Meet the 2010 Scholars

Thein Shwe, MD, MS, MPH
Epidemiologist
WV Division of Health & Human Services
Charleston WV

Thein Shwe has been working for West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (WVDHHR), Bureau for Public Health (BPH), Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services (OEPS), Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology (DIDE) as an epidemiologist since 2002. His first position was the Hepatitis C Coordinator for State of West Virginia and he had implemented the Hepatitis C Registry for acute and chronic hepatitis C surveillance. Since 2005, he has been working as the Vaccine Preventable and Invasive Bacterial Disease Epidemiologist and he is responsible for the prevention and control aspect of vaccine preventable and invasive bacterial diseases in West Virginia.

Thein has been interested in public health since he was in medical school especially in prevention and control of infectious diseases and international health. He was and has been a member and actively involved in several organizations such as West Virginia Public Health Association (WVPHA), American Public Health Association (APHA), American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) and Council of States and Territorial Epidemiologist (CSTE) since he was in graduate schools. He served as the Development Committee chair and co-chair of Public Health Student Caucus of APHA from 2001-2003 and he was also actively involved in Community Medicine Student Association of Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University where he received the outstanding student service award. He is currently the Secretary and Treasurer of the Laboratory and Epidemiology Section of WVPHA. He is also a member of Physicians for Human Rights organization in Boston, Massachusetts where he attended his first student leadership training in 2001.

Thein received his medical degree from University of Medicine (formerly known as Institute of Medicine (I), Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar(Burma) in 1991 before coming to the United States, where he received his graduate degrees: Master of Science in Health Education from Western Illinois University in 1997 and Master of Public Health from West Virginia University in 2001.