Buffalo, NY, Sept. 15, 2000 - For the past decade, the Women's and Children's Health Research Foundation (WCHRF) at The Children's Hospital of Buffalo has brought some of the world's most renowned health care researchers and professionals to Buffalo through the Rose and Al Pastor Distinguished Lecture Series. The 2000 series takes place Thursday, Sept. 21 and Friday, Sept. 22 and will feature as Keynote Speaker Dr. Laurie Garrett. Dr. Garrett is the only American author to have been awarded all three of the big "P's" of journalism: The Peabody, The Polk and The Pulitzer Prize.

Dr. Garrett's keynote address will take place Thursday, Sept. 21 from 8 to 9 p.m. at the Buffalo Niagara Marriott, Millersport Highway, Amherst. She will be available for personal interviews on Thursday evening from 6:30 to 7 p.m. at the Marriott. She also will be Distinguished Lecturer at the Pastor Lecture Roundtable Session on Friday, Sept. 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon at the WCHRF, 888 Delaware Avenue.

Dr. Garrett is one of the country's premier authorities on communicable disease. As Keynote Speaker at the 1998 World AIDS Conference in Switzerland, she warned that AIDS and many diseases that have reached epidemic proportions should be an international priority. A science writer for New York Newsday, Garrett has traveled the world to report and research the spread of some of the most deadly viruses in existence. Her new book Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, released this summer, discusses the existing crisis in worldwide health research.

Dr. Garrett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for Exploratory Journalism for her book The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. She won the George Foster Peabody Award in Broadcasting in 1977 and the George C. Polk Award in International Reporting in 1998.

In Betrayal of Trust, Garrett addresses the question of why there are currently so many health catastrophes happening around the world. She focuses on how governments, including our own, have failed to spot obvious warning signs of these health crises, as well as the related social and political implications. Covered are India's disastrous encounter with pneumonic plague, a crisis with global implications; the Ebola virus in Africa and failed public health efforts to contain it; and the former Soviet Socialist Republics, where public health is in a state of collapse and chaos. Finally, she examines shortcomings in public health in the United States, including relaxed standards to address diseases, food inspection and possible biological terrorism.

This is the 10th Anniversary Pastor Lectureship. Sponsored by the WCHRF and the Pastor Family Endowment, the lecture series is dedicated to the children and families of Western New York. Rose Pastor and her family established the series in memory of her late husband. Their purpose is to foster research collaboration and inspire civic leaders, philanthropic organizations and industry sponsors to join medical researchers and educators in the development of enhanced health care for women and children.

Also speaking at the Pastor Lecture Roundtable Session on Friday, Sept. 22 are:

• Dr. Mark Ballow, Chief, Children's Hospital/UB Division of Allergy and Immunology, Vitamin A: Effects on Immunization and Risk of Infection (9:30 a.m.)
• Dr. Pearay Ogra, Vice President, Research, Children's Hospital/UB Department of Pediatrics, Antibiotic Influences in the Human Ecosystem and Infectious Disease (9:45 a.m.)
• Dr. Linda Duffy, Executive Director, WCHRF, Role of Bifidobacteria on Gut Barrier Function and Mucosal Immunity (10 a.m.)
• Dr. Linda Brosky, Chief, Children's Hospital/UB Department of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Controlling Medical Errors (10:15 a.m.)
• Dr. Bradley Fuhrman, Chief, Children's Hospital Intensive Care Unit, Emerging Trends in the Pediatric ICU (10:30 a.m.)
• Dr. Lee Ford-Jones, Professor, Pediatrics, Toronto Sick Children's Hospital, West Nile Virus - Active Human Surveillance (11 a.m.)

A Science and Policy Roundtable Discussion will round out the session, beginning with Dr. Garrett's Remarks at 11:30 a.m.