GEORGE YENDEWA
Editor
George Yendewa, MD, MPH&TM is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Case Western
Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRUSOM) and a Consultant Physician in Infectious
Diseases and HIV Medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UHCMC) in
Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Dr. Yendewa earned his medical degree (MD) from Charles University in Prague, Czech
Republic, and a Master of Public Health degree in Tropical Medicine (MPH&TM) from Tulane
University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He
then completed his Internal Medicine residency at New York Medical College/Brookdale
University Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Furthermore, Dr. Yendewa completed a Clinical
Fellowship in Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine at CWRUSOM/UHCMC. Through the
Center for Global Health and Diseases at CWRUSOM, he then completed an advanced
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Global Health and Molecular Virology, focusing on the molecular
epidemiology of HIV drug resistance, circulating HIV strains and viral co-infections (mainly
hepatitis B virus) in Sierra Leone. He is currently a doctoral scholar in the Doctor of Public
Health (DrPH) degree program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in
Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where he is focusing on implementation science research of HIV
control programs in low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
With his multidisciplinary training as a clinician-researcher, educator, and public health
practitioner, Dr. Yendewa’s particular global health focus is investigating the clinical, molecular
and social epidemiology of the HIV epidemic in West Africa, including implementation and policy
research specifically in Sierra Leone and Liberia, using quantitative and qualitative research
tools. He has authored several manuscripts on the subject. With researchers in Sierra Leone,
Liberia, Spain and the US, Dr. Yendewa has built a successful collaboration, and is co-founding
the Sierra Leone-Liberia AIDS Network—the first ever organization dedicated to researching all
aspects of the HIV epidemic in the two countries, with the goal of improving clinical care for
people living with HIV in the West Africa region.
He is also actively involved in medical education in Uganda, as part of CWRUSOM’s successful 30-year collaboration with Makerere University (MU) and the Joint Clinical and Research Centre (JCRC) in Kampala, Uganda. For his global health work, he has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Roe
Green Travel Medicine Award and the Vicky Tifft Award in International Health.
Dr. Yendewa is a member several professional organizations, including the American
College of Physicians (ACP), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), HIV Medicine
Association (HIVMA), American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), American
Public Health Association (APHA), International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) and the
International AIDS Society (IAS).