Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease Control Chairman and Founder, Dr. Peter Hotez, Named Ambassador in Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health.

Hotez Honored as One of 25 Global Health Leaders to Act as Inaugural Ambassador; Will Help Lead the Charge to Increase Awareness for U.S. Global Health Research

WASHINGTON -- The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease Control (GNNTDC) announced today that its Chairman and Founder Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, FAAP, has been chosen as one of the inaugural ambassadors to the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health. As an inaugural ambassador, Dr. Hotez joins 25 leaders from across the nation who will work to increase awareness and support for U.S. global health research.

"The Paul G. Rogers Society represents the nation's most respected 'citizen-health' scientist leaders in global health research and I am deeply honored to stand beside this amazing group of people to lobby for an incredibly important cause," said Dr. Hotez. "This will serve as an important platform to help bring critical topics including the GNNTDC mission and Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative to the forefront of the global health conversation. We, in the research community, have the opportunity to make the diseases of today memories of the past. It is groups like the Paul G. Rogers Society that will make this possible."

Dr. Hotez has long been committed to providing a voice to the global health community. In addition to his commitment to the GNNTDC, Dr. Hotez, professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine, and Walter G. Ross Professor of Basic Science Research at The George Washington University, has also established the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative (HHVI), a program of the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Dr. Hotez has been working tirelessly to develop a vaccine for human hookworm that could improve the health of more than 576 million people around the globe.

"We've got such an opportunity to improve billions of lives and eliminate so much suffering from the world, especially in developing countries, where many people have no voice," adds Hotez. "I can't see how we can ignore this."

Paul G. Rogers Society ambassadors will serve the public's interest by increasing awareness of and making the case for greater U.S. investment in research to fight diseases that disproportionately affect the world's poorest nations. They will engage decision makers, the media and the public through delivery of tested, consistent messages. Research! America will facilitate Ambassadors in public outreach and advocacy.

About GNNTDC

GNNTDC (www.sabin/gnntdc.org) is a new collaborative organization formalized by the Clinton Global Initiative to facilitate the assault on NTDs with a dual approach: short-term treatment via a five-year "rapid impact" program and long-term research to eliminate these diseases. The GNNTDC is a program of the Sabin Vaccine Institute (www.sabin.org) in Washington, D.C. and is a collaborative effort of the major NTD public-private partnerships, including the International Trachoma Initiative, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine - Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre, The Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative.