DrGustavo Adolfo Avila Montes

Dr. Gustavo Adolfo Avila Montes studied general medicine at National Autonomous University of Honduras. He pursued his postgraduate studies at The Johns Hopkins University, USA, where he received his Master of Health Science focused on vector control and tropical diseases through in-depth study and research. Included a practicum after completion of coursework, carried out in Puerto Rico working with the CDC Dengue Branch Laboratories developing strategies for community-based Aedes aegypti control. He received two diplomas in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, one of them is the Gorgas Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine 2003, awarded by the Cayetano Heredia University and the University of Alabama; and the Higher Diploma in Tropical Pediatrics 2006, awarded by the Carlos III Institute from Spain. He was the recipient of two research grants from TDR for Chagas disease and dengue in Honduras testing new control tools in underserved communities, which added to his professional expertise in study design, proposal writing, research implementation, monitoring and statistical analysis. He was member of the Editorial Board of the Honduran Medical Journal publishing several original articles, some of them awarded as the best scientific articles of the year for the quality of the research. He has also published in international ISI-indexed journals. In 2007, he was awarded with the National Science Prize and the National Environmental Prize for his career in the field of public health research in Honduras, and the implementation nationwide of school programs to control Aedes as a complementary tool to traditional control strategies, and that it has contributed to the body of knowledge in public health in Honduras. The Pan American Health Organization twice awarded him first place in the Ibero-American Contest for Good Health Promotion Practices at the School Settings, for his initiative to control dengue through school programs. From 2016 to 2019, he was responsible for leading USAID's Zika response in Honduras, managing a portfolio of projects for an amount of 30 million dollars, which contributed to the development of the capacities at the national, regional and local levels for the control of the pandemic, and the establishment of guidelines and protocols for the management of patients and their families in the health facilities of the national health system. From 2020 to May 2023, he was the Regional Director of the Central American HIV Prevention Program funded by CDC at University of the Valley of Guatemala that it is implemented in five Central American countries. In 2024, he was the Program Manager for the Global Healt Security Strategy at Population Services International. Currently, he is member of the Editorial Board of the Honduran Medical Journal.