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Internationally acclaimed physician to speak 4:19 p.m., March 20, 2007--Honored throughout the world for his contributions to research on visual disorders, child survival, vitamin-A deficiency and public health-related issues, Dr. Alfred Sommer will give the inaugural Department of Biological Sciences Arnold M. Clark Lecture, funded by the Howard Hudson family, at 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 11, in 130 Sharp Laboratory. His topic will be “Vitamin-A Deficiency and Global Mortality.” Currently, Sommer serves as professor of epidemiology (the study of factors affecting the health and wellness of populations) at Johns Hopkins University, and ophthalmology at its School of Medicine, and served as dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health from 1990-2005. His overall research encompasses outcomes assessment, child survival, epidemiology of visual disorders, glaucoma, vitamin-A deficiency, blindness-prevention strategies, cost-benefit analysis, the growing interface between medicine and public health and clinical guidelines. His research in Indonesia from 1976-80 discovered that even mild vitamin-A deficiency increases childhood mortality rates and reduces resistance to other diseases. Studies in Africa demonstrated that most cases of blindness related to measles were related to vitamin A. Sommer then showed that the deficiency could be effectively, quickly and cheaply treated orally. The World Development Report (by the World Bank) cited vitamin-A supplementation as one of the most cost-effective of all health interventions. His latest research has shown that giving women of childbearing age vitamin A can reduce maternal mortality by an average of 45 percent. There is currently a field trial in Bangladesh determining the benefits of vitamin A with other micronutrients. Sommer received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his master's degree in health science from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and has been honored with more than 30 awards in recognition of his accomplishments. |
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