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PAHO NEWS: Press Releases, Job Vacancies, and Other
Information from the Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) via the Canadian Society for International Health
(CSIH) http://www.csih.org; Technical Representative in
Canada for PAHO
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First Annual Conference of the International Society for
Equity in Health
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The Interim Organizing Secretariat of the International
Society for Equity in Health are pleased to invite you
to participate in this important conference to be held
in La Havana, Cuba from June 29-30, 2000 and to be part
of the creation of this new scientific society.
The International Society for Equity in Health (ISEqH)
wishes to encourage advances in knowledge about the
importance of equity in the improvement of the health of
all people and to promote the application of knowledge
to activities directed toward this goal.
Conference themes include: pathways; evaluation of
interventions; methodology; policy and collaborative
efforts; and populations at risk (children and
adolescents, women, pregnancy, minorities). Reduced
early registration rates are available until April 15,
2000.
For more information, please visit http://www.iseqh.org
or contact the International Society for Equity in
Health, Facultad de Ciencias Medicas, Centro INUS -
Calle 60 y 120, 1900 La Plata, Argentina Tel/Fax: (54-
221)423-5755 [log in to unmask]
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Inter-American Conference in Distance Education in
Health
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The conference takes place April 25-27, 2000 at
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City.
It will be a unique event bringing together, via
satellite, professionals from distance education and
health education throughout the Americas.
The central theme of the conference is the potential of
distance education to improve the effectiveness and
outreach of training programs for public health
personnel. Conference topics include: training health
personnel; instructional design; use of communication
and information technologies; experiences in educational
development; and development and evaluation of training
projects.
The conference will be transmitted via satellite to 31
subsites in the Americas. The Canadian sub-site is
Acadia University Continuing and Distance Education.
For more information, or to register, contact Liz
Pineda-Romero, The Pennnsylvania State University, CREAD
Office-PAHO Conference, 211 Mitchell Building,
University Park PA USA 16802-3601 Tel: (814) 863-0488
Fax: (814) 865-3290 [log in to unmask]
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PAHO's Ciro de Quadros Receives Albert Sabin Gold Medal
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Dr. Ciro de Quadros, who directs the Pan American Health
Organization's Division of Vaccines and Immunization,
has been selected to receive the Albert Sabin Gold Medal
for his "central roles in the eradication of polio from
the Western Hemisphere and the ongoing measles
eradication efforts in the Americas."
The announcement was made by the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine
Institute, which gives the award each year "to an
exemplary contributor to disease prevention." The award
will be presented to Dr. de Quadros by Dr. D.A.
Henderson, a previous award winner who directed the
successful global smallpox eradication program, at the
Third Annual Conference on Vaccine Research in
Washington, D.C. on April 30.
"Ciro de Quadros is an extraordinarily apt choice for
the Sabin Gold Medal because he upholds Albert Sabin's
ideals and quest to conquer disease with vaccines. His
entire career has been devoted to improving public
health throughout the world, especially in the Americas.
He has led successful efforts to eradicate smallpox and
polio. He has shared his talents with the world,
treating patients in clinics, directing complex
multinational immunization programs, advising the heads
of the world's top health agencies, teaching future
physicians and public health specialists, and publishing
extensively in leading scientific journals," said H.R.
Shepherd, chairman of the Sabin Vaccine Institute board
of directors.
The Sabin Institute, a nonprofit think tank dedicated to
disease prevention, was founded to continue the work of
Dr. Sabin, who envisioned the enormous potential of
vaccines to prevent deadly diseases and developed the
oral live virus polio vaccine. In 1960, after extensive
worldwide preliminary trials over the previous five
years, Dr. Sabin's oral polio vaccine was first used in
approximately 100 million children in Europe, while
about 100 million persons of all ages received the
vaccine in the United States between 1962 and 1964.
Estimates suggest that in its first two years of
worldwide use, Dr Sabin's vaccine prevented nearly
500,000 deaths and five million cases of paralytic
polio. Currently, polio vaccines save an estimated
600,000 lives each year worldwide.
Dr. de Quadros, who earned his medical degree in Brazil
in 1966 and a master's in public health in 1968, joined
PAHO in 1977 after working on the smallpox eradication
program in Ethiopia. He led the polio eradication effort
in the Americas, which began in 1985, with the last case
of polio reported in a young Peruvian boy, Luis Fermin
Tenorio Cortez, in August 1991. Polio was declared
eradicated from the Western Hemisphere in 1994, and an
effort to eradicate polio from the world, using the
strategies first developed in the Americas, is now
underway.
The Sabin Institute's Mr. Shepherd said, "Dr. Sabin
showed us that, just as viruses know no borders, vaccine
research and immunization can transcend political
boundaries and tensions, helping to resolve conflicts as
opposing sides work together to fight disease. Dr. de
Quadros continues to blaze trails in vaccine diplomacy,
working to make all peoples healthier and to break down
barriers to peace."
PAHO, which also serves as the Regional Office for the
Americas of the World Health Organization, works to
improve health and raise living standards in all the
countries of the Americas. For further information,
photos, or B-roll, contact: Daniel Epstein, tel (202)
974-3459 , fax (202) 974-3143, Pan American Health
Organization, Office of Public Information, email
[log in to unmask], Internet: http://www.paho.org or
John Clymer of the Sabin Institute, 703 922-0666,
Internet: http://www.sabin.org
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This document is available, with full formatting and
accents, at http://www.csih.org/paho_ndx.html
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