Media Advisory: TB panel to address state of research, innovations at free screening

ATTENTION: Reporters covering public and global health

WHAT: “TB Global to Local,” a free public screening of excerpts from Frontline documentary “TB Silent Killer,” followed by a panel discussion led by UC Berkeley faculty that highlights the history of tuberculosis in the San Francisco Bay Area, and new technologies being developed that can improve disease diagnosis and research.

Image courtesy of Frontline.

The event, sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Henry Wheeler Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases (CEND) and the Kaiser Family Foundation, focuses attention on an infectious disease that kills 1.3 million people each year.

WHEN: 6-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1

WHERE: UC Berkeley’s Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, Room 125. There is a map of campus available online.

WHO: The panelists are:

• Stefano Bertozzi, dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, who will provide an overview of TB’s impact on global health and current efforts to control its spread
• George Rutherford, Salvatore Pablo Lucia Professor and head of UCSF’s Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, who will discuss how TB affects our local community
• Lee Riley, chair of UC Berkeley’s Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases, who will share information about ongoing epidemiological studies of TB in India, Brazil and other countries where the disease is endemic
• Daniel Fletcher, Purnendu Chatterjee Chair in Engineering Biological Systems at UC Berkeley’s Department of Bioengineering, who will highlight how new technologies are helping improve TB diagnostics

DETAILS: The full Frontline documentary aired on PBS, Tuesday, March 25, the day after World TB Day. The UC Berkeley screening and discussion are free, but attendees must register online in advance. More information is online here.