Senior health officials from Madagascar visited the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs late last month to discuss a possible collaboration, specifically communication initiatives focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and child survival on the island nation. The three visiting officials were in the country to attend the Global Health Council's annual conference in Washington, D.C.

Andry Rasamindrakotroka, Madagascar's minister of health; Charles Ravaonjanahary, ministry of health cabinet director; and Ma Umba Mabiala, a senior program officer at the School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs, on a recent visit to Johns Hopkins. Obscured in the photo is Fenosa Ratsimanetrimanana, executive secretary of Madagascar's national AIDS control program.

As a result of the Johns Hopkins visit, staff members of Public Health's CCP traveled to Madagascar to conduct a three-week HIV/AIDS prevention communications workshop that began on June 11. The Center for Communication Programs, established in 1988, is considered a pioneer in the field of mass-media public health campaigns and has to date developed and managed more than 300 country-based projects and contracts in 50 countries.