English
An India-born doctor fighting Ebola in Africa was among the guests watching President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday. India-born Pranav Shetty, Global Emergency Health Coordinator for International Medical Corps joined the First Lady in her box as a representative of the thousands of health care workers who were collectively named TIME’s person of the year in 2014.
Shetty’s experience in public health emergencies is invaluable, having responded to crises in Haiti, Libya, South Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, and the Philippines, the White House said. The White House described the Medical Corps as a critical partner in the US-supported effort to bring the Ebola epidemic under control in West Africa.
In August 2014, Shetty deployed to Liberia to establish and oversee two Ebola treatment units, teams of rapid responders that deploy to Ebola hot spots across the country and a training centre for local and international health care workers now working on the frontlines of the Ebola response effort.
Shetty arrived back in the US in late December and will return to West Africa later this week to help establish International Medical Corps’ first Ebola treatment center in Guinea.
Shetty is a US-trained emergency medicine physician with a Masters of Public Health and has worked for International Medical Corps since 2011.
Based in Washington, DC, he serves as the initial health technical lead for International Medical Corps’ major emergency response operations worldwide.
This story originally appeared on The Indian Diaspora.
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