Swine Flu Sources Available For Media

Campus preparations: Officials at the University of Houston are closely monitoring updates on the Swine Flu outbreak provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The University of Houston Health Center is prepared to treat faculty, students and/or staff, and it has posted the latest Swine Influenza alerts on its Web site: http://www.uh.edu/admin/hc/. For more information about how the campus is responding, please contact Floyd Robinson, director of the UH Health Center, at 713-743-5151 or frobinson@uh.edu.

Personal care: Gail Hudson-Gillan, director of the UH Wellness Center, can provide advice about managing the stress associated with the outbreak. Contact her at 713-743-5461 or ggillan@uh.edu.

Medical history: Helen Valier, an instructional assistant professor at the Honors College, is a medical historian and can provide background briefings on the 1918 Flu Pandemic and the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak in the United States. Reach Valier at 713-743-9021 or hkvalier@uh.edu.

Medicine today: Clifford Dacso is a practicing internist and is board certified in infectious diseases, with many years of clinical and research experience in viral diseases. Contact Dacso, of UH's College of Technology and executive director of the Abramson Center for the Future of Health, at CDacso@tmhs.org.

Disease spread: College of Technology dean William Fitzgibbon is an expert on the development and analysis of mathematical models for the spread of infectious disease. To schedule an interview with Fitzgibbon, contact media relations representative Angela Hopp at 713-743-8153 or ahopp@uh.edu.

Epidemiology: Lawrence J.H. Schulze is an associate professor at UH's Cullen College of Engineering and an adjunct associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health. He can be reached at 713-743-4196 or ljhs@uh.edu.

Nutrition options: Siva Somasundaram, director of undergraduate biology studies at the University of Houston-Victoria, has 22 years of research experience and has trained both graduate medical students and taught immunology to biochemistry students. He can speak to the use of nutritional supplements in past flu outbreaks and how they may be used to stave off Swine Flu. Contact Somasundaram at 361-570-4204 or somasundarams@uhv.edu.

Business issues: Richard S. DeFrank, an associate professor at the C.T. Bauer College of Business, can address travel-related stress and organizational impacts of the outbreak. Contact DeFrank at 713-743-4678 or rdefrank@uh.edu.


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