NEW YORK, October 18, 2009 - When the 8th International Conference on Urban Health gets under way on Sunday, October 18, 2009, in Nairobi, Kenya, a team from The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) will be central to the remarkable proceedings. The conference brings together community voices from the slums of Nairobi, mayors and government leaders from 46 cities in 15 countries, scientists, policy researchers, and donor organizations.

Held in Africa for the first time, the conference has been organized through the International Society of Urban Health, housed at NYAM in New York, and by the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi.

Leading the NYAM team will be David Vlahov, PhD, RN, an epidemiologist and urban health expert who co-founded the International Society of Urban Health (ISUH) 10 years ago. Now Senior Vice President for Research at NYAM, he has exhaustively studied urban populations in Baltimore, Harlem and the Bronx throughout a distinctive career as a professor in the schools of public health at Johns Hopkins and Columbia University. A consultant to the World Health Organization and many other governmental and non-governmental organizations, Dr. Vlahov founded ISUH as a means of fostering solutions-oriented dialogue among global cities.

"Cities can be healthy places to live, but we must contend with complex challenges to achieve this goal," said Dr. Vlahov. "In 2007, for the first time in history, half the world was urban. By 2030, two-thirds of our population will live in cities, and by 2050 three-quarters."

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW: Dr. Vlahov is available to discuss: 1) urban health and sustainability problems; 2) needed changes in governance and environment.

This year's conference focuses on the rising health crisis that accompanies the global trend of expanding urbanization and growth of slums. It will set an agenda for moving forward through science, policy and community action. Two special components of this year's meeting: A Community Voices initiative in which teams will work with people living in Nairobi slums to prioritize urban health problems and how to address them; and Urban Health Champions, in which teams of city officials will discuss model programs from their countries. Dr. Vlahov is involved with these and can discuss.

The main conference will consist of presentations and poster sessions. NYAM investigators will make 16 presentations; four are summarized below. Investigators are available for interview. Video from the conference will be available after October 23.

• Public Health Extenders in Harlem: Seasonal Capacity for Influenza Immunization. Keosha Bond, MPH, and David Vlahov, PhD, can speak about an ongoing multi-year project in New York City that has developed a promising model program for reaching hard-to-reach populations with flu shots. These hard-to-reach individuals may represent a risk to the broader population and are important to immunize. Project VIVA (Venue Intensive Vaccine Activities), designed by NYAM in partnership with the NYC Department of Health, mobilized over 30 community-based organizations to offer outreach education and immunizations through non-traditional settings-like street corners - in order to expand access. The lessons learned here are relevant to the current pandemic of H1N1 influenza, as public health departments strive to increase immunization among high risk groups. Immigrants and other socially isolated groups are often considered "hard to reach," but this study suggests they may be "easy to miss."
• Medication Safety and Language Discordance: A Pilot in U.S. Pharmacies. This study of an unresolved problem affecting prescription medication safety among immigrant populations builds on earlier work published in the Journal of Urban Health and reported on in JAMA. It shows that, despite the availability of phone-based interpretation and other language services, urban pharmacies' use of these for patient counseling was quite variable, largely because of costs. Patients responded when language services were marketed, but pharmacies often were unable to provide the service. Although there is increased regulation regarding language services in NY, these barriers must be addressed to ensure necessary change in practice. Linda Weiss, PhD, an anthropologist and director of evaluation at NYAM, can discuss this patient safety issue.
• Knowledge of HPV and the HPV Vaccine. Danielle Ompad, PhD, associate director of NYAM's Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, can discuss this research that pinpointed the need for better public education of HPV risks. The complex relationship between HPV, cervical cancer, and genital warts makes providing a clear educational message challenging. Consequently, a high percentage of at-risk girls are not being vaccinated.
• Perception of How HPV Vaccination Will Affect Sexual Behavior in New York City. Findings showed that concerns about young women's sexual behaviors were not the deterrent to receiving HPV vaccination, that the barriers were lack of understanding of health risk and limited access to the vaccine. Dr. Danielle Ompad can discuss.

Photo Essays from the International Conference on Urban Health

Day one: "Community Voices are Heard at the ICUH"
Day two: "The Face of Urban Poverty"

NYAM has been advancing the health of people in cities since 1847. An independent organization, NYAM addresses the health challenges facing the world’s urban populations through interdisciplinary approaches to innovative research, education, community engagement and policy leadership. Drawing on the expertise of diverse partners worldwide and more than 2,000 elected Fellows from across the professions, our current priorities are to create environments in cities that support healthy aging; to strengthen systems that prevent disease and promote the public’s health; and to implement interventions that eliminate health disparities.

Posted on 10/19/2009

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