World-Famous Health Advocate Paul Farmer to Discuss Challenges of Hunger on March 12 at U.Va.

Feb. 22, 2007 -- Dr. Paul Farmer, associate chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard Medical School and a founding director of Partners In Health, an organization that partners with poor communities worldwide to fight disease and poverty, will speak publicly at the University of Virginia on March 12 as a guest of the Center for Global Health. Dr. Farmer will speak at 6 p.m. in the McLeod Hall Auditorium, where he will share his extensive experience providing complex health interventions in resource-limited settings, including the treatment of HIV/AIDS and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

A MacArthur "genius grant" winner and medical anthropologist, Dr. Farmer is a champion of health and human rights and an expert on the role of social inequities as they relate to infectious diseases. In 1987, while he was a student at the Harvard Medical School, he co-founded Partners in Health, an international nongovernmental organization that develops ways to deliver quality health care in resource-poor settings, including Haiti, Peru, Russia and Africa. He is the subject of the best-selling book by Tracy Kidder, "Mountains Beyond Mountains," which tells the story of his incredible accomplishments.
 
Additionally, a community dialogue with Dr. Farmer is scheduled for Sunday, March 11 at 7 p.m. at Holy Comforter Catholic Church in downtown Charlottesville. The event is open to the public. For further information, please contact Jane Ford, U.Va. Public Affairs Senior News Officer, at (434) 924-4298 or jford@virginia.edu.

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