He is at the bedside of the French population. But he take also the pulse of the world. Since the eruption of Covid-19, the public has gradually got to know Mahmoud Zureik, this 58-year-old public health doctor, with a discreet appearance, but with a free speech. Over the successive waves, his opinions appeared nuanced; his criticisms of the management of the epidemic, argued. “He always used his freedom of expression in an elegant and relevant way. “, notes Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of global health, in Geneva (Switzerland).
Importance of the mask and vaccination; tests reimbursed for all; need to equip the closed places frequented – in particular schools – with air quality control devices… On all these issues, he has constantly raised the alarm in the media and on social networks. “A balancing act, sometimes”, he confides. To inform the public about the pandemic, he also co-founded a collective, On the side of science, in July 2020.
In Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), his glazed office overlooks a vast construction site, two hotels under construction in anticipation of the 2024 Olympics. From this control tower, he supervises an innovative research structure, Epi-Phare, created end of 2018 under his leadership. This watch measures the effectiveness and safety of health products (drugs, vaccines, etc.) in the general population. Clearly, it makes pharmaco-epidemiology a discipline that quantifies the extent of these effects – unlike pharmaco-vigilance which is a non-exhaustive survey of the field.
An exceptional tool
The power of Epi-Phare is based on an exceptional tool that Mahmoud Zureik, with his colleague Alain Weill, had the idea of using: the National Health Data System (SNDS). This database gathers, since 2006, all the acts, consultations and prescriptions of reimbursed drugs concerning the 67 million people insured in France. “These are exhaustive, anonymized, up-to-date and coded data in a standardized way. No country in the world has an equivalent »enthuses Mahmoud Zureik. “By betting on this tool, it has given a turning point to French pharmaco-epidemiology, which has long lagged behind”according to Antoine Flahault.
It was the Mediator scandal that revealed the power of this tool. “By attacking it, Mahmoud Zureik took a professional risk”believes Antoine Flahault. “I was not on the front linetempers the interested party, as Irène Frachon could have been”the pulmonologist from Brest who conducted the first study revealing the cardiac toxicity of this appetite suppressant.
You have 70.16% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.