November 7, 2000

WHAT:

A group of eight Russian doctors is attending a training course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to develop more effective strategies for identifying and treating tuberculosis (TB) in their home region of Kemerovo. Russia has been identified by the World Health Organization as a “hot spot” for multi-drug resistant TB, a major health problem facing the country. The course is sponsored by the Gorgas Tuberculosis Initiative, coordinated by UAB, in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders, an international medical relief organization.

WHEN:

November 6 - 17, 2000

WHERE:

UAB School of Public Health

Ryals Public Health Building

1665 University Boulevard

Birmingham, AL

WHO:

Dr. Michael Kimerling, associate professor of internal medicine and epidemiology and international health at UAB, is leading the training course. Kimerling also directs the Gorgas TB Initiative at UAB, which works with Doctors Without Borders to plan and implement TB treatment programs in Russia.

Russian TB officials participating in the training represent the Kemerovo Oblast TB dispensary, the health department, the corrections department, the Medical Academy and the Medical Institute.

MORE:

TB, a contagious lung disease, accounts for more deaths worldwide than any other infectious disease, killing two to three million people a year. Through training, research and intervention, the Gorgas Tuberculosis Initiative works to improve disease surveillance and TB control programs, and to develop and implement intervention programs to reduce TB worldwide.