Leading US health researcher and paediatrician Prof Kenneth Brown yesterday praised the University of Otago’s Global Health Institute for its collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to health problems.
Prof Brown is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, in the United States. He has been attending the Otago Global Health Institute’s 11th annual international health symposium.
The institute was last night formally launched as one of the university’s leading research centres, and Prof Brown praised the way that Otago academics from many disciplines had joined forces to fight international health problems.
This collaborative approach was vital in trying to counter highly complex health problems, he said.
During yesterday’s symposium sessions, Dr Susan Haydon, of the Otago University School of Pharmacy, said it was important to remember damaging diseases such as smallpox, despitethem officially being eradicated. She reflected on the experience of families in Nepal trying to protect their children from the disease in the 1960s.
Dr Christian Marchello, of the Otago Centre for International Health, also reported on an Otago study of published research on global typhoid fever incidence, concluding the fever remained high in many places and more research was needed.
Associate Prof Lisa Houghton, who helped organise the symposium, said it had gone well and had highlighted key nutrition issues affecting young people in developing countries.