Draft:Alfred Zerfas

Alfred John Zerfas AO MD MRCP MPH PHD (born 10 November 1935) is an Australian public health expert known for designing and leading national health surveys in the developing world. In 2023, he received the Member of the Order of Australia Award for his “significant service to international community health and nutrition as an epidemiologist."

Early Life
Alfred Zerfas was born in Melbourne, Australia. Notable relatives include his sister, Joyce Evans, an Australian photographer and recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia Award (OAM), and his cousin, Alan Finkel, the Australian neuroscientist, inventor, researcher, entrepreneur, educator, policy advisor, and philanthropist and recipient of the Companion of the Order of Australia Award (CAM).

Education and Early Career
Alfred Zerfas completed his medical training at University of Melbourne and left Australia for India to take his first job as a doctor at a leprosy clinic. After his time in India, he joined the Royal College of Physicians of London, and then the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Later, he completed a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Career
Alfred Zerfas worked in twenty-five countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia for governments, non-profit organizations and academic institutions as a public health doctor, international nutritionist, epidemiologist, educator and researcher. He invented and produced the first Mid Upper Arm Circumference or MUAC Insertion Tape,, which is still a standard tool for nutrition screening, surveys and surveillance used by governments and relief agencies for primary health care, child survival and in emergencies. The MUAC Insertion Tape is commonly referred to as the “Zerfas Insertion Tape” and was significant because “standard measuring tapes, which had previously been wrapped around the arm, ended up skewed and imprecise, and Zerfas dealt with this problem by suggesting a measuring tape that was inserted into itself with a small window for reading the circumference.”