Zika virus topic of Community Seminar in Martinsburg

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. – WVU Medicine University Healthcare and the WVU Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center Eastern Division will sponsor a community mini-medical school program titled “Zika Virus in the U.S.”

The seminar will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 16 in the auditorium of the WVU Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center on the Berkeley Medical Center campus. This timely lecture will focus on uncovering the Zika virus, its effects, and prevention strategies.

Guest speakers will include Leo Brancazio, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the WVU School of Medicine, and Roberta L. DeBiasi, M.D., M.S., chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children’s National Health System and professor of pediatrics and microbiology/immunology/tropical medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine.

Registration for the mini-medical school program begins at 6 p.m. along with a reception to introduce the Eastern Pylons History of Medicine Lecture Series. The first pylon, History of Ophthalmology and its founder, Benvenutus Grassus, will be unveiled during the reception. The pylon lecture will begin at 6:30 p.m. featuring guest speaker Judie Charlton, M.D., professor of ophthalmology at the WVU School of Medicine. The “Zika Virus in the U.S.” mini-medical school program will follow from 7-8 p.m.  

The mini-medical school program is being offered free to the public as a community service of WVU Medicine University Healthcare and the WVU Health Sciences Center Eastern Division. The pylon lecture series has been made possible in part by a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council.