UW Regents Approve Central Campus Site for Population Health Building to House Collaborative Research and Teaching

By Victor Balta, UW News and Information

The University of Washington Board of Regents on Thursday approved the location for construction of a new building to house the UW’s Population Health Initiative. The centrally located site will bring together the work of the UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Department of Global Health and parts of the School of Public Health while creating easy access for collaborators from other departments across campus and guests from around the world.

The Conversation: Social Media Helps Officials Spot Public Health Threats -- But Only for the Rich?

By Elaine Nsoesie

Think of the last time you had food poisoning. Did you tweet about it? Did you Google your symptoms? Or did you write an angry review on Yelp?

Every day, people use the internet to seek and share health information. This opens up exciting new ways for scientists to study the health of a population, an approach known as digital epidemiology.

Alaska Dispatch News: Alaska Sees the Most Dramatic Increases in Life Expectancy in the Nation, New Study Says

By Michelle Theriault Boots

Over the past 35 years, life expectancy increased more in some remote regions of Alaska than almost anywhere else in the United States, according to detailed new research published this week in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

The numbers are striking: In 1980, the average life expectancy of a person born in the North Slope Borough was just 65, on par with places like Sudan and Iraq today.

NewsBeat: Common Malaria Meds Pose No Undue Risk in Early Pregnancy

Global team finds that artemesinin therapies are as safe as quinine for women in first trimester

By Sarah C.B. Guthrie 

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), medications widely used against malaria, are safe to administer to women in their first trimester of pregnancy, according to research published today. ACTs had previously been recommended at that stage of pregnancy only in life-saving circumstances. 

The Conversation: What Africa Still Needs to Do to Eliminate Malaria

By Willis Simon Akhwale, Country Director for I-TECH Kenya

Malaria is one of the oldest and deadliest infectious diseases affecting man. It is an ancient and modern disease – descriptions of illnesses similar to malaria are found in ancient texts from China, India, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Malaria parasites have co-evolved – which involves genetic changes and adaptation – with people as their hosts over a period of four thousand years.

Puget Sound Business Journal: Gates Foundation Invested $545 million in the Seattle area last year

By Coral Garnick

While the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is known worldwide and makes contributions around the globe, the Seattle-based nonprofit has made hefty contributions in its hometown.

An economic impact study commissioned by the foundation shows it funneled $545 million into King, Pierce and Snohomish counties in 2015 that translated into $1.5 billion in economic activity.

Fierce Healthcare: Disparate Global Health Spending on the Horizon, Study says

by Paige Minemyer

Global health spending is projected to increase significantly over the next 20 years, but spending rates will likely vary widely between countries, even those of similar size and gross domestic product, a new study has found. Researchers at the University of Washington mapped health spending trends around the world and found huge variation in how much different countries would likely spend, according to data published in The Lancet.

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