Damocles Patrice Severe, Vanessa Rouzier, Samantha Leong, Vidya Mave, Fredrick Kipyego Sawe, Abraham M. Siika, Cecilia Kanyama, Sufia S. Dadabhai, Javier R. Lama, Javier Valencia-Huamani, Sharlaa Badal-Faesen, Umesh Gangaram Lalloo, Kogieleum Naidoo, Lerato Mohapi, Cissy Kityo, Bruno B. Andrade, Amita Gupta.

One-year incidence of tuberculosis infection and disease among household contacts of rifampin- and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis

Clinical Infectious Diseases: May, 2023

Tuberculosis infection (TBI) and tuberculosis disease (TBD) incidence remains poorly described following household contact (HHC) rifampin-/multidrug-resistant tuberculosis exposure. We sought to characterize TBI and TBD incidence at one-year in HHCs and to evaluate tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT) use in high-risk groups.

Authors: Krishnan S, Wu X, Kim S, McIntire K, Naini L, Hughes MD, Dawson R, Mave V, Gaikwad S, Sanchez J, Mendoza-Ticona A, Gonzales P, Comins K, Shenje J, Nerette Fontain S, Omozoarhe A, Mohapi L, Lalloo UG, Garcia Ferreira AC, Mugah C, Harrington M, Shah NS, Hesseling AC, Churchyard G, Swindells S, Gupta A; AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) A5300/International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT).

A multi-center, prospective cohort study of whole blood gene expression in the tuberculosis-diabetes interaction

Scientific Reports: May, 2023

Diabetes mellitus (DM) increases tuberculosis (TB) severity. We compared blood gene expression in adults with pulmonary TB, with or without diabetes mellitus (DM) from sites in Brazil and India. RNA sequencing (RNAseq) performed at baseline and during TB treatment.

Authors: Artur T. L. Queiroz, Caian L. Vinhaes, Eduardo R. Fukutani, Akshay N. Gupte, Nathella Pavan Kumar, Kiyoshi F. Fukutani, María B. Arriaga, Timothy R. Sterling, Subash Babu, Sanjay Gaikwad, Rajesh Karyakarte, Vidya Mave, Mandar Paradhkar, Vijay Viswanathan, Amita Gupta, Bruno B. Andrade, Hardy Kornfeld, the RePORT Brazil & RePORT India Consortia.