Michael H Merson
Michael Howard Merson
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Clinical Professor of Global and Environmental Health
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Professional overview
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Michael Merson is a Clinical Professor of Global and Environmental Health at NYU and the William Joklik Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Global Health at Duke University, where he served as the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute and as Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Affairs. His current research is focused on policy issues related to the response to pandemics, evaluating the rollout of Paxlovid in low-income countries and on ways to regain trust in public health.
Prior to NYU, he joined the faculty at Yale University as its first Dean of Public Health. Before entering academia, between 1980 and 1995, Dr. Merson served as director of the World Health Organization (WHO) programs on Diarrheal Diseases and Acute Respiratory Infections, and subsequently the WHO Global Program on AIDS. He has authored over 150 articles, is the senior editor of a leading global health textbook “Global Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies” and lead author of The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response on the history of the global response to AIDS. He has served in advisory capacities for UNAIDS, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, World Bank, World Economic Forum, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and was an advisor to various private sector entities on the COVID-19 pandemic. He has two honorary degrees and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
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Education
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B.A., 1966, cum laude, Amherst College, Amherst, MassachusettsM.D., 1970, summa cum laude, SUNY, Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn, New York
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Honors and awards
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Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Distinguished Leadership Award (2018)Duke Medical Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award (2017)Master Teacher Award in Preventive Medicine, Downstate Medical Center (2010)Outstanding Contribution to the Campaign Against HIV/AIDS, Russian Association Against AIDS (2000)Connecticut Health Commissioner’s AIDS Leadership Award (1998)Connecticut Health Commissioner’s AIDS Leadership Award (1997)Frank Babbott Alumni Award (1995)Surgeon General's Exemplary Service Medal (1993)Commendation Medal, US Public Health Service; (1986)Arthur S. Flemming Award for Outstanding Federal Service (1983)Commendation Medal, US Public Health Service (1975)
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Publications
Publications
AIDS: NEW DISEASES AND MORBIDITY PATTERNS
MERSON, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1994Journal title
Medical educationVolume
28Page(s)
61-62Explaining long-term HIV survivors.
Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1994Journal title
International Nursing ReviewVolume
41Issue
6Page(s)
169-170Making AIDS prevention a national priority.
AbstractMerson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1994Journal title
Integration (Tokyo, Japan)Issue
42Page(s)
2-5AbstractDuring the period from August 1993 through August 1994, it was estimated that another 3 million persons had been infected with HIV, with the global total exceeding 17 million then. In Asia infections increased from 12% to 16% with a corresponding decrease in North America and Europe. Over 60% of all infections had occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa. In south and southeast Asia, HIV infections were estimated at over 2.5 million in mid-1994. Estimated infections in Thailand had risen 10-fold since early 1990, with rates of 4% among young men and 1.5% among pregnant women. Yet in Thailand reported cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) fell by 77% between 1986 and 1993, which was attributed to media promotion of condom use. In east Asia and the Pacific, the estimated number of infections had reached 50,000 in mid-1994, a doubling in one year. There had been a steep rise in the rate of reported STDs in China. The countries of eastern Europe and central Asia in mid-1994 had over 50,000 infections, but many of the factors associated with rapid HIV spread were present: economic crisis, rising unemployment, armed conflicts, and major population movements. To date (mid-1994), there have been an estimated 100,000 infections in north Africa and the Middle East. As of mid-1994, 190 countries worldwide had reported close to 1 million AIDS cases to the World Health Organization. But an estimated 4 million adults and children had developed AIDS since the start of the pandemic. By 2000, the cumulative case total is projected to reach nearly 10 million. A retrospective analysis of the epidemic in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zambia showed that by the 12th year of the epidemic, youth under 25 accounted for up to 3/4 of all new infections. Implementing basic prevention programs in Asia would cost between 0.75 and 1.5 billion US dollars a year to avert an estimated 5 million infections by the year 2000 alone.Childhood Immunizations
AbstractKim-Farley, R. J., Merson, M. H., Tulloch, J. L., Deisenhammer, F., Pohl, P., Grubwieser, G., Sepkowitz, S., & Peter, G. (n.d.). In New England Journal of Medicine (1–).Publication year
1993Volume
328Issue
19Page(s)
1420-1422AbstractTo the Editor: Dr. Peter's review of childhood immunizations in the United States (Dec. 17 issue)1 mentions policies that differ from those of the World Health Organization (WHO), especially with respect to immunization against cholera and poliomyelitis. We wish to clarify these differences. The WHO does not recommend cholera vaccine for travelers, and no country requires it for entry2. The only available cholera vaccine is of low efficacy and provides at best only short-term immunity. Immunization against cholera may impart a false sense of security, making travelers less likely to use more effective protective measures3. The safety of…Slowing the spread of HIV: Agenda for the 1990s
Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1993Journal title
ScienceVolume
260Issue
5112Page(s)
1266-1268Aids: The world situation
AbstractMerson, M. J. (n.d.).Publication year
1992Journal title
Journal of Public Health PolicyVolume
13Issue
1Page(s)
8-26AbstractTHIS article appeared in WHO Features, No. 163, November 1991, in the form of an interview with Dr. Merson in connection with World AIDS Day, December 1, 1991. We are publishing it as a special article in order to bring to our readers this authoritative summary of the current situation, to emphasize the overwhelming significance of the AIDS pandemic, and to demonstrate the urgent need to fully mobilize world resources in order to combat and conquer this terrible threat to humanity. Dr. Merson, it’s ten years since AIDS was first recognized. What do you see as the most important achievements and the failures in the fight against it? One of the most important achievements is to have learned as much as we have about AIDS. The disease was first recognized in homosexual men in the United States of America in 1981; by 1983 the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, had been isolated; in 1985 an antibody test was available. Since then we have learned that HIV is spread mainly through sexual intercourse; like some other sexually transmitted infections, it can also be transmitted through blood and from an infected woman to her unborn or newborn baby. This knowledge showed us that transmission could be interrupted. We have also learned much about how the virus infects cells and how the body mounts an immune response to this infection, and this has led to the development of over 150 experi-mental drugs and vaccines. That is enormous progress in only ten years.Foreword
Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1991Journal title
AIDSVolume
5Page(s)
I+II+AIDS: a special threat to women
AbstractPetros-Barvazian, A., & Merson, M. (n.d.).Publication year
1990Journal title
World HealthAbstractDeals with aspects of AIDS worldwide, with special reference to women: the challenge of the nineties; AIDS and haemophiliacs; mother and child; the Paris Declaration; psychological and social consequences; a Uganda casebook; a caring society; the research agenda for the 1990s; and World Aids Day 1990. -D.J.DavisGlobal AIDS prevention and control.
Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1990Journal title
HygieVolume
9Issue
4Page(s)
5-7Global progress in the control of diarrheal diseases
Claeson, M., & Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1990Journal title
Pediatric Infectious Disease JournalVolume
9Issue
5Page(s)
345-355Control of diarrhoeal diseases
AbstractMartinez, C. A., Barua, D., & Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1988Journal title
World Health Statistics QuarterlyVolume
41Issue
2Page(s)
74-81AbstractThis article traces the history of the worldwide struggle to control diarrheal diseases. When the 7th pandemic of cholera began in 1961, WHO responded with a greatly expanded program of activities which included cooperation with countries in training and control efforts, and research on treatment and prevention. In 1970, when the cholera pandemic spread to Africa, the emergency assistance program was reactivated, with increasing attention to the provision of appropriate treatment, especially oral rehydration therapy. Another public health problem of importance during the 1970s was the increase in antibiotic resistance of enteric bacteria. The demonstration of the effectiveness of a single formulation of oral rehydration salts (ORS) in the treatment of all diarrheas was instrumental in convincing public health administrators that diarrheal diseases control should become an essential component of primary health care and led to the creation of a global Diarrheal Diseases Control program. The Program, which has the objective of reducing childhood mortality and morbidity due to diarrheal diseases and their associated ill effects, especially malnutrition, consists of 2 main components: a health services and control component and research component. If the targets set by the Program for 1989 can be attained, it is expected that by then at least 1.5 million childhood deaths due to diarrhea will be prevented annually.Enfrentar a diarreia à escala mundial.
Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1986Journal title
Servir (Lisbon, Portugal)Volume
34Issue
4Page(s)
198-199Oral rehydration therapy - from theory to practice ( diarrhoeal disease).
AbstractMerson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1986Journal title
WHO ChronicleVolume
40Issue
3Page(s)
116-118AbstractOral rehydration therapy is a cheap and simple way of reducing the death rate of childhood diarrhoea. By 1985, more than 95% of the developing world's population lived in countries which had national diarrhoeal diseases control programmes. The second International Conference on Oral Rehydration Therapy in 1985 made recommendations to increase the effectiveness of such programmes. These covered the education of mothers, the production and distribution of rehydration salts, personnel training, supervision, and programme monitoring and evaluation.-R.HaynesOral'naia regidratatsiia pri ostrykh kishechnykh zabolevaniiakh.
Merson, M. K., Lishnevskii, M. S., & Oblapenko, G. P. (n.d.).Publication year
1986Journal title
Sovetskaia meditsinaIssue
3Page(s)
60-63Programma VOZ po bor'be s diareǐnymi bolezniami: sostoianie i perspektivy razvitiia--organizatsionno-operativnyǐ komponent programmy.
Litvinov, S. K., Merson, M. H., Oblapenko, G. P., Herniman, R., & Lishnevskiǐ, M. S. (n.d.).Publication year
1985Journal title
Zhurnal Mikrobiologii Epidemiologii i ImmunobiologiiIssue
6Page(s)
93-98Nutritional status, body size and severity of diarrhoea associated with rotavirus or enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
AbstractBlack, R. E., Merson, M. H., Eusof, A., Huq, I., & Pollard, R. (n.d.).Publication year
1984Journal title
Journal of Tropical Medicine and HygieneVolume
87Issue
2Page(s)
83-89AbstractChildren with severe malnutrition have an increased risk of death from diarrhoea. To determine if the clinical manifestations of specific types of diarrhoea differed according to the nutritional status or size (weight and length) of the patient, we studied children with acute diarrhoea associated with rotavirus or enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. In this study we found that a child's body size, which was determined by his age and nutritional status, was a significant predictor of his rate of stool output per kilogram of body weight. Thus, children who are small because of young age and/or malnutrition appear to lose a greater proportion of their total fluid volume during diarrhoea and might be expected to have a higher frequency of severe dehydration and death, if untreated.Diarrhoeal disease control: Reviews of potential interventions
AbstractFeachem, R. G., Hogan, R. C., & Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1983Journal title
Bulletin of the World Health OrganizationVolume
61Issue
4Page(s)
637-640AbstractDiarrhoeal diseases are a major cause of sickness and death among young children in most developing countries. Since effective interventions to control these diseases are available, they are a priority target for the primary health care programmes being planned or implemented in many countries. Governments and international agencies, including the World Health Organization, have emphasized oral rehydration as an effective intervention for reducing diarrhoeal disease mortality. Other interventions are, however, needed to reduce morbidity, to reduce mortality not averted by oral rehydration, and to develop a multifaceted approach in which oral rehydration is one of several anti-diarrhoea measures being implemented simultaneously with mutally reinforcing and complementary impacts. This paper presents a classification of potential interventions for the control of diarrhoeal disease morbidity and/or mortality among children under 5 years of age and introduces a series of reviews of these interventions. The first of these reviews, on measles immunization, also appears in this issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.ORAL TYPHOID VACCINE Ty21a
Sutton, R. G., & Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1983Journal title
The LancetVolume
321Issue
8323Page(s)
523Prevention of Traveler's Diarrhea
Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1983Journal title
GastroenterologyVolume
84Issue
2Page(s)
424-426Serologic differentiation between antitoxin responses to infection with Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxin-producing Escherichia coli
AbstractSvennerholm, A. M., Holmgren, J., Black, R., Levine, M., & Merson, M. (n.d.).Publication year
1983Journal title
Unknown JournalVolume
147Issue
3Page(s)
514-522AbstractA ganglioside enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to study and attempt to differentiate between antitoxin responses in persons infected with either Vibrio cholerae or Escherichia coli producing heat-labile enterotoxin. In most cases (69%-94%), experimentally infected North Americans and naturally infected Bangladeshis responded to either infection with significant (greater than twofold) increases in serum antibody titer to both heat-labile enterotoxin and cholera toxin. In all but one instance, the response was higher to the homologous than to the heterologous toxin, and for the Americans the homologous antitoxin titers remained significantly higher for at least one year. Determination of levels of antibodies to purified subunits A and B of cholera toxin by an ELISA showed that V. cholerae infection in most instances induced a significant response to subunit B but rarely to subunit A. E. coli infection, on the other hand, induced only slight increases in antibody titer to either subunit.Contamination of weaning foods and transmission of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli diarrhoea in children in rural Bangladesh
AbstractBlack, R. E., Black, R. E., Brown, K. H., Becker, S., Alim, A. R., Merson, M. H., Black, R. E., Brown, K. H., Brown, K. H., & Brown, K. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1982Journal title
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and HygieneVolume
76Issue
2Page(s)
259-264AbstractIn longitudinal studies of infectious diseases and nutrition in Bangladesh, we determined the degree of bacterial contamination of traditional weaning foods and evaluated the role of these foods in the transmission of diarrhoeal diseases. 41% of samples of food items fed to weaning aged children contained Escherichia coli; these organisms were used as indicators of faecal contamination. Milk and foods prepared particularly for infants were more frequently and heavily contaminated with E. coli than was boiled rice, and E. coli levels were found to be related to the storage of cooked foods at high environmental temperatures. 50% of drinking water specimens also contained E. coli, but colony counts were approximately 10-fold lower than in food specimens. The proportion of a child’s food samples that contained E. coli was significantly related to the child’s annual incidence of diarrhoea associated with enterotoxigenic E. coli. This observation underscores the importance of seeking locally available foods that are hygienic as well as nutritious to supplement the diets of breastfeeding children in developing countries.Endemic cholera in rural Bangladesh, 1966-1980
AbstractGlass, R. I., Becker, S., Huq, M. I., Stoll, B. J., Khan, M. U., Merson, M. H., Lee, J. V., & Black, R. E. (n.d.).Publication year
1982Journal title
American Journal of EpidemiologyVolume
116Issue
6Page(s)
959-970AbstractSince 1963, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR.B), formerly the Cholera Research Laboratory, has maintained a field station in Matlab to treat patients from a surveillance population of 240,000 who have cholera and other diarrheal diseases. Since 1966, the authors have analyzed hospital records of 7141 surveillance-area patients culture-positive for V. cholerae 01 to relate the seasonally, age and sex distribution, and geographic trends with hypotheses concerning transmission, immunity, and risk groups. From this review, they have found that: 1) children 2-9 years old and adult women are most commonly hospitalized for cholera; 2) V. cholerae 01 emerges simultaneously throughout the area of surveillance, with the early cases being of different phage types; 3) three patients were hospitalized twice for cholera compared with 29 expected on the basis of life-table analysis (p < 0.01), suggesting that Immunity to severe disease conferred by previous Illness may be stable and long-lasting; 4) no constant relationship was found between the times of onset or peaks of the yearly cholera epidemic and the times of onset or peaks of the monsoon rains or river water levels; and 5) an outbreak of multiply antibiotic-resistant V. cholerae 01 infection documented in 1979 raises questions about the dissemination of resistance plasmids, antibiotic-use patterns, and the need for other drugs in addition to tetracycline. While little progress has been made in understanding the mode of transmission of V. cholerae 01, and in Identifying practices for prevention, fluid therapy in this area has decreased the case fatality rate significantly and provides guidance for similar programs elsewhere.The magnitude of the global problem of acute diarrhoeal disease: A review of active surveillance data
AbstractSnyder, J. D., & Merson, M. H. (n.d.).Publication year
1982Journal title
Bulletin of the World Health OrganizationVolume
60Issue
4Page(s)
605-613AbstractData from 24 published studies were analysed in order to estimate the annual morbidity and mortality from acute diarrhoeal disease in the developing world. Twenty-two of the studies involved frequent surveillance through home visits to families in communities; the other two were multi-country studies in which diarrhoea mortality was calculated on the basis of death certificate information. Morbidity rates were found to be highest in the 6-11 month age group, while the mortality rates were greatest in infants under 1 year of age and children 1 year old. For children under 5 years old, the median incidence of diarrhoea was 2.2 episodes per child per year for all studies and 3.0 episodes per child per year for the studies that had the smallest populations and most frequent surveillance. Using 1980 population estimates, the estimated total yearly morbidity and mortality from diarrhoeal disease for children under 5 years of age in Africa, Asia (excluding China), and Latin America were 744-1000 million episodes and 4.6 million deaths.Clinical features of types A and B food-borne botulism
AbstractHughes, J. M., Blumenthal, J. R., Merson, M. H., Lombard, G. L., Dowell, V. R., & Gangarosa, E. J. (n.d.).Publication year
1981Journal title
Unknown JournalVolume
95Issue
4Page(s)
442-445AbstractMedical records of 55 patients with type A and type B food-borne botulism reported to the Centers for Disease Control during 2 years were reviewed to assess the clinical features and severity of illness, diagnostic test results, nature of complications, and causes of death. Some patients had features not usually associated with botulism including paresthesia (14%), asymmetric extremity weakness (17%), asymmetric ptosis (8%), slightly elevated cerebrospinal fluid protein values (14%), and positive responses to edrophonium chloride (26%). Several observations suggest that type A was more severe than type B disease. Although the case-fatality ratio was not significantly greater, patients with type A disease saw a physician earlier in the course of illness, were more likely to need ventilatory support, and were hospitalized longer. Patients who died were older than those who survived. Deaths within the first 2 weeks resulted from failure to recognize the severity of the disease or from pulmonary or systemic infection whereas the three late deaths were related to respirator malfunction.Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli diarrhoea: Acquired immunity and transmission in an endemic area
AbstractBlack, R. E., Merson, M. H., Rowe, B., Taylor, P. R., Abdul Alim, A. R., Gross, R. J., & Sack, D. A. (n.d.).Publication year
1981Journal title
Bulletin of the World Health OrganizationVolume
59Issue
2Page(s)
263-268AbstractEnterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are an important cause of diarrhoea in developing countries. Studies were made, in an endemic area of Bangladesh, of household contacts of patients with diarrhoea associated with E. coli producing heat-stable and heat-labile toxins (ST/LT) or heat-stable toxin (ST) only. It was found that 11% of contacts were infected in the 10-day study period, and that both the rate of infection and the proportion of infected persons with diarrhoea decreased with increasing age, suggesting the development of immunity. ETEC of the same serotype as that of the index patient were found in 9% of water sources used by index households, in a small number of food and drinking water specimens from the index homes, and in faeces from 3 healthy calves. The rate of infection of household members was highest in houses where there was contaminated food or water which suggests that infection may take place in the home when contaminated water is brought in.