Harvard School of Public Health

For more than two decades, the Harvard School of Public Health has participated in collaborative initiatives in China with government agencies and academic institutions intended to improve the health of the world’s most populous country. Efforts have included studies of the effects of cotton dust on the lungs of textile workers; the relationship between particulate air pollution and increased rates of cardiopulmonary disease and death; strategies for controlling HIV/AIDS and schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms; and a project to provide access to health insurance for rural families, many of whom experienced decreased services when a widespread system of rural health care provisions ended in the 1980s.

China Initiative
The goal of the China Initiative is to train policymakers, academic scholars, and practitioners so that China can respond more rapidly and effectively to its most pressing public health challenges. The effort consists of three parts:
• A five-year training program for China’s senior health care leaders and executives launched by the signing of memorandum of agreement between HSPH, the Chinese Ministry of Health, and Tsinghua University in Beijing. The project involves approximately 500 executives and offers training courses each year.
• Annual forums on health and social development to stimulate academic exchange and policy discussions.
• Occupational health studies to identify and remedy health and safety hazards in the workplace.

Cancer Prevention
A series of five component studies are being conducted to reconstruct the series of phenomena that link early life exposures to mammary gland mass (and the resulting number of susceptible cells) to breast cancer in adult life.

Department of Environmental Health
The Department of Environmental Health has long worked with the Chinese government to investigate environmental health considerations in China. A study of lung disease in Chinese textile workers, which marked its 25-year anniversary in 2006, has strengthened air-quality standards in factories. A study of the cardiopulmonary effects of particulate exposure is seeking to assess the role of smoking, candidate genes, and physiologic changes in pulmonary function that may be important markers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

Disease Burden
The Global Burden of Disease 2000 in Aging Populations is a coherent series of investigations that strengthens the methodological and empirical basis for undertaking comparative assessments of health problems, their determinants, and consequences in aging populations. The countries involved in the project include China, Tanzania, and Switzerland.

Health Policy
HSPH is involved in a project examining the role of non-governmental organizations in improving health care in China, India, Laos, Uganda, Zambia, and Vietnam.

HIV/AIDS
Developed by the Program on International Health and Human Rights at HSPH, the Gender-Based Violence and HIV/AIDS pilot project involves partners in China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam. The project is intended to set a common human rights and sexuality framework for programs; document “best practices”; and strengthen the skills of practitioners and NGOs for continued joint efforts.

Nutrition and Obesity
Similar to many countries, China is experiencing increasing rates of obesity and related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. One HSPH study in China is studying the phenotypes of metabolic syndrome - a cluster of problems such as abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia, and hypertension - and searching the human genome for genetic loci that predispose people to the condition.

Readings and Multimedia
• Web Seminar: “Occupational Health in China: Opportunities for Global Companies”
Video: "Our World, Our Challenge"
• “HSPH REPORT China and India: Beyond economies—what about health?” Harvard Public Health Review, Summer/Fall 2006
• “Global Challenges/Emerging Opportunities: Profile of Assistant Professor Yuanli Liu,” Harvard Public Health Review, HSPH Annual Report 2003
• “Taking On the SARS Challenge,” Harvard Public Health Review, Fall 2003
• “China Odyssey: HSPH Students See Health Care Reform Firsthand in World’s Most Populous Country,” Harvard Public Health NOW, 3/16/07
• “Initiative Brings Officials from Chinese Central and Provincial Ministries of Health to HSPH,” Harvard Public Health NOW, 9/1/06
• “Chinese Minister of Health Discusses Avian Flu and Other Public Health Challenges at Packed Lecture,” Harvard Public Health NOW, 11/10/05
• “HSPH Efforts to Improve Public Health in China Focus of Trip Abroad,” Harvard Public Health NOW, 8/5/05

Schistosomiasis
While not a problem in the United States, schistosomiasis wreaks havoc in the lake and marsh regions of China. The disease is caused by parasites in water that penetrate human skin. The parasites enter blood vessels and develop into worms, damaging organs and tissues. An HSPH study seeks to control the disease by eliminating the parasite in water buffalo, which are involved in the transmission of the disease.