Letters

Spring 1997 publication called Columbia Public Health.Clear Communicator

Just a quick note to tell you that I had a chance to review your Spring 1997 publication called Columbia Public Health, and I thought it was excellent. Certainly, it is a vehicle to communicate with clarity the activities of the School.

Robert E. Canfield, M.D.
Irving Professor of Medicine Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons
New York, New York

City Role in TB Center

I am writing to correct a serious error of omission in the spring 1997 Columbia Public Health. The New York City Department of Health, Bureau of Tuberculosis Control, played the key role in the development of the Model Tuberculosis Clinic and Training Center at Harlem Hospital. This is not mentioned in the article about the Center on page 23. The proposal to fund the Center was written and submitted by the Department of Health (DOH) in 1993 and the grant was awarded to DOH, which contracts with Harlem Hospital Center to operate the Center.

In addition, the Center is located in a DOH building and has the collaboration of the DOH Public Health Advisors.Each budget year, DOH advocates for continued funding and provides technical assistance to the Center. While it is certainly true that Drs. Findley, ford and El-Sadr have made and continue to make vital contributions to the Center’s activities, to ignore the key role of the DOH is to deny the valuable and continuing contributions to the Model TB Center of the Bureau of TB Control and of numerous CSPH alumni including, among others, Dr. tom Frieden, Bill Bower, Susan Rhodes, Eve Cagan, Julie Minter and you truly.

Gail S. Cairns, M.P.H.
Director, Strategic initiatives Bureau of TB Control, The City of New York Department of Health
New York, New York

Editor’s Note: Thank you for sharing your thoughts on our coverage of the Model TB Clinic. Although an unintended omission, it is nonetheless unfortunate that the Department of Public Health’s involvement was not mentioned in the article. We regret the oversight.

Australian Approval

The reason I chose to contact you is the positive impression that your magazine, Columbia Public Health, made on me after an exhaustive search of web sites. I am researching the feasibility of publishing a quarterly health magazine on behalf of the Australian Capital Territory Government, to cater for the interests of health professionals and interested members of the public.

I want it to be the sort of magazine a person would impress an interstate colleague with—and what I saw in the spring, 1996 edition of CPH just about sums up the direction I’m hoping to take with my ‘local’ magazine. One interest at this stage is the means of sourcing material of common interest (e.g., teenage smoking) from publications which do not necessarily reach target markets in this country.

Jim Devine
Manager, Communications and Marketing ACT Department of Health and Community Care
Canberra, Australia

Environmental Justice

I have developed a course in earth science and environmental justice and would like to reprint your article, “Air Plagues Harlem,” [Fall 1996], for use in the class. We are examining a variety of environmental justice problems nationally and globally. We are also looking in our own backyard. Therefore, we are examining environmental problems in Harlem and so asthma is relevant to our examinations.

Jill Schneiderman
Associate Professor of Geology Department of Geology and Geography Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, New York

FGM Activist

The article on Female Genital Mutilation [Winter 1995] is one that many women must see. Thank you for covering this growing health concern for many women as we band together to stop this horrible practice. Any replies with further information would be fantastic as I am currently a university student and working hard to educate my fellow students.

Kimberly Denny
University of Washington Seattle, Washington

Alumnus Found

I just came across Columbia Public Health online, and would like to get a subscription for my mother, a CSPH graduate from the 1940s who still works as a public health nurse.

L. Caporale
New York, New York

Editor’s Note: Columbia Public Health is free and is sent to all alumni for whom we have a current mailing address. Please send the current mailing address and we will be pleased to update our records. as CSPH celebrates its 75th anniversary the School has stepped up its efforts to locate alumni/ae. We appreciate your help.

Clarifications

The Spring 1997 Student News item, “Biostatistics offers New Degree,” referred to the Division’s new clinical research methods track as a degree. Technically, this is not correct. The track is being offered as part of the existing degree program, with the official designation of Master of Science in Biostatistics (Clinical Research Methods).

The Spring 1997 item on the CSPH internet home page provided the wrong address for the site. The correct address is http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/sph.