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Don Francis
Executive Director Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases
Confronting deadly epidemics around the world....
Tuesday, May 22, 20074:00 PM
Simularium, Engineering 2 Bldg., room 180
Announcement:
Distinguished Lecture - Jack Baskin School of Engineering Tenth Anniversary Celebration
Abstract:
In every corner of the world, the approach to deadly epidemics is
much the same—to determine the “who, what, where, and why”—
defi ning characteristics of the newly found outbreak. Thereafter,
control options—depending on the causative agent and its means
of transmission from person to person—can be explored. Once
the pieces of the epidemiologic puzzle are put together, the team
determines what intervention tools are available and how best to
apply them. Ebola is one of the most dangerous infections of
humans yet there are few tools available to control it, so simple
isolation of infectious patients is used. Similarly, the
approach to early cholera epidemics depended mainly on
treatment of ill people and redesign of safe water systems.
At the other extreme have been diseases for which safe and eff ective vaccines are available, like smallpox. During the 1960s–70s, the World Health Organization coordinated a highly successful worldwide campaign to discover all outbreaks and vaccinate all adults and children in contact with each case, essentially eradicating smallpox from the world. A similar campaign has more recently been launched to eradicate polio from the world, with huge progress as polio has been cornered into a few areas of West Africa and northern India. Other vaccine-preventable diseases such as hepatitis, diphtheria, meningitis, and pneumonia have been confronted by internationally funded control programs.
Biography:
As an infectious disease–trained
pediatrician and epidemiologist, Dr. Francis has
over 30 years’ experience in epidemic control
and vaccines. He spent 21 years working at the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control on vaccinepreventable
diseases such as measles, cholera,
smallpox, and hepatitis B.
Dr. Francis has worked on HIV/AIDS since 1981. He initially directed CDC’s AIDS laboratory that worked closely with the Institute Pasteur to identify the causative virus. He spent 7 years developing and assessing HIV-prevention programs including assistance to the Sudan, through WHO, and Switzerland, through CDC. His early work on AIDS was highlighted in the book and fi lm, And the Band Played On.
Since retiring from CDC in 1992, he has focused on vaccine development. He helped found the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, joined Genentech developing HIV vaccines, and started VaxGen to ensure that an HIV vaccine would be developed. At VaxGen, he initiated the world’s fi rst trials in the developing world—Thailand. In 2004, Dr. Francis co-founded the nonprofi t Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases, dedicated to developing preventive vaccines for AIDS and diseases of the less-developed world.
Hosted by Professor Phil Berman