Sunday, March 01, 2015

Sandy Kuvin Passes Away

The Sanford Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases is the world’s leading research center in the world for malaria and other infectious diseases. Dr. Sanford Kuvin, a physician and leading researcher in infectious and tropical diseases and founder and chairman of a Hebrew University center in the field that was named for him, died in Florida on Saturday. Kuvin lived both in Jerusalem and in the US with his wife Gabrielle, to whom he was married for 55 years. They had spent several months each year in the capital since 1971. The Sanford Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases is the world’s leading research center in the world for malaria and other infectious diseases. In 2012, the center was designated by the Health Ministry as the country’s national laboratory for leishmaniasis, the debilitating skin disease spread by certain sandflies. He was former vice chairman of the US National Foundation for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, former clinical associate professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine, board member at the University of Miami Department of Public Health, and former clinical associate at the US National Institutes of Health. Kuvin graduated from University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University and the London School of Tropical Medicine. He was the first to demonstrate the use of indirect fluorescent antibody tests for malaria at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Kuvin was on the advisory board of the Americans for a Sound HIV/AIDS Policy in Washington and an outspoken advocate for the protection of health care workers and patients with blood borne diseases. Kuvin was also a former member of the national board of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, a recipient of the Torch of Learning Award and an honorary doctorate from university. He left his wife and children Jeanette, Michele, Lisa and Jeffrey and grandchildren. He will be buried in Jerusalem. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Health/Sanford-Kuvin-infectious-disease-expert-dies-392563