Charlie Rose Science Series to Focus on the Challenge of Researching and Implementing Effective Treatments for Diseases of the Develo...( Roundtable examines critical and e...),Health

Roundtable examines critical and emerging threats to global health and

socio-economic factors that affect prevalence of these diseases

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The 20th century ushered in many notable medical advances and achievements in public health. However, the increased incidence and burden of major infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and the re-emergence of tuberculosis, present critical health challenges to the global community. As part of his ongoing Science Series on PBS, Charlie Rose, co-host Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Laureate, and President of Rockefeller University, and leading voices, will address complex health issues in the developing world and the socio-economic factors that contribute to the spread of these diseases. The roundtable will discuss initiatives aimed at fighting infectious diseases, protecting women and children, and strengthening global public health systems. The conversations will cover the challenge of researching and implementing affordable treatments, and the physical, political and psychological obstacles that poverty presents in getting therapies to people who need them.

The tenth episode in the 12-part Charlie Rose Science Series, sponsored by Pfizer Inc, will begin airing on Monday, October 29, 2007, on more than 200 PBS stations across the country.

HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, hookworm infection, and eye diseases claim millions of lives across the globe every year. Approximately 25 million people have died of HIV/AIDS and based on United Nations statistics from 2002, malaria accounted for nearly 11 percent of all children's deaths in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, of the 8.8 million new cases of tuberculosis in 2005, nearly 7.5 million occurred in Asia and sub- Saharan Africa, resulting in well over one million deaths. Diseases like hookworm, which affects between 600 and 740 million per year, and certain eye diseases such as trachoma, have
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