For our first member interview of 2015, we chat with Duane J. Gubler, MS, ScD, Professor and Founding Director, Signature Research Program on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore. Gubler served as the ASTMH President 15 years ago and has contributed to the Society in a number of ways over the year.
An active member of ACME, Gubler’s speciality area of work is vector-borne infectious diseases; he has worked on dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever for 43 years. He has more than 350 publications on every aspect of dengue and other vector-borne diseases and has just published the second edition of the leading resource book on dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever. Professor Gubler was instrumental in developing the Paediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative, and served as the founding Chair of the Board of Councillors of that organisation from its inception in 2002 to 2009. In addition, he is the founder of the CDC Dengue Branch laboratory in Puerto Rico.
1. You served as President of the Society in 2000. What are some of the most significant ways that ASTMH has changed over the last 15 years?
There have been many positive changes. Some of the more important changes include making ASTMH a much more global society, attracting members from countries where tropical diseases are truly important public health problems; expanding opportunities for diverse disciplines of science to have a home in ASTMH, thus expanding the professional expertise and importance of the society; increasing training opportunities for students and young scientists, thus encouraging them to become members; Improving the Annual Meeting and scientific program, providing a forum for nearly every aspect of public health and tropical medicine; stayed abreast of new technology, ensuring the incorporation of cutting edge science in the annual program.
These and many other changes have made ASTMH the leading tropical medicine society in the world. As an active member of ASTMH for nearly 50 years, I am proud to have been a part of this growth and these changes .
2. Since your presidency, you’ve remained active in the Society and in the American Committee on Medical Entomology (ACME) and the American Committee on Arbovirology (ACAV). The Society is constantly looking for ways to benefit from the wisdom of its past leaders. How can ASTMH better engage its past presidents?
Most of the past presidents are global leaders in their fields. They could and should be more frequently used in public outreach and advocacy for the society, and tropical medicine and global health in general. They could also be encouraged to serve on committees, as mentors for students, and even on the council.
3. As founding director of the Signature Research Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, you were involved with creating an infectious disease resource center for the Asia-Pacific region. For those who might not be that familiar with the project, please tell us a little about what this entails and the vision for when it is complete.
I have now stepped down as director of the program; Prof. Lin Fa Wang is now director. The rationale for the program when we initiated it in 2007 was as follows: 1) Epidemics of infectious diseases which are transmitted by the respiratory route and mosquitoes are among the greatest threats to global economic and public health security; 2) These epidemics will most likely be caused by zoonotic pathogens and originate in Asia, where increased economic activity drives increased urbanization and circular migration from rural areas, thus increasing the likelihood of exotic pathogens being introduced into tropical urban centers from which they can rapidly spread via increased globalization; 3) Several such epidemics have already been “wake up calls”, including the 1994 plague epidemic in India, the 2003 global SARS epidemic and the H5N1 and H1N1 influenza epidemics between 1997 and 2009; 4) The goal was to monitor emerging infectious diseases in southeast Asia and develop an early warning system that can detect, identify and contain unusual infectious disease activity before the pathogens spread too widely and shut down or impact the global airline industry; 5) Singapore was chosen as the site for this program because of its geographic location in the center of the region, it is the financial and shipping hub of southeast Asia, and it has the resources and expertise to maintain such a program.
The program is functional with a “state of the art” basic science program and is expanding to build capacity in neighboring countries and work with partners in the region.
4. What advice would you give aspiring medical entomologists from low-resource countries who would like to emulate your career?
Medical entomology is one of the most urgently needed disciplines in most countries of Asia. Many of the most important public health problems in the region are vector-borne, and most countries do not have adequately trained vector biologists on their MOH staff.
I would encourage aspiring medical entomologists to expand their training to include the latest molecular technology, epidemiology, virology, parasitology, and bacteriology, and to get out of the laboratory and work in the field. Only with a broad background will they be able to help develop the tools needed to prevent and control vector-borne diseases.
5. We like to pose this creative question to all our interviewees: You get the opportunity to go back in time. You can either have a conversation with any scientist who has ever lived OR observe a moment of scientific history. What would you choose and why?
I would choose to be present in Cuba during the period when the Reed Commission demonstrated that yellow fever was transmitted by Aedes aegypti, and during the subsequent control of YF in Cuba by William Gorgas. This period was a major milestone in our understanding of mosquito-borne diseases, how they are transmitted and how they can be controlled.
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