Global Health Forum » Share Your Experiences with Holding Events to Educate About Malaria (For Students)
Lecture by Randall Packard, a key malaria scholar
(1 post)-
On October 6th, Professor Randall Packard came to Swarthmore College to give a lecture on past attempts to eradicate malaria. Randall Packard is one of the key scholars in the history of health and disease, and an active player in current issues of international health. He is currently the Chair and William H. Welch Professor of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and is the author of “The Making of a Tropical Disease, A Short History of Malaria.” Global Health Forum was introduced to Professor Packard through Professor Diego Armus, of the History Department at Swarthmore College.
The event was open to the entire campus, and was co-sponsored by the History Department. It was advertised mainly by fliers posted around campus. We estimate that around fifteen people attended the event, and while we had hoped for more, we recognize that extra-curricular academic events are often of a lower priority to students at an institution such as Swarthmore. In the future, we hope to more actively engage students through specific academic departments, and to plan more carefully around academic events such as midterms. Professor Packard was given an honorarium of $500 all of which he donated to MMI for the purchase of bed-nets!
Professor Packard’s lecture was entitled “Can We Eradicate Malaria? A Historical Perspective,” and focused on many common failures of the past eradication attempts made by the WHO. He addressed a number of issues relevant to the work of the Global Health Forum’s current project, the Minus Malaria Initiative, including the multitude of factors—such as culture, war, mobility, and basic infrastructure—that those instigating global health initiatives must take into account. He raised the question of whether eradication—as opposed to zero mortality—should be the goal of efforts against malaria by examining a common trend among past eradication attempts: an organization will cite eradication as it’s goal to attract attention and funding, but will be unable to reach that goal, thereby decreasing the probability that funding will be allotted towards malaria work in the future. This outstanding lecture provided the Global Health Forum with an opportunity to educate ourselves, and our community, and has helped to us refine our goals and methods in order to build a more effective initiative.
Reply
You must log in to post.