Timothy H. Holtz Adjunct Professor of Global Health Email: tholtz@emory.edu

Timothy H. Holtz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an adjunct associate professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and has taught courses in TB and health and human rights in the past. Between 2004-2009 he also taught an elective in human rights and social medicine for medical students. He currently works with Emory University as the Bangkok (Thailand) Site Investigator in the Emory-CDC Clinical Trials Unit. A graduate of St. Olaf College and the University of Iowa Medical School, Dr. Holtz trained in primary care medicine at Harvard University/Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge MA, after which he worked with the Tibetan Government-in-exile in the Indian Himalaya while on a Health and Human Rights fellowship from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is board certified in internal medicine as well as preventive medicine, and was elected as a Fellow in the American College of Physicians in 2003. He is a founding member of Doctors for Global Health (DGH), a non-governmental organization that runs health and human rights programs in Central America, South America, and Africa, and served on its board from 1997–2003. The core principles of DGH are firmly rooted in social justice and human rights, delivering quality medical care and fostering social rights among impoverished and marginalized communities. Along with Drs. Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Yogan Pillay, Dr. Holtz is a co-editor of the 3rd edition (2009) of the Oxford University Press’ Textbook of International Health: Global Health in a Dynamic World. His medical memoir of working in India with Tibetan refugees, entitled “A Doctor in Little Lhasa: One Year in Dharamsala with the Tibetans in Exile” was published in 2009.

Dr. Holtz is a medical epidemiologist serving as the Director of the HIV/STD Research Program at the Thailand Ministry of Public Health – U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Collaboration (TUC) in Bangkok, Thailand. He is a Captain in the US Public Health Service. Dr. Holtz entered the CDC as part of the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1999, serving as a medical officer in the malaria epidemiology branch. He completed his preventive medicine residency through CDC, during which time he was intensely involved with the CDC response to the World Trade Center Disaster and anthrax attacks in 2001. From 2002–2009 Dr. Holtz worked in southern Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) control and TB/HIV program capacity building. Dr. Holtz was part of a team of scientists to recognize the emerging threat of resistance to second-line anti-TB drugs, and his analysis established the evidence base for the working definition and acronym for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). He has worked with several governments in sub-Saharan Africa to evaluate the extent of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the continent, and formulate policies to address TB and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Holtz has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, and from 2006–2009 was CDC’s representative to the STOP TB Partnership’s Green Light Committee (GLC). The GLC provides access to preferentially priced second-line drugs for MDR/XDR TB treatment to national TB programs while ensuring rational use through mandatory program review and monitoring. He was also one of the founding members of the Health and Human Rights Workgroup at CDC in 2003. Currently, he oversees clinical prevention research activities on HIV and STDs, including clinical trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV using antiretroviral medications among intravenous drug users and high-risk men who have sex with men. He is the site investigator of record for two NIH-funded HIV prevention clinical trials, HPTN-067, a phase 2 dose optimization trial of safety and coverage of intermittent pre-exposure prophylaxis in high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM); and MTN-017, a phase 2 expanded safety and acceptability trial of reduced glycerin formulation 1% tenofovir rectal gel in MSM. He has been nominated twice for the CDC Shepard Science Award (one paper received the Nakano citation), and received multiple awards from the US Public Health Service, American Public Health Association, and his alma mater University of Iowa College of Medicine.

Research interests: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, torture survivors, asylum applicants, mental health of relief workers, social and economic rights, transnational corporations and codes of conduct, right to primary health care

Publications relating to human rights:

Studies

Bloss E, Holtz TH, Jereb J, Redd JT, Podewils L, Cheek JE, McCray E. Tuberculosis in indigenous populations in the United States, 2003-2008.  Public Health Rep 2011;126(5):677-689.

Eisenman D, Weine S, Green B, de Jong J, Rayburn N, Ventevogel P, Keller A, Agani F, Working Group Team Members. The ISTSS/RAND guidelines on mental health training of primary healthcare providers for trauma-exposed populations in conflict-affected countries. Journal of Traumatic Stress 2006;19(1):5-17.

Mills EJ, Singh S, Holtz TH, Chase RM, Dolma S, Santa Barbara J, Orbinski JJ. Prevalence of mental disorders and torture among Tibetan refugees: A systematic review. BMC International Health and Human Rights 2005;5:7.

Cardozo BL, Holtz TH, Kaiser R, Gotway CA, Ghitis F, Toomey E, Salama P. The mental health of expatriate and local relief workers, Kosovo, June 2000. Disasters 2005;29(2):152-170.

Holtz TH, Salama P, Lopes-Cardozo B, Gotway CA. Mental health status of human rights workers, Kosovo 2000. Journal of Traumatic Stress 2002;15(5):389-395.

Holtz TH. Refugee trauma vs. Torture trauma: a retrospective controlled cohort study of Tibetan refugees. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 1998;186:24-34.

Commentary/Review
Singh S, Arya N, Mills E, Holtz TH, Westberg G. Free doctors and medical students detained in Nepal. Lancet 2006;367:1730.

Eisenman D, Weine S, Green B, de Jong J, Rayburn N, Ventevogel P, Keller A, Agani F, Working Group Team Members. The ISTSS/RAND guidelines on mental health training of primary healthcare providers for trauma-exposed populations in conflict-affected countries. Journal of Traumatic Stress 2006;19(1):5-17.

Mills EJ, Singh S, Holtz TH, Chase RM, Dolma S, Santa Barbara J, Orbinski JJ. Prevalence of mental disorders and torture among Tibetan refugees: A systematic review. BMC International Health and Human Rights 2005;5:7.

Holtz TH, Johnson WJ. A balanced view of globalization. BMJ Online Rapid Response, 1 October 2001. Available at: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/323/7311/504.

Holtz TH. Labour rights are human rights. Lancet 1999;353:923.

Holtz TH. Refugees, torture, and resilience. Torture 1999;9(Suppl 1a):32-40.
Keller AS, Eisenberg DP, Saul JM, Kim GM, Holtz TH, Connell JM. Torture in Tibet. Torture 1999;9(Suppl 1a):41-46.

Draftees, Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care. For our patients, not for profits: a call to action. Journal of the American Medical Association 1997;278:1733-1738.

Book chapters
Holtz TH, Kachur SP. The re-globalization of malaria. In: Sickness and Wealth. Mercer MA, Gish O, & Fort M, eds. Boston, MA: South End Press, 2004.

Holtz TH. Tragedy without end, the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster: A narrative of exploitation, fear, and suffering. In: Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor. Kim JY, Millen JV, Irwin A, Gershman J, eds. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000.

Millen JV, Holtz TH. Transnational corporations and the health of the poor. In: Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor. Kim JY, Millen JV, Irwin A, Gershman J, eds. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000.

Reports
Zampas C, Barot S, Bukovska B, Zoon I, Holtz TH. Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and Other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom in Slovakia. New York, NY: Center for Reproductive Rights, 2003.

Keller AS, Eisenman DP, Saul JM, Kim GM, Holtz TH, Connell JM. Striking Hard: Torture in Tibet. Boston, MA: Physicians for Human Rights, 1997. Report available at: http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/tortib2.html

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