The Johns Hopkins University Center for American Indian Health has become a national leader in partnering with tribes to achieve renewed health and well-being for America’s first peoples. All of the Center’s programs are designed with local community advisory boards to ensure cultural competency and community acceptance.

Since its origins with Southwestern tribes in 1980’s, the Center’s mission is to raise health status, self-sufficiency and health leadership to the highest possible level.

The Center operates 12 satellites health stations on the Navajo, White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, New Mexico Pueblos and Upstate New York Tonawanda Indian reservation and the Tuba City Office is one of them. We work in collaboration with the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation along with the Pediatric Department, Infection Control Department, Maternal Health Department and the Hospital Laboratory.

The Center offers a community–based research and health services through out the Navajo Reservation. The Tuba City Office works on the following branches:

Infectious Disease
Collaborative work with the Native American tribes to prevent infectious disease of disproportionate morbidity and mortality to Native American communities. There is a historical background of accomplishments on health prevention and immunization programs in the Tuba City community and the surroundings.

Preventing RSV
Disease Since 2004, we have worked with Southwestern tribes to show that a new antibody against RSV, a life-threatening respiratory illness for Native Americans and other children in the U.S. and around the world, reduced hospitalizations for RSV among the Navajo and Apache babies by 83%. We are now studying the impact of this same antibody on preventing asthma in childhood. RSV is one of the major causes of the estimated 1.7 million childhood deaths from pneumonia every year around the globe. The significance of our continued findings will impact children and families all over the world.

Active Laboratory-Based Surveillance
The objective of the surveillance is to identify all cases of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae(Spn), Haemophilus influenzae (Hi) and Neisseria meningitides (Nmn) among residents of the Navajo and White Mountain Apache reservations regardless of tribal affiliation, race or ethnicity. The surveillance is designed to be population, active and laboratory based for the diseases of interest.

We have worked in collaboration with Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation Infection Disease Department and the CDC for the H1N1 swine flu cultures and data collection.

Behavioral Health

Family strengthening programs established on reservations and run by Native para-professional trained by the Center for American Indian Health.

Cradling for the future
Grant program on assisting teen parents on parenting skills.

Menus for life
Grant program on providing nutrition information and meals for the person in the community who is interested.