Dr Carmen Aramburu Celigueta

Dr Aramburu is the Director of Health and Social Policy, in the Delegation of the Spanish Government in Catalonia.

She graduated as a medical doctor in Madrid and has a Master’s in Public Health for Developing countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is a Field Epidemiologist (EPIET cohort 9, Switzerland).

Over a period of fifteen years, she has undertaken humanitarian work with WHO, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and a number of NGOs.

As a WHO consultant field officer and epidemiologist, she has worked on cholera epidemics in Papua New Guinea, Mozambique and Haiti. She also participated in the Marburg outbreak response in Angola and a retrospective mortality study in Darfur, Sudan.

Dr Aramburu was the Senior Public Health Officer, at UNHCR headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, responsible for the area of Public Health for refugees and displaced people in specific settings, especially refugee camps and displaced people camps.

As Director of Health and Social Policy in Catalonia, she is responsible for border control of the import/export of pharmaceutical and sanitary products and the management of drug and narcotic substances; sanitary veterinary control of merchandises for human consumption through the BIPs (port, airport and road); International Health Regulations; sanitary inspection and control of vessels, international vaccination centers (traveller’s consultations).

Dr Aramburu was designated by the Government of Spain as State Party designated Expert in the IHR Roster of Experts and served on the IHR Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) during the COVID-19 Response.