Pulitzer Center Update

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Honors "A Second Chance"

The Science Magazine cover for the award-winning story featured Stanis Malom, a 15-year old Papua boy whose leg is disfigured by yaws disease. Image by Brian Cassey. Papua New Guinea, 2018. 

The Science Magazine cover for the award-winning story featured Stanis Malom, a 15-year old Papua boy whose leg is disfigured by yaws disease. Image by Brian Cassey. Papua New Guinea, 2018.

Pulitzer Center grantees Martin Enserink and Brian Cassey were honored with the 2019 American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene Communications Award for their story, "A Second Chance." The article was published as part of their Pulitzer Center-supported project, "Oriol Mitjà Plans End to Yaws Disease."

Enserink and Cassey traveled to Papua New Guinea in 2018 to report on yaws disease, a chronic infection that affects skin, bone, and cartilage. Enserink wrote the article for Science Magazine, with accompanying photographs by Cassey. The story features Oriol Mitjà, a physician-scientist from Spain who is on a mission to eradicate yaws. Freelance journalist Luca Tancredi Barone contributed reporting, and Science news editor Tim Appenzeller edited the award-winning story.

Enserink is a science journalist and international news editor at Science. Cassey is a photojournalist based in Australia. 

The ASTMH presents an annual Communications Award to a work of writing that "recognizes excellence in tropical medicine storytelling through the written word," according to the ASTMH website. For a list of previous winners, vist the ASTMH website.