Keiji Fukuda is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 with expertise in influenza epidemiology. In March 2009, Fukuda was appointed Assistant Director-General for Health, Security and Environment ad interim for the World Health Organization

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

 (WHO) and as of September 2010, he holds this position permanently. The media have referred to him as the WHO "flu chief" during the 2009 swine flu outbreak. Fukuda came to the WHO in 2005. He first worked as Coordinator of the Global Influenza Program from 2006 to 2008 and was then appointed its Director. Before joining the WHO in 2005, Fukuda was Chief of the Epidemiology

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

 Unit, Influenza Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...

.

Biography

Fukuda's parents were physicians. His father immigrated from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 to Vermont

Vermont

Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

 to complete an anesthesia

Anesthesia

Anesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...

 fellowship

Fellowship (medicine)

A fellowship is the period of medical training in the United States and Canada that a physician may undertake after completing a specialty training program . During this time , the physician is known as a fellow...

 there, and stayed on to work at the Barre hospital.

Keiji Fukuda attended Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 for his BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

, which was temporarily interrupted by a nine-month backpacking

Backpacking (travel)

Backpacking is a term that has historically been used to denote a form of low-cost, independent international travel. Terms such as independent travel and/or budget travel are often used...

 excursion through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He studied medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine

University of Vermont College of Medicine

The University of Vermont College of Medicine is an American medical school located in Burlington, Vermont and associated with the University of Vermont . Established in 1822, it is the nation's seventh oldest medical school...

, completed in 1983. Part-way through medical school, he spent six months working with indigenous tribes

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 in southern India, which helped further his interest in international health

International Health

International health, also called geographic medicine or global health, is a field of health care, usually with a public health emphasis, dealing with health across regional or national boundaries...

. He went on to complete his internal medicine

Internal medicine

Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...

 residency

Residency (medicine)

Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...

 at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco, and then a Master of Public Health

Master of Public Health

The Master of Public Health and the Doctor of Public Health are multi-disciplinary professional degrees awarded for studies in areas related to public health....

 at University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

. For one year, he worked in San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 in clinics that focus on leprosy

Leprosy

Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

 and tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

, and then moved to Atlanta, GA where he spent two years studying in the Epidemiology Intelligence Service training program at the CDC

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...

.

In 1994 he led a committee that revised the definition of chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome is the most common name used to designate a significantly debilitating medical disorder or group of disorders generally defined by persistent fatigue accompanied by other specific symptoms for a minimum of six months, not due to ongoing exertion, not substantially...

, which has since become the most widely used clinical and research definition of the illness. He has focused on influenza since 1996, leading teams that investigated outbreaks of avian influenza and of SARS.

On April 28, he pointed out that it is already too late to contain the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

He currently resides in Geneva, Switzerland.

Publications

• Avian influenza A (H5N1) virus and 2 fundamental questions. Briand S, Fukuda K. J Infect Dis. 2009 Jun 15;199(12):1717-9.
• The pandemic influenza vaccine challenge. Kieny MP, Fukuda K. Vaccine. 2008 Sep 12;26 Suppl 4:D3-4.
• WHO Rapid Advice Guidelines for pharmacological management of sporadic human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus Schünemann HJ, Hill SR, Kakad M, Bellamy R, Uyeki TM, Hayden FG, Yazdanpanah Y, Beigel J, Chotpitayasunondh T, Del Mar C, Farrar J, Tran TH, Ozbay B, Sugaya N, Fukuda K, Shindo N, Stockman L, Vist GE, Croisier A, Nagjdaliyev A, Roth C, Thomson G, Zucker H, Oxman AD; WHO Rapid Advice Guideline Panel on Avian Influenza. Lancet Infect Dis. 2007 Jan;7(1):21-31. Review.
• Health benefits, risks, and cost-effectiveness of influenza vaccination of children. Prosser LA, Bridges CB, Uyeki TM, Hinrichsen VL, Meltzer MI, Molinari NA, Schwartz B, Thompson WW, Fukuda K, Lieu TA. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006 Oct;12(10):1548-58.
• Different approaches to influenza vaccination. Fukuda K, Kieny MP.N Engl J Med. 2006 Dec 14;355(24):2586-7.
• Influenza-associated deaths among children in the United States, 2003-2004. Bhat N, Wright JG, Broder KR, Murray EL, Greenberg ME, Glover MJ, Likos AM, Posey DL, Klimov A, Lindstrom SE, Balish A, Medina MJ, Wallis TR, Guarner J, Paddock CD, Shieh WJ, Zaki SR, Sejvar JJ, Shay DK, Harper SA, Cox NJ, Fukuda K, Uyeki TM; Influenza Special Investigations Team. N Engl J Med. 2005 Dec 15;353(24):2559-67.
• Influenza vaccination among the elderly in the United States. Thompson WW, Shay DK, Weintraub E, Brammer L, Cox NJ, Fukuda K. Arch Intern Med. 2005 Sep 26;165(17):2038-9; author reply 2039-40
• Prevention and control of influenza. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Harper SA, Fukuda K, Uyeki TM, Cox NJ, Bridges CB; Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Recomm Rep. 2005 Jul 29;54(RR-8):1-40. Erratum in: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2005 Aug 5;54(30):750..
• Values for preventing influenza-related morbidity and vaccine adverse events in children. Prosser LA, Bridges CB, Uyeki TM, Rêgo VH, Ray GT, Meltzer MI, Schwartz B, Thompson WW, Fukuda K, Lieu TA. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2005 Mar 21;3:18.
• An economic analysis of annual influenza vaccination of children. Meltzer MI, Neuzil KM, Griffin MR, Fukuda K. Vaccine. 2005 Jan 11;23(8):1004-14.
• Prevention and control of influenza: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Bridges CB, Winquist AG, Fukuda K, Cox NJ, Singleton JA, Strikas RA; Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. MMWR Recomm Rep. 2000 Apr 14;49(RR-3):1-38; quiz CE1-7.

External links

• Keiji Fukuda at the World Health Organization
  World Health Organization
  The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...