"Nutrition and Pandemics: Some Lessons from the 7th Cholera Pandemic in the 1960s"
Abstract
In this era of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be useful to recall some of the lessons -- learned and unlearned -- from previous pandemics, which, like this one, were related to infectious disease. In this seminar I will recall some experiences from another pandemic 60 years ago: the seventh cholera pandemic, which was focused in South Asia, as were most of the cholera pandemics which eventually swept the entire planet. My focus will be on nutritional factors in pandemics and how the lessons from the cholera research laboratory 60 years ago might enlighten some of the issues we face with COVID-19 in 2021, including nutritional factors in susceptibility to infection, the importance of carrying diagnosis and treatment to patients, the importance of contact tracing, and, especially, the importance of transparency in reporting the incidence of infections.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Rosenberg. is Emeritus Jean Mayer Professor of Nutrition and Medicine at Tufts University. He was formerly Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Director of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. He was also the chairman of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has been editor of the Tufts Health Newsletter, Nutrition Review, and the Food and Nutrition Bulletin. He served early in his career as a clinical fellow at the National Institutes of Health where he was assigned to co-direct the Nutrition Survey of East Pakistan as a scientist in the cholera research laboratory. His research interests have included nutritional factors in gastrointestinal and infectious disease, vitamin metabolism, and nutritional factors in aging and cognitive function.