Cynthia Semá Baltazar

Director, Mozambique Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program

Dr. Cynthia Semá Baltazar has been the Program Director for the Mozambique Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) since 2011. Cynthia has a PhD in health science from Ghent University in Belgium. She was the head of the Surveillance Department at the National Institute of Health in Mozambique from 2010-2020 and the Head of the Serology Laboratory from 2006-2010. The Mozambique National Institute of health is subordinate to the Ministry of Health and is dedicated to generating technical and scientific information in the area of ​​health in Mozambique.

Cynthia co-led the technical working group for the development of the National Action Plan for Health Security in Mozambique, following the recommendation of the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) in 2016. Cynthia was the chair of the Scientific Committee for the 7th Conference of the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) in 2018.

She has researched diverse topics, from infectious disease prevention and control, in particular, cholera epidemiology in Mozambique and HIV among high-risk groups. Cynthia has co-authored several scientific publications on various key public health topics.