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International One Health & Public Health Leader Honored on 99^th birthday

 

 

James H. Steele, DVM, MPH, a renowned public health authority and One Health leader worldwide, was honored by many on his 99^th birthday April 3, 2012 in Houston, Texas (USA).  On April 4, 2012, the 20th Annual James H. Steele Lecture series took place at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

 

Dr. Steele, a veterinarian, has been called the “father of veterinary public health” and founded the veterinary division of the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, GA (USA), now called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  He has advocated the One Health concept (then referred to as “One Medicine”) during much of the 20^th century, long before it became fashionable.

 

In a recorded UTube message, Dr. Mirta Roses, a prominent physician and epidemiologist, http://www.paho.org/english/dd/pin/bio_dr_roses.htm and the Director of the Pan American Health Organizations (PAHO), heartily congratulated Dr. Steele for his monumental global public health accomplishments.

 

Please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXHOYGdg5-I

 

The One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team: Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP ▪ *Bruce Kaplan, DVM ▪ Thomas P. Monath, MD ▪ Jack Woodall, PhD ▪ Lisa A. Conti, DVM, MPH extends their congratulations to Dr. Steele. 

 

An illustration of Dr. Steele’s remarkable fortitude and staying power:  one of his many mentoring endeavors included bringing veterinarian,*Dr. Bruce Kaplan into the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in 1963.  The two have frequently communicated since that time.  On a few occasions during the past year, Steele emphasized to Kaplan, “I definitely intend to be present at my 100^th in Chicago at the AVMA [American Veterinary Medical Association convention]!”  Steele was born in Chicago, Illinois (USA).

 

Steele’s biographer, Craig N. Carter, DVM, PhD, has said, “Jim has been and is an iconic, insprirational figure in the international public health arena of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.”  Dr. Carter, a veterinarian, is currently Director of the Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center, Department of Veterinary Science, Colleges of Agriculture & Public Health, University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky (USA).  Carter was the author of the book “One Man, One Medicine, One Health: The James H. Steele Story” http://www.amazon.com/One-Man-Medicine-Health-Steele/dp/1439240043.