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Health Science Center Honors WHO Influenza Expert
The first international public health official to focus on planning for a flu pandemic received the second President’s Award for Leadership in Health at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Klaus Stöhr, D.V.M., Ph.D., answers
questions from the news media after
speaking on “Avian and Pandemic
Influenza: Are We Prepared?” at the
UT
School of Public Health at
Houston. Stöhr received the
President’s Award
for Leadership in
Health. Photo by John Everett
Health Science Center President James T. Willerson, M.D., presented the award to Klaus Stöhr, D.V.M., Ph.D., coordinator of the World Health Organization’s Global Influenza Programme, in a November ceremony at the UT School of Public Health.
In 2003, Stöhr coordinated WHO’s monitoring and responses to the SARS outbreak in South Asia. Today, he provides advice to WHO and national health authorities on policies and strategies for influenza pandemic preparedness and for the surveillance and prevention of seasonal influenza worldwide.
Willerson presented the award to Stöhr “for awakening the world to the risk of avian influenza.”
The lethal bird flu strain is difficult for humans to contract, but experts are watching its spread for fear it could mutate into a form that could pass easily between people and trigger a human influenza pandemic.
“We believe that another influenza pandemic will occur,” Stöhr said in his acceptance speech. “The severity is uncertain. The timing is unpredictable. But it will cause a global health emergency. We do have a window of opportunity if we act now to reduce death and disease, as well as social and economic disruption.”
Casscells Receives Army Service Medal
The U.S. Army Surgeon General, Lieutenant General
Kevin Kiley,
M.D., has presented the Meritorious
Service Medal for non-combat
achievement to
Lieutenant Colonel S.Ward Casscells, M.D. Casscells
was recognized in November for “exceptionally
meritorious
service as the U.S. Army Medical Command
Senior
Medical Advisor for Avian Influenza and
Pandemic Influenza.” While on active duty at the
Pentagon, Casscells made several trips
to the Middle
East and Southeast Asia to develop preparedness
and
response procedures and strategies for both the Army
and
the general public. Casscells is the John Edward
Tyson Distinguished Professor of
Medicine and Public
Health and vice president for biotechnology
at The
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
He also directs TexSHIELD, an Army-funded disaster
preparedness
and response program through the
Department of Defense
with special emphasis on avian
influenza.
The fact that there were pandemics in the past – regularly – is actually good news, he said. It shows that a pandemic “is not the end of the world.”
Priorities for preparedness include: detecting and containing the emerging pandemic virus and increasing production of flu vaccines and antiviral medications “as much as possible, as quickly as possible,” he said.
The President’s Award honors scientific acumen and extraordinary leadership in developing and encouraging public health measures to limit the spread of disease. The selection committee is chaired by S. Ward Casscells, M.D., the John E. Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Public Health and vice president for biotechnology at the UT Health Science Center.
Casscells and Mohammad Madjid, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the health science center, organized a meeting of the Texas Influenza Research Club at the School of Public Health before the award presentation. The day’s events were supported by independent educational grants from Roche Laboratories Inc. and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.
By Ina Fried, Public Affairs