Public Health On Call Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

An alarming and dangerous syphilis surge across the Great Plains Region, an area spanning North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa, has prompted tribal officials to urge HHS Secretary to declare a public health emergency. Dr. Meghan Curry O’Connell, chief public health officer at the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board and a member of the Cherokee Nation, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about the outbreak and why public health officials are struggling to respond.
Learn more: https://www.greatplainstribalhealth.org/news/tribal-leaders-urge-hhs-secretary-to-declare-syphilis-emergency-189.html
https://www.vox.com/24006120/south-dakota-syphilis-congenital-indigenous-tribal-native-american-meghan-oconnell-health-board

In part two of a two-part series about the crisis of health care for immigrants and refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border, Dr. Alexander Tenorio, a neurosurgical resident at the University of California, San Diego, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the influx of traumatic brain and spinal injuries his team has seen from people attempting to climb the border wall. They discuss the scope of the problem and the policies behind it, and why it often takes hours for victims to get critical care. They also talk about Dr. Tenorio’s personal connection to the situation as a first-generation American born to Mexican immigrants.

In part one of a two-part series about the crisis of health care for immigrants and refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border, Dr. Janine Young, a pediatrician at the University of California, San Diego, talks with Stephanie Desmon about the tenuous situation for children and families. More and more people are showing up at the border in poor health—dehydrated, malnourished, some severely injured and many traumatized—without any adequate care to meet them. They talk about the immigration policies that have led to a system ill-equipped to properly triage and treat the children and families seeking refuge in the U.S., and the misconceptions around people who are fleeing for their lives.

Methadone is a highly effective treatment for substance use disorder but strict regulations like daily clinic visits have led to its nickname, “liquid handcuffs.” Dr. Yngvild Olsen, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services administration, talks with Lindsay Smith Rogers about new federal regulations that expand access to this life saving medication.  They talk about how the COVID era showed that changes can make methadone much easier to prescribe and access, and how these updates are part of a critical cultural shift towards making substance use treatment more reasonable, equitable, and compassionate.
Resources for this episode:
https://www.samhsa.gov/medications-substance-use-disorders/statutes-regulations-guidelines/methadone-guidance
https://findtreatment.gov/

World Malaria Day is April 25. Today, guest host Thomas Locke takes us to Capitol Hill where we meet malaria scientists who have joined an advocacy group to lobby members of Congress to fund critical interventions against malaria. They talk about their work and what scientific messages they bring to DC to impart on policy makers who play a major role in efforts to combat this preventable and deadly disease. This special episode is an extended version of Malaria Minute, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.
Learn more:
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/malaria-research-institute
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/events/2024/world-malaria-day-symposium
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/malaria-research-institute-1

Humans are transforming, degrading, and altering Earth’s natural life support systems so profoundly that our actions have created an existential crisis. For Earth Day, Sam Myers, founding director of the Planetary Health Alliance and director of the brand new Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the concept of planetary health, an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how the state of the earth affects the health of us all.
Learn more:
http://Planetaryhealthalliance.org
https://planetaryhealth.jhu.edu/