Skip to main content

Study Links Early Childhood Giardia Infections to Stunted Growth in Nicaraguan Children 

August 5, 2026
Researchers with the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases have identified persistent Giardia infections as a significant risk factor for impaired linear growth, independent of intestinal inflammation.  CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A study led by PhD candidate Lester Gutiérrez, MS, with Luther Bartelt, MD, DTM&H, and Sylvia Becker-Dreps,...

Study Links Giardia Infection to Slower Growth in Children in Nicaragua

June 25, 2026
A new study co-authored by Sylvia Becker-Dreps, MD, MPH, member of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, as well as the Joan C. and Robert Huntley Professor of Family Medicine and Epidemiology, and Filemón Bucardo, PhD, a senior researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill, offers new insight into how a common intestinal...

Becker-Dreps Named Office of Global Health Education Director

April 13, 2023
Sylvia Becker-Dreps, MD, MPH, has been named director of the Office of Global Health Education at the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases (IGHID) and will begin her work in the role on June 1. Becker-Dreps has served as the office’s associate director since 2012. She conducts NIH-funded research...

Scholars Present During the First Annual Global Health Scholars Symposium

November 20, 2022
The First Annual Global Health Scholars Symposium took place November 11, sponsored by the Institute of Global Health & Infectious Diseases (IGHID) and the Gillings School of Global Public Health (GSGPH). The symposium showcased over 30 investigators from UNC and global sites around the world, featuring MD/PhD students, doctoral candidates, postdoctoral...

UNC Program in Nicaragua–Where Learning is Reciprocal

October 20, 2022
A two-hour flight from Miami to Nicaragua takes UNC students to the closest of all IGHID country sites, a land of lakes and volcanoes, scenic coastlines and highlands. Minutes from central León, UNC Program in Nicaragua operates through the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua León (UNAN-León) and its Center for...

Partnership with Nicaragua expands with addition of PhD program

February 6, 2020
UNC has expanded its partnership with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua-León, or UNAN, which since 2003 has encompassed the exchange of research, faculty, and clinical learners, to now include the development of a PhD program housed at UNAN. The program, which offers a PhD in biomedical sciences with mention...