Carla Vizzotti (born 1 June 1972) is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

physician specialized in

vaccine-preventable diseases A vaccine-preventable disease is an infectious disease for which an effective preventive vaccine exists. If a person acquires a vaccine-preventable disease and dies from it, the death is considered a vaccine-preventable death. The most common and ...

. She was the Secretary of Health Access and Vice Minister of Health in Argentina's

Health Ministry A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entity, Subnational entities, such as State (administrative division), states, county, counties an ...

, working under Minister

Ginés González García Ginés González García (31 August 1945 – 18 October 2024) was an Argentine politician and physician who served twice as the country's Ministry of Health (Argentina), Minister of Health under the successive presidencies of Eduardo Duhalde an ...

, until February 2021. She served as Minister of Health from 2021 to 2023, following González García's resignation.

Early life and career

Vizzotti was born on 1 June 1972 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, daughter of a

gastroenterologist Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- "belly", -énteron "intestine", and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract, sometime ...

. She studied medicine at the

Universidad del Salvador The University of the Salvador (, also known for its acronym USAL) is a Jesuit university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to its campus in downtown Buenos Aires, it has instructional and research facilities in Pilar, San Miguel, Bahía B ...

, graduating in 1997. She specialized in

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

. She founded, and presides over, the Sociedad Argentina de Vacunología y Epidemiología ("Argentine Society of Vaccinology and Epidemiology"; SAVE), and has also worked at the

Fundación Huésped Fundación Huésped is a nonprofit foundation in Argentina. It was created in 1989 for the purpose of fighting HIV/AIDS, with a specific focus on creating a social environment that would allow the disease to be overcome. Since October 2015, the f ...

, an

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

created to respond to

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

. From 2007 to 2016, during the successive administrations of President

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and former politician who served as the 56th president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, and later as the 37th Vice ...

, she headed the

's National Directorate for the Control of Vaccine-preventable Diseases (DINACEI). During her administration, she headed the National Immunization Plan and oversaw the extension of the existing

immunization registry An immunization registry or immunization information system (IIS) is an information system that collects vaccination data about all persons within a geographic area. It consolidates the immunization records from multiple sources for each person li ...

to include 19 free and mandatory vaccines.

Political career

Secretary of Health Access

On 19 December 2019, Vizzotti was appointed to the newly established Secretariat of Health Access () by Health Minister

, as part of the administration of recently elected president

Alberto Fernández Alberto Ángel Fernández (; born 2 April 1959) is an Argentine politician, lawyer, and academic who served as President of Argentina from 2019 to 2023. He was also the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers from 2003 to 2008. His tenure as Cabin ...

. In 2020 Vizzotti became one of the most visible public officials in the government's response to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

. She has been tasked with giving the daily morning reports on COVID-19 statistics. In December 2020, Vizzotti headed the Argentine delegation that travelled to Russia to oversee the transportation of 300 thousand

Gam-COVID-Vac Sputnik V (, the brand name from the Russian Direct Investment Fund or RDIF) or Gam-COVID-Vac (, the name under which it is legally registered and produced) is an adenovirus viral vector vaccine for COVID-19 developed by the Gamaleya Resea ...

vaccines developed by the

Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology The Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, previously the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology & Microbiology, is a Russian medical-research institute within the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federa ...

to Argentina.

Minister of Health

Ginés González García resigned from his position as Minister of Health on 19 February 2021, following journalist

Horacio Verbitsky Horacio Verbitsky (born February 11, 1942) is an Argentine investigative journalist and author with a history as a leftist guerrilla in the Montoneros. In the early 1990s, he reported on a series corruption scandals in the administration of Pres ...

's confession that he and others had been favored by González García to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under preferential treatment, in a scandal known as the ''Vacunatorio VIP'' ("VIP vaccination room"). As Vice Minister of Health, Vizzotti was touted as the natural successor to González García. Vizzotti was appointed to the position the following day, on 20 February 2021. Sandra Marcela Tirado was appointed Secretary of Health Access in Vizzotti's stead.

Personal life

On 26 February 2021, she tested positive for COVID-19 and went into voluntary isolation. On 28 September 2021, she underwent surgery to treat a case of

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the Appendix (anatomy), appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and anorexia (symptom), decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these t ...

References

External links

*
Profile at the website of the Ministry of Health
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vizzotti, Carla 1972 births Living people Argentine public health doctors Argentine women physicians Alberto Fernández administration cabinet members Ministers of health of Argentina Women government ministers of Argentina Physicians from Buenos Aires Universidad del Salvador alumni University of Buenos Aires alumni Women public health doctors 20th-century Argentine physicians 21st-century Argentine physicians 20th-century Argentine women physicians 21st-century Argentine women physicians