Elias Pavlopoulos, MPH, MBE
General Director of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Greece
Email elias_pavlopoulos@hms.harvard.ed
Research Interests
My research interests are at the crossroads of public health and bioethics. During my MPH, I worked around ethical, legal and human rights issues in liberty restrictive measures for the containment of infectious diseases. Due to my work for many years as Country Director with Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in different countries, I faced constantly ethical dilemmas especially in the areas of infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, and maternal and child health. In Swaziland, my team and I established the first “Test and Treat” for HIV/AIDS Project for MSF with a research component, and we realized the importance of NCDs for the HIV+ population. In Cairo, Egypt, I established a maternal and child health program recognizing how important and complex it might prove to be to meet the needs of women and children in low resource settings. In Myanmar, I was responsible for a challenging primary health care project. In Darfur, I followed the challenges of providing health care in a conflict environment, and in Mozambique I had the opportunity to participate in the battle against HIV and TB in a high prevalence urban setting. In Sierra Leone, I worked to assist the Ebola response and recovery. In my last assignment in Greece during 2016, I realized the difficulties that are facing migrants and refugees on their way to safety and the ethical dilemmas that are arising from the implementation of EU and states policies.