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Stringer Receives 2025 O. Max Gardner Award

May 16, 2025
Dr. Jeffrey Stringer, the Clarke-Pearson Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and associate director for research at the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, has received the 2025 Oliver Max Gardner Award for his transformative work in maternal healthcare in low-resource settings around the world. Established by the will...

Juliano Named Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor

May 15, 2025
Jonathan Juliano, MD, MSPH, DTM&H, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been honored with the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professorship. Effective July 1, 2025, this prestigious distinction recognizes outstanding contributions and...

UNC’s Long History of Service to North Carolina’s Prison Population: A New HIV Program Focuses On Post-Release

May 12, 2025
For more than two decades, UNC’s infectious disease specialists have provided HIV care to incarcerated individuals across North Carolina’s prison system. Dr. Becky White is the director of UNC Infectious Diseases and HIV Services in the N.C. Department of Adult Corrections. Dr. Lina Rosengren-Hovee is the associate director. In the following,...

UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases Awarded Ryan White C Funding Renewal

May 12, 2025
The UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases has received a three-year renewal of award funding for the Ryan White Part C Program, from the U.S. Department of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Natalie Hairston, MPH, MSW, UNC’s Ryan White Program Coordinator since 2023, provided critical support to...

New Cross-Disciplinary ID Service Will Reduce Burden of C. Diff Infections

May 12, 2025
Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) is a leading cause of hospital associated infections nationally, and a significant burden at UNC Hospitals. Patients with C. diff infections (CDI) frequently experience recurrent or prolonged diarrhea following antibiotic exposures. They are also at a high risk for adverse outcomes and prolonged hospitalizations, with high...

Lisa Woodley Receives a Faculty Award for Global Excellence

May 7, 2025
Lisa Woodley, PhD, MSN, associate professor of nursing and a member of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, received a faculty award for global excellence from UNC Global. The award recognizes exceptional contributions to the University’s mission of “leading change to improve society and to help solve the world’s greatest problems.” Vice Provost for...

Public Health Expert Studies Disease, Empowers Next Generation of Researchers

May 7, 2025
Dr. Mina Hosseinipour’s interest in infectious diseases and medicine began when she was a medical resident in Houston, Texas. Many patients were immigrants, and she was treating several for HIV using a new combination of anti-HIV drugs commonly known as HAART. “It made me want to understand why certain diseases...

Migrant Farmworker Health Service-Learning Donation Drive

May 4, 2025
The Office of Global Health Education is collecting gently used clothing for migrant/farm workers in Western North Carolina. In early June, a group of UNC Health students, residents, and faculty/staff will travel to Cullowhee, NC, to volunteer with Vecinos, an organization whose mission is to provide equitable culturally centered health care and wellness...

UNC Neurologists Lead Global Research in HIV-Associated Cognitive Disorders and Multiple Sclerosis

May 4, 2025
Two UNC neurologists are making significant strides in understanding neurological disorders across diverse global populations, from Latin America to Sub-Saharan Africa.  Monica Diaz, MD, MS, and Deanna Saylor, MD, MHS, are neuro-infectious diseases and neuro-immunology specialists. They are the newest members of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases,...

From Kinshasa to Chapel Hill: An Entomologist Is Working to Understand Transmission of Drug-Resistant Malaria Parasites

May 4, 2025
Fabien Vulu, MD, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) specializing in mosquito vectors of malaria parasites and viruses. He joined the IDEEL Lab at the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases to study under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, training in malaria parasite sequencing for the PaluSeq...

Building Long-Term Capacity for Global Anti-Microbial Stewardship

May 1, 2025
Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest global health threats. Countries with limited resources, such as Malawi, are particularly vulnerable to its impact, with resistant infections threatening to undo decades of medical progress.  While antibiotics are a cornerstone of modern medicine, less than 2% of the 50,000 medical laboratories...

Changes in the Prevalence of Non-AIDS Conditions Among Hospitalized Persons With Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the United States and Canada, 2008–2018

April 29, 2025
As HIV care improves, people with Aids are now hospitalized more for non-AIDS conditions.  Despite this, the complete disease profile of hospitalized people with HIV has not been well described. To inform hospitalization and readmission prevention efforts, researchers with the institute examined non-AIDS disease prevalence among PWH hospitalized in 4...

Vertical Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus in the WHO African Region

April 28, 2025
Peyton Thompson, MD, MSCR, is a member of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases working to improve maternal and infant health through quality preventive measures against HBV and other vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. In a systematic review estimating the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in pregnant women...

Mixing of Tecovirimat in Water to Support Oral Dosing of Infants and Children With Mpox

April 28, 2025
Following the 2022 mpox outbreak, dozens of cases occurred in young children within the U.S., and thousands have occurred internationally, where the Clade I virus has disproportionately affected young children in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding areas.This is particularly concerning as increased severity of disease, mortality, and rates...

Reducing Global Inequities in Access to Medical Oxygen

April 28, 2025
Tisungane Mvalo, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UNC as well as the in-country Pediatric Director of UNC Project Malawi. He practices clinically at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi. In a recent article in The Lancet Global Health, Dr. Mvalo discusses the issues with access to medical...

Transmission Models of Respiratory Infections in Carceral Settings

April 23, 2025
David L. Rosen, MD, PhD, MSPH, an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, says prevention and control of infectious disease outbreaks in carceral settings face unique challenges in a paper published in Science Direct. Transmission modeling is a powerful tool for understanding and addressing these challenges, but reviews of modeling work in...

Tackling Tuberculosis By Leveraging Nutritional Rehabilitation and Tuberculosis Programs

April 23, 2025
Tisungane Mvalo, MD, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the in-country Pediatric Director of UNC Project-Malawi, authored a new paper published in The Lancet Child Adolescent Health about children with severe acute malnutrition who have a high but underappreciated risk of tuberculosis. Severe acute malnutrition affects more than 13 million children younger...

Breast Cancer Treatment Patterns and Guidelines, Concordant Treatment Among Malawian Women

April 23, 2025
Dr. Jennifer Morgan, under the mentorship of Dr. Katie Reeder Hayes, Associate Professor of Oncology and Dr. Tamiwe Tomoka, UNC Project-Malawi Cancer Program Co-Director, describes breast cancer treatment patterns by stage and curative-intent guideline-concordant treatment (GCT) receipt among Malawian women in BMC Women’s Health. A prospective cohort of breast cancer patients was enrolled...

An Intervention to Support HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Care in Rural North Carolina

April 23, 2025
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an important tool for reducing HIV incidence in the United States, but barriers to access, including race, sex, socioeconomic status, and geography, continue to persist. Sarah E. Rutstein, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Christopher Hurt, MD, FIDSA, Professor of Medicine, and Brian Wells Pence, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology are conducting a study...

Associations Between Internalized HIV Stigma and Cognitive Function Among Older Women with HIV

April 23, 2025
Monica Maria Diaz, MD, MS, an assistant professor of neurology, published a study in the Journal of Gerontology measuring internalized HIV stigma in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study between 2013 and 2015. Internalized HIV stigma refers to the negative beliefs, feelings, and attitudes that people with HIV (PWH) adopt about themselves...