Dr. Garfein, PhD, MPH, is a Professor in the Division of Global Public Health, Department of Medicine at UCSD. He trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist, first earning an M.P.H. from the San Diego State University, School of Public Health in 1989 and then a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1997.

Between his graduate training and joining the UCSD faculty in 2005, Dr. Garfein served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Division of Viral Hepatitis and a Senior Staff Epidemiologist in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

His research interests involve identifying risk factors for and developing interventions to prevent infectious diseases associated with substance abuse. His career in this area began with a seminal study showing that HCV infection occurs very soon after initiation of injection drug use, which led to development of behavioral interventions targeting young persons who inject drugs (PWID) for HIV and HCV prevention.

While at the CDC, he investigated outbreaks of hepatitis B and C virus infection and led observational and interventional studies of HIV and viral hepatitis among PWID in the U.S. and abroad.

After joining the UCSD faculty, Dr. Garfein has conducted studies describing HIV and HCV risk among PWID and other marginalized populations in the U.S./Mexico border region. He is also conducting research on the behavioral determinates of acute HIV infection and public health policies related to HIV testing and non-prescription syringe sales.

Dr. Garfein subsequently expanded the scope of his research to include describing tuberculosis among vulnerable populations, evaluating molecular assays for rapid detection of drug resistant TB, and developing mobile phone based interventions for improving patient adherence to anti-TB treatment.

His international research and consulting activities have included Mexico, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan, Okinawa, Puerto Rico, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Kyrgyzstan.