Press Release

ATTENTION: CITY DESK/
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS
Contact: Tom Capezzuto
(973) 972-7273
E-mail:capezzta@umdnj.edu

At UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School
"Doctors Without Borders" To Visit National Tuberculosis Center at UMDNJ

Traveling Exhibit to Raise Awareness of Need for Medicines in Poor Cities

"Doctors Without Borders," a globally recognized traveling exhibit of medical professionals who help access treatment in underserved areas, will be in Newark on May 1 and May 2 to help celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).

The interactive exhibit, housed in a 48-foot tractor-trailer, will be on location from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., on both days, at the International Center of Public Health at 225 Warren St. Using audiovisuals, photographs and personal testimonies, the exhibit will highlight the need for more research and development into treatments for diseases that affect the world's poor. Medical personnel and five patients will accompany the exhibit.

In commemoration of its 10^th anniversary, the New Jersey Medical School National TB Center at UMDNJ also will host a symposium on May 1 at 3:30 p.m. Entitled "Tuberculosis in the 21^st Century: Global Problems and Solutions," the symposium will feature presentations regarding new research, state-of-the-art treatment and control of TB, according to Dr. Lee B. Reichman, executive director of the New Jersey Medical School National TB Center.

Representatives from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of Seattle, Wash., and Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown will make presentations during the symposium.

"Each year, some 14 million people die from infectious diseases like tuberculosis, that could have been prevented, but the medicines to treat them are too expensive, ineffective, highly toxic or have gone out of production," Dr. Lee B. Reichman said. "'The Doctors Without Borders' exhibit personalizes the need for better access to medical treatment in poor countries."

Under the innovative guidance of Dr. Reichman, the New Jersey Medical School National TB Center at UMDNJ has helped reduce the rate of active TB in Newark from 71.8 percent per 100,000 in 1991 to 23.2 percent per 100,000 in 2001. The center, one of only three in the United States, has become a global model of success with its innovation of the Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) program, in which social workers deliver medicine patients in Newark and watch them take it to ensure compliance. The DOT program has achieved a 98 percent compliance rate.

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