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Graça Freitas
Maria da Graça Gregório de Freitas GCM (born 26 August 1957) is a Portuguese physician and public health specialist who was the Director-General of Health and inherently the chief medical officer and leading spokesperson on matters of public health in Portugal, between 2018 and 2023. She has work published in the fields of vaccination, prevention and control of communicable diseases, public health emergencies, and health communication.
Before her appointment to the Directorate-General, she served as Deputy Director-General under her predecessor Francisco George, and coordinated several public health programmes, most notably, since 1996, the Portuguese National Vaccination Programme. She is also a member of the Management Board of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, of the World Health Organization Expanded Program on Immunization, among other international groups.
Due to her prominent national role during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, Graça Freitas was included in Jornal de Negócios's list of 50 Most Powerful People of 2020, which included both Portuguese and international personalities.
She was born in 1957, in Nova Lisboa (present-day Huambo), in Angola, which was at the time the Overseas Province of Angola, a territory under Portuguese rule. Her father was a civil servant in the Angolan public administration, and her mother a homemaker. By her own account, the figure of the health officer (delegado de saúde), which was very important in that territory, might have drawn her to public health; alternatively, she also recalls being influenced by two very good friends. Initially, she had considered a career in agriculture or silviculture, but her parents discouraged it due to it being uncommon to see women in agricultural engineering at the time; in her teenage years, she had also considered architecture.
She enrolled in Medicine at the University of Luanda in 1974, the year of the Carnation Revolution. Angola achieved independence from Portugal the following year through the Alvor Agreement; in 1975, she departed for Portugal and concluded her studies in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon in 1980. She specialised in public health in 1988, having conducted her postgraduate training in the Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon and, for eight months, in a community primary healthcare unit in Ponte de Sor, a rural municipality in Alentejo.
Graça Freitas was a public health Assistante and an Assistante Graduada (consultant) in the Ajuda community health centre in 1990 and again between 1992 and 1996; she also worked as the chief health officer in Lisbon, and as member of the Group for the Guarantee of Quality of the Lisbon Regional Health Administration. During this time, she took a particularly interest in the vaccination of the people in Ajuda and Restelo, which she described as "a sort of a crusade". In 1990–1991, she worked for the Directorate of Health Services of Macau, where she was a chief health officer, the coordinator of the community health centres, and supervised the public health internship programme.
After having collaborated with José Pereira Miguel in a research project, she was invited to become his assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, and filled the position for over twenty years, from 1995 to 2017. She often delivered her lectures sitting beside her students in the amphitheatre, encouraging discussion. She did not, however, pursue an academic career, or enroll on a doctoral programme. From 2000 to 2004, she also taught at the University's Faculty of Dental Medicine.
In 1996, at the invitation of Jorge Torgal, she joined the Directorate-General of Health as Head of the Division for Communicable Diseases, and Coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme. From 1998, she also Chaired the Technical Committee on Immunization. In 2005, she was first appointed Deputy Director-General and was entrusted with several different roles: she was responsible for Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan (2006–2007), for the Services of Epidemiology and Health Statistics (2007–2012), for the Division of Disease Prevention and Control (2007–2009), for the functional axis for the prevention, containment and control of influenza pandemics (2009–2010), for the Services of Disease Prevention and Control (2009–2012), and for the Services of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (2012–2017).
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Graça Freitas
Maria da Graça Gregório de Freitas GCM (born 26 August 1957) is a Portuguese physician and public health specialist who was the Director-General of Health and inherently the chief medical officer and leading spokesperson on matters of public health in Portugal, between 2018 and 2023. She has work published in the fields of vaccination, prevention and control of communicable diseases, public health emergencies, and health communication.
Before her appointment to the Directorate-General, she served as Deputy Director-General under her predecessor Francisco George, and coordinated several public health programmes, most notably, since 1996, the Portuguese National Vaccination Programme. She is also a member of the Management Board of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, of the World Health Organization Expanded Program on Immunization, among other international groups.
Due to her prominent national role during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, Graça Freitas was included in Jornal de Negócios's list of 50 Most Powerful People of 2020, which included both Portuguese and international personalities.
She was born in 1957, in Nova Lisboa (present-day Huambo), in Angola, which was at the time the Overseas Province of Angola, a territory under Portuguese rule. Her father was a civil servant in the Angolan public administration, and her mother a homemaker. By her own account, the figure of the health officer (delegado de saúde), which was very important in that territory, might have drawn her to public health; alternatively, she also recalls being influenced by two very good friends. Initially, she had considered a career in agriculture or silviculture, but her parents discouraged it due to it being uncommon to see women in agricultural engineering at the time; in her teenage years, she had also considered architecture.
She enrolled in Medicine at the University of Luanda in 1974, the year of the Carnation Revolution. Angola achieved independence from Portugal the following year through the Alvor Agreement; in 1975, she departed for Portugal and concluded her studies in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon in 1980. She specialised in public health in 1988, having conducted her postgraduate training in the Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon and, for eight months, in a community primary healthcare unit in Ponte de Sor, a rural municipality in Alentejo.
Graça Freitas was a public health Assistante and an Assistante Graduada (consultant) in the Ajuda community health centre in 1990 and again between 1992 and 1996; she also worked as the chief health officer in Lisbon, and as member of the Group for the Guarantee of Quality of the Lisbon Regional Health Administration. During this time, she took a particularly interest in the vaccination of the people in Ajuda and Restelo, which she described as "a sort of a crusade". In 1990–1991, she worked for the Directorate of Health Services of Macau, where she was a chief health officer, the coordinator of the community health centres, and supervised the public health internship programme.
After having collaborated with José Pereira Miguel in a research project, she was invited to become his assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, and filled the position for over twenty years, from 1995 to 2017. She often delivered her lectures sitting beside her students in the amphitheatre, encouraging discussion. She did not, however, pursue an academic career, or enroll on a doctoral programme. From 2000 to 2004, she also taught at the University's Faculty of Dental Medicine.
In 1996, at the invitation of Jorge Torgal, she joined the Directorate-General of Health as Head of the Division for Communicable Diseases, and Coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme. From 1998, she also Chaired the Technical Committee on Immunization. In 2005, she was first appointed Deputy Director-General and was entrusted with several different roles: she was responsible for Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan (2006–2007), for the Services of Epidemiology and Health Statistics (2007–2012), for the Division of Disease Prevention and Control (2007–2009), for the functional axis for the prevention, containment and control of influenza pandemics (2009–2010), for the Services of Disease Prevention and Control (2009–2012), and for the Services of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (2012–2017).
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