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Global Health Connections
September 2021

Wildfire Smoke: One of California's "Most Pressing Planetary Challenges"

Bay Area Global Health Alliance members have been leading research efforts to more fully comprehend the health toll exacted by wildfire smoke. The Sean N. Parker Center at Stanford was recently awarded $10.5 million by NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for research over the next five years to assess the health impacts of wildfire smoke and other forms of air pollution. Read more here.

Public Health Institute, Stanford and UC Berkeley have been awarded close to $1 million each by the EPA to develop separate products to research and mitigate the ill effects of wildfire smoke. Read more about their projects here.

Researchers from UC Berkeley compared crowdsourced indoor air quality data with outdoor air quality sensor data to determine best practices for eliminating harmful wildfire particulate matter in our homes. The research group is also identifying compounds that differentiate wildfire smoke from standard air pollution. Read more here.

Merck for Mothers Launches Safer Childbirth Initiative

"It all starts with the mother," said Mary-Ann Etiebet, lead for Merck for Mothers, at the organization's 10th-anniversary celebration on September 14. "When she lives, her children are more likely to live, they are more likely to be healthy, they're more likely to be educated and she is more able to contribute to her community, to her society." Merck for Mothers used the celebration to announce the creation of a new global collaboration, Strengthening Systems for Safer Childbirth, with the aim of bringing collective action at the local level to accelerate progress to help end preventable maternal deaths with evidence-based solutions. The effort aims to bring essential, high-quality, respectful maternal and reproductive health services to local health systems around the world, bringing us closer to achieving SDG 3.1 by 2030. Learn more and/or indicate your interest in participating in the initiative here.

Members Mobilize in Response to Crisis in Afghanistan

Bay Area Global Health Alliance members are taking action and working to support the Afghan people in response to the evolving humanitarian crisis. Their Afghanistan news is posted here on our website (and in the news items that follow in the sections below).

Google Health's Journey

Among the 20 key players running healthcare projects as part of Google's new health strategy is Alliance board vice chair Hema Budaraju. She is general manager of Health Journeys, Google Search's health vertical. Health Journeys helps users quickly access accurate health-related information and locate healthcare providers. Read more at Business Insider.

Study Proves Mask-Wearing Effectiveness and Triples the Rate of Mask Wearing

Researchers at Stanford and UC Berkeley (along with several other institutions) conducted a study in 600 Bangladeshi villages to determine the most effective techniques for encouraging people to wear masks. Testing various incentives, the researchers identified four strategies that created lasting behavior change. The study, the first large-scale randomized trial in a real-world setting, also showed that wearing masks is highly effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19 in community settings. Based on the study's success, the researchers are now scaling the program to more than 100 million people in India, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan and Uruguay, in addition to Bangladesh. Read more here, here, here, here and here.

"Being able to leverage technology that's already in the hands of consumers … plays a critical role in terms of reaching and engaging consumers."

— Martin Dale, Director for Digital Health and Monitoring, Population Services International, discussing the role of social media in building vaccine confidence with CARE, Facebook, UNICEF and the Alliance. Learn more.

Vax Up! New Podcast Series on Social Media's Impact on Vaccine Confidence & Health Outcomes

This fall, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance and Sabin Vaccine Institute are launching community conversations to highlight diverse, present-day examples of social media's capacity to impact vaccine confidence and health behaviors. These conversations will be dynamic, audio-visual episodes moderated by Ben Plumley, host of the A Shot in the Arm Podcast. The podcast series is a project of the Alliance for Advancing Health Online. Learn more here.

Members in the media

More member news

Join Us at YTH Live Global: October 4–6

Join member ETR, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance and many others for YTH Live Global 2021, the premier global Youth, Tech and Health conference. It will showcase the brightest minds and cutting-edge research covering topics ranging from sexual and reproductive health to mental health, health equity, climate change and COVID-19. Learn more.