International Work

Last month, as part of the commemorations of World TB Day, Deliana Garcia, MA, Migrant Clinicians Network’s Director of International Projects, Research, and Development, traveled to Brasilia, Brazil to join health advocates and parliamentarians from across Central and South America in the first meeting of the Americas TB Caucus.

Last week, our Environmental and Occupational Health team headed to Puerto Rico for a train-the-trainer session at Hospital General Castañer, a community health center located in the mountains in the heart of the island, where coffee, oranges, and plantains are grown.  The two-day workshop gave the local health center’s outreach staff training in chemical safety, heat stress, and workers’ rights.  The outreach staff will then train workers in these topics. 

This quarter, Migrant Clinicians Network is hosting Li Ling, PhD, a visiting scholar focused on migrant health policy and public health in her home country of China.  Dr. Ling is enjoying a multi-month stay at MCN’s main office in Austin, Texas, punctuated by short trips to MCN satellite offices in Maryland and California. 

[Editor’s Note: This post is part of our ongoing series which illustrates how young clinicians decided on the path to migrant health.]

Hooray for Friday! Here’s something to bring with you into the weekend: this week’s news and notes, from MCN staff, on migrant health and beyond. Be sure to sign up for our blog to receive updates in your inbox.

Today, MCN’s Ed Zuroweste, MD published an opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee, calling on health authorities to give tuberculosis and its scary mutations, MDR- and XDR- TB, the same worldwide attention and funding that they gave Ebola.  Here’s an excerpt:

Last week, MCN’s Deliana Garcia, Director of International Projects, Research, and Development, and Ed Zuroweste, MD, Chief Medical Officer, arrived in Cape Town, South Africa for the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health, the annual conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

At MCN offices across the country, we’re bundling up to keep the December chill out. Our thoughts quickly turn to those who live in homes that can’t keep the wind out -- and to those who don’t have homes at all. As clinicians, we know that such circumstances affect health. This week’s Five on Friday showcases the wide range of concerns we have, and how many circumstances affect the health of underserved populations, from the taste of TB medication to access to clean air and wild places. 

[Editor’s Note: This blog post is an installment of our occasional series entitled “In Action,” in which we check in with MCN advisors and board members on their own paths to serve the underserved.]

The flood of migrants into Europe continues unabated. As clinicians, we continue to be concerned for the well-being of the thousands of people in transit every day. This week, our Five on Friday shifts our focus overseas.

Good summary from the BBC on the week’s events related to the mass migration into Europe and parts of the Middle East.