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Cristina Possas

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Cristina Possas
Born (1948-06-05) June 5, 1948 (age 76)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
NationalityBrazilian
CitizenshipBrazil
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Minister of health, public health research scientist, infectious disease research scientist, academic
Years active1985 — present
Known forsocial epidemiology, Medical research,
public health,
infectious disease,
Emerging infectious disease
TitleProfessor
Fiocruz

Cristina Possas de Albuquerque (born 5 June 1948) is a Brazilian public health scientist working with infectious diseases and emerging infectious diseases from an eco-social perspective. However, her approach to social ecosystem complexity is quite different from the four-fold eco-social approach of Harvard's Nancy Krieger and was presented by her in a 2001 English-language article in the Brazilian Journal of Public Health Reports. This article presents the concept of " social ecosystem health", where ecosystems are increasingly modified by human social activity, favoring the emergence of new diseases, by the `spill-over` of pathogens from animals to humans, as occurred in the emergence of HIV/AIDS and now COVID-19 pandemics. Therefore, in her view, the term “social” must precede the prefix “eco”   . Thus, she is known for (a) developing her new conceptual approach to social epidemiology, incorporating the economic concept of structural heterogeneity into a new epidemiological model designed to identify the epidemiological profiles of heterogeneous populations at different social and economic levels and socio-environmental conditions favoring disease emergence; (b) research on health transition, ecological change, complex systems and the emergence of new diseases. (c) contributions to health policy and health reform in Brazil. She was the first person to propose a Health Reform in Brazil, along the lines of the Italian Sanitary Reform, in a Seminar held at ENSP/FIOCRUZ in October 1985, which resulted in the creation of the National Health Reform Commission and later in the Brazilian National Health System -SUS. Her claim at ENSP/FIOCRUZ in 1985 for a Health Reform supporting a free, public and universal national health system  expressed the long-standing aspirations of a health professionals movement and of  the Brazilian society since the 1970´s for a radical change in the so far privately-dominant health care model. Her request  for a Health Reform triggered a national political process resulting in the creation of the SUS incorporated into the new 1988 Constitution. After her speech at ENSP/FIOCRUZ she was invited by the Ministry of Health and by the then President of Fiocruz, Sérgio Arouca, to be the Coordinator of the 8 Technical Groups of the National Commission on Sanitary Reform (CNRS), whose final report was proposed to the Constituents and resulted in the creation and implementation of the SUS in the various Brazilian states.

She is a Takemi Fellow at Harvard University in Boston, where for 10 years she has been a Visiting Scientist and a Fulbright Fellow. She has been since 1976 a professor at FIOCRUZ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Career

Photograph: Facade of the Neo-Mouresque Palace of Manguinhos, seat of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz in Rio de Janeiro.

As a Brazilian public health scientist working with infectious diseases from an eco-social perspective, Cristina Possas de Albuquerque (Cristina Possas) has as a policymaker long worked closely with public health and environmental scientists and with human rights and social justice civil organizations.

She also is a full professor at FIOCRUZ in Brazil, where in 1998 she had earned a PhD in public health, and where she now does research on infectious diseases and teaches a course named "Scientific Methodology" in the Masters and Doctoral Programs of Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases at INI/Fiocruz.

She has been also a Professor of Health Policy at the National School of Public Health at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil. She was nominated in 1987 by the Brazilian Ministry of Health/Fiocruz to be the National Technical Coordinator of seven Groups supporting the Health Reform in Brazil, whose contributions were later incorporated into the new Brazilian 1988 Constitution in the creation of the SUS.

For a decade, she also has been a Takemi Fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Scientist and Fulbright Fellow, and a member of the Harvard New Diseases Group, coordinated by the late Richard Levins and by Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander, collaborating with them and other outstanding members of the group in the organizing committee of the Woods Hole Conference on New Diseases, with articles with the group later published in a special supplement of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences on this conference and in other journals.

She has worked for more than five decades in several national and international positions with the scientific community and civil society organizations.

In 2001 she was nominated by the Minister of Science and Technology the National Executive Secretary of the National Technical Biosafety Commission (CTNBio),  responsible for the evaluation of GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) projects in the areas of health, agriculture and environment. She was also nominated by the Minister Coordinator of the group responsible for the elaboration of a National Code in Bioethics for Genetic Manipulations. She worked at CTNBio with diverse stakeholders: Ministries of Agriculture, Environment and Health and civil society organizations from these diverse areas, which involved intense political debates on genetically modified food (transgenics) and genetically modified vaccines and drugs.  

She held a national position for 10 years as Head of the Research and Development Unit of the National AIDS Program in Brazil, Ministry of Health, supporting research in universities, research institutes and NGOs, which has been recognized globally as an outstanding public health initiative with innovative approaches to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Her approach to research always centered on free and universal access to prevention and treatment. She was invited by the Director of the National AIDS Program to conceive and create a new and innovative Research and Technological Development Unit in the Program's structure, with support from the Ministry of Health, the World Bank and the ANRS. She was also Coordinator in Brazil of the ANRS Research Site for10 years, in partnership with the Research Unit in the Brazilian AIDS Program and received a medal from the institution for her coordination, supported by French ANRS coordinator, Dr. Bernard Larouzé, in this period .

Recent experience

Education

  • 1972 – Doctor in Psychology, PUC-RIO
  • 1980 – Master's Degree in Social Sciences, UNICAMP
  • 1988 – PhD in Public Health, National School of Public Health, FIOCRUZ
  • 1991 – Post-doctoral, International Health, Harvard School of Public Health

Selected publications

  • Keswani C, Possas C, Koukios E Viaggi D. Agricultural Bioeconomy: Innovation and Foresight in the Post-COVID Era, AP, Elsevier, 2021, v.1. p.1. ISBN 9780323905695 (in press).
  • Homma A, Possas C, Noronha J, Gadelha, P (eds.) 2020 [Vaccines and Vaccination in Brrazil: Horizons for the Next 20 years]. Vacinas e Vacinação no Brasil: Horizontes Para Os Próximos 20 Anos. Edições Livres, 1st. edition. Rio de Janeiro 2020.
  • Possas C. Larouze B. (eds.) 2013. Propriété intellectuelle et politiques publiques pour l’accès aux antirétroviraux dans les pays du Sud, ANRS, Collection Sciences Sociales et SIDA [Intellectual property and public policies for the access to antirretroviral drugs in the South countries], ANRS, Collection Social Sciences and AIDS].
  • Castro, A.C., Possas, C., Godinho, M.M (orgs.) 2011. Intellectual property in Portuguese-speaking countries: themes and perspectives, E-papers.
  • Homma, A., Possas, C. (eds.) 2000. Estado da arte e prioridades para pesquisa e desenvolvimento em leptospirose [State of the Art and Priorities for Research and Development in Leptospirosis]. FIOCRUZ.
  • Possas, C. 1989. Epidemiologia e Sociedade: Heterogeneidade Estrutural e Saúde no Brasil [Epidemiology and Society: Structural Heterogeneity and Health in Brazil. Hucitec, São Paulo.
  • Possas, C. 1980. Saúde e Trabalho: a Crise da Previdência Social [Health and Labour: the crisis of Social Welfare in Brazil], [2nd edition in 1989]. Hucitec. [Winner award of honors from the Brazilian Society of Social Welfare Rights in 1981 for the best book on Social Welfare].

Awards and distinctions

  • 1974. Fellowship from Kellogg Foundation's fund to the Laboratory of Medical Education (LEMC), Medical School, UNICAMP.
  • 1981. Prize, Brazilian Society of Social Welfare Law, Honors, Best Book on Social Welfare
  • 1983. FINEP research grant on Health System Evaluation, coordinating 7 subprojects, Medical School, PUC-Campinas, SP[1]
  • 1983. Capes Fellowship, Visiting professor ENSP-FIOCRUZ
  • 1984. Fellowship from Italian government for specialization in occupational epidemiology, Clinica del Lavoro. Università degli Studi di Milano
  • 1986. Named by Minister of Health member of the Advisory Committee for the 8th National Health Conference
  • 1987. Lessa Bastos Award for best presentation on Intoxication and Poisoning in Brazil, Brazilian Society of Toxicology.
  • 1989. FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos) grant, Coordinator National Multicentric Project Evaluation Health Systems, FIOCRUZ, RJ[1]
  • 1990. Named member CNPq scientific board, elected by scientific community in public health
  • 1991. Capes Fellowship,[1] Harvard University
  • 1991. Fulbright Fellowship, Harvard University.
  • 1992. Takemi Fellow, Harvard University.[2]
  • 1993. Member, The New York Academy of Sciences
  • 1993. Visiting Scientist appointment, funded by Harvard University.
  • 1993. CNPq Scientific Productivity Fellowship[1]
  • 2001. Named by Minister of Science and Technology Brazilian representative in the Intergovernmental Meeting of the Biosafety Protocol of Cartagena (ICCP-3), Convention on Biological Diversity the Hague, Netherlands
  • 2001. Named by Minister of Science and Technology Coordinator of the National Code of Bioethics in Genetic Manipulations, with ministerial funding
  • 2002. Named by Diretor of AIDS Program Director for the World Bank national research funding to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, AIDS III Program
  • 2009. Named by IAVI's President member of IAVI's Policy Advisory Committee
  • 2011. Named by Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise and WHO AIDS Vaccine Program member of organizing committee for the Octave Workshop in Brazil on HIV vaccine trial design and analysis
  • 2011. Director funded Research Fellowship, INI, FIOCRUZ
  • 2011. Named member INCT-PPED (National Institute for Science and Technology in Public Policies, Strategies and Development) board, Institute of Economics, UFRJ
  • 2011. Recognition plaque from ENSP-FIOCRUZ for coordination of Graduate Programs
  • 2011. Medal from National French Agency (French government medal) for AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Research (ANRS) for coordination of ANRS Brazilian research site in Brazil
  • 2012. Named by FIOCRUZ/BioManguinhos coordinator of national research on vaccine patents
  • 2013. Named by Nobel Prize Françoise Barré-Sinoussi member of two working groups at the International AIDS Society's Initiative Towards an HIV Cure
  • 2015. Fellowship from LAPCLIN/AIDS, INI, FIOCRUZ
  • 2015. Honour Award, Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz, III Annual Seminar
  • 2017. Nominated by Ministry of Education/Capes member of National Commission for Award of Best Doctoral Thesis in Medicine in the country .

References

  1. ^ a b c d CNPq profile for Cristina de Albuquerque Possas
  2. ^ Takemi Program, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
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