Samantha Chai ’19

Major

Woodrow Wilson School

Project Title

The Impact of Campaign Mode Vaccination on Routine Immunization in India

Presentation Link

View Samantha's Presentation

Certificate(s): Global Health and Health Policy

I collaborated on three projects in India related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is a growing concern there. I got to work alongside leading health-policy experts at CDDEP and I participated in a meeting at the regional World Health Organization office about a paper they commissioned on AMR and primary health care. I also attended a conference about addressing AMR in an effort to reduce neonatal and child mortality. My second summer living in India also presented unplanned field experiences such as watching an airport pharmacist offer to prescribe antibiotics to someone who only wanted Benadryl. With the help of CDDEP’s director, who is my thesis adviser, I explored a measure on the pre-infection front of AMR for my thesis: vaccination. Vaccines would reduce India’s occurrence of infectious diseases, which are fueling antibiotic misuse and AMR. For my research, I interviewed five stakeholders on whether the polio-eradication campaign in India hindered routine immunization, and I visited a government-sponsored maternal and childhealth immunization session.



Internship Year

2018

Project Category

Water and Health

Organization(s)

The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy (CDDEP)- New Delhi, India

Mentor(s)

Ramanan Laxminarayan, Senior Research Scholar, Princeton Environmental Institute