Our department is leading research and prevention activities that impact public health by training students to evaluate and respond to important public health issues in aging and chronic disease prevention, reproductive health, environmental health, and infectious diseases.
News
Méndez receives inaugural Pitt Health Sciences Community Building Excellence Award
During the 2026 EMBRACE Summit, Dara D. Méndez, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, received one of two inaugural Pitt Health Sciences Community Building Excellence Awards. She was recognized for advancing maternal and reproductive health and justice among Black people in Allegheny County.
A resistance gene that defeats most available antibiotics Is turning up in more American hospitals
Unlike most hospital outbreaks, the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) gene can spread between different bacteria on mobile DNA called plasmids, making it particularly difficult to contain. "The gene is inherently mobile," said recent epidemiology doctoral graduate Nathan Raabe. Alex Sundermann, assistant professor of epidemiology, added that bacteria readily acquire the gene because it enhances their ability to survive, contributing to the spread of highly drug-resistant infections.
Congo’s Ebola outbreak has killed over 1,000 people
University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health's Jean Nachega, associate professor of epidemiology, who is advising African health authorities, says he does not expect the Ebola outbreak in the Congo to reach the CDC’s worst-case scenario but cautioned that the challenges remain “huge.”