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After Nepal earthquake, caring for the injured
When an earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, Renee Salas said it felt like she was “on a boat at sea.” After the shaking stopped, the 34-year-old emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, who is also…
Nations need to open borders to Syrian refugees
More nations need to open their doors to Syrian refugees, according to three researchers at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public in a letter to the…
Improving civilian-military humanitarian response when disasters strike
When a large-scale disaster like the current Ebola crisis in West Africa or a major storm like Hurricane Katrina hits, coordination often is lacking between the U.S. military and civilian-run nongovernmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations. To address this…
A storm leaves poor health in its path
November 14, 2014 — Mariana Arcaya is a Yerby Fellow at Harvard School of Public Health whose work focuses on the intersection of urban planning and public health. She was lead author of two recent papers that tracked…
Drones may be boon to public health research
From tracking changes in landscapes and animal behavior that could be linked to disease transmission, to hunting for survivors in the wake of a humanitarian disaster, aerial drones are proving an effective tool in public health research. Nathan…
Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative and Humanitarian Academy release year-end report on accomplishments
The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and its affiliate the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard released a joint report on the past year’s accomplishments in research and education. Released January 13, 2014, the report outlines HHI’s efforts to advance humanitarian…
Off the cuff: The best possible response
[ Winter 2014 ] Paul Biddinger, director, Emergency Preparedness and Response Exercise Program, Harvard School of Public Health The world seems increasingly under the siege of public health emergencies: deadly new infections, catastrophic weather events, terrorism, industrial accidents. Do successful…
Poverty, disasters & health against all odds
[Fall 2013 Centennial issue] The most powerful influences on population health are not the medical interventions that diagnose and treat disease. Rather, they are the broad social forces—war or peace, poverty or financial security, political oppression or fundamental…
Years of preparation helped Boston respond to Marathon tragedy
The April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing killed three people and injured 264—20 critically—but every patient who was transported to a hospital survived the tragedy. One reason is that Boston is a “medical mecca,” with an unusually high…
HSPH alumni and faculty part of Boston Marathon tragedy response
Harvard School of Public Health-affiliated physicians were among the hospital emergency department staff called upon to care for victims of the explosions at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Stephanie Kayden, MPH ’06, was the senior physician…