Indian Physician Appointed Global Coordinator of US Presidential Malaria Initiative

Washington: US President Joe Biden Dr. Raj Panjabi, a public health expert from India, has been appointed as the leader of the Malaria Initiative for the control and eradication of diseases in African and Asian countries.
Born in Liberia, Punjabi and his family Country During the civil war, he arrived in the United States as a refugee in the 1990s.
“After my oath this morning, I am honored to share the appointment of Biden as President. Malaria coordinator Lead the US President’s Malaria Initiative. I am grateful to be able to serve on this occasion. ”
“My family and I arrived in the United States 30 years ago after fleeing the civil war in Liberia. Helping the American community gather around my family and regain our lives. I am honored to serve a country that has helped me regain my own life, he said of the Biden-Harris administration.
In the face of an “unprecedented” crisis, Punjabi said it was humbled by the US challenges the world faced for a better recovery.
“But, as I learned in America, we are not defined by the circumstances we face, but by how we respond,” he said in a series of tweets.
As a physician and public health expert who has cared for patients with the President’s Malaria Initiative and its partners, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Punjabi said: They have saved lives around the world in response to the fight against malaria, one of the oldest and deadliest pandemics. ”
He said this mission was personal to him.
Launched in 2005, the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) manages and eradicates malaria in support of 24 partners in sub-Saharan Africa and three programs in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia.
“My grandparents and parents were infected with malaria while living in India. When I was a kid in Liberia, I got sick with malaria and as a doctor serving in Africa, this illness killed too many lives. I saw it robbed, “he said. He said he saw how the Malaria Initiative and its partners responded with determination in the countries in which it operates.
“I was relieved to see the faces of my parents who survived malaria because their children were treated with medication and treated by health care workers supported by their support,” he said.
Tedros Adhanom Gebreez, Executive Director of the World Health Organization, congratulated the appointment of Punjabi.
“Congratulations to Raj Panjabi, who has been appointed as @POTUS Malaria Coordinator for @PMIgov. We can end malaria together!” Ghebreyesus tweeted.
Punjabi fled Liberia during the country’s civil war at the age of nine and became a US refugee. He returned to Liberia as a medical student and co-founded Last Mile Health in 2007.
He has been an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical SchoolAccording to his LinkedIn profile, he is a Associate Doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and CEO and co-founder of Last Mile Health.
The Punjabi and Last Mile Health Team played a key role in the 2013-16 West African Ebola epidemic, helping train more than 1,000 front-line community health workers, and the Liberia government opening the country’s Ebola Operations Center. Helped to take the lead. Punjabi testified at the US Senate Diplomatic Subcommittee about the epidemic of Ebola.
In response to COVID-19, he led Last Mile Health to help the African government train front-line healthcare professionals. He advised former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Co-Chair of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Independent Committee for Pandemic Countermeasures and Responses.Punjabi took care of the patient COVID And the need for urgent care.
He graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and is trained in internal medicine and primary care. Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Master’s Degree in Epidemiology Public Health Johns Hopkins.. He has been a faculty member at Harvard Kennedy School. PTI LKJ RC