Dr. Marcos Espinal Becomes New Executive Secretary
Dr. Marcos Espinal was recently appointed Executive Secretary for the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat. Currently, Dr. Espinal is Project Manager for the DOTS-Plus Initiative at the TB Strategy and Operations (TBS) unit of the Stop TB Department of WHO in Geneva and will begin his new position after the Stop TB Coordinating Board meeting (Oct. 10-12, 2003).
Background
Dr. Espinal is a physician graduate from the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where he specialized in Pediatrics at the Robert Reid Children Hospital of Santo Domingo. He received his Master and Doctoral degrees in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley. After graduating from Berkeley he returned to the Dominican Republic where he worked for four years at the National Research Center for Maternal and Child Health leading several investigations in tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and other infectious diseases. In 1996, he was awarded the scientific prize of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD).
Dr. Espinal joined WHO in 1997 to lead the WHO/IUATLD Global Project on Drug Resistance Surveillance. In 2000, he became responsible for the newly established DOTS-Plus initiative for the management of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, including the activities of the Stop TB Working Group on DOTS-Plus for MDR-TB and the WHO-housed Green Light Committee, a partnership initiative that has successfully introduced projects to manage MDR-TB with second-line drugs in more than 10 countries. He has also been responsible for coordination of DOTS Expansion activities for the Americas Region of WHO. Over the last several years, Dr. Espinal has published more than 40 papers mostly in the field of TB, MDR-TB, and HIV.
About Stop TB
Stop TB is a global movement to accelerate social and political action to stop the unnecessary spread of tuberculosis around the world. The Stop TB Partnership Secretariat, hosted by the World Health Organization, supports the Stop TB Partners in the fulfillment of these objectives. Stop TB Partners, public and private institutions worldwide, orchestrate their work through six specialized working groups. The Working Group for TB Drug Development, led by the TB Alliance, acts as a forum to coordinate TB R&D activities worldwide to deliver a novel, faster cure.