Release date: June 14, 2004

Global Health Leaders to Meet at Emory

Contact:
Amy Comeau, 404-727-8445, acomeau@emory.edu

Just two weeks after the G-8 Summit, global government health leaders from more than 70 developed and developing nations will convene at Emory June 24-25 for a forum that could almost be called the "G-80."

With emerging biological threats that do not recognize borders among countries—such as SARS, West Nile virus, anthrax and HIV/AIDS—the need for collaborative partnership and critical care from nurses, physicians and health leaders is acute, says Marla Salmon, dean of Emory's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. Salmon also is director of the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing, secretariat for the conference.

Titled, "Global Government Health Partners Leadership Forum 2004: Managing Emerging Biological Threats Through Professional Collaboration," the conference will bring together chief nursing officers, chief medical officers and ministers of health from across the globe.

Health leaders will discuss challenges, form partnerships, and devise approaches to handle global emerging biological threats. Participants will leave the conference with individually crafted, functional plans to carry out in their home countries.

"Many key partnerships, built at our first global conference continue to bring significant results to the world of global health, as will new working relationships cultivated at this forum," says Salmon.

Jeffery P. Koplan, vice president for academic affairs for Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and conference co-chair with Salmon, concurs, saying, "Threats like SARS or new strains of influenza travel quickly across national borders and demand quick, coordinated response from healthcare leaders globally. It is vitally important to have leaders who know and trust their colleagues and have thought deeply about the required responses ahead of time."

Featured speakers include: Julie Gerberding, CDC director; Jack C. Chow, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization; Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, prime minister, St. Kitts and Nevus; Peter McDermott, chief, HIV/AIDS Section, UNICEF; among many others. For more information, go to:

http://prod-nursing.emory.edu/lccin/gnp2004.shtml.

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