Davidson Hamer

Davidson Hamer, MD, FACP, FIDSA, is a Professor of Global Health and Medicine at the Boston University School of Public Health and School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Nutrition at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. He co-leads the One Health & Climate Change research core in BU’s Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. He is also involved with BU’s Center for Global Health and Development. Dr. Hamer is a board-certified specialist in infectious diseases, with a particular interest in tropical infectious diseases, and has twenty years of field experience in neonatal and child survival research including studies of micronutrient interventions, maternal and neonatal health, malaria, pneumonia, and diarrheal diseases.

During the last 15+ years, he has supervised and provided technical support to more than 50 studies in developing countries that evaluated interventions for improving neonatal survival, treatment and prevention of malaria, HIV/AIDS, micronutrient deficiencies, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia. He currently has active projects in Zambia, Tanzania, and Ecuador. Major current projects include a large neonatal survival study, community-based interventions to reduce neonatal and under-5 child morbidity from common diseases, the role of specific micronutrients in reducing the burden of disease due to malaria in pregnancy, and an evaluation of the association of vitamin D deficiency with pneumonia in Ecuadorian children. Dr. Hamer received a MD from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and a BA in biology and French from Amherst College. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. His expertise varies and includes:

• Evaluations of community-based interventions to reduce neonatal and infant mortality in developing countries.
• Evaluations of strategies to strengthen health systems at the community and primary care level in order to reduce morbidity and mortality of children from common infectious diseases (malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea).
• Interventions to prevent or treat malnutrition or specific micronutrient deficiencies including evaluations of the effects of micronutrients, especially zinc, vitamin A, iron, and selenium on the incidence of common infectious diseases (e.g., malaria, diarrheal disease, and acute respiratory infections) in pre-school children.
• Micronutrient interventions to prevent infections in the elderly.
• Epidemiology and treatment of malaria and pneumonia in pre-school children.
• Epidemiology of malaria in pregnancy and evaluation of interventions designed to decrease maternal morbidity and improve birth outcomes.
• Evaluations of the interaction between HIV infection and malaria.
• Interventions to improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy in resource-poor settings.