Peter Piot

Last updated

Sir

Peter Piot

KCMG FRCP FFPH FMedSci
Peter Piot.jpg
Piot in 2006
Born (1949-02-17) 17 February 1949 (age 75)
NationalityBelgian, British w,
Alma mater Ghent University
University of Antwerp
Spouse Heidi Larson
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
Imperial College London
Website lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/piot.peter

Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot, KCMG , FRCP , FFPH , FMedSci (born 17 February 1949) [1] is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.

Contents

After helping discover the Ebola virus in 1976 and leading efforts to contain the first-ever recorded Ebola epidemic that same year, Piot became a pioneering researcher into AIDS. He has held key positions in the United Nations and World Health Organization involving AIDS research and management. He has also served as a professor at several universities worldwide. He is the author of 16 books and over 600 scientific articles.

Early life and education

Piot was born in Leuven, Belgium. [1] His father was a civil servant who worked with agricultural exports and his mother ran a construction company. Piot is the oldest of two brothers and a sister. [1]

After beginning in the school of engineering and physics at Ghent University studying physics, Piot changed to medicine. During medical school, Piot received a Diploma in Tropical Medicine (DTM) from the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp in Antwerp. In 1974, he received an MD degree from Ghent University. [1] In 1980, Piot received a PhD degree in clinical microbiology from the University of Antwerp. [1] [2]

Career

In 1976, while working at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Piot was part of a team that observed a Marburg-like virus in a sample of blood taken from a sick nun working in Zaire. [3] [4] Piot and his colleagues subsequently traveled to Zaire as part of an International Commission set up by the Government of Zaire to help quell the outbreak. [1] The International Commission made key discoveries into how the virus spread, and traveled from village to village, spreading information and putting the ill and those who had come into contact with them into quarantine. The epidemic was already waning when the International Commission arrived, thanks to measures taken by local and national authorities, and it finally stopped in three months, after it had killed almost 300 people. [5] The events were dramatised by Mike Walker on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014 in a production by David Morley. Piot narrated the programme. [6]

Piot has received the majority of the credit for discovering Ebola, since in 1976, it was claimed he was the one to receive blood samples while working in a lab at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. [2] The samples were once claimed to be originally sent by Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, a Congolese doctor who obtained the blood samples from those sickened with a mysterious disease in then-Zaire, later discovered to be Ebola. In 2012, Piot published a memoir entitled No Time to Lose which chronicles his professional work, including the discovery of the Ebolavirus; he mentions Muyembe in passing rather than as a co-discoverer. [7] In a 2016 Journal of Infectious Disease article, co-signed by most of the actors from that first outbreak, including Peter Piot and Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the claims by both Piot and Muyembe to have played a significant role in the early discovery of Ebola have been refuted. [8] Piot stated in 2019 that "my book was not an attempt to write the history of Ebola, but more my personal experience". [9]

In the 1980s, Piot participated in a series of collaborative projects in Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zaire. Project SIDA in Kinshasa, Zaire was the first international project on AIDS in Africa and is widely acknowledged as having provided the foundations of science's understanding of HIV infection in Africa. He was a professor of microbiology, and of public health at the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Antwerp, and at the University of Nairobi, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Lausanne, and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. He was also a senior fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle, a scholar in residence at the Ford Foundation, and a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. [2]

From 1991 to 1994, Piot was president of the International AIDS Society. In 1992, he became assistant director of the World Health Organization's Global Programme on HIV/AIDS. On 12 December 1994, he was appointed executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations. [10]

From 2009 to 2010, Piot served as director of the Institute for Global Health at Imperial College London. [2]

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

In October 2010, Piot became the director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. [11]

In addition to his work at LSHTM, Piot is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, UK and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2011, Amy Gutmann appointed him to serve on the International Research Panel at the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

In 2014, in the face of an unprecedented Ebola epidemic in western Africa, Piot and other scientists called for the emergency release of the experimental ZMapp vaccine for use on humans before it had undergone clinical testing on humans. [12] That year, he was appointed by Director General Margaret Chan to the World Health Organization's Advisory Group on the Ebola Virus Disease Response, co-chaired by Sam Zaramba and David L. Heymann. [13] He also chaired an independent panel convened by Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine into the national and international response to the epidemic, which sharply criticised the response of the WHO and put forward ten recommendations for the body's reorganisation. [14] In February 2020, he criticised the delay in declaring the 2019–20 novel coronavirus outbreak focused on Hubei, China, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and advocated a five-point scale for outbreaks, rather the current binary (emergency/no emergency) system. [15]

In 2020, Piot was appointed to the European Commission’s advisory panel on COVID-19, co-chaired by Ursula von der Leyen and Stella Kyriakides. [16] In the preparations for the Global Health Summit hosted by the European Commission and the G20 in May 2021, Piot co-chaired the event's High Level Scientific Panel. [17]

Personal life

In May 2020, Piot disclosed that he had had COVID-19. [18]

Piot is fluent in English, French, and Dutch. [2] He is married to the American anthropologist Heidi Larson. [19]

Other activities

Awards

Honours

Selected filmography

Selected works and publications

Selected works

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Jorge Saavedra López is a Mexican who was general director of the Centro Nacional para la Prevencion y el Control del VIH/SIDA (CENSIDA), an agency of the Mexican Ministry of Health. And since January 2018, he is the executive director of the AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami.

Frederick Wabwire-Mangen is a Ugandan physician, public health specialist and medical researcher. Currently he is Professor of Epidemiology and Head of Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Makerere University School of Public Health. Wabwire-Mangen also serves as the Chairman of Council of Kampala International University and a founding member of Accordia Global Health Foundation’s Academic Alliance

David M. Serwadda is a Ugandan physician, medical researcher, academic, public health specialist and medical administrator. Currently he is a Professor of Public Health at Makerere University School of Public Health, one of the schools of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, a semi-autonomous constituent college of Makerere University, the oldest university in Uganda. Serwadda is also a founding member of Accordia Global Health Foundation's Academic Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alimuddin Zumla</span> British-Zambian physician

Sir Alimuddin Zumla,, FRCP, FRCPath, FRSB is a British-Zambian professor of infectious diseases and international health at University College London Medical School. He specialises in infectious and tropical diseases, clinical immunology, and internal medicine, with a special interest in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, 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 2023, for the sixth 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Farrar</span> British medical researcher

Sir Jeremy James Farrar is a British medical researcher who has served as Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization since 2023. He was previously the director of The Wellcome Trust from 2013 to 2023 and a professor of tropical medicine at the University of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salim Abdool Karim</span> South African medical researcher

Salim S. Abdool Karim, MBChB, MMed, MS(Epi), FFPHM, FFPath (Virol), DipData, PhD, DSc(hc), FRS is a South African public health physician, epidemiologist and virologist who has played a leading role in the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemic. His scientific contributions have impacted the landscape of HIV prevention and treatment, saving thousands of lives.

Oyewale Tomori is a Nigerian professor of virology, educational administrator, and former vice chancellor of Redeemer's University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matshidiso Moeti</span>

Matshidiso Rebecca Natalie Moeti is a physician, public health specialist and medical administrator from Botswana who has been serving as Regional Director of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), headquartered in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo, since 2015.

Project SIDA (1984–1991), or Projet SIDA, was a joint scientific project between Zaire, the United States, and Belgium to study AIDS in Central Africa. Headquartered in Kinshasa, Zaire (DRC), Projet SIDA was designed as a collaboration between foreign scientists with experience studying epidemics and local scientists and physicians familiar with the local culture and customs. Initiated in 1984, Project SIDA began under the direction of Jonathan Mann with funding from the U.S. and Belgium, as well as support from the Zairian government. Project SIDA was based at Mama Yemo hospital in Kinshasa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heidi Larson</span> Anthropologist and immunisation expert

Heidi J. Larson, Lady Piot is an American anthropologist and the founding director of the Vaccine Confidence Project. Larson headed Global Immunisation Communication at UNICEF and she is the author of Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start and Why They Don't Go Away. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.

<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">Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum</span> Virologist known for working with Ebola

Jean-Jacques Muyembe is a Congolese microbiologist. He is the general director of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Institut National pour la Recherche Biomedicale (INRB). He was part of team at the Yambuku Catholic Mission Hospital that investigated the first Ebola outbreak, and was part of the effort that discovered Ebola as a new disease, although his exact role is still subject to controversy. In 2016, he led the research that designed, along with other researchers at the INRB and the National Institute of Health Vaccine Research Center in the US, one of the most promising treatment for Ebola, mAb114. The treatment was successfully experimented during recent outbreaks in the DRC, on the express decision of the then DRC Minister of Health, Dr Oly Ilunga, despite a prior negative advice from the World Health Organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson Michael</span> American infectious disease researcher

Nelson L. Michael is an American infectious disease researcher. He has served for nearly 30 years in the United States Army and been directly involved with significant advancements in understanding the pathology of and vaccine development for diseases like HIV, Zika, Ebola and more. Much of his career has been spent at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Peter Salama was an Australian epidemiologist who worked for UNICEF (2002–16) and the World Health Organization (2016–19). He was particularly known for his work at both organisations managing their responses to Ebola epidemics in Africa. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, described him as "a loyal and committed health advocate and multilateralist" who "brought depth and strength to WHO".

<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.

Bila M. Kapita is a doctor from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo who aided in initial research efforts investigating HIV/AIDS in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Kapita is credited as one of the first African scientists to independently identify that AIDS was prevalent in Central Africa. Research work in collaboration with Project SIDA helped identify and publicize the heterosexual sexual transmission of HIV. Following his research career, he continued caring for patients with HIV/AIDS and has more recently returned to practicing cardiology.

Eugene Nzila Nzilambi, also referred to as N. Nzila, Nzila Nzilambi, or Eugene Nzila, is a Zairean scientist and physician at the Department of Public Health in Kinshasa, now known as the Ministry of Public Health. He played at important role in establishing Project SIDA in Zaire, along with several international scientists. While conducting research, he opened a walk-in clinic and has since produced a lot of research on the HIV virus.

Etienne Karita is a Rwandan scientist who has been researching HIV/AIDS in Rwanda since the mid-1980s. He has held numerous leadership positions in different organizations that are working to control HIV in Rwanda. Some of his work is concentrated on preventing mother to child transmission of HIV and in collaboration with Projet San Francisco, he has studied HIV in discordant couples.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Nkengasong</span> Cameroonian-American virologist

John N. Nkengasong is a Cameroonian-American virologist serving as the Global AIDS Coordinator in the Biden administration since 2022 and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy since 2023. He previously worked as the Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention from 2016 to 2022, as well as at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nkengasong was appointed the WHO Special Envoy for Africa.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Harden, Victoria A.; Piot, Peter (4 January 2008). "In Their Own Words... NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS: Interview with Dr. Peter Piot". National Institutes of Health.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Professor Baron Peter Piot; KCMG MD PhD DTM FRCP FFPH FMedSci". London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Archived from the original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  3. ↑ Pattyn, S.; Groen, G.vander; Jacob, W.; Piot, P.; Courteille, G. (March 1977). "Isolation of Marburg-like virus from a case of haemorrhagic fever in Zaire". The Lancet . 309 (8011): 573–574. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(77)92002-5 . PMID   65663.Wikidata-logo.svg Wikidata ()
  4. ↑ Piot, Peter; Bartos, Michael; Ghys, Peter D.; Walker, Neff; Schwartländer, Bernhard (April 2001). "The global impact of HIV/AIDS". Nature. 410 (6831): 968–973. Bibcode:2001Natur.410..968P. doi:10.1038/35073639. PMID   11309626. S2CID   4373421.Wikidata-logo.svg Wikidata ()
  5. ↑ Members of the International Commission (1978). "Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire, 1976". Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 56 (2): 271–93. PMC   2395567 . PMID   307456.Wikidata-logo.svg Wikidata ()
  6. ↑ "Ebola". BBC Radio 4. 18 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Piot, Peter (2013). No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses. New York; London: W.W. Norton. ISBN   978-0-393-08411-5. OCLC   916025971.
  8. ↑ Breman, Joel G.; Heymann, David L.; Lloyd, Graham; McCormick, Joseph B.; Miatudila, Malonga; Murphy, Frederick A.; Muyembé-Tamfun, Jean-Jacques; Piot, Peter; Ruppol, Jean-François; Sureau, Pierre; van der Groen, Guido; Johnson, Karl M. (15 October 2016). "Discovery and Description of Ebola Zaire Virus in 1976 and Relevance to the West African Epidemic During 2013–2016". Journal of Infectious Diseases. 214 (suppl 3): S93–S101. doi:10.1093/INFDIS/JIW207. PMC   5050466 . PMID   27357339.Wikidata-logo.svg Wikidata ()
  9. ↑ Peralta, Eyder (4 November 2019). "This Congolese Doctor Discovered Ebola But Never Got Credit For It — Until Now". NPR.
  10. ↑ Shetty, Priya (June 2008). "Peter Piot". The Lancet. 371 (9628): 1907. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60820-X . PMID   18539213. S2CID   205951166.Wikidata-logo.svg Wikidata ()
  11. ↑ Harden, Victoria A.; Piot, Peter (16 June 2010). "In Their Own Words... NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS: Dr Peter Piot Interview 3 – June 16, 2010". National Institutes of Health.
  12. ↑ Dixon, Robyn (6 August 2014). "Three leading Ebola experts call for release of experimental drug". Los Angeles Times . Johannesburg.
  13. ↑ "Members of the WHO Advisory Group on the Ebola Virus Disease Response". World Health Organization. September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 November 2014.
  14. ↑ Moon S; et al. (2015), "Will Ebola change the game? Ten essential reforms before the next pandemic. The report of the Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola", Lancet, 386 (10009): 2204–2221, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00946-0 , PMC   7137174 , PMID   26615326
  15. ↑ Peter Piot, James Barr (7 February 2020). "Coronavirus – will it become a pandemic? (LSHTM Viral S1E5)" (Podcast). London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Event occurs at 06:34–07:56. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  16. ↑ COVID-19: Commission launches European team of scientific experts to strengthen EU coordination and medical response European Commission, press release of 17 March 2020.
  17. ↑ Global Health Summit: Panel of Scientific Experts European Commission.
  18. ↑ Draulans, Dirk (8 May 2020). "'Finally, a virus got me.' Scientist who fought Ebola and HIV reflects on facing death from COVID-19". Science: AAAS.
  19. ↑ "Peter Piot – Out to stop the Ebola virus he found". Financial Times. 3 October 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  20. ↑ Strategy Group on Health Africa Europe Foundation (AEF).
  21. ↑ Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG) Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
  22. ↑ Senior Advisory Board Exemplars in Global Health.
  23. ↑ Board Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
  24. ↑ CEPI announces new permanent board Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), press release of 24 January 2018.
  25. ↑ Editorial Advisory Board The Lancet .
  26. ↑ Governance Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI).
  27. ↑ Olive Shisana and Peter Piot appointed to Africa Health Research Institute Board Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), press release of 31 January 2017.
  28. ↑ Strategic Coherence of ODA-funded Research UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR).
  29. ↑ Announcing the Chair of the new HMG SCOR Board UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR), press release of 26 September 2017.
  30. ↑ Advisory Panel Archived 22 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF).
  31. ↑ Board of Trustees Novartis Foundation.
  32. ↑ Novartis Foundation confirms new members of its Board of trustees, including new Chairman Dr. Joerg Reinhardt Novartis Foundation, press release of 27 July 2015.
  33. ↑ International Advisory Board Antwerp Management School.
  34. ↑ International Advisory Board Centre Virchow-Villermé.
  35. ↑ Board of Advisors Global Health Corps.
  36. ↑ Board of Directors Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund).
  37. ↑ International Advisory Board The Lancet .
  38. ↑ Peter Piot University of Washington.
  39. ↑ Council World Health Summit.
  40. ↑ "Past Recipients". Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. 8 September 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  41. ↑ "Flanders-America Awards voor Peter Piot en duo Bruyneel/Armstrong" [Flanders-America Awards for Peter Piot and Bruyneel/Armstrong duo]. Het Nieuwsblad Mobile (in Dutch). 25 February 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  42. ↑ Osaki, Tomohiro (2 June 2013). "Belgian, Ugandan win Noguchi prize". The Japan Times Online. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  43. ↑ Holmes, David (2013). "2013 Prince Mahidol Award winners announced". The Lancet. 382 (9908): 1869. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(13)62349-1 . ISSN   0140-6736. PMID   24325009. S2CID   42253188.
  44. ↑ histoire. "Peter Piot, Prix International 2015 / Histoire de l'Inserm". Histoire de l'Inserm (in French). Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  45. ↑ Maurice, John (2015). "Peter Piot wins 2015 Canada Gairdner Global Health Award". The Lancet. 385 (9974): 1170. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(15)60610-9. ISSN   0140-6736. PMID   25819690. S2CID   9672382.
  46. ↑ "Previous medal winners". Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 6 August 2014. Archived from the original on 23 January 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  47. ↑ "Peter Piot". German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  48. ↑ "Honorary awards" (PDF).
  49. ↑ "Honours and Awards | the Gazette".

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.