During his nearly 30 year career in medicine, Dr. Peter Hotez has earned a reputation as a relentless researcher and advocate in the fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases.
The 57-year-old American pediatrician and professor — with his characteristic bow tie and round eyeglasses — has no shortage of titles. He is president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-founder of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases. Global health colleagues know him as a sturdy champion for policies to address diseases that are, by their very title, underrepresented in global health initiatives.
Earlier this month Hotez spoke to college students on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. He told them that fighting NTDs is “like peeling away the layers of an onion.” He said that the global health community has made a “huge impact on reducing neglected tropical diseases in the world’s most devastated countries in Africa and South Asia,” — peeling away a layer of the onion only to find a new challenge waiting to be confronted. And there is a new challenge to be confronted.
About the author
Jeff Tyson@jtyson21
Jeff is a former global development reporter for Devex. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers multilateral affairs, U.S. aid, and international development trends. He has worked with human rights organizations in both Senegal and the U.S., and prior to joining Devex worked as a production assistant at National Public Radio. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and French from the University of Rochester.
