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[MUSIC]

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I'm Dr. Rob Murphy.

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I'm a professor of medicine and
bio-medical engineering at

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Northwestern University in Chicago and
Evanston, Illinois.

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I'm going to be talking,
today, about global health and

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improving health around the world.

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The foundation of global health is
working on infectious diseases.

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The poorest countries of the world are
impacted severely by infectious diseases,

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primarily AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria,
viral hepatitis, and now, Ebola virus.

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These infections cause
the bulk of the morbidity and

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mortality around the world,
in the poorest nations.

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As soon as a nation gets some resources
and they get out of the category

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of being a poor country, and they get into
the middle income categories, the first

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thing that happens is the amount of
infectious diseases drops significantly.

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But as soon as that happens,
what comes up?

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Cardiovascular disease,
metabolic diseases like diabetes, cancer,

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dermatologic diseases, pulmonary diseases,
and other non-communicable diseases.

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So, these just take the place
of the infectious diseases.

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So, all that falls into the,
the category of global health.

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I'm going to tell you now about
a case history in the country Mali,

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in west Africa.

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It's one of the poorest
countries in the world.

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Over half the population is
less than 15 years of age.

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Life expectancy is only 51.4 years.

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That's incredibly low.

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This, however, happens to actually be
an improvement since the year 2000,

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when life expectancy was
only 46 years of age.

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I'm going to show you a couple
of pictures of some scenes,

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typical scenes going on
in in Mali right now.

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Some of the bombed-out vehicles from
the recent war with the jihadists.

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A pile of actually unexploded rockets and

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bombs, which are just sort of scattered
around the country right now.

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People returning to their homes in
the north because they had fled during

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the Jihad Movement.

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Mopti, which is in the middle of
the country, a beautiful city,

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one of the famous mosques in Mopti.

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It's a beautiful country with
incredible buildings and mosques.

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The road to Timbuktu.

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There really is no road,

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it's just, you're just driving a car with
four-wheel drive across sand in a desert.

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And then finally,
more refugees crossing the Niger River and

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going home to Timbuktu and
areas further north.

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Infectious diseases are endemic
in a poor country like Mali.

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Malaria is particularly endemic and
malaria affects young children under five

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and pregnant women are,
bare the brunt of this infection.

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Only a quarter of the children
sleep under bed nets.

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Treated bed nets are a very
effective way to reduce malaria.

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One of the good aspects
about infectious diseases in

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Mali is that the HIV
infection rate is quite low.

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In Mali there's very few doctors.

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There's one doctor for

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every 9,000 people, compared to the United
States where we have one doctor per 400.

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You can see there's really
a very dramatic difference.

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Low income countries,

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including Mali, really prioritize
their healthcare needs as follows.

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Number one, reduction in child mortality,
this is the most important.

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Number two, prevention and
treat malaria, HIV, and

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other diseases common in those regions.

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Three, they've got to strengthen
the community health programs.

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Four, they have to expand
health communication.

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People have to communicate about
these epidemics and treatments and

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what's available.

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Five, finally, youth development and
reproductive health.

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I'd like to summarize some of the
challenges that you're likely to face if

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you go into global health as a career,
or even an academic interest.

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The very first thing that you
have to keep in mind is that you

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are there to help people identify
their needs and support their needs.

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What you want is not
necessarily what they want, and

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what they want is the most important.

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You have the greatest idea in the world,
but

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if they don't want it there's
going to be no point in doing it.

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So, identify the needs and

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work on the needs of the people in
the region where you're working.

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Number two, work from the ground up.

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Start at a low level and
build up, get the confidence and

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get the support and the, the approval of
the people that you're working with, and,

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and build your way up that way.

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So, from the ground up,
starting with your experience and

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all through the different
levels of your relationship.

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Three, do something really unique and
supportive from an educational viewpoint,

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something like the Peace Corp,
something like a Fulbright Scholarship or

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some other program that has you working
for a significant period of time.

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Not that a month or
three weeks, or six weeks is,

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is not going to help but
programs that are at least one year

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actually have the greatest
amount of impact.

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So should, you should at least consider
them somewhere along in your career,

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if you're interested in global health.

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Stay focused, build relationships,
go back to the same place or

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the same area time after time again, so
you become really familiar with them and

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they become familiar with you.

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And finally,
promise only what you can deliver.

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Otherwise, you're going to
lose all your credibility and

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that's going to hurt everybody.

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Good luck in your global health work.

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[MUSIC]