Public Health On Call Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Armed internal conflict  in Sudan has created a humanitarian crisis with millions of people displaced both internally and to neighboring countries. Dr. Salim Mohamednour, a medical epidemiologist with expertise in emergency response and the national health coordinator at the WHO country office in Sudan, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the unfolding catastrophe and what needs to be done. Special thanks to Aseel Salih, Hassan Salih, and Laila Zomorodian, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health students who assisted with the production of this podcast. A note that Dr. Mohamednour is not representing the WHO on the podcast. Content warning: this episode contains depictions of violence. Listeners interested in contributing can consider supporting the World Food Program, the  Sudanese American Physicians Association, and Sadagaat.

The planetary health crisis can’t be ignored in hospitals where patients are sick from climate-driven things like asthma from air quality emergencies, COVID-19 from a zoonotic spillover event, and cardiovascular complications from heat waves. Chris Lemon, an ER doctor and Bloomberg Health Initiative fellow who focuses on the intersection of climate change and health, talks with Stephanie Desmon about his work bringing planetary health dialogue to hospital staff while also looking at ways health systems can lower their massive carbon footprints.

From mushrooms to microscopic organisms, fungi represent a serious—and still relatively unexplored—threat to human health. Dr. Arturo Casadevall returns to the podcast to talk about his new book, What If Fungi Win? which looks at why certain fungal infections take off, why they’re so hard to treat, and why we will most certainly see more of them with climate change and treatment-resistant strains. Learn more: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53673/what-if-fungi-win 

Johnson v. Grants Pass, a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, raises the question of whether homelessness can be criminalized. Ashley Meehan, a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the public health dimensions of this issue. They discuss her research looking into what happens to people after encampment sweeps and what policies would benefit not only people experiencing homelessness but their communities and cities as well. Listen to our previous episode on this issue: https://johnshopkinssph.libsyn.com/621-the-health-consequences-of-displacing-people-experiencing-homelessness

Dengue, or “break-bone fever”—a disease transmitted by mosquitoes that can cause serious fever, rash, muscle and joint pain and even problems with bleeding and shock—is surging around the world and popping up in new places like the U.S. Vaccine expert Anna Durbin returns to the podcast to talk with Stephanie Desmon about these trends and the general status of vaccines, treatments, and prevention. Learn more: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/what-is-dengue-fever

More than a decade after electronic cigarettes became broadly available in the United States, their merits are still being debated. Do these products help people quit smoking? How serious are the health risks associated with these products? In a two-part series, we hear from two researchers in tobacco control about their views. In part two, Stan Glantz, the Truth Initiative Distinguished Professor of Tobacco Control at the University of California San Francisco talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about his research into the harms of electronic cigarettes and the dangers of "dual use" of electronic cigarettes and traditional cigarettes. In an epilogue, Public Health On Call audio producer Matt Martin talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about his personal history of tobacco use – including his efforts to quit with electronic cigarettes.
Read Glantz’s paper in New England Journal of Medicine Evidence: https://evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/EVIDoa2300229
Listen to part one of the series here: https://johnshopkinssph.libsyn.com/755-electronic-cigarettes-part-1-do-e-cigs-help-people-quit-smoking