According to Partners in Health, the global health group he co-founded in 1987, Farmer died in his sleep while in Rwanda. The reason for death was not specified by the organization.
Paul Farmer was a famous Harvard physician and medical anthropologist who dedicated his career to providing health care to some of the world’s poorest communities died. He died at the age of 62.
Didi Bertrand Farmer, Farmer’s wife, and their three children survive him.
Farmer has dedicated his life to eradicating global health disparities. Partners in Health, which he co-founded with four people, aims to improve public health infrastructure and medical services in developing countries’ poorest areas.
The group presently has a presence in 11 different nations.
“Paul Farmer’s death is tragic, but his vision for the world will live on through Partners in Health,” said Sheila Davis, the organization’s CEO, in a statement released Monday. “Paul instilled in everyone around him the value of companionship, love, and unity.”
He was a prominent scientist and author of 12 books, undertaking groundbreaking research on infectious illnesses, health and human rights, and socioeconomic inequalities as a professor at Harvard. In 2010, he was made a University Professor, the highest faculty honor at the university.
Farmer got his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, where he also served as chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He was also the director of Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Division of Global Health Equity.
