Gina Kolata, The New York Times science and medicine journalist, will deliver the keynote address at the Second Annual Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases: Pandemic Flu and Avian Influenza sponsored by the Nursing Center for Bioterrorism and Emerging Infectious Diseases Preparedness at the College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

The conference, focusing on the threat of avian influenza and a flu pandemic, will be held at the Woodbridge Hilton Hotel, Iselin, N.J., Thursday, Oct. 27, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The full day conference will also discuss epidemiology, prevention, infection control, and social and ethical implications of a pandemic.

Before joining The New York Times in 1987, Kolata was a senior writer for Science magazine. A 2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative reporting, her writing awards include one from the New York Public Health Association for AIDS reporting, two Howard W. Blakeslee awards from the American Heart Association for reporting on heart disease, and two William Harvey awards from the Bristol Myers Squibb Co. for reporting on high blood pressure.

Among Kolata's books is the national bestseller, "Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999), which won the 2000 Book Award from the New Jersey Council of the Humanities, and "Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth about Exercise and Health" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).

The conference registration fee is $55 per person and includes program materials, morning refreshments and lunch. The conference is open to all health discipline professionals including nurses, physicians, pharmacists, public health administrators, as well as social workers. The conference is sponsored in part by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration grant #T01HP01497. To register or for more information, call the College of Nursing Center for Professional Development at (973) 353-5895.

The Nursing Center for Bioterrorism and Emerging Infectious Diseases Preparedness at Rutgers College of Nursing serves as a primary source of education, information and research initiatives for nurses, nurse practitioners, and all allied nursing personnel on practice matters relating to biological, chemical and nuclear terrorism as well as emerging infectious diseases.

Rutgers College of Nursing, with its home on the Rutgers-Newark campus, offers a broad range of academic programs on all three Rutgers campuses. The college offers a master's program with unique practitioner clinical specialties, and the only doctoral (Ph.D) nursing degree in New Jersey.

Miguel Tersy
miguel@nightingale.rutgers.edu
973-353-5293
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
http://www.rutgers.edu