Dr Rahul Gupta is named WV’s top health officer

BY A STAFF WRITER

CHARLESTON (WV) — Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, will become West Virginia’s top health officer when he takes charge of the state Bureau for Public Health on January 1.

According to the Department of Health and Human Resources, Dr Gupta, who will become commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health effective, will replace Dr. Letitia Tierney who resigns on December 31.

The Indian American physician holds an MD from University College of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi, and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

He has been certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine since 1999.

Gupta’s appointment was announced by West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Cabinet Secretary Karen L. Bowling.

Since 2009, Dr Gupta has served as the executive director and health officer of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, the largest local health department in West Virginia. He also serves as the executive director and health officer of the Putnam County Health Department.

Prior to that, he was assistant professor of medicine of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.; assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and a primary care physician at Florida Medical Clinic.

“I am deeply honored to be appointed to this position by Secretary Bowling,” Dr Gupta said.

“Working with professionals and partners across our great state, I look forward to the opportunity to help West Virginians build a healthier future by achieving positive and lasting health outcomes.”

In the wake of last January’s Elk River chemical leak and the public’s loss of confidence over the contaminated water system, Dr Gupta and Dr Tierney expressed quite different views on the ongoing crisis.

Dr Tierney repeatedly said she was drinking and using the water for all purposes and said that flu season, unwashed hands and anxiety were the reasons why people were going to the hospital with water-related symptoms.

A month after the leak, at a congressional hearing, Dr Tierney declined to say if the drinking water was safe.

Dr Gupta, from the start, expressed more hesitancy. He said he would like to drink the water, but, a month after the leak, it still smelled and it was difficult to get past that. He led the push for a long-term medical monitoring program to check on the health effects of the crisis.

Dr Gupta said he did not know who would replace him at the local health department but that he would be working on transition plans for the next few weeks.

He said he wanted to work on integrating the Bureau for Public Health’s various programs with each other and with health-care providers.

He also said he wanted to meet with communities and local boards of health to receive input and to make sure that the bureau’s health services are “socially and linguistically competent.”