UICC is deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Dr Paul Farmer

Dr Paul Farmer, Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Founding Director of Partners in Health, was a medical anthropologist and physician who passed away suddenly at the age of 62 in Rwanda, where he was working with medical students at the Butaro District Hospital and the Butaro campus of the University of Global Health Equity. 

“UICC has been fortunate and honoured to count Paul Farmer among its closest collaborators. He was a key speaker at our recent World Cancer Leaders’ Summit, where he was nominated for an Outstanding Contribution to Cancer Control Award, and helped launch our new World Cancer Day campaign on equity. He was one of the giants who has made a noticeable difference in improving people’s lives around the world. We are shocked and deeply saddened by his sudden disappearance, and send our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and colleagues at Partners In Health.”
– Dr Cary Adams, CEO of UICC

Dr Farmer began a lifelong commitment in 1983 to improving health care for people living in extreme poverty while still a student in Haiti working with dispossessed farmers. In 1987, he founded the international non-profit organisation Partners In Health (PIH), starting with a one-building clinic in the village of Cange. It has since grown into a multi-service health complex that includes a primary school, an infirmary, a surgery wing, a training programme for health outreach workers, a 104-bed hospital, a women’s clinic and a paediatric care facility.

Over the past twenty-five years, PIH has expanded operations to twelve sites throughout Haiti and ten additional countries around the globe, providing direct health care services and undertaking research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty.

Dr Farmer’s work has become a model for health care for poor communities worldwide. He and his colleagues in the US and abroad have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings.

"I am so so sad about the passing of my dear friend Dr Paul Farmer. The world has lost a true humanitarian who believed in his whole being about equity and fairness in health, and acted on his belief in the most challenging landscapes.”
– Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, UICC Immediate Past President, nominated Dr Paul Farmer for the 2021 Outstanding Contributions to Cancer Control Awards