Dr Alejandro Cravioto

Dr Alejandro Cravioto (b. Mexico City, 1947) received his Medical Degree with honours in 1973 in the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He specialized in Pediatrics from 1973-1976 in the National Institute of Pediatrics in Mexico City followed by training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) of the University of London, receiving a Diploma in Tropical Public Health in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1981.

Returning to Mexico City, Dr Cravioto worked from 1980-1989 in the National Institute of Health and Technology for Child Health, first as Head of the Research Department and then as Deputy Director. From 1989-1991 he was the Director of the Division of Microbiology in the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, Mexico and in 1991 became Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In 1995 the Board of Governors of UNAM appointed him Dean of the Faculty of Medicine for a four-year period and renewed this appointment for a further four-year period in 1999. The UNAM School of Medicine is one of the largest medical schools in the world, with 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

In July of 2005 Dr Cravioto was appointed by the Board of Trustees of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (icddr,b) in Dhaka, Bangladesh as Deputy Executive Director and in June of 2007 as Executive Director of the Centre. The icddr,b is the largest public health research institute in the developing world. As part of an agreement with BRAC University in Dhaka, Dr. Cravioto was appointed Vice-Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health of BRAC University in 2005.  Dr Cravioto concluded his term as Executive Director of icddr,b in June of 2012 and in October of that year was appointed as Chief Scientific Officer by the Board of Trustees of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, Republic of Korea.  Post that he held until September of 2014. From January 2015 to June 2016, Dr. Cravioto joined Global Evaluative Sciences, Inc., in Seattle, Washington in the United States as a Director and Senior Epidemiologist.  

His main interests in research are the study of the interaction between infection and growth in young infants, as well as the pathogenic capacity of bacteria able to cause disease in humans. His laboratory and field study areas have been the training ground for over 150 persons with different academic backgrounds.

Dr Cravioto is the author of more than 190 papers published. He is a member of the Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Pediatrics and the Academy of Sciences of Mexico, as well as 20 other scientific societies in Mexico, Europe and the United States of America.  He is an honorary professor in the Universities of Corrientes in Argentina, Ricardo Palma in Peru and Cape Town in South Africa.  In October of 2015 Dr Cravioto was elected as member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization for a period of three years. SAGE is charged with advising WHO on overall policies and strategies, ranging from vaccines and technology, research and development, to delivery of immunization and its linkages with other health interventions.  From January 2017 Dr Cravioto was appointed Chair of SAGE.

Professor Cravioto has had a longstanding interest in the health and threats to health of developing countries populations. In the early part of his career, he focused on diarrhea-causing pathogens, particularly Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae. As the Executive Director of icddr,b, he had the opportunity to expand his scope to studying the relationship between hosts, populations of hosts (especially children), and enteric pathogens.  Additional interests include research and institutional capacity building and health systems in transition.

In 2011, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Dr Cravioto to head a panel investigating the source of the recent cholera outbreak in Haiti, which has killed over 3400 people. The selection of these members was based on their global stature, expertise and extensive experience working with cholera in all its aspects. In this capacity, he has led humanitarian response missions to Somalia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Dr. Cravioto served as the Chair of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization of the World Health Organization from 2015 to 2022, and is currently a member of the advisory group for the Gavi Vaccine Investment Strategy 2024.