The current Ebola outbreak has claimed thousands of lives and has been declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” by the World Health Organization. The alarming rate of new infections in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and the spread of cases beyond West Africa to the US and Europe, continues to challenge the international community’s existing strategies for controlling the infectious disease. Isolated Ebola epidemics have occurred in the past, but what explains the virulence of this particular outbreak and how can it be contained? What essons are governments, NGOs, and doctors learning from this crisis to help them prepare for future outbreaks?

SPEAKERS:

Michael J. Nyenhuis is president and chief executive officer of AmeriCares, where he leads a global health and emergency response organization that increases access to care in more than 90 countries. He oversees an annual budget of approximately $500 million and has oversight of the AmeriCares offices in the US, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Japan, and the Philippines, as well as a network of free health clinics in the organization’s home state of Connecticut. Nyenhuis previously served as the president and chief executive officer of MAP International.

Sola Olopade is a professor of medicine and clinical director of the Center for Global Health and faculty member at the Maclean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. A skilled pulmonologist with expertise in asthma and chronic obstructive lung diseases, his research focuses on the relationship between environmental and genetic factors and how they affect the expression of pulmonary diseases, particularly in developing countries.

Nirav Shah, MD, is in the Global Life Sciences practice of the law firm Sidley Austin, LLP. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where he teaches courses in global public health and mathematical epidemiology. Shah previously served as the chief economist of the Ministry of Health of Cambodia during his tenure as a Henry Luce Scholar.

Judith Munson (moderator) is an attorney who has worked in public health at the local, state, federal, and international levels, including as a senior consultant at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Munson is a professor of Public Health Emergency Law at the John Marshall Law School and at Masaryk University Faculty of Law.

DETAILS: Wednesday, Nov. 19, 5:30 to 7:15 PM, the Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604. Business attire required.

Members of C2ST or the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, $10, nonmembers $20. (C2ST members: for code to register at member rate, refer to emails you received or contact Casie Knowles at cknowles@c2st.org)

Registration for this event closes at noon on Nov. 19

To register, visit: http://logon.thechicagocouncil.org/iMIS/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=141119B