Anne Rimoin

Last updated
Anne W. Rimoin
Bornc. 1970 (age 5354)
Alma mater Middlebury College (B.A. 1992)
UCLA (M.P.H. 1996)
Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D. 2003)
Parent
AwardsMiddlebury College Alumni Achievement Award, Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Johns Hopkins Global Achievement Award
Scientific career
Fields Epidemiology
Institutions UCLA School of Public Health
Thesis Diagnosis and treatment of group A beta hemolytic streptococcal pharyngitis in children in low and middle income countries  (2003)
Doctoral advisor Mark Steinhoff

Anne Walsh Rimoin (born c. 1970) is an American infectious disease epidemiologist whose research focuses on emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), particularly those that are crossing species from animal to human populations. She is a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health [1] and Infectious Disease Division of the Geffen School of Medicine and is the Director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health. She is an internationally recognized expert on the epidemiology of Ebola, human monkeypox, [2] [3] [4] and disease emergence in Central Africa. [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Rimoin's parents are Maryann Rimoin and David Rimoin, a Canadian-American physician noted for his contributions to research in the genetics of dwarfism and heritable diseases. [6] Rimoin went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts degree in African History at Middlebury College, her Masters in Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Fielding School of Public Health, and her PhD at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa which is where she began her career in public health working on the guinea worm eradication initiative with UNICEF and the Carter Center.

Career

She is a professor of epidemiology at both UCLA's Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health (FSPH) and the Infectious Disease Division of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is the UCLA Director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health. Additionally, she is the Founder and Director of the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program. In 2020, she spearheaded the COVID-19 rapid response initiative for the protection and testing of front line workers in Los Angeles and to conduct critical research on SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic infection, immunity and associated epidemiology.

In 2021 she was appointed as the newly established Gordon–Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She is well known as a strong advocate for global health equity and building research capacity in low resource settings, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since 2002, Rimoin has been working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she founded the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training program to train U.S. and Congolese epidemiologists to conduct high-impact infectious disease research in low-resource, logistically complex settings. Her research there has yielded several important discoveries including the emergence of monkeypox since the cessation of smallpox vaccination, and novel strains of Simian foamy virus in humans. Her work led to fundamental understanding of the long-term consequence of Ebolavirus infection in the oldest known cohorts of Ebolavirus disease survivors and durability of immune responses to Ebolavirus vaccines in health workers.

She was recently inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. [1]

Publications and media

Rimoin's expertise in emerging infectious disease and science communication have made her a regular subject-expert contributor for local, national and international news media outlets. She has appeared regularly on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, the BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, FOX Business, CNN, and Spectrum News etc. and current affairs programs that include: The 11th Hour with Brian Williams and Real Time with Bill Maher to discuss COVID-19. Dr. Rimoin provided advice on COVID-19 Safety and presented a public service announcement at the 93rd Academy Awards about the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The segment aired on ABC's pre-Oscars "Into the Spotlight" show.

In print, Rimoin's work has been featured in The New York Times , [7] The Atlantic , [8] Scientific American , [9] Nature [10] and National Geographic as well as more than 100 research articles [11] and book chapters.

Awards and memberships

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mpox</span> Viral disease of humans and animals

Mpox is an infectious viral disease that can occur in humans and other animals. Symptoms include a rash that forms blisters and then crusts over, fever, and swollen lymph nodes. The illness is usually mild, and most of infected individuals recover within a few weeks without treatment. The time from exposure to the onset of symptoms ranges from five to twenty-one days, and symptoms typically last from two to four weeks. However, cases may be severe, especially in children, pregnant women, or people with suppressed immune systems.

The species Bundibugyo ebolavirus is the taxonomic home of one virus, Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), that forms filamentous virions and is closely related to the infamous Ebola virus (EBOV). The virus causes severe disease in humans in the form of viral hemorrhagic fever and is a Select agent, World Health Organization Risk Group 4 Pathogen, National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Category A Priority Pathogen, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A Bioterrorism Agent, and is listed as a Biological Agent for Export Control by the Australia Group.

<i>Monkeypox virus</i> Species of double-stranded DNA virus

The monkeypox virus, is a species of double-stranded DNA virus that causes mpox disease in humans and other mammals. The monkeypox virus is a zoonotic virus belonging to the orthopoxvirus genus, making it closely related to the variola, cowpox, and vaccinia viruses. MPV is oval-shaped with a lipoprotein outer membrane. The genome is approximately 190 kb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ebola</span> Viral hemorrhagic fever of humans and other primates caused by ebolaviruses

Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after infection. The first symptoms are usually fever, sore throat, muscle pain, and headaches. These are usually followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and decreased liver and kidney function, at which point some people begin to bleed both internally and externally. It kills between 25% and 90% of those infected – about 50% on average. Death is often due to shock from fluid loss, and typically occurs between six and 16 days after the first symptoms appear. Early treatment of symptoms increases the survival rate considerably compared to late start. An Ebola vaccine was approved by the US FDA in December 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Democratic Republic of the Congo Ebola outbreak</span> Disease outbreak in central Africa

In 2014, an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) occurred. Genome sequencing has shown that this outbreak was not related to the 2014–15 West Africa Ebola virus epidemic, but was of the same EBOV species. It began in August 2014 and was declared over in November of that year, after 42 days without any new cases. This is the 7th outbreak there, three of which occurred during the period of Zaire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Équateur province Ebola outbreak</span> Disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The 2018 Équateur province Ebola outbreak occurred in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from May to July 2018. It was contained entirely within Équateur province, and was the first time that vaccination with the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine had been attempted in the early stages of an Ebola outbreak, with a total of 3,481 people vaccinated. It was the ninth recorded Ebola outbreak in the DRC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judith Glynn</span> Scientist

Judith Glynn is a Professor of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She worked on the Karonga Prevention Study on HIV and Tuberculosis in Malawi. She is also a sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael J. Ryan (doctor)</span> Irish doctor and Chief Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme

Michael Joseph Ryan is an Irish epidemiologist and former trauma surgeon, specialising in infectious disease and public health. He is executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, leading the team responsible for the international containment and treatment of COVID-19. Ryan has held leadership positions and has worked on various outbreak response teams in the field to eradicate the spread of diseases including bacillary dysentery, cholera, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Marburg virus disease, measles, meningitis, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, SARS, and Shigellosis.

Maria DeJoseph Van Kerkhove is an American infectious disease epidemiologist. With a background in high-threat pathogens, Van Kerkhove specializes in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and is based in the Health Emergencies Program at the World Health Organization (WHO). She is the technical lead of COVID-19 response and the head of emerging diseases and zoonosis unit at WHO.

Marylyn Martina Addo is a German infectiologist who is a Professor and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) Head of Infectious Disease at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Addo has developed and tested vaccinations that protect people from Ebola virus disease and the MERS coronavirus EMC/2012. She is currently developing a viral vector based COVID-19 vaccine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nahid Bhadelia</span> Indian-American infectious diseases physician and researcher

Nahid Bhadelia is an American infectious-diseases physician, founding director of Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research (CEID) at Boston University and an associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. She served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID-19 Response on the White House COVID-19 Response Team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caitlin Rivers</span> American epidemiologist

Caitlin M. Rivers is an American epidemiologist who as Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, specializing on improving epidemic preparedness. Rivers is currently working on the American response to the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the incorporation of infectious disease modeling and forecasting into public health decision making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Rasmussen</span> American virologist and researcher

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1976 Zaire Ebola virus outbreak</span> Outbreak of Ebola virus disease

In August–November 1976, an outbreak of Ebola virus disease occurred in Zaire. The first recorded case was from Yambuku, a small village in Mongala District, 1,098 kilometres (682 mi) northeast of the capital city of Kinshasa.

Atoltivimab/maftivimab/odesivimab, sold under the brand name Inmazeb, is a fixed-dose combination of three monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of Zaire ebolavirus. It contains atoltivimab, maftivimab, and odesivimab-ebgn and was developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo</span>

Mpox is endemic in western and central Africa, with the majority of cases occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the disease is reportable. There, the more virulent clade I has been affecting some of the world's poorest and socially excluded communities.

References

  1. 1 2 "Anne W. Rimoin, Ph.D., M.P.H. - Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA School of Public Health". www.ph.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  2. "The virus hunter". www.the-scientist.com. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  3. "Emerging Epidemics: Anne Rimoin Hunts Monkeypox in the Congo River Basin". www.scientificamerican.com. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  4. "Will monkeypox be the next smallpox?". Los Angeles Times . 26 September 2010. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  5. "Lateline - 31/07/2014: Ebola spreading across West Africa". www.abc.net.au. 31 July 2014. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  6. "Dr. David Rimoin, pioneering geneticist, dies at 75". www.jewishjournal.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-27.
  7. McNeil, Donald G. Jr. (2010-08-30). "Africa: Monkeypox Cases Surge in Rural Areas as Price of the Victory Over Smallpox". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  8. Yong, Ed (2017-12-14). "40 Years Later, Some Survivors of the First Ebola Outbreak Are Still Immune". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  9. "Emerging Epidemics: Anne Rimoin Hunts Monkeypox in the Congo River Basin". Scientific American . Archived from the original on 2014-09-01.
  10. Hayden, Erika Check (2017-12-14). "Ebola survivors still immune to virus after 40 years". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-017-08664-w.
  11. "My Bibliography - NCBI". www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-29.