Biography
Rear Admiral Ali S. Khan, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Surgeon General and began leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) in August 2010. Most recently, he was the Deputy Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at CDC. Dr. Khan joined CDC and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in 1991 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer. Over the past decade, he has responded to and led numerous high profile domestic and international public health emergencies including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, monkeypox, avian influenza, Rift Valley fever, severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS], the Asian Tsunami, and the initial public health response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Dr. Khan’s professional career has focused on bioterrorism, global health, and emerging infectious diseases. He served as one of the main architects of CDC’s public health bioterrorism preparedness program which upgraded local, state, and national public health systems to detect and rapidly respond to bioterrorism. He designed CDC’s joint global field epidemiology and laboratory training program. Dr. Khan was an integral part of the design and implementation of the President’s Malaria Initiative and has been engaged in guinea worm and polio eradication. He also proposed BioPHusion as a new public health initiative to improve knowledge exchange for all public health practitioners.
Dr. Khan received his M.D. from Downstate Medical Center in his hometown of Brooklyn, NY, and completed a joint residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor before joining CDC. He has a Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Emory University where he is an adjunct professor. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications, textbook chapters, editorials, and brief communiques. He has consulted intensively for multiple U.S. organizations including NASA, Ministries of Health, and the World Health Organization.
Article Posts
- CDC Responds to Earthquake, Tsunami, and Radiation Release in Japan
(March, 2011) - Change is in the air (October, 2010)
- Cheesy Chicken & Rice Recall: A Successful Outbreak Investigation (August 2010)
- The Truth is Out There: What You Need to Know About Bats (July 2010)
- Shoot for the Goal! Stay Safe and Healthy During the World Cup in South Africa this Summer (June 2010)
- A Primer on E.coli O145: A Little Contaminated Lettuce and a Lot of Diferent Os (May 2010)
- Celebrating National Drinking Water Week (May 2010)
- Dengue: The Key West Tour (April 2010)
- Food-born Outbreaks Caused by Ingredients: Would You Like Some Pepper with That? (April 2010)
- Climate Change: Communicating Complexity (November 2009)
- One Piece Found in the Marburg Puzzle (August 2009)
- Of Pigs and Men (May 2009)
- Clostridium difficile – an Emerging Zoonosis? (April 2009)
- NCIS Atlanta: Severe Rash Illness in Baja (March 2009)
- Food Safety: Need for Speed (February 2009)
- New Brain Disease is Blowing Minds (May 2008)
- Mosquitoes: The World’s Deadliest Animals (May 2008)
- Produce Strikes Back: Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak (July 2008)
- Novel Arenavirus Causes Mystery Illness in Zambia and South Africa (October 2008)
- Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak: Epilogue (November 2008)
- CSI Atlanta: Foodborne Outbreak (December 2008)
- A New Twist for Ebola: Reston-Infected Pigs in the Philippines (January 2009)
- Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak Investigation: Do Not Try This at Home (January 2009)
- Ingredient Driven Outbreaks: The Inside is Bigger Than the Outside (January 2009)
- Imported Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever: One That Got Away (January 2009)