COVID-19 Archives - Center for Global Health

Holyoke COVID-19 Community Antibody Study Takeaways: An Interview with Ryan Paxton, MPH

admin2021-07-14T16:51:33-04:00

When COVID-19 forced public health organizations to act, the universal strategy included social distancing, quarantine measures, comprehensive contact tracing and testing, mask wearing, and other strategies in order to prevent the virus from spreading. Enacting this strategy taxed public health infrastructure across the globe. In many communities in the United States, this constellation of responses required local Boards of Health to significantly alter their operations. In Holyoke—a city in western Massachusetts with an approximately 53% Latinx population that was hard-hit early in the pandemic—the Board of Health changed many city employees’ roles, including having school nurses serve as contact tracers [...]

Holyoke COVID-19 Community Antibody Study Takeaways: An Interview with Ryan Paxton, MPHadmin2021-07-14T16:51:33-04:00

Mass General dispatches team to support COVID-19 response in Uganda

admin2021-07-07T13:18:00-04:00

The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Global Health (CGH) is deploying a team on Thursday, June 24 to Mbarara, Uganda in collaboration with Build Health International to support efforts to treat patients with COVID-19 infections. "This is not just about access to resources, it is about access to vaccines. There is a connection between current COVID-19 surges and lack of vaccine access and equity." While many areas across the globe have begun reporting decreasing COVID-19 cases and deaths, numbers are rising in Uganda and other countries on the African continent. This surge has sparked what is being called a third [...]

Mass General dispatches team to support COVID-19 response in Ugandaadmin2021-07-07T13:18:00-04:00

Answering the Call in India and Beyond

admin2021-07-07T13:16:32-04:00

As we in Boston and across the United States gradually emerge from the isolation of COVID-19, we can begin to breathe a cautious sigh of relief. This is not the case for everyone around the globe. Health systems in India, Brazil and other countries in Southeast Asia are currently overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases. On May 6, India — the world’s second most populous country, with 1.4 billion citizens — recorded 414,188 infections and 3,769 deaths in one day. Experts warn these numbers are likely dramatic undercounts due to testing limitations and inability of local hospitals to care for the surge [...]

Answering the Call in India and Beyondadmin2021-07-07T13:16:32-04:00

Global Disaster Response Returns to Matamoros, Mexico and Supports India’s COVID-19 Response

admin2021-07-07T13:19:03-04:00

This story is part of our Summer 2021 Newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. MATAMOROS, MEXICO is a city located on the Mexico-United States border and the receiving site for many individuals seeking asylum who have been sent back from the United States while they await their immigration hearings. Although the Biden administration altered Trump-era immigration and asylum policies to allow more asylum seekers into the United States, the camp is still populated with many individuals. The Matamoros camp was originally established with no access to food, water, sanitation, or basic medical care or hygiene. Global Resource Management [...]

Global Disaster Response Returns to Matamoros, Mexico and Supports India’s COVID-19 Responseadmin2021-07-07T13:19:03-04:00

Supporting COVID-19 Response Efforts in India: A Conversation with Dr. Pooja Yerramilli

admin2021-07-07T13:19:36-04:00

On May 5th, India reported 412,431 new COVID-19 infections and 3,980 deaths. Since mid- April, the country has seen an increase in infections and deaths which has rapidly overwhelmed the country’s healthcare and public health infrastructure. Pooja Yerramilli, MD, MPH, MGH Global Medicine Resident shares an update on the situation and work being done through the volunteer group India COVID SOS, whom she volunteers with. From the conversations you have had with people in India, could you tell us what you have learned from the current situation on the ground? I would say it is really harrowing to hear [...]

Supporting COVID-19 Response Efforts in India: A Conversation with Dr. Pooja Yerramilliadmin2021-07-07T13:19:36-04:00

Supporting India’s COVID-19 Response

admin2021-07-07T13:20:02-04:00

On Monday April 26, India reported 352,991 cases of COVID-19 infection, breaking the world-record for daily cases in a country for the fifth consecutive day. On the same day, India reported 2,812 deaths, bringing the country’s total to 195,123 deaths. India has vaccinated less than 10% of its population and is struggling to meet vaccine demand. Though the country has been an important producer of vaccine doses, many of these doses have been allotted for other high-income nations. Recent supply shortages have also hampered India’s vaccine production. In comparison, over 42% of the United States population has gotten at least [...]

Supporting India’s COVID-19 Responseadmin2021-07-07T13:20:02-04:00

Steering the Asylum Clinic to the Future: How the Asylum Clinic Responded to COVID-19

admin2021-07-07T10:56:56-04:00

The MGH Asylum Clinic at the Center for Global Health—founded in October 2017—provides forensic medical and psychological evaluations to survivors of persecution seeking asylum in the United States and to seeks to educate the medical community on caring for asylum-seekers and refugees. Since its inception, the clinic, a part of the MGH Center for Global Health’s Disaster Response and Humanitarian Action programs, has completed evaluations for 325 asylum-seekers. Asylum Clinic Director Matthew Gartland, MD, shares updates on the clinic and the current efforts being made to increase clinic’s capacity and advocate for asylum-seekers and detainees. What services does the Asylum [...]

Steering the Asylum Clinic to the Future: How the Asylum Clinic Responded to COVID-19admin2021-07-07T10:56:56-04:00

Center for Global Health hosts webinar: COVID-19 Vaccine & Global Health Equity: From Action to Impact

admin2021-07-07T10:56:56-04:00

On December 8, 2020 the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in the United Kingdom. However, before vaccine manufacturing had been completed, global powers had bought up a disproportionate number of doses, leaving low and middle-income countries scrambling to figure out how to purchase doses for their residents. “We have to work, as Dr. King referred to in 1963, ‘in the fierce urgency of now,’” said John Nkengasong, MSc, PhD, and Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “If we don’t really use that fierce urgency of now, then we are in trouble. This virus will become endemic [...]

Center for Global Health hosts webinar: COVID-19 Vaccine & Global Health Equity: From Action to Impactadmin2021-07-07T10:56:56-04:00

An Open Letter on Global COVID-19 Vaccine Equity

admin2021-07-07T10:56:57-04:00

March 3rd, 2021 An open letter to President Biden, and leaders of the US pharmaceutical industry, On February 24th, 2021, Ghana received the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine secured by COVAX, the World Health Organization’s facility for global vaccine distribution. While this was an important milestone for the countries relying on COVAX to procure COVID-19 vaccinations, this shipment comes more than two months after the U.S. and other high-income countries began vaccinating their populations. Notably, it represents a tiny fraction of the doses needed to vaccinate even front-line healthcare workers on the African continent, never mind other groups globally that [...]

An Open Letter on Global COVID-19 Vaccine Equityadmin2021-07-07T10:56:57-04:00

MGH Global Disaster Response and Global Nursing Program join together to support clinical responses in Matamoros, Mexico and Pine Ridge, South Dakota

admin2021-07-07T13:20:31-04:00

The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Global Health (CGH) Office of Global Disaster Response and Humanitarian Action (GDR) has teamed up with the MGH Global Nursing program to provide clinical care responses in Matamoros, Mexico and Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Flags hang in the Matamoros camp representing the home countries of camp residents. Matamoros, a border city and receiving site for individuals seeking asylum in the United States who have been sent back to Mexico to await their immigration hearing is one of the largest migrant camps that has formed along the US/Mexico border. An estimated 700 [...]

MGH Global Disaster Response and Global Nursing Program join together to support clinical responses in Matamoros, Mexico and Pine Ridge, South Dakotaadmin2021-07-07T13:20:31-04:00