TIP SHEET

UNC experts can address SARS detection, treatment, containment issues

The following University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers may provide timely assistance and expertise for reporters covering ongoing issues associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

• Dr. Ralph S. Baric, (919) 966-3895 or rbaric@email.unc.edu, a professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine, is an expert on coronaviruses – the newest of which is SARS. His research interests include genetic approaches to the study of coronavirus replication, pathogenesis (the way these cells cause disease) and cross-species transmission. He also works with noroviruses – including Norwalk virus – their pathogenesis and vaccine development. (Baric is frequently in the lab and not immediately available to the phone or to email. Reporters trying to reach him are encouraged to contact Lisa Katz at (919) 966-7467 or lisa_katz@unc.edu.)
  
  
• Dr. David Weber, (919) 216-1817 (pager) or dweber@unch.unc.edu, is an infectious disease expert and professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and of pediatrics and medicine in the School of Medicine. He has helped lead preparedness efforts at UNC Hospitals, where he is a clinician and also associate director of the Statewide Program in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
  
  
• Dr. Peter H. Gilligan, pgilliga@unch.unc.edu, is the director of the Clinical Microbiology-Immunology Laboratories and professor of microbiology-immunology and pathology-laboratory medicine at the School of Medicine. He is an expert in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, including emerging infectious diseases.
  
  
• Dr. Myron S. Cohen, (919) 966-2536 or mscohen@med.unc.edu, is J. Herbert Bate professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology within the School of Medicine; chief of UNC’s Division of Infectious Diseases; and director of UNC’s Center for Infectious Diseases. Cohen’s research focuses on the transmission and prevention of transmission of pathogens; he teaches courses relating to immunology, microbial pathogenesis, HIV and clinical infectious diseases.
  
  
• Dr. Pia MacDonald, (919) 843-3415 or pia@email.unc.edu, is project director for the N.C. Center for Public Health Preparedness and a research assistant professor in the School of Public Health’s department of epidemiology. Her expertise includes applied epidemiology (epidemiology applied to the state and local health departments), outbreak investigation and surveillance, public health workforce development and Geographic Information Systems (its use in public health including outbreak investigation and surveillance).
  
  
• Dr. Edward Halloran, (919) 966-7207 or ehallora@email.unc.edu, associate professor in the School of Nursing, is knowledgeable on the health-care system in Hong Kong, having taught there in 1999 and 2000. He can discuss the similarities and differences in the health care and health education systems between the U.S. and Hong Kong, as well as provide information about the area’s large public hospital system. He also can discuss the spread of disease from the perspective of the close living arrangements in a densely populated area.
  
  
• Dr. Margaret Miles, (919) 966-3620 or mmiles@email.unc.edu, is a professor at the School of Nursing with a background in pediatric nursing and counseling. Miles was the founding president of the Society of Pediatric Nurses. Her expertise includes parental response to a child's critical illness and the grief of parents. She can speak about the phases in response to disaster – pre-impact, impact and post-impact – and how to help survivors cope with their resulting psychological reaction, including euphoria in having survived, disillusionment in having lost a sense of innocence and an old way of life, and reconstruction in going forward with life.
  
  
• Lynne D. Morris, (919) 966-0954 or lynne_morris@unc.edu, is a research librarian at UNC’s Health Sciences Library and a recognized expert in researching evidence-based medicine through biomedical literature and data. She can speak to the most responsible ways of making emerging medical information available to the public and to the general process by which health-sciences librarians work with practitioners and researchers on emerging health-related investigation.

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News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu