Consortium for Health Action Information

Consortium for Health Action was established in the USA in 2016, but its origins can be traced back to 1982 when Dr. Ohrt visited Tanzania as a Gustavus Adolphus College student when he saw many children were dying from chloroquine-resistant malaria and no alternative treatments were available. In 1989, he chose malaria as the disease he would commit his life to, because at the time, it was a totally neglected disease, killing millions of people. In 1991, he joined the US Army to find solutions for the newly emerging incurable malaria strains emerging on the Thai-Cambodian border. After 3.5 years in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia, he returned to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland to work on new drugs to fight malaria. Tafenoquine, the drug he spent most of his career developing has just completed the last human testing before approvals. Dr. Alan Magill was his key mentor. Based on Dr. Magill’s recommendation as the Malaria Lead at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Ohrt returned to “the field.” In Southeast Asia, Dr. Ohrt is following his dream of eliminating malaria from the place where the resistant strains emerge and spread. Colonel (retired) Ohrt started Consortium for Health Action in 2016 in order to empower the already strong institutions in the region to adopt the new technologies and to link the critical partners needed to eliminate emerging incurable malaria from the region to stop history from repeating itself. As malaria disappears from the region, he will progressively shift focus to tackle the underlying cause of malaria, poverty, and other conditions related to poverty such as malnutrition and maternal-child mortality. He also plans to return to East Africa where he has extensive experience with malaria epidemiology and diagnostics quality improvement while posted at Walter Reed.