Introducing Prativa

David R. Shlim

On May 4, 2005 in Lisbon, Prativa Pandey became president of the International Society of Travel Medicine. This event represents a significant moment for the society, as Dr. Pandey is the first woman, and the first person from Asia, to serve as president. Many of you know that Prativa runs a travel medicine clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal, but know little else about her. As her partner in running the CIWEC Clinic for the past 13 years, I would like to introduce Prativa more personally to the society.

Prativa was born in Kathmandu at a time when only a handful of foreigners had ever visited the Kingdom. There were also hardly any cars in the country. Prativa comes from an intellectual family—her grandfather was the poet laureate of Nepal. Prativa finished secondary school at age 16, and went directly to New Delhi, India to start medical school. When she finished medical school, she was still quite young, but she managed to move to the United States, pass her exams, and obtain a residency in internal medicine. She became board certified in internal medicine in the United States, and worked at a busy medical center in Boston for 11 years, admitting to Beth Israel Hospital, and serving as a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School.

In 1992, Prativa came back to visit a Nepal that had changed greatly since her youth. There were now over 3,000 foreigners living in the country, and 300,000 tourists a year, and so many cars in the capital that it was now difficult to get around by bicycle. Prativa’s parents had aged, and she needed to move back to Nepal to be with them. While she was in Kathmandu, she came to visit me, and explored the possibility of working at the CIWEC Clinic Travel Medicine Center. I invited her to tag along with me as I saw some patients that day. This led to an extraordinary experience: even though I was seeing the patients and asking the questions, the patients would often turn to Prativa to answer. I sensed that she had some special charisma in this regard.

Prativa joined the clinic the following year, and we worked side by side for 5 years. When I left in 1998, she became the Medical Director. Running a Western-style medical clinic in Nepal is not a simple task—issues of visas, staffing, importation of supplies, evacuation of critically ill patients, billing, and currency are constant problems. It takes someone with a genuine commitment to not only be on call and willing to see patients 24 hours a day, but to face a constant string of hurdles to just stay in business. On top of that, Nepal was gradually descending into a civil war, with decreased tourism, uncertain internal travel, and regular interruptions by a series of strikes and curfews. Not only has Prativa steered a remarkably smooth course through all these obstacles, she has built CIWEC Clinic into the busiest GeoSentinel site in the world, and maintained our research program as well. On top of that, she has designed and built our first privately owned clinic building that will be completed this summer.

Prativa did not seek the presidency of the ISTM; the idea was proposed to her at an interim meeting in Shanghai. When she was to take over the running of CIWEC Clinic, she wondered if she had what it takes to solve all of the above problems. I had complete confidence in her. I was able to leave Nepal after 15 years knowing that the clinic work would carry on as before. Prativa also spent time wondering if she could be effective in running the ISTM. I have just as much confidence in her ability to serve ISTM as well as she has served the CIWEC Clinic.

Bradley Connor, the president for the past two years, is also a close personal friend of mine. He has led the ISTM extremely effectively, identifying and finding solutions for a number of lingering problems that had kept the ISTM from living up to its potential. In this regard, I consider him a visionary. Thanks to his hard work these past two years, Prativa takes over the helm of a much more effective organization, poised to make a wider impact on travel-related health in the world. I’m very pleased to have worked so closely with her all these years.