When:     7:00 pm, Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Where:    Batdorf & Bronson Coffee House, 516 Capitol Way South, Olympia, Washington. Phone 360.786.6717

Prevention and Control of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Central Asia: A View from the Field.

       
 After 6 p.m., there is parking available at Heritage Bank on Columbia Street between 5th and Legion.

Prevention and Control of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Central Asia: A View from the Field.

While infrequently encountered in the United States, drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is an entrenched and growing menace in other regions of the world, including the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Requiring the use of more toxic and more expensive drugs over a longer treatment course, drug-resistant TB presents an ominous threat to global population health. In Uzbekistan and its semi-autonomous region of Karakalpakstan, environmental, socio-economic, structural and political forces have coalesced—allowing drug-resistant TB to establish itself as an alarming endemic disease.

Over the course of a twelve-month mission serving with the international humanitarian assistance organization Medecins sans Frontieres or MSF (aka Doctors without Borders), Shawn McBrien (currently an epidemiologist with the Washington State Department of Health TB Program) had an amazing opportunity to participate in the frontline battle against drug-resistant TB in Central Asia. He will share his observations and reflections, both personal and professional, from his experiences in Uzbekistan, including the design, value and limitations of international humanitarian assistance, and the common bonds of humanity that can serve to unify us in our collective struggle against diseases that afflict and threaten our global community.