 Associate Director, Emory Vaccine Center Director, Emory Program for Vaccine Policy and Development Formerly Director of the National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Orenstein joined the Emory University School of Medicine in March 2004 as Director of a new Emory Program for Vaccine Policy and Development and as Associate Director of the Emory Vaccine Center. Dr. Orenstein retired from his 26-year career at CDC where he led the National Immunization Program, a $1.6 billion effort with more than 450 staff, dedicated to reducing vaccine preventable disease burdens around the world including elimination of some of the greatest causes of childhood mortality and disability. Dr. Orenstein’s primary appointment is in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine in the Emory University School of Medicine. He also holds faculty appointments in Pediatrics and in the Departments of International Health and Epidemiology in Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Orenstein is a member of the International Editorial Board for the journal Vaccine. Along with Stanley Plotkin, Dr. Orenstein co-edits Vaccines, 4th edition, a 1600 page volume with more than 125 contributors that is the leading textbook in the field. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. He has served on the Council of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, chaired its publications committee, and is currently the Secretary/Treasurer. Dr. Orenstein’s many honors and awards include the Commendation Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal from the U.S. Public Health Service; the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medal; the Excellence in Public Health Award of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials; the Distinguished Service Award from the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society; and in 2003, the Excellence in Public Service Award of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Biography During Dr. Orenstein’s tenure at the National Immunization Program, he led successful efforts to combat and markedly reduce the occurrence of once common childhood diseases, including measles, rubella, mumps, meningitis from Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), varicella, and invasive pneumococcal disease. The Immunization Program also made major contributions: protecting adults from vaccine-preventable diseases through eliminating barriers to vaccination and developing new vaccine strategies, expanding vaccine safety efforts, improving risk communication, and promoting the use of immunization registries. Dr. Orenstein received his bachelor’s degree at The City College of New York and his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1972. He completed an internship and a residency in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Southern California Medical School and a residency in preventive medicine at the CDC. He has served in leadership roles within the CDC’s immunization program since 1982, and from May1993 through January 2004, had been Director of the National Immunization Program. He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and to the Pan American Health Organization for programs in polio eradication, measles control, and smallpox eradication in India, Brazil, Argentina and Peru. Dr. Orenstein has served as an Assistant Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health Service, and he currently serves as chairman of the World Health Organization’s Technical Consultative Group on the Global Eradication of Poliomyelitis. He was a member and rapporteur of the Pan American Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on Vaccines and Immunization and served as the CDC liaison member to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee for more than 14 years, having played a major role in development of critical immunization policy documents such as “The measles epidemic: the problems, barriers and recommendations”(JAMA 1991;266:1547-1552). This article became the blueprint for today’s immunization program including Federal support for immunization infrastructure, an immunization coverage measurement system for program accountability, and the critical role of research in fostering immunization improvements. During the same period as Dr. Orenstein served on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, he also served as CDC liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID), the major immunization policy making body for private pediatricians. Major policies Major policies adopted during Dr. Orenstein’s tenure at CDC include recommendations for: 1) a second dose of measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine for all children, 2) universal vaccination of children against Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, varicella, and invasive pneumococcal disease, and 3) annual vaccination of all 50-64 year old adults and 6-23 month old children against influenza. Dr. Orenstein led the efforts to implement the Vaccines for Children Program (VFC) an innovative entitlement program that today overcomes financial barriers to vaccine access for approximately 40% of the nation’s children and allows an advisory committee of experts, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), to see its recommendations financed automatically without having to go through the traditional appropriations process. Dr. Orenstein also fostered development of a major effort to address vaccine safety concerns including overseeing the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a passive adverse reaction reporting system, the Vaccine Safety Datalink which includes researchers from eight Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) covering more than 2% of the US population, special investigations such as the relationship between rhesus rotavirus vaccine and intussusception, and independent assessment of the available evidence on selected adverse events through the Institute of Medicine. During his tenure as leader of the nation’s immunization program, Dr. Orenstein helped develop a large international immunization program that plays a major role in eradicating polio, reducing measles mortality, and introducing new vaccines into worldwide programs. Prior to taking over direction of the nation’s immunization efforts, Dr. Orenstein was a major driving force in improving the epidemiologic assessment of vaccine effectiveness, having co-authored numerous papers on the effectiveness of various vaccines in a post-licensure setting including one of the critical reviews of different methods that could be used to assess effectiveness during observational studies. Another major focus of his work was on understanding the barriers to elimination of indigenous measles in the United States and strategies to overcome them.
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