Donald Thea
Profiles

Donald M Thea, MD, MSc

Adjunct Professor, Global Health - Boston University School of Public Health

617-358-2295
dthea@bu.edu
Crosstown Center - 391
View Full Profile at BUMC

Biography

Dr. Thea received his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Masters of Science in tropical medicine from the London School of Hygiene and trained in infectious diseases in the Department of Geographic Medicine at New England Medical Center. He has pursued a full time career in both domestic and international clinical and epidemiological infectious disease research, primarily in issues related to child survival and in particular mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS and pneumonia. Dr. Thea was an early member of Project SIDA (Kinshasa, Zaire), the first international clinical HIV/AIDS research field site, where he did work on the etiology of diarrhea in perinatally acquired HIV infection and was the director of the Clinical Research Unit. He pursued his interest in perinatal transmission of HIV as the Principal Investigator of the New York City Collaborative Perinatal HIV Transmission Study. In 1998 he then joined the Health and Social Development Unit of the Harvard Institute for International Development where he focused on international field research in Acute Respiratory Illness, Malaria and HIV.

Dr. Thea joined the Global Health department along with the other members of the Harvard team where he is currently a Professor of Global Health. Dr. Thea provides senior technical leadership of a portfolio of projects addressing community treatment of neonatal sepsis, management of acute respiratory illness in children, community and facilities-based management of acute malaria, presumptive prophylaxis of malaria in pregnancy, social and behavioral aspects of HIV transmission and child sexual abuse. Dr. Thea has been the Principal Investigator of several large studies and program implementation projects including a prospective cohort study of postnatal HIV through breastmilk (the Zambia Exclusive Breastfeeding Study), the Zambia Boston University Malaria Project (ZAMBUMP), the Boston University PMTCT Integration Projects (BUPIP) – Southern Province Zambia. He is the Zambia Site PI for the Bill and Melinda Gates funded Pneumonia Etiology Research in Child Health (PERCH) through a subcontract with Johns Hopkins University.

Most recently, in 2018 Dr. Thea was awarded a 5-year R01 grant from NICHD (Zambia Infant Cohort Study - ZICS) to study the causes and risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality seen among children who are born to HIV-infected mothers but escaped infection themselves. These HIV-exposed but uninfected children are now estimated to number 14.8 million, worldwide and growing.

Along with Professors Gill and Fox, Dr. Thea have a bi-weekly podcast, Free Associations, which critically reviews the merit and rigor of recent scientific publications that have been noted in the popular press.

Other Positions

  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research - Boston University

Education

  • Columbia University, MD Field of Study: Medicine
  • University of London, MSc Field of Study: Tropical Medicine
  • Antioch College, BS

Websites

Classes Taught

  • SPHGH805

Publications

  • Published on 7/7/2025

    Tan R, Chandna A, Colbourn T, Hooli S, King C, Lufesi N, McCollum ED, Mwansambo C, Mathew JL, Cutland CL, Madhi SA, Nunes M, Basnet S, Strand TA, O'Grady KF, Gessner B, Addo-Yobo E, Chisaka N, Hibberd P, Jeena PM, Lozano JM, MaLeod WB, Patel A, Thea DM, Nguyen NTV, Lucero M, Akram Uz Zaman SM, Bhatnagar S, Wadhwa N, Lodha R, Aneja S, Santosham M, Awasthi S, Bavdekar A, Chou M, Nymadawa P, Pape JW, Paranhos-Baccala G, Picot VS, Rakoto-Andrianarivelo M, Rouzier V, Russomando G, Sylla M, Vanhems P, Wang J, Libster R, Clara AW, Beynon F, Levine G, Rees CA, Neuman MI, Qazi S, Nisar YB. Development and validation of a novel clinical risk score to predict hypoxaemia in children with pneumonia using the WHO PREPARE dataset. BMJ Glob Health. 2025 Jul 07; 10(7). PMID: 40623791.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/19/2025

    MacLeod WB, Mwananyanda L, Kwenda G, Pieciak R, Mupila Z, Murphy C, Chikoti C, Forman L, Berklein F, Lapidot R, Ngoma B, Larson-Williams A, Lungu J, Nakazwe R, Nzara D, Yankonde B, Thea DM, Gill CJ. Bordetella pertussis -related Respiratory Deaths in Infants From 4 Days to 6 Months of Age, Results From a 3-Year, Prospective Postmortem Surveillance Study in Lusaka, Zambia. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2025 Jun 01; 44(6):489-495. PMID: 40106786.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/13/2025

    Zulu EM, Mwananyanda L, Pieciak RC, Forman LS, Shah J, Heeren T, Gill CJ, Chilengi R, Payne-Lohman B, Duffy CR, Osei-Poku G, Thea DM, Wa Somwe S, Herlihy JM. Present or Absent: Risks and protective factors of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the Zambian context. Res Sq. 2025 May 13. PMID: 40470244.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 2/17/2025

    Herlihy JM, Zulu E, Mwananyanda L, Forman L, Heeren T, Gill CJ, Chilengi R, Namuziya N, Payne-Lohman B, Chavuma R, Duffy CR, Thea DM. Risk of hospitalization or death does not differ in children exposed to HIV, yet uninfected compared to nonexposed peers in Lusaka, Zambia. AIDS. 2025 Jul 01; 39(8):964-974. PMID: 39945630.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 11/1/2024

    Miyakawa R, Zhang H, Brooks WA, Prosperi C, Baggett HC, Feikin DR, Hammitt LL, Howie SRC, Kotloff KL, Levine OS, Madhi SA, Murdoch DR, O'Brien KL, Scott JAG, Thea DM, Antonio M, Awori JO, Bunthi C, Driscoll AJ, Ebruke B, Fancourt NS, Higdon MM, Karron RA, Moore DP, Morpeth SC, Mulindwa JM, Park DE, Rahman MZ, Rahman M, Salaudeen RA, Sawatwong P, Seidenberg P, Sow SO, Tapia MD, Deloria Knoll M. Epidemiology of human metapneumovirus among children with severe or very severe pneumonia in high pneumonia burden settings: the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study experience. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2025 Mar; 31(3):441-450. PMID: 39489292.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 8/30/2024

    Odom AR, Gill CJ, Pieciak R, Ismail A, Thea D, MacLeod WB, Johnson WE, Lapidot R. Characterization of longitudinal nasopharyngeal microbiome patterns in maternally HIV-exposed Zambian infants. Gates Open Res. 2022; 6:143. PMID: 39345284.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 7/17/2024

    Duffy CR, Herlihy JM, Zulu E, Mwananyanda L, Forman L, Heeren T, Gill CJ, Harper M, Chilengi R, Chavuma R, Payne-Lohman B, Thea DM. Preterm birth among women with HIV: impact of preconception cART initiation. AIDS. 2024 Oct 01; 38(12):1749-1757. PMID: 39017638.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/9/2024

    Zulu EM, Herlihy JM, Duffy CR, Mwananyanda L, Chilengi R, Forman L, Heeren T, Gill CJ, Chavuma R, Payne-Lohman B, Thea DM. Single-test syphilis serology: A case of not seeing the forest for the trees. PLoS One. 2024; 19(5):e0303253. PMID: 38723103.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 3/20/2024

    Lapidot R, Faits T, Ismail A, Allam M, Khumalo Z, MacLeod W, Kwenda G, Mupila Z, Nakazwe R, Segrè D, Johnson WE, Thea DM, Mwananyanda L, Gill CJ. Nasopharyngeal Dysbiosis Precedes the Development of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Young Infants, a Longitudinal Infant Cohort Study. Gates Open Res. 2022; 6:48. PMID: 39050991.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 3/11/2024

    Gallagher KE, Awori JO, Knoll MD, Rhodes J, Higdon MM, Hammitt LL, Prosperi C, Baggett HC, Brooks WA, Fancourt N, Feikin DR, Howie SRC, Kotloff KL, Tapia MD, Levine OS, Madhi SA, Murdoch DR, O'Brien KL, Thea DM, Baillie VL, Ebruke BE, Kamau A, Moore DP, Mwananyanda L, Olutunde EO, Seidenberg P, Sow SO, Thamthitiwat S, Scott JAG. Factors predicting mortality in hospitalised HIV-negative children with lower-chest-wall indrawing pneumonia and implications for management. PLoS One. 2024; 19(3):e0297159. PMID: 38466696.

     Read At: PubMed

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