Biography

Dr. Rania Tohme is currently the Associate Director for Global Health in the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She has been working in the field of viral hepatitis in the United States and globally for almost 20 years. In her current role, she supports countries to achieve hepatitis B and hepatitis C elimination through development of national viral hepatitis strategic plans, and national guidance on viral hepatitis prevention, screening and treatment, as well as by strengthening viral hepatitis data through implementation of national serosurveys and strengthening of surveillance and information systems for viral hepatitis. In addition, she supports countries in the design and implementation of innovative interventions to scale up prevention, testing, and treatment programs for viral hepatitis. Previously, Dr. Tohme was Team Lead of the Hepatitis B and Tetanus Team in the Global Immunization Division at CDC. She supported countries introduce hepatitis B birth dose vaccine, improve hepatitis B immunization coverage, and implement hepatitis B serosurveys to assess the impact of vaccination on hepatitis B disease burden in children. Dr. Tohme is a member of several global and regional committees for validation of elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis, and Hepatitis B and elimination of hepatitis B and hepatitis C as public health problems.

Dr. Tohme began her CDC career as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fellow and medical officer in the Division of Viral Hepatitis where she supported hepatitis B and hepatitis C surveillance and programmatic activities in the United States and globally. During 2012–2016, she was the technical lead of CDC’s immunization activities in Haiti supporting the verification of elimination of measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome, introduction and evaluation of the impact of new vaccines, and improvement of vaccine preventable disease surveillance.

Dr. Tohme has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. She received her Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health degrees from the American University of Beirut.