The University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security is pulling together 23 national avian flu experts from avian flu research, public health agencies, vaccine and anti-viral manufacturing companies, business preparedness experts, and first-responder experts for an all-day symposium this Friday to give the latest information on this threat. The University of Maryland School of Medicine is one of three sites in the country where human testing is underway on the first avian flu human vaccine. Of particular interest to Marylanders’ will be a late addition to the program: a not-yet-published study by UMBC on emergency preparedness in Maryland. Of particular interest to the business community will be updates on what businesses need to do to protect themselves and their workers. The speakers include:

Dr. James Campbell, the principal investigator on the H5N1 avian flu vaccine clinical trials - will provide an up to date assessment of the U.S. readiness in providing avian flu vaccines;

Dr. Roland Levandowski of NIAID, - latest government views on vaccine development, distribution, and manufacture;

Dr. Philip Russell, Professor emeritus of Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Dr. Rahul Singhvi, CEO of Novavax, Inc. – latest report on the manufacturing readiness of the pharmaceutical industry;

Dr. John H. Biegel of NIAID, one of the foremost government authorities on anti-virals, - readiness of presently available anti-virals and those promising anti-virals under investigation

Dr. Elin Gursky of the ANSER Institute of Homeland Security, - report on present readiness of public health officials to impose quarantines in the fact of this threatened pandemic.