Photograph by Tony Gray of Anthony Gray Photography in Cleveland, OH Amy Ray, MD – Medical Director, System Infection Control Committee, Case Western Reserve University Medical Center

Friday November 6, 2009
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Crawford Hall – Room 9
Inamori Center
Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues,

After a lot of publicity during the Spring and Summer, this year’s flu season really is quite bad. Metrohealth and UH are nearing their capacity to handle patients whose flu symptoms require hospitalization. Lines on campus for flu shots have stretched out the doors. About fifty CWRU students have had cases of H1N1 confirmed by the university health services, which may mean there have been many more among students who sought care elsewhere or not at all. Stories of vaccine shortages appear on TV and the newspapers.

But how bad is it, really? Are we seeing H1N1, the usual seasonal flu, or both? Is H1N1 especially dangerous to each patient, or is the threat more that an especially large number of patients are likely to get the disease? What should people be doing to protect themselves and others, and how are the local and national medical communities responding to the strain and the challenge?

If you want more information quickly, please see http://www.case.edu/flu/.

As usual, we will gather in Room 9 of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, on the lower level of Crawford Hall, for free cookies, beverages, and brown bag lunch.

Best regards,
Joe White

About Our Guest

Amy J. Ray, MD is Division Chief of Infectious Disease, at the University Hospitals Richmond Medical Center and a Clinical Instructor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ray is Chair of University Hospitals System Infection Control Committee, University Hospitals Richmond Medical Center Infection Control Committee, and Co-Chair or University Hospitals Extended Care Campus Committee Her clinical interests include healthcare-associated infections and travel medicine. Her research interests include: healthcare epidemiology, prevention and treatment of healthcare-associated infections, outbreak investigation.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

November 13: What Should the Common Reading for New Students Do? With Mano Singham, Director, University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education and Mayo Bulloch, Director, Educational Enhancement Programs at Case Western Reserve University

November 20: Chesapeake Bay and the Need for Dark Green Environmentalism. With Howard R. Ernst, Associate Professor of Political Science, U.S. Naval Academy

November 27: Thanksgiving Break

December 4: What the Health Care Reform Legislation Will Do, or Why Health Care Reform Failed, or Health Care Reform: What Next? or All of the Above. With Joe White, Professor of Political Science

The Friday Lunch discussions are held on the lower (ground) level of Crawford Hall. Visitors with mobility issues may find it easiest to take advantage of special arrangements we have made. On most Fridays, a few parking spaces in the V.I.P. lot in between Crawford Hall and Amasa Stone Chapel are held for participants in the lunch discussion.

Visitors then can avoid walking up the hill to the first floor of Crawford by entering the building on the ground level, through the garage area under the building. The further door on the left in that garage will be left unlocked during the period before the Friday lunch. On occasion, parking will be unavailable because of other university events.

For more information about these and other Center for Policy Studies programs, please see http://policy.case.edu.