The History of Smallpox Eradication - Dr Joel Breman - Audio

Joel G. Breman, M.D., D.T.P.H., F.I.D.S.A., is Senior Scientific Adviser, Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Dr. Breman's recent research has defined the considerable burden of malaria and development of policies and practices to conquer this disease. He was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles; the Keck School of Medicine, the University of Southern California; and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He trained in medicine at the University of Southern California - Los Angeles County Medical Center; in infectious diseases at the Boston City Hospital, Harvard Medical School; and in epidemiology at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Breman worked in Guinea on smallpox eradication and measles control (1967-69); in Burkina Faso at the Organization for Coordination and Cooperation in the Control of the Major Endemic Diseases (1972-76) where he was Chief of the Epidemiology Section; and, at the World Health Organization, Geneva (1977-80), where he was responsible for coordinating orthopoxvirus research and the certification of smallpox eradication. In 1976, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Dr. Breman investigated the first outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever as part of an international commission. Following the confirmation of smallpox eradication in 1980, Dr. Breman returned to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he began work on the epidemiology and control of malaria. Dr. Breman joined the Fogarty International Center in 1995 and has been director of the International Training and Research Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases and other institutional strengthening programs in low-income countries. Since 2001, Dr. Breman has been co-managing editor of the Disease Control Priorities Project (www.dcp2.org) and lead editor of three volumes of articles on "the intolerable burden of malaria" published as supplements to the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (www.ajtmh.org).