HSPH dean Barry Bloom was honored by colleagues—some of whom conducted research in his lab as young scientists—at a May 5 symposium at the School, titled “Tuberculosis—Past Challenges and Promise.” Bloom will be stepping down from his position as the School’s leader, becoming a Harvard University distinguished service professor. He will continue his research and other activities related to global health as a member of the HSPH faculty.
Tuberculosis spreads when infected individuals with the active form of the disease disperse bacteria into the air when they cough. Millions of people around the world are thought to be infected; many have a latent form. There were 9.2 million new cases of TB reported in 2006, with 1.5 million deaths from the disease and another 200,000 from HIV-associated TB. Yet according to the World Health Organization, the pace of tuberculosis control has slowed.
Speaker Eric Rubin, HSPH associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases and HMS assistant professor of medicine (microbiology and molecular genetics) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, introduced the symposium by noting that Robert Koch identified the TB bacillus in 1882, leading to a major focus on the disease for many years. But after the development of a vaccine and antibiotics, scientific interest in TB waned. Tuberculosis became a backwater, said Rubin, despite the persistence of the disorder. “It took a catalyst like Barry to get this field back to where it should be.”
Bloom was awarded the 1999 Robert Koch Gold Medal honoring the lifetime work of a scientist who contributes essential understanding of infectious and other widespread diseases. His research included the first description of a cytokine involved in the tuberculin reaction.
An archived webcast of Rubin’s talk is available at http://webapps.sph.harvard.edu/accordentG3/tuberculosis-5-5-08/. More information about the symposium is available at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/tb-symposium/.
The event was cosponsored by the HSPH Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and the Harvard Initiative for Global Health.
