In 2018, there are several names of people involved in public health that people should know. Some of these have died in the last few years, but their contributions continue to influence policies and directions in the field of worldwide health.
The nations of the world are becoming a global society facilitated by technology and communications. Because the population so easily travels across national boundaries and because infectious outbreaks in one country have implications in others, the people in this list are not only visible on their national fronts, but they are known throughout the world. Here are five noteworthy names in public health.
1. Alan McGill
Alan McGill was the Director of the Malaria Department of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Although Mr. McGill died in 2015, his contributions to the fight against malaria continue to cause the rate of this disease to fall. According to the World Health Organization, malaria is an entirely preventable and treatable disease transmitted by infected mosquitos. Even so, about 3.3 billion people in the world are at risk of the disease. Ninety percent of malaria deaths are in Africa, where an estimated 437,000 children die before they reach five years old because of the disease. McGill’s focus was on better diagnostics and on developing a reliable vaccine for the disease. The Gates’s said of him, “ Alan’s legacy is simple: He saved lives.”
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2. Charles Lyons
Lyons joined the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in 2010. Elizabeth Glaser was the wife of “Starsky and Hutch” star Paul Michael Glaser. She contracted AIDS from an infected blood transfusion while she was pregnant and unknowingly passed it on to her newborn child. Both died. Lyons is responsible for virtually all of the foundation activities from strategies to fundraising and management operations. Under his leadership, the foundation transitioned from supporting a few centrally managed projects to funding bilateral projects in twelve countries. Recently, they partnered with organizations in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Cote d’Ivoire.
3. Francis Collins
Collins is the Director of the National Institutes of Health, which is the globe’s largest organization for basic and clinical research on biomedicine. He is especially known for his work in genetics. From 1993 to 2008 he chaired the National Human Genome Research Institute, the group responsible for the Human Genome Mapping Project. Through that initiative, science discovered and mapped 20,500 genes and identified several associated with diseases like cystic fibrosis, type 2 diabetes, Huntington’s Disease and others. The data unearthed under his guidance is available to any scientist engaged in research.
4. Helen Clark
Ms. Clark is the former Prime Minister of New Zealand. She was the first woman administrator of the United Nations Development Program. Clark is primarily known for her work with families and with the elderly. Three times Forbes Magazine has named her one of the most powerful women in the United States. She currently ranks number twenty-two. She has also been a candidate for the Secretary General of the United Nations.
5. Margaret Chan
Margaret Chan is a Chinese-American doctor who was the Director General of the World Health Organization until 2017. She was first elected to the position in 2006 and was reelected in 2012. Chan is known for meeting with countries on the fringe of acceptance in the United Nations because of human rights infringements and other issues in order to achieve collaboration. She brings her knowledge and skill in finance as well as political savvy to the table in her negotiations. She is quoted as saying, “Universal (health) coverage is a ‘powerful equalizer’ and the most powerful concept of public health.”
These names have been signed to documents and have initiated research impacting the health of the world today. The five notable people in public health listed here have influenced the arena of public health globally and their contributions will undoubtedly outlive them.
