Public Health Internship in Yunnan Province, China - June/July 2010

  China

• Kunming: 
Kunming
• Rural Areas: 
Rural Areas

Term: Summer 
Duration of Program: 2-4 weeks
Dates: 6/16/2010 to 7/22/2010

Description: Our internship trips in June and July 2010 are part of our work in Shangri-La County (Zhongdian), in Yunnan Province in south China.

This internship is an opportunity to gain hands on experience with public health and medical care in the developing world. Our interns will accompany and assist teams from our organization as we travel into remote villages around Yunnan, performing research, screening children for congenital heart disease, and offering free medical care to villagers who may otherwise lack access to adequate health care. Interns will not only have the opportunity to travel to places where few Westerners have ever been, but they will get a chance to see from the ground level how a public health and primary care system operates in the developing world.

Our work in June and July will occur in villages near Zhongdian (Shangri-La) in the northwest of Yunnan. The first part (6/16 to 6/30) will consist of adult research and adult clinics in Tibetan and Lisu villages. We will be accompanied by faculty from Kunming Medical College and Beijing University. The second part of the program (7/1 to 7/22) will consist of pediatric screening, pediatric clinics and adult clinics in Tibetan villages. During part of this period, we will be accompanied by a professor from UC-Irvine who will teach interns about pediatric congenital heart disease and assist us in correctly diagnosing and managing children with pediatric heart disease.

Highlights: The County in which we will be was formerly called Zhongdian County but was renamed in 2001 after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon in an effort to promote tourism. The local Tibetan population refers to it by the name Gyalthang. The terrain consists of towering mountains, the tallest of which are covered with snow and glaciers the year round, though surrounded by green, fertile valleys. We will be working at elevations over 10000 feet, so please take this into consideration if you are prone to altitude sickness. The weather is cold in winter but mild in summer. The area is demographically diverse for China, as most residents are from the ethnic minorities of Tibetan and Lisu. Food is rich in animal fat and dairy products made from the milk of the yak. On previous trips to the area, we have found a high prevalence of heart disease and hypertension in this area potentially due to the high fat, high salt diet. As high blood pressure and heart disease are quickly becoming epidemic problems in this area of Yunnan, our work has taken on greater importance for the people of Shangri-La County.

Qualifications: We require only that our interns have an interest in medicine in the developing world and that they are able to maintain a positive attitude in sometimes less-than-ideal living and working conditions. Candidates with backgrounds in clinical research and medicine will be given preference, but it is not a requirement. Preference is also given to candidates who have a level of proficiency in Mandarin, but again this is not a requirement.

Cost in US$: 1400 USD for June; 2000 USD for July; 3200 USD Combined

Experience Required: no

Typical Volunteer: Our previous interns and volunteers have been undergraduate, postgraduate, and medical students from around the world. Backgrounds vary from anthropological, international relations, public health, clinical medicine, and epidemiological.

Age Range: 18+

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants.

Application Process Involves:

• Other
• Phone Interview

Post-Program Services Include:

• Job and Internship Network

China California Heart Watch's Mission Statement: We, the China California Heart Watch, are a non-profit corporation working to further understanding and provide relief to the problems associated with hypertension and heart disease in rural western China. Based in Kunming, Yunnan's provincial seat, we work throughout the rural areas of Yunnan Province. We provide free training to village doctors in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension and heart disease, we do research in some of the most remote villages in all of Yunnan, and we provide free, expert cardiac care at health clinics we host when on research trips. Hypertension is now one of the leading causes of death in China. Additionally, the prevalence of hypertension in rural areas is now reaching the same level as that in urban centers. China's rapidly developing economy and infrastructure is focused on the urban, industrial areas, often leaving behind a vacuum in rural areas in regards to the public health system. We attempt to mitigate the effects of this vacuum by providing free training and primary care to village doctors and citizens.

Year Founded: 2006