Dr Rajesh Bhatia

Dr Rajesh Bhatia has recently retired from WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia Region as Director of Communicable Diseases from 2012 to 2015. Earlier, he was the Regional Adviser for Health Laboratories and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in WHO Regional Office from 2004 to 2012. Post-retirement he worked with FAO during 2017-2018 as regional consultant on AMR.

Prior to joining WHO, Dr Bhatia was Director of National Institute of Biologicals which was established as the National Regulatory Lab for biological in India.

Earlier, for 15 years he worked in National Centre for Disease Control in Department of Microbiology and Zoonoses.

Dr Bhatia has authored several documents including Essentials of Medical Microbiology, Medical Parasitology, Microbiology for Dental Students and Microbiology for Nurses. He has 125 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals, of which 35 are on antimicrobial resistance.

The Indian Society for Malaria & Other Communicable Diseases honoured him with a Gold Medal in 2013 for his contributions to prevention and control of infectious diseases in India. Delhi Chapter of IAMM invited him in Nov 2016 to deliver Prof DS Agarwal Oration.