CDC chief to give Oppenheimer lecture

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http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2006/07/31/headline_news/news01.txt CDC chief to give Oppenheimer lecture ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@..., Monitor Assistant EditorA national figure at the forefront of the nation's battle against pandemic diseases will deliver the prestigious Oppenheimer Lecture this year. Dr. Gerberdin, director of

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will speak on "21st Century Health Protection Challenges: Preparing for Pandemics."The 36th lecture in the series, Gerberding's talk will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 7, at Duane Auditorium. The lectures are sponsored by the J. Oppenheimer Memorial Committee. The philanthropic organization also supports a number of college scholarships for students of northern New Mexico.Gerberding was the first woman to be named director of the CDC, the nation's top health promotion, preparedness and disease prevention agency. She has led the agency's bioterrorism work and has held the titles of CDC acting director for science and public health and acting deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases.Gerberding came to national prominence after 9/11, when she headed the national response to the anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001. Los Alamos National Laboratory played a role in those events, analyzing the genetic material for forensic clues about possible sources and provenance at the time. The lab continues to contribute to pandemic preparedness through computer modeling and simulation and with its Influenza Sequence Database, an archive of genetic codes for worldwide influenza strains.Gerberding has been deeply involved in studies of HIV, SARS and monkey pox during her career.While waves of concern come and go about the readiness of the country to withstand a severe pandemic,

Gerberding's job gives her a unique and authoritative perspective.In testimony to the House Energy and Commerce committee, she described various levels of flu contagion in economic terms."Seasonal influenza causes an average of 36,000 deaths each year in the United States, mostly among the elderly and nearly 200,000 hospitalizations," she said.But, she noted, the impact of a pandemic featuring avian flu or another flu virus can't be predicted.At a "medium-level" a pandemic here could cause 89,000 to 207,000 deaths, between 314,000 and 734,000 hospitalizations, 18 to 42 million outpatient visits, and another 20 to 47 million people feeling sick."Between 15 percent and 35 percent of the United States population could be affected by an influenza pandemic, and the economic impact in our country alone could range between $7.3 and $166.5 billion," she said.CDC's recent emphasis has been on local

preparedness.Gerberding was born in South Dakota. She earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She also holds a master's degree in public health from the University of California.According to biographical information on the CDC website, Gerberding resides in Atlanta with her husband, , who is a software engineer.A personal note added that Gerberding relaxes by scuba diving, reading on the beach, gardening and doting on her three cats.Last year's Oppenheimer Lecture speaker was Christof Koch, one of the founders of the field of computational neuroscience.In 2004, Wilczak was the speaker, one of three physicists who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for that year. Kennan, I.I. Rabi, Murray Gell-Mann, and are among the notable figures who have spoken in the 35 previous lectures in this series.Flu Terms DefinedSeasonal (or

common) flu is an illness in the respiratory system that can be transmitted between people. Most people have some immunity. Vaccines are available, but supplies have been limited in recent years.Avian (or bird) flu is caused by influenza viruses that occur naturally among wild birds. The H5N1 variant is deadly to domestic fowl and can be transmitted from birds to humans. There is no human immunity and no vaccine is available. So far, H5N1 has not adapted to be transmitted from one human to another.Pandemic flu is virulent human flu that causes a global outbreak, or pandemic, of serious illness. Because there is little natural immunity, the disease can spread easily from person to person. Currently, there is no pandemic flu. - Source: CDC

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