Newswise — With cases of swine flu continuing to spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Homeland Security Department have declared a public health emergency, and the World Health Organization and governments around the globe are organizing to confront the potential crisis. UCLA has experts. Dr. Jonathan Fielding, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and a professor of health services at the UCLA School of Public Health, is an authority on disease prevention and control and is responsible for providing public health services to Los Angeles County's more than 10 million people.[Full bio http://www.ph.ucla.edu/hs/fielding.html ]

Dr. Peter Katona, M.D., associate clinical professor of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is an expert on public health, epidemiology and the history of infectious disease outbreaks. Katona was formerly an officer with the Centers for Disease Control's Epidemic Intelligence Service. [Full bio http://www.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?id=479&action=detail&ref=14657 ] Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, M.D., M.P.H., director of communicable disease control and prevention for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health, is an authority on communicable disease control and the prevention of outbreaks of contagious diseases.

Dr. Lawrence Baraff, M.D., professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, specializes in pediatric infectious diseases and vaccines. He works closely with the California Department of Public Health in reporting influenza-like cases presenting in the emergency room and can address how people can reduce flu risk by washing hands and taking other hygienic precautions. [Full bio http://lbaraff.bol.ucla.edu/ ]

Brian Coburn, Ph.D., a researcher at the UCLA Center for Biomedical Modeling, is an expert on swine flu and the mathematical modeling of infectious disease transmission and epidemic prediction.

Dr. Peter Galier, M.D., is a clinical associate professor of medicine, an internal medicine specialist and former chief of staff at Santa Monica"UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital. He is an expert on a wide range of health topics, and is available to speak about swine flu. [Full bio http://www.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=479&action=detail&ref=13093 ]

Dr. David Baron, M.D., is chief of staff at Santa Monica"UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital and runs the concierge medical practice Primary Caring of Malibu . He currently serves as an on-call medical expert for KNX-1070 AM and is available to speak to the media about swine flu.

Dr. Zachary Rubin, M.D., UCLA assistant clinical professor of infectious diseases and an epidemiologist at Santa Monica"UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, can address all aspects of influenza and infectious diseases, including the potential for a swine flu pandemic and its ramifications worldwide. [Full bio http://www.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=479&action=detail&ref=24870 ] http://www.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=479&action=detail&ref=24870