WEST LAFAYETTE — The World Health Organization has declared that the Zika virus is an international public health emergency. The following Purdue University experts can discuss public health and the Zika virus means for women’s health and fears related to public health outbreaks.
Wendy Kline, the Dema G. Seelye Chair in the History of Medicine, can talk about how the Zika virus affects women’s reproductive health from a social standpoint, as women in certain areas are told to delay pregnancies due to the virus causing birth defects. Kline also can discus anxieties about contagion from the mosquito-borne disease, and how the recent Ebola crisis affects such fears about public health outbreaks.
Kline is internationally recognized for her scholarship in the history of medicine, history of women's health and the history of childbirth. She is the author of “Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women's Health in the Second Wave” and “Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom.” She teaches the following courses: “History of Public Health,” “Women and Health in America,” “Death, Disease, and Medicine in the 20th Century,” and “Sex, Race, and Science.”
CONTACT: Wendy Kline, Wkline@purdue.edu
Pamela M. Aaltonen, associate professor and associate head of the School of Nursing, specializes in public health issues and can talk in general about public health outbreaks and what is known and unknown about the Zika virus.
Aaltonen has served as chair of the executive board of the American Public Health Association. She also has served in leadership roles for the Indiana State Department of Health, Area Health Education Centers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Special Emphasis Panel, Indiana Public Health Training Center Advisory Council and the Indiana Public Health Association.
CONTACT: Pamela M. Aaltonen, aaltonen@purdue.edu
Zika virus and mosquito experts
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2016/Q1/zika-virus-and-mosquito-experts.html
