Biography  During Dr. Orenstein’s tenure at the National Immunization Program, he led successful efforts to combat and markedly reduce the occurrence of once common childhood diseases, including measles, rubella, mumps, meningitis from Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), varicella, and invasive pneumococcal disease. The Immunization Program also made major contributions: protecting adults from vaccine-preventable diseases through eliminating barriers to vaccination and developing new vaccine strategies, expanding vaccine safety efforts, improving risk communication, and promoting the use of immunization registries. Dr. Orenstein received his bachelor’s degree at The City College of New York and his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1972. He completed an internship and a residency in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Southern California Medical School and a residency in preventive medicine at the CDC. He has served in leadership roles within the CDC’s immunization program since 1982, and from May1993 through January 2004, had been Director of the National Immunization Program. He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and to the Pan American Health Organization for programs in polio eradication, measles control, and smallpox eradication in India, Brazil, Argentina and Peru. Dr. Orenstein has served as an Assistant Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health Service, and he currently serves as chairman of the World Health Organization’s Technical Consultative Group on the Global Eradication of Poliomyelitis. He was a member and rapporteur of the Pan American Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on Vaccines and Immunization and served as the CDC liaison member to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee for more than 14 years, having played a major role in development of critical immunization policy documents such as “The measles epidemic: the problems, barriers and recommendations”(JAMA 1991;266:1547-1552). This article became the blueprint for today’s immunization program including Federal support for immunization infrastructure, an immunization coverage measurement system for program accountability, and the critical role of research in fostering immunization improvements. During the same period as Dr. Orenstein served on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, he also served as CDC liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID), the major immunization policy making body for private pediatricians.
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Introduction
Introduction |
