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Symposium discusses diseases

The fear of contagious disease often occupies headlines and news channels, from major pandemic threats like SARS and avian flu to recent outbreaks of mumps and a highlypublicized case of the bubonic plague in Los Angeles this past week.

Some of that talk came out of the news and into the Forum South Lounge this past week as the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, Internatonal Relations and Human Rights hosted a symposium called "Challenges Presented by Emerging Infectious Diseases" from Tuesday to Thursday.

Specific topics ranged from the devastating 1918 influenza epidemic to a microbiological perspective on the use of antibiotics to fight disease to biological warfare.

Wayne Moyer, Political Science, is the director of the Rosenfield Program. He said that this symposium, the last of the year, had been "brought more of the ?science people' out" than the usual public policy-focused symposium. "That's a good thing," Moyer said.

The role of the news media in covering epidemics was also addressed in the symposium. Moyer said that while the symposium emphasized the danger of pandemics, the news media usually "oversimplify" and "sensationalize" stories about disease. "They pick up the worst possible case [of a disease]," Moyer said, though he said that sometimes oversimplification can help communicate dangers to the public.

Dr. Jon Temte of the University of Wisconsin gave the Thursday night talk on a topic that has dominated headlines recently-avian flu.

"Avian flu exists out there," Dr. Temte said, "but no one can tell you whether or not it's a threat to people in this country."

Abigail Salyers from the University of Iowa discussed the role of vaccines in fighting disease on Wednesday night, and Moyer said that her discussion of bacteria mutation stuck with him. "It's sort of like an arms race out there," Moyer said. "I'm not sure who's winning.

-David Montgomery

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