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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 31, 2001 		Contact: CDC Press Office
(404) 639-3286

HHS NAMES TOP POLICY EXPERT TO STRENGTHEN
TOBACCO CONTROL EFFORTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced that Burke Fishburn, a senior policy expert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has been assigned to work with the World Health Organization (WHO) in its efforts to reduce tobacco use in Southeast Asia. As part of an ongoing partnership with the WHO, Fishburn will be based in Hanoi and work with WHO in Vietnam, Laos, and Malaysia.

"I indicated on my first day in office that this department would be committed to U.S. support and technical assistance on global health, including tobacco control," said Secretary Thompson. "Without effective international tobacco control programs, the worldwide death toll from tobacco-related diseases will increase from the current 4 million people each year to as many as 10 million by 2030. The CDC has a great deal of expertise and experience in tobacco control that it can share with the world."

Fishburn will work through the CDC/WHO Collaborating Center for Smoking and Health, which partners with other multilateral organizations to implement studies, conduct epidemiologic research and monitoring, provide training and technical assistance for country-level surveillance of tobacco use, and support the development of national plans of action for tobacco control.

This new position will serve to implement an integrated and comprehensive response to the epidemic of tobacco use and tobacco-related disease in countries throughout Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region. In Vietnam, where about 65 percent of households have tobacco users, it is estimated that more than 7 million people-10 percent of the current population-will die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses, and half will die before the age of 50. In Laos, estimates of smoking prevalence range from 40 percent to 70 percent for men, and from 15 percent to 30 percent for women. In Malaysia, more than 38 percent of deaths are due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and stroke.

"CDC welcomes the opportunity to share what we have learned about tobacco control with partners throughout the world," said CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan. "In the coming years, an estimated 70 percent of all smoking-attributable deaths will occur in developing countries, and that makes this partnership especially important."

Fishburn has been serving as Associate Director for Policy and Planning in CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. Prior to coming to CDC in 1998, Fishburn was a senior analyst for food and drug policy at HHS' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and served as a U.S. Senate Legislative Fellow. He is a graduate of Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute and has a B.A. in philosophy from Villanova University.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news.