World expert on epidemics and public health speaking at Berea College March 26th

The program is the 2009 Science Lecture sponsored by Berea College Convocations and is free and open to the public.

Dr. Michael T. Osterholm is Director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy of the University of Minnesota and Associate Director of the Department of Homeland’s Security National Center for Food Protection and Defense.  Appointed to the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity in 2005, Dr. Osterholm has led several investigations and research into various health care issues including infectious diseases, food borne diseases, vaccine-related diseases, and biological agents as weaponry. Dr. Osterholm advocates creating an organized structure on an international, national, regional, and private level as a necessary means of preparation to avoid potential social, economic, and psychological collapse on a wide scale that could result from a pandemic.

In the past 300 years, there have been ten pandemic outbreaks, four of which have occurred in the twentieth century.  These include the Spanish Influenza (1918-1919), the Asian Flu (1957), The Hong Kong Flu (1968-1972), and SAARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, 2003).  Of these four, the Spanish Influenza was the most devastating, killing nearly an estimated of 50 to 100 million people worldwide, accounting for more casualties than World War I.  With approximately 6.5 billion currently populating the planet, an outbreak of a similar proportion to the Spanish Influenza would cause incredible devastation and have far-reaching, global implications on a social, economic, and psychological level.