Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez

Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez (born 1969 in Mexico City) is a Mexican epidemiologist, author, and infectious diseases expert, who has served as head of the Undersecretariat of Prevention and Health Promotion at the Mexican Secretariat of Health since 2018. Since January 2020, he has also played a major role as a spokesman and one of the lead members of the task force addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.[1]

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is López-Gatell and the second or maternal family name is Ramírez.

Hugo López-Gatell
Deputy Secretary of Prevention and Health Promotion of Mexico
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 December, 2018
President	Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Preceded by	Pablo Kuri-Morales
Personal details
Born	Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez February 22 1969 (Age 51) Mexico City, Mexico
Alma mater	School of Medicine of National Autonomous University of Mexico Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Scientific career
Fields	Epidemiology, Infectious Disease
Institutions	Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition Secretariat of Health

Career

Education

López-Gatell attended the School of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) graduating in 1994 as Physician-Surgeon. Afterwards, he obtained a master's degree in Medical Sciences at UNAM in 2000, and later a Ph.D degree in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University in 2006.[2][3][4]

As a researcher, he has written and participated in 40 papers, and in 2020 he had been cited an estimated of 6,457 times.[5] In addition to clinical and academic roles, López-Gatell serves as an associate editor for scientific journals as Global Health Action of the Umeå Center for Global Health Research, The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, AIDS (official body of the International AIDS Society) and the academic journal of the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition (INCMNSZ).

Public service

In 1998 he was appointed as Chief of Resident Doctors at INCMNSZ serving and as Medical Specialist A from 1999 to 2001. From 2013 to 2018 he was Director of Innovation on Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control at Mexican Secretariat of Health. In 2008 he was appointed as deputy general director of Epidemiology at the same secretariat. In that role, he led the creation of the National Epidemiological Surveillance System (Sinave), a re-engineering of the Mexican public health system to improve reporting and detection of epidemiological surveillance.

On December 1, 2018, López-Gatell was appointed by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador head of the Undersecretariat of Prevention and Health Promotion in the Secretariat of Health.[6][7] From the beginning of 2020 and after the rising of the COVID-19 pandemic López-Gatell has also applied his research and public service expertise as one of the main strategist and main spokesperson of Mexican Government on the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Mexico. From March 6, 2020, López-Gatell is conducting a daily press conference where he and the Secretariat of Health directives are giving information also explanations about the official strategies and decisions.[1]

The World Health Organization invited López-Gatell to join its team of experts in public health on May 24, 2020.[8]

Honors and awards

• Member of the National System of Researchers, 2008.

References

1. Morán Breña, Carmen; Lafuente, Javier (26 March 2020). "López-Gatell: "En México queremos un balance entre proteger la salud y a las economías más debilitadas"". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-03-27.
2. "Dr. Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez". gob.mx (in Spanish). Government of Mexico. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
3. "Dr. Hugo López Gatell Ramírez Director of Innovation in Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control - Expert with National Institute of Public Health". ExpertFile. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
4. "PMNCH | Government of Mexico". who.int. World Health Organization. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
5. "Hugo Lopez-Gatell - Citas de Google Académico". scholar.google.es. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
6. "Mexican government to suspend activities from Thursday". Reuters. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
7. Da Silva, Chantal (17 March 2020). "Mexico tells citizens to follow "healthy distance" coronavirus guidance—starting next week". Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-03-27.
8. Embargo, Redacción / Sin. "AMLO informa que la ONU pidió a López-Gatell unirse al Grupo de Expertos sanitarios de la OMS". SinEmbargo MX (in Spanish). Retrieved May 29, 2020.