NEWS

UNC establishes international health organization as non-profit corporation

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has established a new non-profit corporation, IntraHealth International Inc., dedicated to making improvements in international health issues.

IntraHealth, which officially began operations this month, incorporates the staff, research and outreach efforts of what was formerly Intrah, a program within the university’s School of Medicine.

With a staff of 220 worldwide – and current programs primarily funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development – IntraHealth officials expect to implement about $20 million in health program activities worldwide in the organization’s first year of operation.

Dr. Jeffrey Houpt, dean of UNC’s School of Medicine and newly named chairman of IntraHealth’s board of directors, was a major conceptual force in establishing the non-profit.

"The establishment of a non-profit corporation is the right thing to do for the university to remain competitive in the environment of international health programs, where non-profits and private sector organizations are increasingly prevalent," he said.

"I have seen first-hand what the staff at IntraHealth can do to make a difference in health care in the developing world, and I am confident the creation of the non-profit organization will better facilitate its ability to secure the funding it needs to fulfill its mission in the years to come."

Under the USAID’s Global Health Program, IntraHealth addresses global health issues not only affecting people of developing nations but also directly affecting health and environmental interests of U.S. citizens. These include family planning and reproductive health; child, maternal and adolescent health; and infectious diseases, including HIV-AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

UNC’s creation of a non-profit health organization will further enhance the university’s ability to respond to these and other global health concerns, said Dr. William H. Jansen, president of IntraHealth International and research professor of social medicine in UNC’s School of Medicine.

"As an affiliate of UNC, IntraHealth can continue to take advantage of the wealth of expertise within UNC – and as an independent non-profit organization, IntraHealth will have access to the array of partners, program opportunities and funding sources that can shape it as an organization with worldwide impact."

Most of IntraHealth’s programs focus on supporting health-care providers confronting serious health issues in low-resource settings. Examples include:

• India: Providing training so traditional birth attendants may provide better family planning counseling and more skilled delivery attendance, and better identify women with high-risk pregnancies.
  
• Ghana: Providing training so nurse-midwives can more effectively diagnose and treat adolescents with sexually transmitted infections.
  
• Rwanda: Working with partners to prepare the first maternity ward in one western town to help HIV-positive women prevent transmission of the virus to their fetuses and babies.
  
• El Salvador: Training more than 4,000 primary providers in family planning and reproductive health-service delivery.
  
• West Bank-Gaza: Addressing extreme reproductive health-care needs caused by armed conflict, including the need for greater access to emergency obstetric care to reduce the number of deaths of women in labor during transit to hospitals.

IntraHealth’s base of operations includes a network of regional and country offices that spans the globe, with an ongoing presence in 16 countries and activities in more than 30 nations of Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East.

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Note: Contact Jansen at (919) 843-2777 or bjansen@intrah.org.
IntraHealth contact: Tammy Forrester, (919) 962-9325 or tforrester@intrah.org