Jonathan Max Mann (July 30, 1947 – September 2, 1998) was an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

who was an administrator for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

, and spearheaded early AIDS research in the 1980s.

Education

Mann was president of the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...

in the

Newton South High School Newton South High School is one of two public high schools in the city of Newton, Massachusetts, United States, the other being Newton North. History and student life By the late 1950s, Newton's sole public high school, Newton High, grew to 3,00 ...

class of 1965. He earned his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

''magna cum laude'' from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

, his

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

in 1974, and the degree of M.P.H. from the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

in 1980.

Career

Mann joined the

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

in 1975, staying there until 1977 when he became the State Epidemiologist for

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, until 1984. He moved to

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

in March 1984 as a founder of

Project SIDA Project SIDA (1984–1991), or ("Project AIDS" in French), was a joint scientific project between Zaire, the United States, and Belgium to study AIDS in Central Africa. Headquartered in Kinshasa, Zaire (DRC), Projet SIDA was designed as a collab ...

, an effort to study AIDS in Africa, after being recruited by fellow epidemiologist

Joseph B. McCormick Joseph B. McCormick is a physician, scientist, and educator from the United States. Biography Early life Joseph B. McCormick was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on October 16, 1942. His early years were spent on a farm in Indiana. Education ...

. In 1986 he founded the WHO's Global Programme for AIDS, resigning this post in 1990 to protest the lack of response from the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

with regard to AIDS, and the actions of the then WHO director-general

Hiroshi Nakajima was a Japanese doctor known chiefly for his tenure as Director-General of the World Health Organization. Early life and education He was born in Chiba, Japan, on 16 May 1928. In 1955 Nakajima received his M.D. from Tokyo Medical University, ...

. In 1990, Mann founded the health and human rights organization HealthRight International (initially known as Doctors of the World-USA), to fill a void he perceived amongst the health and human rights organizations in the United States and to create a unique organization whose mission was to create sustainable programs that promote and protect health and human rights in the United States and abroad. Mann directed the launch in 1994 of the Health and Human Rights'' journal, published by the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, which he also helped to establish. Mann was also a professor of epidemiology at Harvard's School of Public Health.

Promoting health and human rights

Mann was a pioneer in advocating combining public health, ethics and human rights. He theorized and actively promoted the idea that human health and human rights are integrally and inextricably connected, arguing that these fields overlap in their respective philosophies and objectives to improve health, well-being, and to prevent premature death. Mann proposed a three-pronged approach to the fundamental issue of the relationship between

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

and

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

. First, health is a human rights issue. Secondly (and conversely), human rights are a health issue. Human rights violations result in adverse health effects. Thirdly, linkages exist between health and human rights (a hypothesis to be rigorously tested). Literature substantiates the effects of the first two points, but Mann and colleagues proceeded to call for the validation of the third point and challenged the world to practice it. His work led to the development of the Four-Step Impact Assessment, a multi-disciplinary approach of evaluating interdependent and overlapping elements of both disciplines of human rights and

Public Health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

. With this framework, Mann attempted to bridge a perceived gap of philosophies, correspondence and vocabulary, education and training, recruitment, and work methods between the disciplines of

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

public health law Public health law examines the authority of the government at various jurisdictional levels to improve public health, the health of the general population within societal limits and norms. Public health law focuses on the duties of the government ...

and

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

. Furthermore, Mann knew that the history of “conflictual relationships” between officials of public health and

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...

workers presented challenges to the pursuit of what he called a “powerful” confluence of health and human rights – a positive approach.

Death

Mann died in the crash of Swissair Flight 111 in 1998 along with his second wife, AIDS researcher Mary Lou Clements-Mann. At the time of his death, Mann was the dean of the Allegheny University School of Public Health (now

Drexel University School of Public Health The Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health is a part of the Drexel University Health Sciences network of schools. The Dornsife School of Public Health was located in downtown Philadelphia from its inception until December 2013. It has s ...

) in Philadelphia.

Bibliography

* * *

External links

HealthRight International Homepage

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Jonathan 1947 births 1998 deaths HIV/AIDS activists World Health Organization officials Accidental deaths in Nova Scotia People who died at sea Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Canada Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1998 Harvard School of Public Health alumni Washington University School of Medicine alumni Writers from Boston 20th-century American writers American officials of the United Nations Harvard College alumni Newton South High School alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine Washington University in St. Louis alumni 20th-century American academics