Interview: Malaria control: learning from the past to create a better future

Abstract

Dr Jose A Najera was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1932. He became a physician at the University of Litoral, Rosario, Argentina in 1954. He studied Tropical Medicine in London and Public Health and Statistics in Madrid. In 1959, Dr Najera started work as an assistant in the department of virology in the National School of Public Health, Madrid, before joining WHO to train as a Malariologist in 1961, becoming the team leader of a WHO Field Research Project working during the 1960s in Ghana, Uganda, Pakistan and Nigeria. In 1969 he joined the Pan American Health Organization in Washington, DC, USA, where he worked on malaria research, vector biology and control, and eventually became coordinator of malaria, parasitic diseases and vector control. Dr Najera became the director of the Malaria Action Programme at the WHO HQ in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1982 and, in 1990, director of the newly established Division of Control of Tropical Diseases, until his retirement in 1992. Since his retirement, Dr Najera has worked...