School Notes: School of Public Health
March/April 2015

YSPH turns 100

The Yale School of Public Health is celebrating its centennial throughout 2015. Founded in 1915 by C.-E. A. Winslow, the school is one of the oldest institutions of its type in the United States. Celebratory events are planned all year, including the presentation of three Winslow Medals to distinguished public health practitioners, a series of six Milbank Public Health lectures, and days of service to improve New Haven and other communities, among other events. As it turns 100, the school is involved in a wide range of public health research that seeks to address many of the major health challenges in the twenty-first century; more than 4,000 alumni work to promote public health in nearly 70 countries around the world.

AIDS drug effective against malaria

New research by the Yale School of Public Health has found that the use of protease inhibitor–based antiretroviral therapy for HIV is an effective measure for reducing malaria in HIV-infected children in most regions of sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV and malaria are widespread concerns. Using clinical data from a high-transmission area of Uganda, the team modeled the impact of using protease inhibitors on malaria rates under different malaria transmission and HIV prevalence settings. Importantly, their results suggest that the antimalarial benefit of HIV protease inhibitors should extend throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, and can prevent anywhere from 278 to 1,043 episodes of malaria per 1,000 children each year. Sunil Parikh, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, led the study.

Public Health ranked high at Yale

US News and World Report has ranked Yale University as one of the ten “Best Global Universities for Social Sciences and Public Health.” The rankings encompass 500 institutions among 49 countries. Yale University and the Yale School of Public Health have steadily expanded international activity over the last five years. In 2009, YSPH retooled its global health curriculum so that MPH students in any department or division could enroll in the global health concentration and develop their expertise to encompass the skills and perspective to work in the global arena. To date, 135 students have graduated from this program.