Week 5 (Feb 8, 2007) - Nutrition, Food Security and Health

The week 5 class discussion was a lively discourse on how to address hunger and malnutrition in the midst of rapid global increases in obesity rates. In addressing these issues I really believe it is important to keep in mind that obesity does not exempt a person from being malnutritioned. As we go forward with long term solutions to address hunger, we will have to make sure that those solutions are nutritionally balanced - not inexpensive, processed or fast foods.

RUTF as discussed by Liyan in her oral presentation looks like a promising solution to the acute problems with hunger and can save lives. It also provides a mechanism for providing jobs to the people in the areas where factories are constructed to manufacture the product. Perhaps this could indirectly contribute to a long-term solution to hunger by increasing the resources available to the people who work at the factory.

Week 4 (Feb 1, 2007) - Changing Trends in Non-Communicable Diseases: Implications for Global Health

Even those of us in public health struggle with how to priortize the double burden of disease. The perspective that I hope we can all come to agree upon is that there is enough resources to go around. If we can come to a more equitable distribution of resources, than perhaps we don't have to decide if we are going to address communicable or non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in countries where both are pressing problems. Since we know that NCDs are rapidly replacing infectious diseases as the leading cause of death, we cannot only focus our public health efforts on infectious disease. With that said, the unfortunate truth is that some of the most disadvantaged people in the world are the ones who continue to be at the greatest risk for communicable disease. So, in order not to further marginalize the people of sub-saharan Africa, we have to continue to view communicable diseases as a threat to global health, despite the rapid increase in NCDs. Any other thoughts ?