Doctor Mirta Roses Periago born in Argentina, received her medical degree from the National University of Córdoba in 1969, obtaining a diploma in public health with a concentration in epidemiology and a certificate of specialization in infectious diseases from the University of Buenos Aires. She also studied tropical medicine at Bahía State Federal University in Brazil.
Dr. Roses began her service career in Córdoba, Argentina, as a staff physician in the Rawson Hospital and as a teaching assistant instructor at the National University in the Departments of Preventive and Social Medicine and of Infectious Diseases. She participated in the Research Program on Argentine Hemorrhagic Fever in Pergamino, Buenos Aires Province. In 1974, she joined Argentina's Ministry of Public Health.
She joined the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in 1984 as coordinator of the Epidemiology Unit of the Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC) in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 1986, Dr. Roses was transferred to the Dominican Republic, as Advisor in Epidemiology, and from 1988 as PAHO/WHO Representative to the country. At the completion of her mission, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Central University of the East and Honorary Professorship by the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo.
From July 1992 to January 1995 she served as the PAHO/WHO Representative in Bolivia, where she was awarded the Armed Forces Order of Marshal Santa Cruz, the Order of Bolivar the Liberator, and the Presidential Order of Public Health, and named an Honorary Professor by the University of San Andrés.
In 1995, she was appointed Assistant Director of PAHO, joining the World Health Organization's Director Program Management Group and Global Program Management Group.
In September 2002, Dr. Roses was elected Director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau by the countries of the Hemisphere. She took office on 1 February 2003, becoming the first Argentine and first woman to hold that position in the world's oldest health public agency, founded in 1902. In September 2007, she was reelected to another term as Director of the Organization.
Dr. Roses has been the recipient of numerous honors--among them, honorary doctorates from the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, the Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University, and the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México. She has also been awarded Spain's Order of Public Health, Ecuador's National Order of Honorato Vásquez with the degree of High Official; Nicaragua's Order of José de Marcoleta and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Order of Liberty; Dominican Republic's Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella; and recognition by the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires in Argentina.
In 2007 she was elected Vice President for Latin America of the American Public Health Association (APHA). In April 2009, she was incorporated as National Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Medicine (Buenos Aires, Argentina.) |
