Dr. Antonia Coello Novello

Dr. Antonia Coello Novello was Surgeon General of the United States from 1990 to 1993 and now has been serving as the Commissioner of Health for the state of New York since 1999. She came to UAG to talk to students and faculty about the recent events in New York.

The probabilities that bioterrorism affects Mexico are very remote, said Dr. Antonia Coello Novello, the Commissioner of health for the State of New York, in a student conference of the Faculty of Medicine at UAG.

No frontier state with Mexico has had a case of anthrax and just in case George W. Bush and his cabinet would support a Mexican contingency program on bioterrorism, continued Dr. Novello. She then went on to tell of her personal and professional experiences these past months and specifically about the terrorist events in Manhattan this past September. She commented to the Students of Medicine at UAG that different local, state and federal agencies have developed plans to take care of the mental and physical health of New Yorkers.

Dr. Novello described the processes that at present are carried out to slow down the effects of bioterrorism and the distribution of envelopes with spores of anthrax. An enormous amount of help has come from the constant information given to the citizens of New York, Florida and Washington DC, where there has been presented in total 22 cases, of which four have been fatal by attention. Information is emphasized to prevent a massive purchase of antibiotics, which may have led to pharmacies running out.

The types of anthrax that exist are cutaneous, inhaled, and gastrointestinal. No cases of gastrointestinal have been reported among those that have suffered from this illness recently in the states. Dr. Novello said that every nation should be prepared not only for terrorist attacks, but also for contingencies of any kind.

Dr. Novello concluded with her presentation by commenting on her visit with the School of Medicine at UAG and was thankful for the invitation. At the same time she emphasized how the academic level of UAG faculty impressed her and that it is at par to any School of Medicine in the world with distinguished members that can compete at the professional level and students with a high human sense. It fits to show that in 1991 the then president George Bush recognized UAG by graduating 7,500 medical students that now practice in the USA. Currently UAG has now more than 13 thousand medical graduates.