Juan Luis Manzur
Juan Luis Manzur is an Argentine surgeon and politician. He served as Minister of Health and Environment of Argentina from 2009 to 2015, and is currently the Governor of Tucumán Province.Biography
Manzur was born in San Miguel de Tucumán to a Maronite Catholic father from Lebanon and an Argentine mother. He received a medical degree from the University of Tucumán and completed his residency at the public Álvarez Hospital, in Buenos Aires. Manzur later received a master's degree in Health Systems and Services Administration from the University of Buenos Aires.
Following a stint as Vice Minister of Health for the Province of San Luis, in 2002 he was named Public Health Secretary of the District of La Matanza, a western, mainly blue-collar suburb of the Argentine capital. Recommended by the National Health Minister, Ginés González García, Manzur was appointed Health Minister of Tucumán Province by the new Governor, José Alperovich, in 2003. Manzur soon earned plaudits in his post, which oversaw public health in one of Argentina's least-developed provinces. One widely used yardstick of public health, the infant mortality rate, fell from 23 per 1,000 births in 2003, to 13 in 2006. The perinatal mortality rate likewise fell during the same period in Tucumán from 24 to 18 per 1,000 births. These news helped Manzur secure Governor Alperovich's nod to be a running mate for his successful, 2007 bid for re-election.
Manzur was sworn in on July 1, the day after a public health emergency was declared over a worsening H1N1 virus epidemic, which had claimed 44 fatalities by the time he was sworn in. His tenure would thereafter be focused on expanding childhood immunizations, childhood preventive medicine, diagnostic care against coeliac disease and HPV, mobile health, access to organ transplants, and smoking cessation programs. Staunch opposition from the powerful Roman Catholic Church in Argentina forced Manzur to reverse steps toward protecting women's reproductive rights, cancelling proposals in 2010 that would have guarantee access to legal abortions.
He stepped down as Health Minister in February 2015 to return to the post of Vice Governor of Tucumán, and was expected to run to succeed Governor Alperovich in provincial elections later in the year.
