Think. Act. Impact.

In a world with constantly shrinking borders, global health is a growing concern. The University of California, San Diego is making an international impact with research and health care programs around the globe that fight diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Our Mission

The mission of the UC San Diego Global Health Institute is to facilitate research, education and public-private partnerships across diverse disciplines to address global health challenges in the 21st century, and to serve as a coordinating body for training programs, service and global health-related curricula.

• Global Infectious Diseases
• Global Health Technologies
• Global Mental Health
• Global Migrant/Refugee Health

• COVID-19 updates from UNHCR

• UCSF Resilience and Emotional Well-Being Video Series

• UCSF Emotional Well-Being During the COVID-19 Crisis for Health Care Providers Webinar Series

•COVID-19: Reflections and Updates, from Dr. Fauci, Dr. Farmer and Dr. Kim

• Impact of COVID-19 on Adolescent Girls and Young Women and Needed Responses

• Dr. Fauci: COVID-19 and its global impact on AIDS, TB and malaria, hosted by Friends of the Global Fight

• UCSD Health COVID-19 Virtual Grand Rounds

• UCSD COVID-19 Projects

• Global Impacts of COVID-19 webinar series by the UCSD School of Global Policy and Strategy 

•  Psychological First Aid, special report from Mayo Clinic

• Q & A with Dr. Chip Schooley on how SARS-CoV-2 spreads, vaccine trials underway and more

• Race, COVID-19 and deaths of despair, commentary in EClinicalMedicine

• Coronavirus Resources, curated by the Center for Globoal Mental Health (CGMH) at UCSD

• Coronavirus in the Navajo Nation, a CBS news documentary

• COVID-19 treatment for Navajo, Zuni, and Apache Peoples, a report from Dr. Don Kraitsik

• How mental health care should change as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic

• Contextualizing Coronavirus Geographically, a special virtual issue of the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

• COVID-19: Another Unforced Error, presented by Dr. Schooley at Grand Rounds

• COVID-19: The Tip of the Ice Berg, presented by virologist Dr. Ho 

• COVID-19: A Coordinated Boston-wide Response, presented at MGH Grand Rounds

• Confronting Coronavirus, a PBS NewsHour Special

"The CDIPD targets diseases affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but which are largely ignored by traditional drug and vaccine discovery companies because they primarily affect the poor and underserved".

"The CGMH seeks to collectively find ways to improve care and treatment for mental health since currently, such healthcare systems are inadequate worldwide".

"The IPATH center is the first dedicated phage therapy center in North America, bringing innovative research and clinical practice to the field of medicine".

"The GHP offers interdisciplinary degrees (BA, BS and MA) that aid in the understanding and productively intervening in processes of health, illness, and healing across the globe".

See resources to learn more

"The CGT and its Pacific Leadership Fellowship program focus on academic inquiry and policy analysis of international issues".  

Additional UCSD global health entities

Link to conference program

A Challenge to Dignity Conference brought together refugee health professionals working to advance refugee health all over the globe with a wide range of forcibly displaced populations for two days of presentations. The conference promoted discussions on a variety of refugee and asylum seeker health factors. Speakers and participants, in person and virtually, had the opportunity to compare notes and ask questions after each presentation. 

Link to conference sessions

A) Physicians and Health Care Providers

B) Community and Collaboration

C) Health Status of Refugees and Asylum Seekers

D) Women, Families, and Reproductive Health

E) Trauma and Treatment.

Link to individual sessions

Understanding the Health of Asylum Seekers, Refugees, and Migrants Through the Lens of Student Interns at a Student-Run Free Clinic on the US-Mexico Border (Jose Burgos and Victoria Ojeda)

Pathways Towards Medical Licensure for Refugee and Asylee International Medical Graduates Living in the US (Lillian Walkover and Susan Bell)

An Ethnography of Care: Physicians and Asylum Seekers on the US-Mexico Border (Thomas Csordas, Brenda Wilson, and Alexis Burnstan)

Global Health is also Investing in Political Change of the Systems that Drive the Harms we are made to Chase (Dona Murphey)

Models of Inclusive Programming: Resilience Humanitarianism, Social Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice (Catherine Panter-Brick)

New Horizons of Refugee Health and Wellbeing: Promoting Dignity Through Partnerhship and Social Inclusion (Charles Watters)

Affective Acts of Welcome: Volunteer Solidarians and US Asylum Seeker Resettlement (Kristin Yarris)

Refugee Collaboration and Self-Determination in San Diego (Christiane Assefa and Andrew Blank)

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Migrant Populations in Tijuana (Ietza Bojorquez, Jaime Sepulveda, and Steffanie Strathdee) 

Infectious and Chronic Illness among Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Christine Murto)

Asylum Seekers at the Southern Border: The Effects of Federal Policies on Physical and Mental Health (Linda Hill)

Nowhere Near Enough: Deadly Labor in a Congolese Refugee Camp (Emily Lynch)

America's Wars and Iraqis' Lives: Toxic Legacies, Reproductive Vulnerabilities, and Regimes of Exclusion in the United States (Marcia Inhorn)

Refugee Reproductive Health: A Comparative Ethnography of Syrians' Experiences at Sites of First-Asylum Resettlement (Morgen Chalmiers)

Arab Refugees Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Domestic Violence: A Legal and Public Health Challenge (Maysa Hamza and Patrick Marius Koga)

Family-Based Mental Health Promotion for Somali Bantu and Bhutanese Refugees Resettled in the US: Results of and Implementation/Effectiveness Randomized Controlled Trial (Theresa Betancourt)

The Use of Waiting as a Detterrent to Migration, and Its Effect on the Well-being of Asylum Seekers (Olga Odgers Ortiz and Olga Olivas Hernandez) 

Trauma Loops: US Immigration Detention and Reverse Causality in PTSD (Hans Reihling)

Refugees on the Move: Health Along the Migratory Route Between Syria and California (Tala Al-Rousan)

"I'm Afraid I'll Die before I See You Again": Bureaucratic Violence and Ambiguous Loss among Refugees in the US (Bridget Haas)

Adapting to Mass Trauma and Displacement: Testing and Implementing the Adapt Model (Derrick Silove)

Does Humanitarian Mental Health Care Amount to Epistemic Violence or Is It a Matter of Saving Lives and Addressing Social Injustice? (Peter Ventevogel)