ATTENTION EDITORS AND REPORTERS:UCLA experts available for interviews about these news stories:

WORLD WIDE POLIO THREAT:

Thomas J. Coates: is the director of the UCLA Center for World Health, which advances the international and global health mission of the David Geffen School of Medicine and UCLA Health, and whose motto is “Saving Lives and Improving Health by Investing in People.” He is co-director of the University of California Global Health Institute, which advances the mission of the 10-campus UC system to improve the lives of people in California and around the world. He is the Michael and Sue Steinberg Endowed Professor of Global AIDS Research within the Division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He co-founded the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at UCSF in 1986 and directed it from 1991 to 2003, and was the founding executive director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, leading it from 1996 to 2003.

As director of the UCLA Center for World Health, Dr. Coates’s work addresses a spectrum of global health issues – including the prevention of infectious diseases – through research programs, educational initiatives, and engagement with international health policy.

With funding from USAID and WHO, Dr. Coates led a randomized controlled trial to determine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of HIV voluntary counseling and testing for individuals and couples in Kenya, Tanzania, and Trinidad. He has just completed directing a 48-community randomized clinical trial (NIMH Project Accept/HPTN 043) in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Thailand to determine the impact of strategies for mobile HIV voluntary counseling and testing and for changing community norms on HIV incidence at the community level.

Dr. Coates was cited in Science in 2002 as the 4th-highest-funded scientist in the clinical, social, and behavioral sciences. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2000, and serves on the IOM’s Board on Global Health.

The UCLA Center for World Health includes experts in all areas of health and health education, and interviews can be arranged upon request.

UCLA Broadcast Studio available.