PPMA - Pest Control Technology

In May, PPMA
named Loyola
University’s
Dr. Jorge
Parada as
its medical
spokesperson
to help better
communicate
medical risks
and treatments
associated
with pests.
By Bill Delaney
A New Voice for PPMA
In an effort to streamline communications between
PPMA and the public regarding health
risks posed by pests, the organization this past
May retained a new medical spokesperson — and
the man with the job says he sees his new role as an
important one.
“I think my main purpose is to add medical
background to the discussions about how we
should react, what are the things we need to watch
for, when we’re dealing with, for lack of a better
term, pests,” said Dr. Jorge Parada, medical director
of the Loyola University Medical System Infection
Control Program in Chicago, Ill., an associate
professor of medicine at Loyola’s Stritch School of
Medicine and PPMA’s new medical spokesperson.
“The truth is, there are common encounters we
have with mosquitoes, bees, ticks and unfortunately,
they can have medical repercussions.”
Parada has assisted PPMA’s media and consumer
relations efforts as a medical authority in communicating
those health risks, and pens a column
for www.pestworld.org, PPMA’s consumer website.
He said the partnership was forged through a combination
of timing and luck. “I think the NPMA
has long felt comfortable advising in things that can
be done to reduce some of the exposure risks, and
how to manage some of the problems with these
different organisms. They felt a bit less comfortable
talking about some of the real medical effects and
consequences of these encounters.”
Parada said the expertise he provides for the
organization comes through training and experience.
“Everything that I say is coming from my
“
Everything that I say is
coming from my professional
training and is guided by my best
understanding of what the facts
are, not influenced by NPMA, or
any of its specific ties. I do my
best to give straight-up information
and call it as I see it, and that’s
what they want from me.”
— Dr. Jorge Parada
professional training and is guided by my best understanding
of what the facts are, not influenced by
NPMA, or any of its specific ties,” he said. “I do my
best to give straight-up information and call it as I
see it, and that’s what they want from me.”
Parada has an extensive background that allows
him to be an authoritative medical spokesperson
for PPMA, and he said public health has long been
important to him. “It took me a while to decide I
wanted to go into medicine. I went in with a simultaneous
love of trying to understand what it is in
society that leads to certain outcomes. In medicine,
that translated in my mind into understanding
infectious diseases, where transmission has to
do with the society you live in, crowding, poverty,
sanitation, vaccination problems.”
Parada received his bachelor of arts degree in
social sciences from the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, his master’s of public health
from Harvard University and his doctorate in medicine
from Lisbon Medical School in Portugal. He
has completed an infectious diseases fellowship at
Boston University and a health services research
outcomes fellowship at Rush University and Cook
County Hospital in Chicago. He also has served as
course director for the Chicago Medical Society
and the Chicago Department of Public Health’s
programs on emergency preparedness for bioterrorism,
pandemic influenza and severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS).
“PPMA is thrilled to have Dr. Parada as our
medical spokesperson,” said Missy Henriksen,
executive director of PPMA. “We are often asked
about specific medical conditions
and treatments as related
to pests and their effects, but
are not able to offer such advice.
With the addition of Dr.
Parada, we are able to provide
not just entomological perspectives,
but medical ones as
well as we continue our efforts
to educate the media and the
public about the diseases and
dangers of pests.”
The author is associate editor of
PCT magazine. Contact him via
email at bdelaney@giemedia.
com.
10 PPMA 15 th Anniversary Supplement