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Public health medical director to leave post
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Posted on Feb 04 1999
The Division of Public Health medical director will leave his post for good next month but health authorities have yet to find his replacement according to Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez.
“He is scheduled to leave by end of March or first part of April. It’s for personal reason,” said Villagomez on Dr. Jon B. Bruss’ resignation, “and part of me is sad to see this happen. But as a personal friend, I will not stop him because this is for his betterment.”
The outgoing medical director has been with DPH for nearly three years now. It was during his time that the local health department came out with its first annual progress report which discusses the incidence and prevalence of communicable and non-communicable chronic diseases and other health concerns in the Northern Marianas.
He was also one of the prime movers for making the new alien health screening regulation requiring foreign workers to take mandatory chest x-ray, HIV and syphilis tests.
Over 33,000 foreign workers have since been properly screened and given health certificates, certifying they are physically fit to work.
Bruss also helped DPH get assistance from the federal government and other various international health organizations.
Villagomez said at least six US mainland-based doctors are vying for the position of public health director. Some are Harvard University educated, others have led programs of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Center.
“The awareness and the protection of the community has risen by 10 folds since he came. I hope that we will find somebody with the same focus and commitment. He’s obviously a big loss to the commonwealth,” he said.
Bruss’ wife, Mozdeh, DPH’s chief nutritionist, will join her husband in the US mainland in the mid-part of the year, the health secretary said.
So far, at least six doctors from the US have applied for the position of a public health director. Some are Harvard University educated, others have led programs of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Center said Villagomez.
“We need somebody with extensive public health background who will solidify the foundation that has been started by Dr. Bruss,” he said.
