Mark your Calendar for a Live Webcast on Public Health and Disasters

The University of Pittsburgh (USA) will broadcast a lecture—live via the Internet—on public health, giving it what organizers predict will be the largest audience for an academic lecture in history. The lecture will discuss how epidemiologists can improve their response to disasters, such as by measuring the extent of a disaster and the effectiveness of assistance offered to its victims. Eric Noji, a special assistant to the U.S. Surgeon General for Emergency Preparadness will deliver the lecture.

The lecture, part of the John C. Cutler Global Health Lecture series, will be publicly available through the University’s School of Public Health web site on September 29 at 4:00 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Daylight Time) or GMT 20:00 hours. Bookmark this site: www.publichealth.pitt.edu, click on the "Inside GSPH" section on the right. Educators worldwide are invited to “donate” lectures on international health to the series. The lecture is available in five formats and if you are interested in viewing or distributing it by videoconferencing, telephone, PowerPoint or print media write to Ronald LaPorte (ronlaporte@aol.com).

Worth mentioning…

An intensive five-day training workshop on malaria control in complex emergencies will be held in New York in October. The fee-paying workshop is aimed at humanitarian organizations providing country program support and involved in policy development, agencies that fund and/or provide technical support in an emergency context and trainers and policy makers with an interest in public health in emergencies. Contact sian@mentor-initiative.net for more information.

Visit www.disastereducation.org to download a copy of Talking about Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages, a publication produced by the National Disaster Education Coalition. The guide covers topics such as chemical accidents, earthquakes, drought, floods, hurricanes and more, and is designed to provide disaster safety information to the general public. Although produced primarily for a U.S. audience, much of the information is useful for emergency managers, disaster (natural and human-caused) educators, public affairs personnel, mitigation specialists, the media and communicators outside the U.S. as well.