The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine is the largest veterinary school in the United States. Established in 1948, the school is the primary health resource for California's various animal populations. In 2020, the school was again ranked No. 1 in the United States by U.S. News & World Report and in 2022, ranked No. 2 in the world by QS World University Rankings. The school is located in the southwest corner of the main campus of the University of California, Davis. The current Dean of Veterinary Medicine is Dr. Mark Stetter.
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is a professional organization of emergency medicine physicians in the United States. ACEP publishes the Annals of Emergency Medicine and the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open.
Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with health issues that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or are more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions.
A medical specialty is a branch of medical practice that is focused on a defined group of patients, diseases, skills, or philosophy. Examples include those branches of medicine that deal exclusively with children (paediatrics), cancer (oncology), laboratory medicine (pathology), or primary care. After completing medical school or other basic training, physicians or surgeons and other clinicians usually further their medical education in a specific specialty of medicine by completing a multiple-year residency to become a specialist.
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is a pneumococcal vaccine and a conjugate vaccine used to protect infants, young children, and adults against disease caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). It contains purified capsular polysaccharide of pneumococcal serotypes conjugated to a carrier protein to improve antibody response compared to the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of the conjugate vaccine in routine immunizations given to children.
Pneumococcal vaccines are vaccines against the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. Their use can prevent some cases of pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis. There are two types of pneumococcal vaccines: conjugate vaccines and polysaccharide vaccines. They are given by injection either into a muscle or just under the skin.
Seth Franklin Berkley is an American medical epidemiologist and a global advocate of the power of vaccines. He is the founder and former president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. He is currently a senior advisor to the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.
The Immunization Alliance is an American vaccine advocacy consortium, assembled under the auspices of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in May 2008. The Immunization Alliance has called for a governmental information campaign, ongoing research into vaccine safety and efficacy, balanced media coverage, and restoration of confidence among parents due to vaccine hesitancy and the related controversies in autism.
Margaret Ann "Peggy" Hamburg is an American physician and public health administrator, who is serving as the chair of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and co-chair of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP). She served as the 21st Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from May 2009 to April 2015.
The Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia exists to raise global awareness about the deadly toll of the number 1 killer of children - pneumonia. Every year 155 million children under 5 get sick and 1.6 million lose their lives to pneumonia, more than all child deaths combined from AIDS, malaria and measles. Almost all of these child deaths occur in developing countries with most concentrated in just seven - India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The American Osteopathic Board of Preventive Medicine (AOBPM) is an organization that provides board certification to qualified Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) who specialize in aiding patients in the prevention of injury or disease. The board is one of 18 physician medical specialty boards of the American Osteopathic Association Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). The AOBPM was established in 1982 by approval by the Board of Trustees of the American Osteopathic Association. The AOBPM provides board certification for eligible physicians. Additionally, along with fellows of the American Board of Preventive Medicine, fellows of the American Osteopathic Board of Preventive Medicine are eligible to become fellows of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. As of December 2011, 176 osteopathic physicians held active membership with the AOBPM.
Walter A. Orenstein is the former director of the United States' National Immunization Program, a post he held from May 1993 to January 2004.
Infectious diseases or ID, also known as infectiology, is a medical specialty dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of infections. An infectious diseases specialist's practice consists of managing nosocomial (healthcare-acquired) infections or community-acquired infections. An ID specialist investigates the cause of a disease to determine what kind of Bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi the disease is caused by. Once the pathogen is known, an ID specialist can then run various tests to determine the best antimicrobial drug to kill the pathogen and treat the disease. While infectious diseases have always been around, the infectious disease specialty did not exist until the late 1900s after scientists and physicians in the 19th century paved the way with research on the sources of infectious disease and the development of vaccines.
Gagandeep Kang FRS is an Indian microbiologist and virologist who is the Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India and from August 2016 to July 2020 was executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. Her major research focus is on viral infections in children, and the testing of rotaviral vaccines. She also works on other enteric infections and their consequences when children are infected in early life, sanitation and water safety. She was awarded the prestigious Infosys Prize in Life Sciences in 2016 for her contributions to understanding the natural history of rotavirus and other infectious diseases. In 2019, she became the first Indian woman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. She was on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2020.
Matthew L. Boulton is an American epidemiologist and physician. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and is the former Chief Medical Executive, State Epidemiologist, and Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology for the State of Michigan. At the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Boulton is Senior Associate Dean for Global Public Health, the Pearl L. Kendrick Collegiate Professor of Global Health, and a Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Preventive Medicine, and a Professor of Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease Division, at Michigan Medicine.
The Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) is a non-profit association of pharmacists and other allied health professionals who specialize in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship. According to the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties, clinical pharmacists specializing in infectious diseases are trained in the use of microbiology and pharmacology to develop, implement, and monitor drug regimens that incorporate the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of antimicrobials for patients.
Science diplomacy is the collaborative efforts by local and global entities to solve global issues using science and technology as a base. In science diplomacy, collaboration takes place to advance science but science can also be used to facilitate diplomatic relations. This allows even conflicting nations to come together through science to find solutions to global issues. Global organizations, researchers, public health officials, countries, government officials, and clinicians have previously worked together to create effective measures of infection control and subsequent treatment. They continue to do so through sharing of resources, research data, ideas, and by putting into effect laws and regulations that can further advance scientific research. Without the collaborative efforts of such entities, the world would not have the vaccines and treatments we now possess for diseases that were once considered deadly such as tuberculosis, tetanus, polio, influenza, etc. Historically, science diplomacy has proved successful in diseases such as SARS, Ebola, Zika and continues to be relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic today.
Rochelle Paula Walensky is an American physician-scientist who served as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2021 to 2023 and had also served as the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in her capacity as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2021 to 2023. On May 5, 2023, she announced her resignation, effective June 30, 2023. Prior to her appointment at the CDC, she had served as the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Walensky is an expert on HIV/AIDS.
