Brazil’s Health Surveillance Secretary to Step Down Today

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Wanderson de Oliveira, the Ministry of Health’s National Surveillance Secretary, announced he will step down on Monday, May 25th. He resigned on April 15th, but then Minister of Health Henrique Mandetta refused to let him go.

During Mandetta’s administration, Oliveira was one of Ministry’s officials most involved in actions to tackle the pandemic. Like the ex-Minister, the Secretary advocates social isolation to contain the coronavirus, a measure criticized by President Jair Bolsonaro, who claims that this is damaging to the economy.

In a message sent to the team, Wanderson said that his departure had been decided on April 15th, but that he had remained a few more weeks at the request of Mandetta and his successor, Nelson Teich, the latter having also resigned.

Announced departure

Following Teich’s departure, less than a month after taking over the portfolio, the Secretary of Surveillance said he had agreed his departure with the interim Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, last Wednesday, May 20th. Oliveira served in the Armed Forces Hospital in Brasília and will be reinstated in the institution.

“Despite leaving the post of Health Surveillance Secretary, I will continue helping Minister Pazuello in his actions to address the pandemic. We are from the same institution, the Ministry of Defense, and for us, this is a mission given, a mission accomplished,”, said Wanderson.

The Ministry of Health confirmed the Secretary’s departure and said that his replacement will be announced in the Federal Gazette’s forthcoming editions.

The Secretary leaves when Brazil records over 22,000 deaths and 349,113 people infected, according to the Ministry of Health’s latest assessment.

Oliveira is an epidemiologist nurse with a doctorate in epidemiology and over 20 years of experience, 15 of which in the Ministry of Health, according to the portfolio. He is a federal civil servant and has worked at the Ministry of Defense and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).

Technical profile

Holding a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), he led the national response to the influenza pandemic and congenital zika syndrome and was a key player in international health regulation and mass events such as the World Cup and the Olympics, according to the government.

He specializes in the epidemiology training program for SUS (Brazil’s National Health Service), and for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. He specialized in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and is a professor at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation school in Brasília.

Source: G1