Latha Rajan, MD, MPH&TM

Dr. Rajan is a physician with postgraduate qualifications in clinical microbiology, infectious diseases, public health and tropical medicine. Dr. Rajan has a joint faculty appointment in the Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine (Department of Tropical Medicine) and the Tulane School of Medicine (Department of Pathology). She is also the Faculty Director for the MD/MPH rotation, a required medical school rotation for MD/MPH combined degree medical students in all public health disciplines.  She is a core faculty and serves on the executive committee for the SPHTM Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) program, an undergraduate program in Public Health that has seen impressive growth during its first 4 years of implementation.

Dr. Rajan has extensive experience in HIV/AIDS, STD and Tuberculosis control programs in India and Malaysia.  She served as Consultant for USAID, on monitoring & evaluation for tuberculosis control programs. She has been advisor to the Louisiana Office of Public Health Antibiotic Resistance Program for several years.   Her research has involved epidemiological markers for HIV and STDs, molecular diagnostics for Chlamydial infections, and   the role of vaginal lactobacilli in local and systemic immunity in adolescents.She has a major teaching contribution in the MPHTM and Diploma Course programs, serving as course director for Microbial Disease of the Tropics (TRMD 633), Tuberculosis: Global Issues and Interactions with the HIV epidemic (TRMD 645) and serving as co-director of Tropical Medicine Seminar (TRMD 700).  At her secondary appointment in the Dept. of Pathology, she is the Director for Microbiology training for Pathology residents.  She is also involved in training second year medical students.

In the undergraduate BSPH program, she is Course Director for a program core course The Cell, the Individual and the Community (SPHU 102), a summer international Honors seminar Social Aspects of Infectious Diseases (SPHU 444) and an overseas service learning course (SPHU456) in Malaysia. She also coordinates all undergraduate public health internships and Capstones for the BSPH program. Dr Rajan has active overseas collaborations with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi, India), University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) and the Malaysian AIDS Council.