Skip to main content
Donald Thea, MD, Infectious Disease, Boston, MA

DonaldM.TheaMD

Infectious Disease Boston, MA

International Health, Travel & Tropical

Professor oF Global Health Director, MD/MPH Program Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. Thea is on Doximity

As a Doximity member you'll join over two million verified healthcare professionals in a private, secure network.

  • Gain access to free telehealth tools, such as our “call shielding” and one-way patient texting.
  • Connect with colleagues in the same hospital or clinic.
  • Read the latest clinical news, personalized to your specialty.

See Dr. Thea's full profile

Already have an account?

  • Office

    725 Albany St
    # Shapiro
    Boston, MA 02118
    Phone+1 617-414-4290
    Fax+1 617-414-4285

Summary

  • Dr. Thea received his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Masters of Science in tropical medicine from the London School of Hygiene and trained in infectious diseases at Geographic Medicine at New England Medical Center. He has pursued a full time career in both domestic and international clinical and epidemiological infectious disease research, primarily in issues related to child survival and in particular mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS and pneumonia. Dr. Thea was an early member of Project SIDA (Kinshasa, Zaire), the first international clinical HIV/AIDS research field site, where he did work on the etiology of diarrhea in perinatally acquired HIV infection and was the director of the Clinical Research Unit. He pursued his interest in perinatal transmission of HIV as the Principal Investigator of the New York City Collaborative Perinatal HIV Transmission Study. In 1998 he joined the Health and Social Development Unit of the Harvard Institute for International Development where he focused on international field research in Acute Respiratory Illness, Malaria and HIV. Dr. Thea joined the Global Health department along with the other members of the Harvard team where he is currently a Professor of Global Health. In this capacity, Dr. Thea provides senior technical leadership of a portfolio of projects addressing community treatment of neonatal sepsis, management of acute respiratory illness in children, community and facilities-based management of acute malaria, presumptive prophylaxis of malaria in pregnancy, social and behavioral aspects of HIV transmission and child sexual abuse. Dr. Thea has been the PI of several large studies including a HIV vertical transmission through breastmilk (the Zambia Exclusive Breastfeeding Study), and currently the Zambia Infant Cohort Study, to determine the morbidity/mortality and immunology among HIV exposed uninfected children.

Education & Training

  • Tufts Medical Center
    Tufts Medical CenterFellowship, Infectious Disease, 1986 - 1989
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/Morningside/West
    Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/Morningside/WestResidency, Internal Medicine, 1981 - 1984
  • Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
    Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and SurgeonsClass of 1981

Certifications & Licensure

  • MA State Medical License
    MA State Medical License 1985 - 2026
  • NY State Medical License
    NY State Medical License 1982 - 2024
  • American Board of Internal Medicine Internal Medicine
  • American Board of Internal Medicine Infectious Disease

Clinical Trials

Publications & Presentations

PubMed

Press Mentions

  • COVID Cases Rising on Cape Cod but Not All Are Counted Due to Popularity of Home Testing
    COVID Cases Rising on Cape Cod but Not All Are Counted Due to Popularity of Home TestingApril 28th, 2022
  • Dominant Delta Variant Confirmed in Provincetown COVID Cluster, Cases Rise to 430
    Dominant Delta Variant Confirmed in Provincetown COVID Cluster, Cases Rise to 430July 24th, 2021
  • The Data Gaps in the Fight Against COVID-19: Experts Point Out What We Still Don’t Know
    The Data Gaps in the Fight Against COVID-19: Experts Point Out What We Still Don’t KnowFebruary 3rd, 2021
  • Join now to see all

Grant Support

  • HIV Exposed Uninfected Infant Cohort StudyNICHD2018–2023
  • A Proposal To Support District-Level Implementation Of The Zambia Ministry Of HeaNational Center For Hiv, Viral Hepatitis, Stds And Tb Prevention2009–2012
  • Short Exclusive Breastfeeding To Reduce Postnatal Transmission Of HIVEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health &Human Development2006
  • Short Exclusive Breastfeeding To Reduce Postnatal HIVEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health &Human Development2005
  • Reduce Postnatal Transmission Of HIV Through BreastmilkEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health &Human Development2000–2004