For Immediate Release
Contact: Media Relations, (202) 777-2509
media.relations@apha.org

Reproductive Rights, Health Care Access, Disaster Preparedness, Racial Disparities Among Top Public Health Concerns At APHA Meeting Nov. 4-8

Washington, D.C., August 30, 2006 – Thousands of public health officials will gather in Boston Nov. 4-8 to tackle pressing health concerns from reproductive rights and prescription drug access to the health impacts of war and poverty at the American Public Health Association’s 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition. The 2006 APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition, to be held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, is themed "Public Health and Human Rights" and will examine health and human rights from multiple perspectives, including social services and natural quantitative sciences. The Meeting will explore human rights issues in the areas of employment, health care, security, race, reproductive rights and mental health.

More than 12,000 experts will attend to share the latest public health research and practice. The conference will include hundreds of sessions on other significant issues in public health such as influenza pandemic planning, HIV/AIDS, emergency contraception, chronic disease prevention and control, substance abuse and immigrants rights’ to health care.

The meeting opens Sunday, Nov. 5, with presentations by public health leaders, including Paul E. Farmer, MD, PhD, a world-renowned authority on AIDS and tuberculosis, and Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH, president and chief executive officer of CARE USA. The weeklong conference features news conferences and over 900 sessions where attendees can access the most up-to-date public health research reflecting the broad impact this field has in our lives.

The full Annual Meeting program and abstracts are searchable at www.apha.org. To view the program schedule for each session and to see the abstracts for each presentation, visit www.apha.org and click on "Scientific Sessions."  Final programs with session locations along with daily news media updates will be available on site at the APHA Press Office, Room 102A of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Several news conferences are being planned for the meeting and will be announced at a later date.

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Founded in 1872, the APHA is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. The association aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States. APHA represents a broad array of health providers, educators, environmentalists, policy-makers and health officials at all levels working both within and outside governmental organizations and educational institutions. More information is available at www.apha.org.