Washington, D.C., November 7, 2004
- David L. Heymann, MD, was recognized today with the 2004 American Public Health Association Award for Excellence for his work in global infectious disease control.
As the special representative for the World Health Organization's polio eradication, Heymann worked in various WHO posts beginning in 1988 and served as executive director of the Communicable Diseases Cluster from 1998-2003. From his start in 1971 as a general medical officer with the U.S. Public Health Service, Heymann exhibits his dedication to disease control to this day. An esteemed author, he wrote numerous scholarly publications on disease control and management and is APHA's editor-in-chief of the 18th edition of the Control of Communicable Disease Manual.
"All those who know him respect him tremendously," APHA member Omar A. Khan, MD, MHS, wrote in a 2004 nomination letter. "David has contributed and achieved a remarkable amount, and he continues to advance in public health daily to protect the world's people from disease."
For 13 years, Heymann worked in sub-Saharan Africa as a medical epidemiologist on assignment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He participated in CDC-sponsored activities aimed to strengthen infectious disease surveillance and control, with a specific concentration on childhood diseases, such as measles and polio. Heymann played an integral role in investigating the first Ebola outbreak in 1976. His investigation during the second Ebola outbreak in 1977 paved the way for leadership in the international response to the disease in 1995. Even before his contributions in Africa, Heymann spent two years in India as a medical epidemiologist in the WHO Smallpox Education Program.
From the New England Journal of Medicine to the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Heymann published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles that covered such topics as Ebola virus containment and surveillance and global AIDS overviews.
As manager and supervisor at the WHO division of Emerging and Other Communicable Diseases, Heymann served as a director who organized full staff rapid responses to disease epidemics. Helping developing countries strengthen their epidemiology skills, Heymann also monitored viral and bacterial diseases and their development of antimicrobial resistance.
Heymann established policies and methodologies, such as the WHO Sexually Transmitted Disease Diagnostics Initiative, for the control of sexually transmitted diseases. He also founded the WHO Office of Research as part of the Global Program on AIDS, supervising five scientific units focused on vaccine development, clinical research and drug development, diagnostics, surveillance and forecasting and epidemiological support and research.
International public health work has taken Heymann to Senegal, where he designed and supervised a childhood mortality survey; to Comoros, where he assessed primary health care activities; and to Uganda, where he spearheaded a five-year plan for the control of diarrheal disease. Heymann also created the WHO African Regional Training Course for Epidemiology in Kenya and developed a five-year immunization plan in Niger.
"He is one of the most accessible and humble individuals to occupy such a place of prominence in public health," Khan wrote. "In a world with so many luminaries of public health, I can think of none more deserving of the APHA Award for Excellence than Dr. David Heymann."