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Faculty Star in TV Series
N THE EARLY 1990s, TB rates
were on the rise. The state of
New Jersey had the seventh
highest rate of TB infection in the country.
And to make matters worse, a growing
number of TB patients were coinfected
with HIV or had a drug-resistant
strain of TB, making treatment
more difficult and time-consuming. Lee
Reichman, MD, decided it was time to
take action. And the New Jersey
Medical School National Tuberculosis
Center was born.
This January, the Center celebrated
its 10th anniversary in brand-new, stateof-the-art
quarters at the International
Center for Public Health in
Newark (pictured at right). Its
run has been impressive. It
has improved medicationtaking
compliance in
Newark from 62 percent
to 98 percent, lowered the
TB rates in the city by 62 percent, and
achieved National Model Center designation
from the federal government.
“We now occupy the only clinical facility
in the world designed from scratch
for safe and effective treatment of TB
and multi-drug resistant TB,” says
Reichman, Executive Director of the
Center and a professor of medicine and
preventive medicine and community
health at NJMS. The TB Center has
also demonstrated the effectiveness of a
widely used strategy called directly
observed therapy, or DOT, in
which public health
News about NJMS events, faculty,
grants, research and more
THE FIRST THREE PROGRAMS of a cable television series
focusing on the most critical health issues facing the state aired
in February, featuring several of the medical school’s experts.
Steve Adubato is the host. The first installment looked at the debate
over hormone replacement therapy and included two patients and
three physicians, two from UMDNJ: Gerson Weiss, MD, chair of
OB/GYN at NJMS, and Gloria Bachman, MD, from Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School. The second installment, examining the potential impact of weaponizing biological agents such as anthrax
and smallpox, featured: Nancy Connell, PhD, Director of the Center for BioDefense, NJMS; Peter Wenger, MD, NJMS assistant professor
of preventive medicine; and David Perlin, PhD, Scientific Director of the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI). The third
show examined the state’s and country’s level of preparedness for an attack using biological or chemical weapons. William
Halperin, MD, DrPH, chair of preventive medicine at NJMS, and Leah Ziskin, PhD, SPH associate dean in south Jersey, participated.
Transcripts of the programs can be accessed at the Healthy New Jersey Web site. UMDNJ is an underwriter of the series. ●
TB Center Has 10th Anniversary
I
workers visit TB patients daily to
observe them taking medication.
In 2001, 23.2 Newark residents
per 100,000 had active tuberculosis,
down from 71.8 per 100,000 in 1991.
Experts believe DOT is the primary
reason for the dramatic reduction.
TB can be cured, but it requires taking
several medications for many months.
Unfortunately, once patients begin to
feel better, they stop taking the antibiotics,
allowing the disease to mutate
into drug-resistant strains which can
spread.
Reichman’s book, “Timebomb:
The Global Epidemic of Multi-
Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis”
(McGraw-Hill), recently won
first prize in the trade category
of the American Medical
Writers Association 2002
Medical Book Awards
Competition. ●
TOP: GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: DAN KATZ NEW JERSEY MEDICAL SCHOOL 3