Collaborating to find solutions for childhood obesity and related health issues Childhood obesity is increasing at alarming rates across the globe. As overweight children mature into adults, their risk of chronic illness (and premature death) also exceeds that of their peers. Fogarty funds research projects in the U.S. and abroad that aim to produce evidence-based interventions and develop innovative strategies to stem this tide of rising rates. |
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Building health infrastructure to prevent childhood obesity and related diseases in Samoa Dr. Courtney Choy studies chronic diseases including obesity, diabetes, cancer and hypertension in Samoa, a small Pacific Island nation with a rich culture and a high prevalence of these and other chronic diseases. She seeks to understand risk factors and protective factors to help prevent obesity and cardiometabolic conditions related to it. |
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Our Voice helps citizen scientists address childhood health Our Voice (Nuestra Voz) is an initiative that turns âeverybody into citizen scientists who then collect meaningful health-related data for their own communities,â says Abby King, PhD, a professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford Medicine and one of the initiativeâs leads. |
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Q&A with Josh Rosenthal, PhD: Fogarty Past & Present Dr. Josh Rosenthal, a former senior scientist in Fogartyâs Division of Epidemiology and Population Studies, retired from Fogarty on March 31. Over the course of his career, he served as Fogartyâs interim deputy director, deputy director and interim director of the Division of International Training and Research, and a program officer. |
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Smartphone-sized system uses CRISPR-based reagents to rapidly diagnose TB Dr. Tony Hu and his team at Tulane University developed a new system with a CRISPR-based assay that quickly tests for active TB. The smartphone-sized, battery-powered device is also economical, costing less than $800, with each assay totaling less than $3. Most importantly, it delivers accurate TB diagnoses in under an hour. |
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People in the news:Â - The National Academy of Sciences has selected NIAIDâs Jose Ribeiro and David Lawrence Sacks for membership in recognition of their original research.
- Reed Tuckson received the 2025 Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award, which is managed by the CDC Foundation.
- Time Magazineâs 100 Most Influential People of 2025 list includes Dr. Christian Happi, a longtime Fogarty grantee who helped build the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases
- In April, Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger was named the Acting Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He's known for sequencing, reconstructing, and characterizing the virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic.
- In May, Kate Maina-Vorley began her new role as Chief Executive Officer for Elrha, a U.K.-based funder of global health research.
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Global health briefs: - Daily exposure to chemicals in plastics could be linked to more than 356,000 global deaths from heart disease in 2018 alone, an NYU analysis shows.
- Boston University and Stanford University researchers developed an intervention for reducing emissions caused by brick manufacturing in South Asia.
- Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that a new anti-parasitic drug is more effective against elephantiasis than existing treatments.
- The 2025 Global Virus Network Regional Meeting convened Caribbean and Latin American scientists and officials for a two-day summit.
- The first all-oral treatment for a form of sleeping sickness is available free-of-charge to patients in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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| Date: July 7, 2025
Location: Virtual The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has launched two regional dashboards under the Elimination Initiative (EI), aimed at monitoring progress toward the elimination of over 30 communicable diseases and related conditions in the Region of the Americas by 2030. The session will guide participants through the dashboardâs structure and functionalities, highlight key findings, and offer real-world examples from countries in the Region to support strategic action and decision-making. |
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