NEW TECHNOLOGY AND TRIED AND TRUE TRAINING LEAD TO SAFER HOMES
Barry Beaty, PhD, Colorado State University
"We live in a global economy, one where our own country and pocketbooks function best when other countries' economies are robust and well connected. We are starting to have a real understanding that we are not an island anymore, that any disease can reach us in 24 hours. U.S. investment and international partnerships are needed to protect us from global health diseases."
Most of us think of our homes as a safe place, where we feel protected. But for many people around the world, home can be a dangerous place, where the vast majority of vector-borne infections occur, says global health researcher Barry Beaty, PhD. Beaty works to understand, predict and prevent diseases spread by insects to humans, such as malaria and dengue, which are transmitted to humans mainly through mosquitoes. Around the world, these diseases leave overwhelming sickness and death in their wake. Today, we are seeing a resurgence of these diseases around the world and even in the United States.
Through his program in Mexico, Casa Segura (Safe House), Beaty is using tried and true interventions-such as insecticide treated bed nets- as curtains to prevent vector transmission in homes. He is also working with local companies and workers to make their own products, which boosts their economy. "We live in a global economy, one where our own country and pocketbooks function best when other countries' economies are robust and well-connected," says Beaty.
His global health research also includes the development and use of new technology that equips public health officials with real-time data to better anticipate and respond to impending epidemics, not only for countries where the research is being conducted, but also for the U.S. These same technology approaches are being used to detect and prevent West Nile and Lyme disease.
Beaty stresses that U.S. support of global health research is essential, more so now than ever. "Many of the diseases I work on have huge implications for health, not only on people's health, but on the health of livestock. Introduction of new veterinary diseases could translate into billions of dollars lost in the agriculture community," cautions Beaty. "Health delivers the biggest bang for our buck; put in perspective, the very minor proportion of our economic dollar that is spent on global health research is arguably the most effective way we can protect ourselves from diseases. If we were to pull back now, the resurgence of some diseases would lead to detrimental effects worldwide."