Mahshid Nasehi

Mahshid Nasehi is a medical doctor who has been working as the National Director of the TB and Leprosy Control Department in Iran since 2000. Also, since 2005, she has continued to serve as an academic member at the Iran University of Medical Sciences, where she has an appointment as an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology.

Dr Nasehi started her work as a general practitioner working at a primary care facility, and progressively advanced through other levels of care, directly linked to TB management and care.  She was a District TB Coordinator in 1996 in Tehran Capital City, promoted to Provincial TB Coordinator in 1997, Director of the Disease Control Office at the Provincial level in Tehran in 1998, and finally, she joined the National TB Programme in 2000. Some of her achievements included the development and successful implementation of Global Fund’s individual and multi-country grants for TB projects, the development and establishment of the online TB Nominal Electronic Registration System, and the establishment of eight laboratories with capacity for drug susceptibility testing, 20 for culture and more than 100 for direct sputum microscopy.

She has provided strategic advice through various roles and engagements on expert advisory groups at the country, regional, and global levels, including membership in Guideline Development Groups (Update of guidelines on drug-resistant TB treatment; consolidated and updated guideline for programmatic management of latent TB Infection; and treatment of Tuberculosis Guideline-4th edition). As well, since 2018, Dr Nasehi also has served as a member of the Green Light Committee’s regional section for Eastern Mediterranean.