Research Interests:
Infectious disease, women's health, primary health care in low- and middle-income countries, social inequality, health policy, medical anthropology, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Educational Background:
- MA, University of Barcelona (History and Social Anthropology)
- RD, Polytechnic Institute of Barcelona (Nutrition)
- PhD, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (Ethnology and Social Anthropology)
- PhD, University of Barcelona (Sociology)
- MPH, Harvard School of Public Health (International Health)
Professional Achievements:
Among other awards, Dr. Castro is the recipient of the 2005 Rudolf Virchow Award of the Society for Medical Anthropology and the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on Women and AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2012, she was named Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology.
Selected Publications:
Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, "L'anthropologie médicale aux États-Unis" [Medical anthropology in the United States], in Francine Saillant and Serge Genest (eds.), Anthropologie médicale: ancrages locaux, défis globaux. Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 2005, pp. 91-112; Paris: Anthropos Economica, 2005. [English translation: Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, "Medical anthropology in the United States," in Francine Saillant and Serge Genest (eds.), Medical Anthropology: Regional Perspectives and Shared Concerns. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006, pp. 42-57.]
Arachu Castro, Renato Gusmão, M. Esperanza Martínez, Sarai Vivas (eds.), 2006, Barrio Adentro: Derecho a la salud e inclusión social en Venezuela. Caracas: Pan American Health Organization, 152 pp. ISBN 980-6678-02-8. [English translation: Mission Barrio Adentro: The Right to Health and Social Inclusion in Venezuela. 135 pp.; French translation: Barrio Adentro: Le droit à la santé et à l'inclusion sociale au Venezuela. 163 pp.].
César E. Abadía-Barrero and Arachu Castro, "Experiences of Stigma and Access to HAART in Children and Adolescents Living with HIV/AIDS in Brazil," Social Science & Medicine 62:1219-1228; 2006.
Michael Westerhaus and Arachu Castro, "How do Intellectual Property Law and International Trade Agreements Affect Access to Antiretroviral Therapy?" PLoS Medicine 3(8): e332; 2006.
Arachu Castro, "Ciencias sociales, medicina y salud pública: Un encuentro en torno al sida" [Social sciences, medicine, and public health: An encounter around AIDS], Temas 47:15-21; 2006.
Arachu Castro and Michael Westerhaus , "¿Libertad o monopolio? Patentes, tratados comerciales y acceso a tratamientos con antirretrovirales" [Freedom or monopoly? Patents, trade agreements and access to antiretroviral therapy], in Quaderns de l'Institut Català d'Antropologia 22:21-45; 2006.
Arachu Castro, "Sobre el derecho a la salud" [On the right to health], Revista Cubana de Salud Pública 32:1 (2006).
Arachu Castro and Michael Westerhaus , "Access to Generic Antiretrovirals: Inequality, Intellectual Property Law, and International Trade Agreements," Cadernos de Saúde Pública 23(S1):585-596; 2007.
Coeurlida Louis , Louise C. Ivers, Mary C. Smith Fawzi, Kenneth A. Freedberg, Arachu Castro, "Late presentation for HIV care in Central Haiti: Factors limiting access to care," AIDS Care 19(4):487-491; 2007.
Arachu Castro, Yasmin Khawja , Ida González-Núñez, "Sexuality, reproduction, and HIV in women: The impact of ART in elective pregnancies in Cuba," AIDS 21(S5):S49-S54; 2007.
Michael Westerhaus and Arachu Castro, "Inverting the Killer Commodity Model: Withholding Medicines from the Poor," in Merrill Singer and Hans Baer (eds.) Killer Commodities: A Critical AnthropologicalExamination of Corporate Products and Public Health. Berkeley, CA: Altamira Press, 2008; pp. 367-397.
Arachu Castro, "In and Out: User Fees and Other Unfortunate Events during Hospital Admission and Discharge," in Cadernos de Saúde Pública 24(5):1174-1178; 2008.
Arachu Castro, "Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean," in Challenges Posed by the HIV Epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean 2009. Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNAIDS, 2009; pp. 55-73. [Spanish translation: "Prevención de la Transmisión Maternoinfantil del VIH y de la Sífilis Congénita en América Latina y el Caribe", in Retos planteados por la epidemia del VIH en América Latina y el Caribe 2009. Lima: Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNAIDS, 2009; pp. 57-75].
Arachu Castro and Utpal Sandesara , Integración de la atención prenatal con los procesos de detección y manejo clínico del VIH y de la sífilis en el Perú / Integration of Prenatal Care with the Testing and Treatment of HIV and Syphilis in Peru. Lima: Socios En Salud, Ministry of Health of Peru (MINSA), UNAIDS, UNICEF, 2009, 154 pp. ISBN 978-612-45430-1-2.
Maureen Connolly , Claudia Bautista, Arachu Castro, "Utilización del Formulario de la Historia Clínica Perinatal y Neonatal en República Dominicana" [Use of the Perinatal and Neonatal Clinical History Form in the Dominican Republic], Boletín del Centro Nacional de Investigaciones en Salud Materno Infantil 19(3):17-23; 2009.
Michael E. Herce , Jacob A. Chapman, Arachu Castro, Gabriel García Salyano, Kaveh Khoshnood, "A Role for Community Health Promoters in Tuberculosis Control in the State of Chiapas, Mexico," Journal of Community Health 35(2):182-9; 2010.
Arachu Castro, Yasmin Khawja , and James Johnston , "Social Inequalities and Dengue Transmission in Latin America," in Ann Herring and Alan Swedlund (eds.) Plagues and Epidemics: Infected Spaces Past and Present. New York, Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2010; pp. 231-249.
Matida L. et al, Avaliação da Transmissão Vertical do HIV no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil [Evaluation of Vertical Transmission of HIV in São Paulo State, Brazil]. São Paulo: Programa Estadual DST/AIDS de São Paulo, 32 pp., 2010.
Arachu Castro, José Ramón Espinoza, María Esther Quintana, Alba Alvarado, Julio Piura, Yadira González. Integración de la Atención Prenatal con los Procesos de Detección y Manejo Clínico del VIH y de la Sífilis en Nicaragua [Integration of Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and Clinical Management of HIV and Syphilis in Nicaragua]. Managua: UNICEF 2011.
Arachu Castro, "En estado de buena esperanza: Análisis de la experiencia reproductiva en mujeres con VIH en Cuba" [In state of good hope: Analysis of the reproductive experience of women with HIV in Cuba], in Jesús Armando Haro (ed.)El planteamiento de una epidemiología sociocultural: Un diálogo en torno a susentido, métodos y alcances. Buenos Aires: Lugar Editorial and El Colegio de Sonora, 2011; pp. 155-168.
Arachu Castro, Análisis Regional Consolidado de los Informes UNGASS Presentados por 17 Países de América Latina en 2011[Consolidated Regional Analysis of the UNGASS Reports Submitted by 17 Latin American Countries]. Panama: UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Latin America, 2011, 130 pp.
Eddy Pérez-Then, Marija Miric, Arachu Castro. Integración de la Atención Prenatal con los Procesos de Detección y Manejo Clínico del VIH y de la Sífilis en la República Dominicana [Integration of Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and Clinical Management of HIV and Syphilis in the Dominican Republic]. Santo Domingo: UNICEF, 2011, 178 pp.
Multiple authors. 2010 Situation Analysis: Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis in the Americas. Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization, 2011, 47 pp. (Note: Arachu Castro drafted the report and conducted data analysis).
Carlos Aragonés-López , Jorge Pérez-Ávila, Mary C. Smith Fawzi, Arachu Castro, Quality of Life of People with HIV/AIDS Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Cuba: A Cross-Sectional Study of the National Population. American Journal of Public Health 102(5):884-892; 2012.
Ari Johnson , Adeline Goss, Jessica Beckerman, Arachu Castro, Hidden Costs: The Direct and Indirect Impact of User Fees on Access to Malaria Treatment and Primary Care in Mali, Social Science & Medicine 75:1786-1792; 2012.
Personal Statement:
Arachu Castro, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America at Tulane University. Her major interests are how social inequalities are embodied as differential risk for pathologies common among the poor and how health policies may alter the course of epidemic disease and other pathologies afflicting populations living in poverty. As a medical anthropologist trained in public health, Dr. Castro works mostly in infectious disease and women's health in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has worked in Mexico, Argentina, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. Prior to joining Tulane in 2013, she was Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Senior Advisor for Mexico and Guatemala at Partners In Health, and Medical Anthropologist in the Division of Global Health Equity in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In recent years, most of her work has been conducted through The Latin America and Caribbean Initiative for the Integration of Prenatal Care with the Testing and Treatment of HIV and Syphilis (ILAP), which she founded in 2007 in collaboration with UNICEF, UNAIDS, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and several Latin American national AIDS programs. Published country reports include: Peru, Nicaragua, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Dominican Republic. The operational research objectives of ILAP were to: 1) qualitatively analyze the current status of prenatal care and services to diagnose and treat HIV and syphilis; 2) inform, support, and monitor the required changes to reach the integration of prenatal care with the testing and treatment of HIV and syphilis as countries implement their national strategy. The aim of ILAP was to contribute to the integration of prenatal care with the diagnosis and management of HIV and syphilis and to improve PMTCT efforts among participating countries. ILAP has worked in coordination with the PAHO and UNICEF Regional Initiative for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In 2010, building on the research strategy and strong institutional collaborations developed through ILAP, Dr. Castro set in motion a research approach to prevent maternal mortality. The Maternal Mortality Prevention (MMP) Project in the Dominican Republic is conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health of the DR and UNICEF. In Peru, MMP is conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Peru, Dartmouth College, and Partners In Health.
Currently, Dr. Castro is focusing on the analysis of different models of primary health care throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and the different health outcomes they each achieve. The goal is to attain a better knowledge of which types of primary care arrangements and interactions with other levels of care are better suited to improve health indicators and, ultimately, to better serve the needs of the millions of people, urban and rural, who live in direst conditions.
Level of Instruction:
graduate
undergraduate
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