Coming to Canada from

World Health Organization, Switzerland

Research involves

Fundamental research to generate, synthesize and disseminate real-world evidence about the spread of HIV-1 and tobacco-related diseases, and to develop more effective intervention tools to control these major causes of premature death.

Research relevance

Improved health and decreased mortality among the world's 1.3 billion poor.

Tackling the Killers of the Global Poor

The last forty years have witnessed unparalleled progress in global health with life expectancy improving more in this short period than in the preceding four thousand years. A key goal for global health and development is to further control priority diseases of the poor such as HIV/AIDS and tobacco-related killers to ensure that these remarkable gains continue throughout the twenty-first century. A more concerted effort is needed to ensure that innovative research and informed action benefits not just the rich, but also the poor countries of the world, where research is often severely under-funded and disorganized.

Dr. Prabhat Jha has broad professional experience in the fields of epidemiology, public health, and health policy development. Prior to becoming Canada Research Chair for the Canadian Initiative for Health and Development (CIHD), he served as Senior Scientist for the World Health Organization. He was also head of the World Bank team responsible for developing the Second National HIV/AIDS Control Program and the Malaria Control Project, collectively valued at $430 million. Dr. Jha sits on several international health committees/councils, is widely published, and has received many prestigious awards of excellence.

The chief goals of the CIHD are to generate, synthesize, and disseminate evidence that provides better estimates of the hazards of various risk factors, and to develop novel intervention tools to control the major causes of premature mortality among the global poor. Initially, Dr. Jha and his team will focus their leading edge research on the two largest and growing causes of death worldwide - HIV-1 and tobacco. Thirty-six million people are currently infected with HIV/AIDS, twenty-two million more have died from it, and the death rate is certain to grow. Tobacco accounts for four million deaths annually, and based on current smoking patterns, will kill about four hundred and fifty million people in the next fifty years.