The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are experts at survival, allowing the disease to persist even when faced with the immune system and drugs. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Sarah Fortune is on a mission to figure out why. December 14, 2015 — Of all the health problems that dominate our thoughts and anxieties, tuberculosis…

Although no reliable official data currently exist on the number of law enforcement-related deaths each year in the U.S., counting these deaths can and should be done because the data constitute crucial public health information that could help prevent future deaths, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The…

Based on four key times around childbirth when maternal and newborn deaths are most likely to occur, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed an easy-to-use bedside tool—the Safe Childbirth Checklist—to help avoid health crises. The checklist was developed in partnership with Ariadne Labs, a joint center of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…

“The sky is the limit.” The familiar words of encouragement, spoken on the occasion of the Tazuko Ajiro Monane Award and Noma-Reischauer Prize Ceremony, personified this year’s recipients. The annual event, held December 4, honored four students for their exceptional achievements in fields related to the study of Japan. The ceremony is organized by the…

In recognition of his ambitious, fearless reporting, Nieman Fellows in the class of 2016 at Harvard have selected Chinese journalist and author Yang Jisheng for the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. Yang’s groundbreaking book “Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine 1958-1962” documents in forensic detail the true scale of one of…

A new poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and STAT finds that most Americans support government action to keep down the prices of brand-name prescription drugs. The poll found broad support across party lines for letting Medicare (the federal health insurance program for older and disabled Americans) negotiate drug prices for program…

In spite of recent news reports suggesting that foods high in saturated fat—like butter and red meat—really aren’t that bad for you, experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health disagree. They say it’s still best to replace saturated fats with foods rich in unsaturated fats such as seafood, nuts, and olive oil. “Saturated…

Adams University Research Professor Christoph Wolff has been elected to Germany’s Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste, joining 14 Nobel laureates and other international leaders in the arts and sciences in the historic honor society. Past members have included Darwin, Einstein, T.S. Eliot, Longfellow, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Brahms, and Verdi. In 1860, Louis Agassiz,…

Paige Williams, senior lecturer on biostatistics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, studies the health and development of children whose HIV-infected mothers took antiretroviral (ARV) drugs during pregnancy. In a study published last year, you found that the overall risk of birth defects was low for women taking ARVs during early pregnancy —…

The most commonly performed operation in the world is cesarean section, and rates of cesarean childbirth delivery vary widely from country to country, from as few as 2 percent to more than 50 percent of live births. The World Health Organization recommends countries not exceed 10 to 15 percent (10 to 15 C-section deliveries per…

Air pollution is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and some people may be more susceptible to its effects than others. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health used data from a nationwide study of nurses to look for factors that made people more vulnerable…

Last week, Chinese and British scientists reported finding a strain of E. coli resistant to a last-resort antibiotic called colistin — and that this resistance can be transferred to other bacteria. Harvard Chan School’s William Hanage, an infectious disease epidemiologist, discusses the growing problem of drug-resistant infections. What is causing the increase in drug-resistant infections?…

The Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University will host on December 4-5 the symposium “Afrodescendants: Fifteen Years after Santiago. Achievements and Challenges,” where activists from the Afrodescendant movement in Latin America, agency representatives, government officials, and scholars reflect on the antiracist agenda formulated at…

A group of students at Harvard Divinity School has organized an interfaith service for World  AIDS Day titled “Beloved Community, Beloved Work, Moving Forward in Life.” The service will be hosted by the Natural Dharma Center at 5 Longfellow Park in Cambridge, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., on Tuesday, December 1. Rod Owens, a teacher…

A diverse, international group of academic, civil society, and private sector partners, including the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC), is excited to announce the formation of the Digital Asia Hub, an independent nonprofit Internet and society research think tank based in Hong Kong. Incubated by the Berkman Center for Internet &…

More than 18 million women in low- and middle-income countries around the world are severely undernourished, according to the first global estimate published in a new study from St. Michael’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. These women tend to be the poorest and least educated members of society and comprise a…

What led rival youth militia leaders to come together as peacebuilding partners? How do you negotiate peace when religious identities are at stake? What are Muslim experiences of conflict and peace and how do they mirror those of other communities? These are difficult questions with complex answers, but they highlight how Harvard Divinity School is…

Nancy Gertner, a former U.S. federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, was the featured speaker who joined a panel of social activists this fall to discuss lessons learned from the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1970s. With input from Gertner, the panelists—including Arline Isaacson, Judy Norsigian, and Toni Troop, all…

On Nov. 13, the Public Service Recruiting Day expanded in its second year of providing Harvard College seniors with pathways into postgraduate opportunities in the public interest sector. Public Service Recruiting Day has proven to be an innovative effort by inviting leading public service organizations to campus to interview students in a structured manner. This…

World-renowned chemist and professor Daniel Nocera, the Patterson Rookwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, has won the 2015 Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy from the University of Louisville, which recognizes outstanding renewable energy ideas and achievements with proven global impact. Nocera is recognized for two innovations that address the storage of energy until needed, the most critical…

Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology at Harvard Chan School, is an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychological reaction that occurs after a high-stress event and includes symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and flashbacks. Here, Koenen discusses PTSD among victims of sexual violence—and how to address the problem. Usually we hear about PTSD…

Toenail clippings from over 100,000 people are among the 3.5 million samples of blood, plasma, urine, hair, and other specimens donated by participants in the nearly 40-year-old Nurses’ Health Study and several other large cohort studies that continue to provide new clues about diseases to scientists today. The toenails are housed in the BWH/Harvard Cohorts…

People who drink about three to five cups of coffee a day may be less likely to die prematurely from some illnesses than those who don’t drink or drink less coffee, according to a new study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers and colleagues. Drinkers of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee saw…

The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School has named humanitarians Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman as this year’s recipients of the Gleitsman International Activist Award for their leadership of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center (EPHRC) and Sister Somalia – organizations focused on tackling gender-based violence and the rehabilitation of child soldiers…

Identification establishes a person’s name, nationality, and legal rights. With thousands of refugees fleeing Syria and other countries each week, the need for accurate identity management and verification is urgent. The problem is exacerbated by already pervasive under-documentation in the developing world. Globally, 48 million children are unregistered at birth, with the highest numbers in sub-Saharan…

In the hours following the detonation of two bombs during the 2013 Boston Marathon, scores of people mobilized to tend to the injured and bring the perpetrators to justice. The response required agencies over multiple jurisdictions at the local, state, and national levels — who all had different lines of authority — to work together…

The risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women have been debated by the medical community for some time. For years menopausal women often took hormones to ward off symptoms like hot flashes and to try to reduce the risk of bone fractures and heart disease. However, since 2002 when a Women’s Health…

The rate of obesity in U.S. adults continues to rise while the rate for youth has leveled off, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on November 11, 2015. The new findings show that since 2003, adult obesity has risen from 30% to 38%. Over the same time…

“We spend a lot of time in denial that we are going to die. With all the choices that we make, how many would we revise and do differently if we were aware that we are mortal?” That question was posed earlier this fall at the Waking Up to Dying Project’s traveling exhibition, held in Somerville,…

A new poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and STAT finds that most Americans (65%) believe that electronic cigarettes are harmful to people who use them. That’s less than those who believe that tobacco cigarettes are harmful (96%) but more than those who believe that marijuana is harmful (58%). The poll also…