For Immediate Release

Dec. 17, 2004

CONTACT: Pam Joseph at (419) 995-8284

Ohio State Lima dean returns from second AIDS mission in Ethiopia

Outreach effort undertaken on behalf of presidential commission

Dr. John R. Snyder, Dean and Director at The Ohio State University at Lima, has safely returned from his second trip to Africa to help train laboratory technicians who will be doing AIDS testing.

Dr. Snyder is a volunteer for the American Society for Clinical Pathology. The trips to Africa resulted from a request by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the pathology society to assist with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR is a five year, $15 billion program which President George W. Bush announced during the 2003 State of the Union address. PEPFAR’s efforts are aimed at prevention, treatment and care of AIDS victims in countries with the highest prevalence of the HIV infection. According to White House figures, nearly 30 million people on the African continent have the AIDS virus, including three million under the age of 15, many of them orphans. More information about PEPFAR is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030129-1.html.

During his first trip to Africa in August, Dr. Snyder visited Zambia and Ethiopia with a group from ASCP to begin to determine the needs and capabilities of those countries’ health care facilities. During the recently completed visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he returned to make sure the teaching materials they had developed were both culturally appropriate and relevant to Ethiopian facilities.

In addition to his work with the ASCP, Dr. Snyder has traveled to the Middle East and Haiti in similar capacities. Much of his volunteer work centers around education and the permanent changes in health care it can bring about.

Dr. Snyder holds a professorship in Allied Medical Professions in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State. His scholarship has focused on allied health education and clinical laboratory management. He is certified as both a Medical Technologist and Specialist in Hematology.

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Editors’ Note: Digital photos of the trip are available.