Athens, Ga. – Jennifer Friedman, a pediatrician who conducts international health research out of Lifespan’s Center for International Health Research at Brown University, will deliver the final 2009 Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard Lecture at 5 p.m., Tuesday, April 14 at the UGA Chapel. She will address “Still a ‘Wormy World’: The Global Burden of Helminthiasis,” and discuss her work in Brazil, Western Kenya and the Philippines.
In 1946, the president of the American Society of Parasitologists labeled planet Earth a “wormy world.” Sixty years later, helminth infections continue to wreak havoc on human health-especially when they gang up and colonize the same person at the same time. Friedman’s research addresses how parasitic diseases, particularly malaria and helminthiasis, cause morbidity for pregnant women and children.
“Friedman epitomizes the physician-scientist in her approach and understanding of global health issues and outstanding research on both very basic and very practical aspects of tropical diseases ranging from malaria to worm infections,” said Dan Colley, director of UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases. “Her extensive experience in Africa and the Philippines has led to new perspectives on how to treat children suffering from these types of infections, and to improve their nutrition, their development and their well being.”
The 2009 Voices from the Vanguard series featured Barney Graham, a leading HIV/AIDS researcher and chief of clinical trials at the NIH Vaccine Research Center; Colley, director of UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Diseases; and Sanaria Inc., founder, Steve Hoffman.
The “Global Diseases: Voices from the Vanguard” lecture series is a joint effort of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases. For additional information, see www.grady.uga.edu/knighthealth.