For 2014’s U.S. Federal Employee of the Year, it’s not enough for health organizations to issue recommendations and expect people or governments to follow them. Change requires direct communication.
Dr. Rana Hajjeh, division director of bacterial diseases with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was honored earlier this fall for her “significant contribution to the nation in activities related to national security and international affairs,” in an awards ceremony some refer to as the Oscars of U.S. government service.
Hajjeh and her team led a global campaign to convince some of the world’s poorest countries to include a vaccine for bacterial meningitis and pneumonia in their vaccination programs. The vaccine counters the root cause, an organism known as haemophilus influenzae type b — or Hib — for which a vaccine has existed since the early 1990s.