all Barry R. Bloom stories

Julius B. Richmond, giant in public health and pediatrics

404132862 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:03:02 -0400

Julius B. Richmond, a seminal figure in the history of American public health and pediatrics, and the first national director of the Head Start program, who held professorial positions at three Harvard Schools, died Sunday at his home in Chestnut Hill, MA. He was 91.

As U. S. Surgeon General in the Carter Administration, Dr. Richmond issued the momentous 1979 report Smoking and Health. As Surgeon General he also set targets for the health of the American public with the Healthy People report.

Julio Frenk named next Dean of Harvard School of Public Health

404132862 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:26:12 -0400

Julio Frenk, an eminent authority on global health who served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, will become the new dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), President Drew Faust announced today (July 29).

Inhaled tuberculosis vaccine may be more effective than injected vaccine

404132862 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:58:18 -0400

A novel aerosol version of the most common tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, administered directly to the lungs as an oral mist, offers significantly better protection against the disease in experimental animals than a comparable dose of the traditional injected vaccine, researchers report this week (March 12) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Era ending at School of Public Health

404132862 — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:26:07 -0500

Barry R. Bloom, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), yesterday announced that he will be stepping down from his position as the School’s leader at the end of the current academic year.

Bloom, the Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Professor of Public Health, became dean of HSPH on January 1, 1999. During a period marked by globalization and profound changes in science and technology, Bloom has led initiatives to keep HSPH at the frontier of scientific discovery and interdisciplinary innovation and to extend its leadership in improving the health of populations around the world.

Honorary degree to HSPH Dean Barry R. Bloom

404132862 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:41:54 -0500

Barry R. Bloom, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), is being awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Berkman named to head Center for Population and Development Studies

404132862 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:38:58 -0400

Social epidemiologist Lisa Berkman has been appointed director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman today announced.

“I am extremely pleased that Professor Berkman has accepted the position,” said Hyman. “She brings both expertise in population-based research and a long history of collaborative activities that will serve to reinvigorate the center, expand the breadth of its work, and involve faculty and students from across the University.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to receive Richmond Award for promotion of public health in NYC and nation

404132862 — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:42:47 -0400

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been named to receive the Harvard School of Health's annual Julius B. Richmond Award for his extraordinary leadership in working to protect and promote the health of his city's population. Bloomberg was cited by the school for a series of bold initiatives recognizing public health as a core municipal responsibility and opportunity.

Spray-dry vaccine for TB developed

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:47:14 -0400

Bioengineers and public health researchers have developed a novel spray-drying method for preserving and delivering the most common tuberculosis (TB) vaccine. The low-cost and scalable technique offers several potential advantages over conventional freezing procedures, such as greater stability at room temperature and use in needle-free delivery. The spray-drying process could one day provide a better approach for vaccination against TB and help prevent the related spread of HIV/AIDS in the developing world.

Past, present of flu pandemics examined

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:25:53 -0400

The global response to bioterrorism and AIDS is increasing health system capacity in a way also useful if avian flu strikes, according to experts attending an interdisciplinary conference on Asian flus.

The bad news, however, is that vast disparities in health care systems still persist and, despite the expanding capacity in recent years, bird flu could still have a devastating impact.

"I think of what happens if avian flu comes to Lesotho. The mortality and morbidity would just be devastating," said Jim Kim, who heads Harvard Medical School's Department of Social Medicine and serves as the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights in the Harvard School of Public Health.

Broad vision required to fight HIV

50443248 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:49:15 -0400

A major new public health campaign focused on AIDS is needed in the wake of the World Health Organization's "3 by 5" campaign, which forced a new approach to fight the deadly disease, according to a former WHO official instrumental in the 3 by 5 program.

Jim Yong Kim, a Harvard Medical School associate professor who now heads Brigham and Women's Hospital's Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities, said the adoption of the 3 by 5 program in 2003 by WHO and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shifted the emphasis from AIDS prevention to a massive program to treat 3 million people with powerful anti-retroviral drugs by the end of 2005.

Vitamin D critical to human TB response

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:25:09 -0400

Vitamin D plays a critical role in the human body's response to tuberculosis, according to new research that explains why people of African descent are more susceptible to TB.

The research also suggests a new way to fight one of the world's deadliest diseases: with a simple dietary supplement.

Tuberculosis, usually caused when a person inhales tuberculosis bacteria, killed an estimated 1.7 million people in 2003 and is the leading cause of death for people afflicted with AIDS, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

People of African descent are more susceptible to tuberculosis than Caucasians, with higher rates of infection and more severe cases once infected, trends that had puzzled researchers until now. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, has the world's highest per capita rates of both tuberculosis cases and deaths from the disease, roughly twice the next-highest region, according to WHO statistics.

The research, conducted by a team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Harvard School of Public Health, shows that vitamin D plays a key role in the production of a molecule called cathelicidin, which kills the tuberculosis bacteria.

The body produces vitamin D when sunlight hits the skin. The skin pigment melanin - more abundant in darker skin - shields the body from the sun's rays, reducing damage from ultraviolet light, but also reducing vitamin D production.

Health conference looks at the numbers

50443248 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:06:58 -0400

The topic of health statistics took center stage last week as practitioners from around the world discussed the critical role statistics play in identifying and addressing health disparities during a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) symposium last week (May 5).
School of Public Health Dean Barry Bloom said the information conveyed by health statistics is critical in identifying both disparities in health and in designing programs to address them.

Investigating health disparities

50443248 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:46:49 -0400

Addressing health disparities is among the top priorities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said the agency's director Elias Zerhouni at the second of three Harvard symposia on April 14.
The symposia were convened by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to involve high-ranking health officials from several countries.

"Health disparities research is something that truly we're just at the beginning of understanding and promoting and stimulating," said Zerhouni. "It will require an integrative approach."

In addition to Zerhouni, the talk featured speakers representing Canada, India, and the Americas. Former HSPH Dean and Harvard Provost Harvey Fineberg, who now heads the Institute of Medicine, served as discussant for a subsequent panel discussion.

HSPH examines government role in health disparities

50443248 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:09:50 -0400

Health officials from Mexico, Sweden, England, and the United States compared notes on health reforms March 4 at a symposium designed to illuminate the role of government in addressing health disparities.
The event was the first in a series of three symposia this spring that will examine the issue of health disparities and government.

Harvard School of Public Health Dean Barry R. Bloom said the symposia are designed to not only generate information, but to help devise a plan of action to address the problem of differences in health care quality and access among different groups.

Shaking up our love of salt

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:09:54 -0400

Panelists at a Harvard School of Public Health symposium on May 3 said the best way to get Americans to eat less salt may be to silently cut the amount used in the chips and dips and TV dinners and other processed and ready-to-eat foods we all love. They suggested the stealth approach because a direct assault hasn't worked. Research indicates that Americans' high salt intake is a leading cause of high blood pressure. The research has also shown that reducing the amount of salt we eat will not only help those who already have a problem, but also reduce the natural slow increase in blood pressure as we age. The biggest problem is that a lot of the salt we eat comes from unexpected sources. Salt added in cooking or at the table makes up just 15 percent of the salt in the average diet. It is in processed, ready-to-eat, and restaurant foods that we get most of our salt - about 75 percent. Another problem is that the salt industry is a powerful advocate of its product and can finance and publicize its own studies and present enough of an alternate case to muddy the water around the issue.