AIDS expert takes helm of county health department ; Uganda-born Wakhweya brings global experience [Maryland Gazette (MD)]

In her first years as a clinician in Uganda, Dr. Angela Wakhweya worked in an outpatient office about a third of the size of her new office as Anne Arundel County's health officer.

She had decided to become a doctor as a youngster in Uganda, after watching family members die from preventable diseases. By the time she earned her medical degree, it was the height of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and Wakhweya spent her days working in a space too small for a dorm room, writing death certificates.

"I was saying to myself ... 'I'm not making a difference in the lives of these women,' " Wakhweya, 48, recalled this week. "My job as a medical officer was to let the mother know that the child is diagnosed with HIV, and there is absolutely nothing that we can do. It is time to take the child home, give them peace, and let them die in your arms at home."

Hundreds of patients came through that clinic each day, and Wakhweya thought there must be a better way to fight AIDS than telling patient after patient how to remain comfortable until their death. She embarked on a career in public health that ultimately lead her to the helm of Anne Arundel's public health system.

"The numbers and volumes of patients that we were seeing would bring me to tears at night," Wakhweya said. "I realized I need to help these patients far more than I'm doing one-on-one. So I decided to enter the field of public health."

After completing a prestigious graduate program in London, Wakhweya began a varied career in public health, working to stem diabetes on a local level and stop the AIDS pandemic internationally.

She moved to Anne Arundel County six years ago with her husband and three children when she took a job for an Arlington, Va.-based organization doing global AIDS work, and was a deputy director of Maryland's AIDS program at the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

In October, Wakhweya became the first African American to lead Anne Arundel'sHealth Department in its 81-year history, attracted, she said, by the opportunity to work "closer to the ground."

"We are sitting at a very pivotal moment in terms of public health," she said.

She takes over at a time of declining budgets and increased regulations intended to make both private and public health care more efficient. Some federal health care reform regulationsaffect how the health department will do business over the next several years.

"We could be far more efficient in terms of the services that we provide to our clients. I cannot begin to describe how antiquated our systems are," she said.

Frances Phillips, a former county health officer and currently a state deputy secretary for public health, said she enthusiastically endorsed Wakhweya pursuing the job when she mentioned interest in it.

"That job is one that's ever-changing," Phillips said. "It demands a firm foundation in public health, but it also demands well- reasoned decisions and the ability to communicate them."

Phillips was particularly impressed after watching Wakhweya go from addressing the culture of global policymakers to working with some of the world's most impoverished patients.

"She also has a great spirit," Phillips said.

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ecox@capgaznews.com