David A. Schwartz, MD, MS Hyg, FCAP, is a medical epidemiologist and a board-certified pathologist with two major subspecialties - Placental/Perinatal/Obstetrical Pathology and Infectious Disease Pathology. He is also a specialist in Global Maternal and Child Health with more than 40 years of experience investigating pregnancy complications, in particular how emerging and reemerging infectious diseases affect pregnant woman, the fetus, placenta and newborn, mechanisms of maternal-fetal transmission, and the effects of vaccination on pregnancy infections.
Dr. Schwartz is a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists and serves as Deputy Editor in Chief for the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. He also sits on the editorial boards of other peer-reviewed journals. His extensive experience in understanding the effects of novel and emerging infectious diseases has led him to undertake diagnostic and research work in Central and West Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Dr. Schwartz is a globally recognized expert in placental, perinatal, and infectious disease pathology who has designed and implemented large international studies for such agencies as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr. Schwartz has been the recipient of numerous competitive grants and awards from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, and received the Pediatric Scholar Award from the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He has investigated new microbial agents including emerging and reemerging infectious diseases since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, and has made significant contributions to understanding bacterial, parasitic and fungal diseases, HIV, Zika virus, Ebola virus and other hemorrhagic fevers, and most recently, mpox (monkeypox). He has extensively researched aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading a global team of 44 perinatal experts from 12 countries to identify that placental destruction and insufficiency from SARS-CoV-2 is an important cause of stillbirth among infected mothers. Dr. Schwartz was among the first investigators to identify the Zika virus in the placenta of transmitting mothers, and recently characterized the initial case of mpox (monkeypox) infecting the placenta and fetus, causing the Congenital Mpox Syndrome.
He has authored over 170 peer-reviewed published articles, 66 chapters, and five books in his specialty areas. His research interests also encompass the intersection of medical anthropology, public health, and biomedicine, particularly in maternal and infant health, infectious diseases, and emerging infections. Dr. Schwartz is the book series editor for the Springer Nature book series, “Global Maternal and Child Health: Medical, Anthropological, and Public Health Perspectives”. He has a consultative practice based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Schwartz can speak on:
- Pregnancy-related topics including clinical, pathological, epidemiology, infectious diseases and vaccines
- Obstetric, placental and perinatal pathology
- Global maternal and child health
- Epidemiological, pathological and clinical aspects of new and emerging infectious diseases including monkeypox, COVID-19, hemorrhagic fevers, and HIV
- Infectious disease pathology
- Fetal and neonatal disease, pathology, and infectious diseases
- Tropical medicine