Quarterly Newsletter | Summer 2025

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Panel from left to right: Neha Agarwal, PATH; Michael Robinson, Novartis; David McGuire, Innovative Vector Control Consortium; Jonathan Stambolis, Zenysis; Moderator: Eddie Thomsen, UCSF MEI

To recognize World Malaria Day, the Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) at UCSF hosted the first-ever Bay Area World Malaria Day Forum in April. The event drew more than 100 local researchers, innovators, advocates, and funders. The forum hosted two panels and six research lightning talks, featuring Alliance members Friends of the Global Fight, PATH, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Zenysis, among others. The discussion focused on the future of malaria financing and strategy, as well as opportunities for innovation and partnership. A networking reception followed to foster exchange and seed future collaboration. It's not too early to mark your calendars for the 2026 Bay Area World Malaria Day Forum on April 24!

In June, Associate Director of the PhD for Global Health Sciences, Ali Mirzazadeh, PhD, MD, MPH, completed his ninth and final ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles with AIDS/LifeCycle. Since 2014, Ali has ridden over 5,000 miles—9 times from San Francisco to Los Angeles—and raised $33,327 to support HIV-related services and critical health programs.

This year he was a part of a group of 2,067 cyclists and 750+ incredible roadies that raised a record-breaking $17.3 million for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Over the past 31 years, this event has made a tremendous impact, raising over $300 million for life-saving HIV services. The rides honor those we’ve lost, support those living with HIV and take a stand for health equity and human rights. Ali thanks everyone who supported him along the way.

On Sunday July 20, UCSF and IGHS teams walked alongside thousands of coworkers, friends, family and neighbors through Golden Gate Park to show the world how powerful the Bay Area is when we are united. IGHS raised over $16,000 this year!

The Equitable Global Health Partnerships Initiative (EGHPI) aims to drive the structural changes needed to create a more equal, transparent and mutually respectful collaborative environment among partners in global health. While UCSF has many strong partners globally, EGHPI is working to strengthen relationships, promote transparency and ensure equity in authorship practices and finances to address long-standing inequities between Global North and South partners. In 2022, a group of leaders from UCSF’s Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health and IGHS launched an initiative to build more equitable partnerships between UCSF and our global collaborating institutions and individuals.

For more information, please contact Purba Chatterjee at purba.chatterjee@ucsf.edu.

Mike Reid, MD, MA, MPH, was awarded the Edison T. Uno Award for Public Service as part of the 2025 Founders Day Awards. His career is built on the belief that health is a human right. Reid helped lead the adoption and advancement of some of the most impactful science developed at UCSF, specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa. Be it new drugs or new approaches, he has taken them to scale.

Congratulations to our IGHS RAP awardees: Christine Blauvelt, MD, Calvin Chiu, PhD, Nadia Diamond-Smith, PhD, MS, Anneka Hooft, MD, Lucía Abascal Miguel, MD, MSc, PhD and Mary Jue Xu, MD.

‌IGHS is pleased to invest $275,000 to support the global health research of six investigators. Three awards were co-funded this year, one by the UCSF Center for Global Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Malaria Elimination Initiative, and two by the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Global Cancer Program.

PhD student Sima Naderi, MPH, MS ’23, was named a 2025–2026 recipient of the Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellowship. This competitive fellowship supports research in the health sciences and prepares students for academic careers. Congratulations! 

‌Take action with the UCSF community to advocate on behalf of global funding investment, including initiatives on USAID and NIH funding cuts. Every email makes a difference.

Global Nursing Impact Series – August

Aug. 12, 7 to 7:30 a.m. (virtual)

Speaker: MaryJoy Kaimuri, PhD, MSc, BSN

Dean of the School of Nursing, Meru University of Science and Technology

World Refugee Day, 2025: Everyone Belongs Here: Immigrant Health Symposium

Sept. 19, UC Law, San Francisco

Part of the UCSF-UC Law SF Consortium Health Justice Series

Save the Dates: Celebrate IGHS' 25th Anniversary!



Nov. 12 and 13, UCSF Mission Bay, San Francisco

Stay tuned for details.

Trump Official Accused PEPFAR of Funding Abortions in Russia. It Wasn’t True.

NY Times | Jul. 15, 2025

“On June 25, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told a Senate committee that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, had spent $9.3 million “to advise Russian doctors on how to perform abortions and gender analysis.”

“It’s so irresponsible and so demeaning for them to think that they could get away with a strategy that includes open, overt, aggressive, accelerated lying,” said Dr. Eric Goosby, who led PEPFAR under President Barack Obama. “I’m so distraught over having things thrown at the wall to see if they stick,” he added.”

Mass Drug Administration Reduces Malaria Incidence but Requires Sustained Effort in Southeast Senegal

Contagion Live | Jul. 4, 2025

“Malaria elimination progress in Africa has stalled despite scale-up of standard control interventions. Mass drug administration (MDA) shows promise for reducing transmission, but evidence is limited for low-to-moderate transmission settings. To inform clinical practice, we interviewed study authors Michelle Hsiang, MD, MS, and Michelle E Roh, PhD, for expert insights on their recent trial.”

San Franciscans struggling with drug addiction far outnumber the city’s homeless population

SF Chronicle | May 16, 2025

“Dr. Paul Wesson, an epidemiologist at UCSF who performed the modeling on behalf of the city, analyzed electronic health records, overdose deaths and nonfatal overdose responses by first responders. The method he used — known as capture-recapture — is commonly used in health care and wildlife research to estimate a population size when it’s impossible to count every person or animal. In this case, Wesson said many people who experience addiction may try to stay under the radar because of stigmatization or criminalization, making it difficult to understand the full scale of those at risk of serious health consequences, including emergency room visits and overdoses.”

A turning point for global health: challenge or opportunity? The Lancet. 2025 March 12. Goosby E, Reid MJA.

Factors shaping the mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study in Ghana. BMC Health Serv Res. 2025 March 17. Gyamerah AO, Odiase OJ, Habib HH, Achana F, Canizares A, Getahun M, Aborigo R, Ouner JJ, Malechi H, Koku Awoonor-Williams J, Afulani PA.

Announcing the Lancet Global Health Commission on artificial intelligence (AI) and HIV: leveraging AI for equitable and sustainable impact. The Lancet Global Health. April 2025. Reid M, Otienob B, Heerdenc A, Sikazwee I, Baptistef A, Mendoncag R, Tasih G, Sundaram M.

Identifying gaps in tuberculosis preventive care for non-U.S.-born persons at community health clinics in the United States. medRxiv. 2025 June 24.

Shete PB, Murrill MT, Tatum KM, Ahmed A, Aiona K, Aldous JL, Flood J, Haas MK, Narita M, Pettit AC, Séraphin MN, Cattamanchi A, Ayers TL.

Tongue Swab Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra Testing for Tuberculosis Using a Revised Consensus Protocol: A multi-country diagnostic accuracy study. medRxiv. 2025 July 10. Ajide B, Moe CA, Barrameda J, Chirwa M, Rockman L, de Haas P, de Vos M, Kato-Maeda M, Tasca B, Bimba J, Yu C, Denkinger CM, Kremer K, Nahid P, Cattamanchi A, Theron G, Muyoyeta M.