One World: Global Health

Abstract

This issue of the Journal, featuring global health, is the second this year dedicated to a single theme. The first, published in June 2001, was historic: it was the first issue the Journal had dedicated entirely to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health. Because the June issue sold out, the American Public Health Association (APHA) reprinted it, along with additional research on LGBT health both published and forthcoming in the Journal, with a preface by Anthony Silvestre, the past chair of the LGBT Caucus of Public Health Workers. The publication date for the global health theme was selected more than 2 years ago to coincide with this month's APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition, titled “One World: Global Health.” The research and the Field Action Reports featured in this issue describe and evaluate public health interventions in diverse and often impoverished regions of the world. Notably, the first authors of most of these articles live and work in the places where the studies and interventions were conducted. The cover image of community volunteers monitoring tsetse fly traps in Tambura County, Southern Sudan, to curb sleeping sickness depicts the work of Lasu Joja and his colleagues, described in 1 of the 7 Field Action Reports featured in this month's issue. The public health needs of local communities are being met by local programs, despite minimal resources and tremendous challenges in communication. Communication difficulties are not limited to the authors in this month's issue. Mary Bassett, an international associate editor for the Journal who lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe, began a review of a research article assigned to her earlier this year with the following note: “Hard times in Zimbabwe—no fuel, no electricity, no phone. Here I am on a borrowed machine sending you this review.” The CARE–CDC Health Initiative (CCHI) sponsored this issue and provided resources as needed to ensure that the involved authors, editors, and staff were able to meet the tight publication deadlines. Patricia Riley of CDC conceived this project and, true to her training as a certified nurse midwife, did whatever was necessary to ensure a safe delivery. Luke Nkinsi of CARE helped assure that the images published here respectfully portray the participants and staff of the CCHI projects. Special mention of the process involved in bringing this issue to print is warranted. Last spring CCHI hosted a scientific writers' workshop in Atlanta, Ga, where practitioners, researchers, editors, and staff assembled to decide on the apt format for each paper, review the peer referees' comments, discuss appropriate images to accompany selected reports, and rewrite the papers for publication. Elliott Churchill, the editor of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, led a passionate and skilled team of editors who worked one-on-ond with the CCHI authors from Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Peru, the Sudan, and Atlanta. To facilitate communication within the global public health community, on-line access to the Journal will be provided free to all from August 2001 through January 2002. After January, public health institutions and agencies in selected impoverished countries will continue to receive free access on-line. Our challenge is to ensure that the Journal remains relevant and useful to public health researchers and practitioners throughout the world.