Dr. Warren D. Johnson, Jr., was celebrated on December 13, 2022, in honor of his 60 years of distinguished service as a physician, investigator, scholar, educator, and pioneer on the world stage.

Dr. Johnson’s many years of leadership are legendary. He has mentored faculty and investigators working on some of the most virulent infectious diseases that exist around the world, from HIV/AIDS to malaria, hepatitis, leptospirosis, schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, and cryptosporidiosis. As the B. H. Kean Professor of Tropical Medicine, Dr. Johnson has remained at the forefront of breakthrough advances in global health, having mentored countless trainees, including Dr. Daniel Fitzgerald, Professor of Medicine and current Director of the Center for Global Health, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr. Jean Pape, who leads the GHESKIO Centers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Interestingly, in l980, Dr. Pape asked Dr. Johnson, on one of Dr. Johnson’s trips abroad, to examine several of Dr. Pape’s patients, who were wasting away from parasitic diarrhea. The examination of these patients alerted both doctors to a new disease, beginning ongoing years of investigation, during which the scourge was identified as AIDS.

On December 7, 2022, GHESKIO staff presented at the International AIDS society via webinar. The presentation demonstrated that how GHESKIO has continued to retain patients in care, despite very challenging conditions in Haiti. GHESKIO continues to offer medical services, continue research and training. GHESKIO’s contingency plan described how it has kept the operation running throughout the past year.

A study published as a preprint by researchers from the University of Florida and GHESKIO (a Haitian health-care centre that runs the country’s first permanent cholera treatment facility) shows that the same strain of cholera responsible for the 2010 outbreak is present in current cases.

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The Haitian Global Health Alliance Annual Report is available now.