Four of Paul Farmer's Biggest Achievements As Global Health Patron Dies at 62

Health care expert and philanthropist Dr. Paul Farmer has died at the age of 62, according to Partners in Health, the organization he co-founded three decades ago.

Farmer died unexpectedly in his sleep from a sudden cardiac event on Monday, PIH said. He was in Rwanda at the time.

Farmer was known for his philanthropic work, providing access to high-quality healthcare in communities where this would not otherwise be possible, particularly in Haiti. In addition to founding PIH, Farmer was chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

The medical and philanthropic communities have been paying tribute to him this week. Ben Stiller, actor and ambassador with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, tweeted on Monday: "What a huge, huge loss. Paul Farmer saved lives on a huge scale. He was selfless, brilliant, funny, sweet and compassionate."

Raj Panjabi, global health security and biodefense expert at the White House National Security Council, wrote on Twitter that he was "devastated" by the death of Farmer, whom he described as a mentor.

Louise Ivers, executive director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health, tweeted that Farmer was "an inspiration, a transformative thinker, a friend, a health justice North Star, and a complex boss" who "pushed us all to do better."

Below are some key moments in Farmer's life and career.

Protesting U.S. Immigration Policies

When Farmer was a student, he went on a tour of North Carolina tobacco plantations where Haitian migrants worked under harsh conditions.

This experience inspired his later work to help the Haitian people. In the near term, though, after graduating from Duke University, he visited the Krome Detention Centre in Miami, where he protested U.S. immigration policies that sent home refugees from Haiti but welcomed those from Cuba, according to Britannica.

The experiences of Haitians at the U.S. border continue to provoke outcry. Last year, Haitian migrants had their lowest rate of U.S. asylum approvals since 2018.

Academic Excellence

Farmer was inspired to travel to Haiti and became determined to set up his own clinic there in order to treat illnesses regardless of the public's ability to pay.

After being accepted to Harvard Medical School, he traveled back and forth between the Haitian village of Cange, where he treated patients, and Harvard, where he took exams. Despite his frequent trips, his grades were among the highest in his class, according to nonprofit group the American Academy of Achievement.

Partners in Health and Zanmi Lasante

In the early 1980s, Farmer helped found a community-based health project in Haiti known as Zanmi Lasante. It eventually grew from a one-room clinic to a hospital serving a community of 150,000 people.

The project also led to the creation of schools and water facilities in the region, as well as providing children with vaccines. Its methods were successful enough to be adopted by the World Health Organization in other nations, said the American Academy of Achievement.

Farmer formally co-founded Partners in Health in 1987 alongside a number of colleagues, with seed money provided by Tom White, who ran a Boston construction company. Zanmi Lasante would become a sister organization to PIH, which to date has received millions of dollars from donors such as Bill and Melinda Gates.

Million-Dollar Prize

Farmer was awarded a million-dollar prize for his work by the Berggruen Institute in 2020. Speaking to NPR, Farmer said he was going to steer some of the money to PIH and some to the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that provides legal representation to prisoners who might have been wrongly convicted but cannot afford effective representation.

"For myself—I plan to buy some bromeliads, a tropical beauty, for my garden," he said.