Indian American Manisha Juthani to lead Connecticut public health department

NED Lamont, the Democratic governor of the US state of Connecticut, on Monday (26) announced the nomination of Manisha Juthani as the state’s public health commissioner.

Juthani, who succeeds Deidre Gifford, is an associate professor at the Yale University of Medicine. Gifford has been promoted to the post of senior advisor to the governor for health and human services.

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Juthani specialises in diagnosis, management and prevention of infections in older adults, says her bio on Yale Medicine website. “My interest in palliative care makes me uniquely qualified to help address goals of care with older patients with underlying diseases who have recurrent infections,” she says.

She also pursues federally funded research to learn more about infections in older adults, specifically urinary tract infections and pneumonia. Juthani speaks Gujarati and Spanish besides English.

She studied at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, after completing a bachelor’s degree in Biological Basis of Behaviour from the University of Pennsylvania. Having received training at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Juthani worked as the chief resident at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. She joined Yale in 2002 as part of a fellowship training and later started working there as a faculty member.

Juthani praised governor Lamont and Gifford for their leadership in helping Connecticut fight the Covid pandemic and said she will continue with the same efforts.

“Under Dr Gifford’s leadership, I look forward to continuing their efforts related to COVID-19, mental health, health equity, health disparities, and access to healthcare going forward,” Juthani said in a press release.

Lamont also praised Juthani after she was recommended by “top experts” and said her experience with infectious diseases will help Connecticut’s fight against the pandemic.