Lisa Kathleen Fitzpatrick is an American infectious disease physician, epidemiologist, and public health expert known for her work on health literacy, health equity, and racial health disparities.
Lisa Kathleen Fitzpatrick is an American infectious disease physician, epidemiologist, and public health expert known for her work on health literacy, health equity, and racial health disparities.
Fitzpatrick earned a B.A. and an M.D. from University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1992. She was a resident at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, an infectious diseases fellow at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and received a master's degree from the University of California-Berkeley in 2001. [1] In 2015 Fitzpatrick completed a master's degree at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Fitzpatrick's early work was at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention where she specialized in the investigation of tuberculosis [2] and was a diplomat in global health in the Caribbean. [3] She also worked on education of people about HIV/AIDS while she worked in the San Francisco Department of Health and in this context she spoke with the Washington Post about getting people tested for HIV. [4] Her published work in this realm assessed people's thoughts on the medical care they received regarding tuberculosis and health disparities in communities affected by HIV. [5] [6] Fitzpatrick founded Grapevine Health to improve health literacy and education for under-resourced communities [7] and, as of 2022, she is a lecturer and adjunct professor at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences [8] and the
Fitzpatrick is known for her work in increasing people's understanding of human health, particularly with respect to personal health. [9] [10] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fitzpatrick shared her experience with getting vaccinated with other people in order to encourage other people to get vaccinated. [3] She goes by "Dr. Lisa" while presenting outreach, a program where she interacts with people on the street to talk about healthcare. [3] In 2020 Fitzpatrick was named as one of five people who will serve as Joe Biden's committee for healthcare policy, [11] and she is a member of the round table on health literacy group at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. [12]
In 2011 the University of Missouri - Kansas City's medical school awarded Fitzpatrick with the E. Grey Dimond Take Wing Award. [1]
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis. Around 10% of latent infections progress to active disease that, if left untreated, kill about half of those affected. Typical symptoms of active TB are chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. Infection of other organs can cause a wide range of symptoms.
The Mantoux test or Mendel–Mantoux test is a tool for screening for tuberculosis (TB) and for tuberculosis diagnosis. It is one of the major tuberculin skin tests used around the world, largely replacing multiple-puncture tests such as the tine test. The Heaf test, a form of tine test, was used until 2005 in the UK, when it was replaced by the Mantoux test. The Mantoux test is endorsed by the American Thoracic Society and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was also used in the USSR and is now prevalent in most of the post-Soviet states, although Soviet mantoux produced many false positives due to children's allergic reaction.
An asymptomatic carrier is a person or other organism that has become infected with a pathogen, but shows no signs or symptoms.
In public health, contact tracing is the process of identifying people who may have been exposed to an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further data to assess transmission. By tracing the contacts of infected individuals, testing them for infection, and isolating or treating the infected, this public health tool aims to reduce infections in the population. In addition to infection control, contact tracing serves as a means to identify high-risk and medically vulnerable populations who might be exposed to infection and facilitate appropriate medical care. In doing so, public health officials utilize contact tracing to conduct disease surveillance and prevent outbreaks. In cases of diseases of uncertain infectious potential, contact tracing is also sometimes performed to learn about disease characteristics, including infectiousness. Contact tracing is not always the most efficient method of addressing infectious disease. In areas of high disease prevalence, screening or focused testing may be more cost-effective.
Syndemics is the evaluation of how social and health conditions arise, in what ways they interact, and what upstream drivers may produce their interactions. The word is a blend of "synergy" and "epidemics". The idea of syndemics is that no disease exists in isolation and that often population health can be understood through a confluence of factors that produces multiple health conditions that afflict some populations and not others. Syndemics are not like pandemics ; instead, syndemics reflect population-level trends within certain states, regions, cities, or towns.
Diseases of poverty, also known as poverty-related diseases, are diseases that are more prevalent in low-income populations. They include infectious diseases, as well as diseases related to malnutrition and poor health behaviour. Poverty is one of the major social determinants of health. The World Health Report (2002) states that diseases of poverty account for 45% of the disease burden in the countries with high poverty rate which are preventable or treatable with existing interventions. Diseases of poverty are often co-morbid and ubiquitous with malnutrition. Poverty increases the chances of having these diseases as the deprivation of shelter, safe drinking water, nutritious food, sanitation, and access to health services contributes towards poor health behaviour. At the same time, these diseases act as a barrier for economic growth to affected people and families caring for them which in turn results into increased poverty in the community. These diseases produced in part by poverty are in contrast to diseases of affluence, which are diseases thought to be a result of increasing wealth in a society.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a form of tuberculosis caused by bacteria that are resistant to some of the most effective anti-TB drugs. XDR-TB strains have arisen after the mismanagement of individuals with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).
Health in Vietnam encompasses general and specific concerns to the region, its history, and various socioeconomic status, such as dealing with malnutrition, effects of Agent Orange as well as psychological issues from the Vietnam War, tropical diseases, and other issues such as underdeveloped healthcare systems or inadequate ratio of healthcare or social workers to patients.
Sir Alimuddin Zumla is a British-Zambian professor of infectious diseases and international health at University College London Medical School, and a Consultant Infectious Diseases physician at UCLHospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK. He specialises in infectious and tropical diseases, clinical immunology, and internal medicine, with a special interest in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, pathogens with epidemic potential and diseases of poverty. He is known for his leadership of infectious/tropical diseases research and capacity development activities. He was awarded a Knighthood in the 2017 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to public health and protection from infectious disease. In 2012, he was awarded Zambia's highest civilian honour, the Order of the Grand Commander of Distinguished services - First Division. In 2024, for the seventh consecutive year, Zumla was recognised by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science as one of the world's top 1% most cited researchers. In 2021 Sir Zumla was elected as Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences. In 2024, he was elected Member of the prestigious Academy of Europe.
The co-epidemic of tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is one of the major global health challenges in the present time. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that TB is the leading cause of death in those with HIV. In 2019, TB was responsible for 30% of the 690,000 HIV/AIDS related deaths worldwide and 15% of the 1.4 million global TB deaths were in people with HIV or AIDS. The two diseases act in combination as HIV drives a decline in immunity, while tuberculosis progresses due to defective immune status. Having HIV makes one more likely to be infected with tuberculosis, especially if one's CD4 T-cells are low. CD4 T-cells below 200 increases one's risk of tuberculosis infection by 25 times. This condition becomes more severe in case of multi-drug (MDRTB) and extensively drug resistant TB (XDRTB), which are difficult to treat and contribute to increased mortality. Tuberculosis can occur at any stage of HIV infection. The risk and severity of tuberculosis increases soon after infection with HIV. Although tuberculosis can be a relatively early manifestation of HIV infection, the risk of tuberculosis progresses as the CD4 cell count decreases along with the progression of HIV infection. The risk of TB generally remains high in HIV-infected patients, remaining above the background risk of the general population even with effective immune reconstitution and high CD4 cell counts with antiretroviral therapy.
Harriet Mayanja-Kizza is a Ugandan physician, researcher, and academic administrator. She is the former Dean of Makerere University School of Medicine, the oldest medical school in East Africa, established in 1924.
David DuPuy Celentano is a noted epidemiologist and professor who has contributed significantly to the promotion of research on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). He is the Charles Armstrong chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He holds joint appointments with the school’s departments of Health Policy and Management, Health Behavior and Society, and International Health, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases.
Roy D. Mugerwa was a Ugandan physician, cardiologist and researcher. His contribution to the world of academics include being a Professor Emeritus at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, cardiology in Uganda, researching HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and his efforts to find an effective HIV vaccine.
Annie F. Luetkemeyer is an American physician and researcher who is Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. She specializes in infectious diseases, in particular tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus and viral hepatitis. During the COVID-19 pandemic Luetkemeyer led a clinical trial of remdesivir. She has also researched treatment of COVID-19 as a co-infection with HIV.
Müge Çevik is a physician who is an infectious diseases researcher and science communicator at the University of St Andrews. Her research considers HIV, viral hepatitis, emerging infections and tropical infections in developing countries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Çevik was an advisor to the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland and the World Health Organization, and is a member of New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group - an expert committee of the UK Department of Health advising Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
Andrea Ammon is a German physician and the former director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), a European Union (EU) agency strengthening Europe's defence against infectious disease. She advised the German government on the SARS and Influenza A virus subtype H2N2 outbreaks.
Damalie Nakanjako, is a Ugandan specialist physician, internist, immunologist, infectious diseases consultant, academic and researcher, who serves as the Principal and Professor of Medicine at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. Immediately prior to her present position, she served as Dean of Makerere University School of Medicine, from 2019 until 17 February 2021.
Prof David Guwatudde is a Ugandan academic and researcher. He is currently a professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences.
Judith Aberg is an American physician who is the George Baehr Professor of Clinical Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. She was appointed Dean of System Operations for Clinical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research considered infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and COVID-19.
Post-tuberculosis lung disease (PTLD) is ongoing lung disease that is caused by tuberculosis (TB) but persists after the infection is cured. PTLD can affect the airways, lung parenchyma, pulmonary vasculature, and pleura.