Bridging Borders: Interns Begin Their Deep Dive Into Global Public Health

This morning, interns began the journey of learning and exploration, which will carry them through the entire week. Starting off strong, interns listened to a variety of lectures expanding upon Dr. Aisha’s keynote of yesterday about healthcare in Nigeria. The first surrounded healthcare and behavioral change in northern Nigeria, which included healthcare strategies, key health adaptations, case studies, and more.

Throughout the day, they received disease-specific overviews of the four diseases of focus for the week; these four diseases are highly prevalent in Northern Nigeria, and interns will become very familiar with them by the end of the day.

Directors and Assistant Directors of the program divided the interns between the four diseases; within those four groups, three more subcategories were created–Transmission and Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment, and Prevention and Community Protection. 

This whole week, interns have the pleasure of learning about all the diseases from our terrific doctors, but the public health solution they devise will be centered around their specific subtopic’s focus. The first disease they learned about was Acute Respiratory Infections, followed by Malaria, Nutritional Anemia, and lastly, Typhoid Fever. All of these diseases impact thousands upon thousands of Nigerians every year, and they are extremely common. At-risk populations center around young children, especially those under five years of age, and women. 

We are so grateful to our Nigerian physicians, Dr. Aminu, Dr. Aisha, and Dr. Zainab, for coming all the way from Nigeria to teach our interns about the struggles that they witness every day in their practice. Hearing from practitioners who are not only in the field but specifically from the region of focus is a gift we don’t take for granted. We encourage our interns to make use of it, and so far, each week, they have learned deeply from the sociocultural insight they have to offer. We are sure that Week 3 interns will benefit greatly this week!