Athena P. Kourtis
Born
Greece
Academic background
EducationMD, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
PhD, Pasteur Institute
MPH, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Academic work
InstitutionsCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
Emory University

Athena Kourtis (born c. 1970) is a Greek-American pediatrician, infectious diseases physician, scientist and author. She is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chief of HIV Research, as well as a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and a Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Her research work has focused on perinatal, maternal and pediatric infections, and she is a leading expert in pediatric HIV, Cytomegalovirus, and Hepatitis, as well as infections in pregnancy.

Early life and education

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Kourtis was raised in Greece, earning her medical degree Magna Cum Laude from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and her PhD in Immunology at the Pasteur Institute and the National University of Athens School of Medicine.[1] She obtained a Master’s in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Career

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Upon completing her medical degree, Kourtis started a residency followed by a fellowship in Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology and Immunology at the Emory University School of Medicine. She then joined the faculty at the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University.

Her early research focused on the role of the thymus in immunologic depletion of children with HIV.[2] Her research work helped determine the time of transmission of HIV to the baby during pregnancy and delivery.[3] For this work she won the Lysidi Award from the Hellenic National Academy of Sciences.[4] She also won the Vector Laboratories Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Microbiology.[5][6]

After joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she led a research team conducting a number of pivotal clinical trials in the U.S. and overseas. The work included research that led to prevention of HIV transmission from breastfeeding.[7] Moreover, her research helped achieve elimination of perinatal HIV infections in the United States.[8] She has also worked on emerging infections such as the Ebola virus, the Zika virus, COVID-19 and Mpox[9], as well as other public health crises such as antibiotic resistance.[10] For her contributions, she has received the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Federal Executive Board[11] and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Charles C. Shepard Award.[12]

Kourtis serves on national Clinical Practice Guideline committees including the Committee of Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Department of Health and Human Services Panel.[13] She has been the editor of the Clinics in Perinatology, and the editor of the book HIV-1 and Breastfeeding: Science, Research Advances, and Policy.[14] She has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications in the academic literature with over 15,000 total citations.[15][16]  Kourtis is also the author of a book for parents entitled Keeping Your Children Healthy in a Germ-Filled World, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.[17] Kourtis is one of the main contributors to the Red Book, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.[18][19]

References

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  1. ^ Γριμάνη, Αννα (2014-12-15). "Αθηνά Κούρτη: «Λιγότερη γραφειοκρατία, περισσότερη διαφάνεια»". Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ (in Greek). Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  2. ^ Kourtis, Athena P.; Ibegbu, Christian; Nahmias, Andre J.; Lee, Francis K.; Clark, W. Scott; Sawyer, Mary K.; Nesheim, Steven (1996-11-07). "Early Progression of Disease in HIV-Infected Infants with Thymus Dysfunction". New England Journal of Medicine. 335 (19): 1431–1436. doi:10.1056/NEJM199611073351904. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 8875920.
  3. ^ Kourtis, Athena P. (2001-02-14). "Understanding the Timing of HIV Transmission From Mother to Infant". JAMA. 285 (6): 709–712. doi:10.1001/jama.285.6.709. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 11176886.
  4. ^ tanea.gr (2001-12-27). "Ασπίδα στο παιδί, από το ΑΙDS της μητέρας". ΤΑ ΝΕΑ (in Greek). Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  5. ^ Yee, Karen. "Research Guides: Center for the History of Microbiology/ASM Archives (CHOMA): Awards". lib.guides.umbc.edu. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  6. ^ "Emory Magazine | The Classes: Medicine". magazine.emory.edu. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  7. ^ Chasela, Charles S.; Hudgens, Michael G.; Jamieson, Denise J.; Kayira, Dumbani; Hosseinipour, Mina C.; Kourtis, Athena P.; Martinson, Francis; Tegha, Gerald; Knight, Rodney J.; Ahmed, Yusuf I.; Kamwendo, Deborah D.; Hoffman, Irving F.; Ellington, Sascha R.; Kacheche, Zebrone; Soko, Alice (2010-06-17). "Maternal or Infant Antiretroviral Drugs to Reduce HIV-1 Transmission". New England Journal of Medicine. 362 (24): 2271–2281. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0911486. ISSN 0028-4793. PMC 3440865. PMID 20554982.
  8. ^ Lampe, Margaret A.; Nesheim, Steven R.; Oladapo, Keydra L.; Ewing, Alexander C.; Wiener, Jeffrey; Kourtis, Athena P. (2023-05-01). "Achieving Elimination of Perinatal HIV in the United States". Pediatrics. 151 (5). doi:10.1542/peds.2022-059604. ISSN 0031-4005. PMC 10387171. PMID 37070379.
  9. ^ Kourtis, Athena (August 26, 2024). "Red Book Online Webinars". American Academy of Pediatrics. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
  10. ^ O'Reilly, Eileen (Jan 17, 2019). "To tackle antibiotic resistance, researchers try new approaches". Retrieved Aug 29, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ "Emory Medicine Magazine - Fall 2008 by Emory University - Issuu". issuu.com. 2008-10-10. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  12. ^ "AO 36 (June 2007) by Onassis Stegi - Issuu". issuu.com. 2007-06-01. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  13. ^ "Committee on Infectious Diseases". American Academy of Pediatrics. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  14. ^ Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) and Breastfeeding. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Vol. 743. 2012. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-2251-8. ISBN 978-1-4614-2250-1.
  15. ^ "Author Profile: Kourtis, Athena P." Scopus. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  16. ^ "Athena P. Kourtis". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
  17. ^ "Meet Athena P. Kourtis, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H." Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
  18. ^ "Red Book 2018: Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases [31 ed.] 1610021460, 9781610021463". dokumen.pub. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
  19. ^ Red Book: 2021–2024 Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases (32nd ed.). American Academy of Pediatrics. 2021.