Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine Available

To make big changes in the world, think small, very small. The latest issue of Johns Hopkins Public Health magazine examines the molecular-level research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and how it will drive future advances in global health. Understanding the inner workings of genes, enzymes and proteins could hold the key to preventing cancer, fighting malaria, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease and other scourges.

The fall 2004 issue of Johns Hopkins Public Health is now available. To receive a free copy, call 410-955-6878 or to subscribe for free to the magazine, go to www.jhsph.edu/subscribe. To view the online version, go to www.jhsph.edu/magazine.

The issue includes:

• The Blue Death—As Americans struggle with a severe shortage of flu vaccine this year, the Magazine looks back at the “granddaddy” of all infectious disease outbreaks, the 1918 flu. The epidemic killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people worldwide. Using advanced computer technology, researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health are reexamining the epidemic to better understand how diseases spread globally and how future pandemics can be prevented.
• Brain Storm—Craig Newschaffer, PhD, and his colleagues at the Bloomberg School’s Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology are searching for genetic and environmental causes of autism.
• Rights to Life—Investigators from the Bloomberg School explore the role repressive governments play in creating public health problems worldwide and the connections between human rights violations and the spread of infectious diseases.
• Chipping Away at Malaria—Alan Scott, PhD, professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, helped develop a new malaria GeneChip, which may speed the development of new antimalarial drugs and vaccines.
• Why are 100 Million Children Dying?—More than 10 million children under age 5 die every year from diarrhea, pneumonia, measles, malaria, HIV and other causes. Robert Black, MD, chair of the Department of International Health, explains how two-thirds of these deaths could be prevented each year and what should be done to improve the lives of children worldwide.

Johns Hopkins Public Health is published twice a year by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.