Press Release

UW Department of Global Health and Physicians for Social Responsibility Host

War & Global Health Conference April 23-25 on UW Campus

Keynote Speaker Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Christopher Hedges,

Seattle –- War causes more death and disability than many major diseases combined yet receives little attention as a public health problem. Because of war’s profound impact on health, the Eighth Annual Western Regional International Health Conference being held at the University of Washington April 23-25 is on “War & Global Health: Transforming Our Profession, Changing Our World.”

The student-led conference is being hosted by the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health in conjunction with Physicians for Social Responsibility, a Nobel Peace Prize winning organization that works to protect human life from the greatest threats to health and survival. The conference will feature journalist Chris Hedges, author of War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, as keynote speaker. In 2002, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for his work on terrorism while at The New York Times.

The purpose of this conference is to shift the perspective on global health to include war and armed conflict as one of the most significant—and preventable—threats to health around the world and provide tools for practitioners to act accordingly.

“War can and should be approached as a public health problem,” said Rebecca Bartlein, MPHc, the lead student organizer of the conference.

Just as tobacco use moved from accepted practice to public health problem, war and conflict are beginning to be viewed not as inevitable, but as health problems that require intervention, said Amy Hagopian, PhD, UW assistant professor of Global Health.

“War leaves no area of health care or public health practice untouched,” said Hagopian. “Maternal and child health, reproductive health, mental health, environmental health and nutrition are all degraded by war.”

Conference organizers say the destruction of health infrastructure, loss of health workers and contamination of the environment directly affect the health of populations, while the diversion of resources to building weapons and waging war depletes funds that could otherwise be spent on improving health.

UW assistant professor of Psychiatry Dr. Evan Kanter, immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility and a psychiatrist at the Veteran’s Hospital, said the toll of war, both physical and psychological, is greater than ever.

“Health professionals have a critical role in preventing war and mitigating the devastating health consequences of armed conflict,” he said.

The conference is sponsored by the University of Washington, Physicians for Human Rights, Washington Global Health Alliance, Global Health Council, Center for Global Studies and Health Alliance International.

Co-sponsors include: San Diego State University, Graduate School of Public Health; Simon Fraser University; Stanford University, Office of Global Health; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Washington Bothell; University of Washington Tacoma; School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University; Western Washington University; University of California, Berkeley Center for Global Public Health; University of Alaska Anchorage; Seattle University, Schools of Nursing and Law; Seattle Central Community College; Global Health Center and Global Health Alliance, Oregon Health & Science University; University of British Columbia, Liu Institute for Global Issues.

Specific Goals of the Conference

• To frame war prevention and reduction as a legitimate area of study and practice for those in the public health and medical fields.

• To advance the understanding among medical and public health students and practitioners of the health consequences of war and share information and tools on how these groups can contribute to peace building and mitigate the effects of conflict.
• To develop new leaders in the medical and public health fields committed to war prevention and reduction.

Conference Highlights
Along with keynote speaker, Journalist Chris Hedges, the conference highlights include:

• Major plenary session on the health consequences of war, featuring Barry Levy and Victor Sidel, authors of the definitive text, War and Public Health. Both are past presidents of the American Public Health Association.
• Major plenary session on the role of health professionals in preventing war, featuring Neil Arya, author of Peace Through Health and past president of Physicians for Global Survival; Dr. Raana Zahid, of Pakistan, a lifelong advocate of human rights for women; and Paula Gutlove, founder of the Health Bridges for Peace project, which links health care with the prevention and resolution of inter-communal conflict in war-torn areas.
• Special lecture on torture by Alfred W. McCoy, a professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror, 2006.
• Speaker Norm Stamper, PhD, former Seattle Police Chief speaking on the conflict related to the drug trade.
• Screening of the film, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” about the women’s peace movement in Liberia, featuring journalist Janet Johnson Bryant, a radio reporter in the film, who will answer questions.
• Reception hosted by the Global Health Council.

Conference Background

The Western Regional International Health Conference started in November 2002 by a group of medical students at the University of Washington, School of Medicine’s International Health Group, a student organization committed to bringing awareness to global health issues and supporting their medical student colleagues.

The student-inspired, student-run conference now draws close to 1,000 students, faculty, staff, residents and community members from the western half of the United States and Canada.  Past keynote speakers have included Dr.  Jim Yong Kim, co-founder of Partners in Health, and noted economist Jeffrey Sachs.

The conference has been hosted every other year by the University of Washington, the home institution for the event, and typically travels to other western U.S. and Canadian institutions on alternate years.   The conference organizing committees are made up of an interdisciplinary cross-section of undergraduates, graduate and professional students who are committed to pursuit of a career in global health, including nursing, medicine, social work, law, business, public health, dentistry and pharmacy students.

For updated information on the conference, visit http://wrihc.org/

Feb. 25, 2010