Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum

 

Director of Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve University

 

by Daylan Jernigan, crew 1

 

 

Dr. Ghannoum is so brilliant he is the Director for center of mycology (fungus). This man is an amazing Clevelander and one day soon enough you will hear about him and his germ spray called “halo”. Currently it is sold in CVS stores nationwide, his spray kills the germs in your mouth that will get you sick. Its simple as he says “when you feel like you are going to have a cold, you spray it in your mouth and it protects against it.”

 

Dr. Ghannoum was born in 1950 in Beirut, Lebanon. He attended college at American University of Beirut, ranked one of the best in its region. He then left to England where he obtained his master’s and PhD. “After I finished my studies, I worked in different parts of the world” and for a while lived in Kuwait.  While with his family in England, the Hussein took over in Kuwait and he lost everything. Literally, his home, his job, his friends, everything. ‘’Just before the invasion of Kuwait, I was invited to speak in Washington D.C and I came to D.C to give the lecture and got a job in United State “said Dr. Ghannoum. This is what led Ghannoum to the United States. His first job was at UCLA where he worked for 5 years. Currently he works at Case Western and University Hospital as the director for the center of Mycology. This discovery and invention is getting much attention in the news. His job requires him to look a microbiomes. He looks all different types of germs, good and bad ones. He is now working with AID patients and trying to see if there is a difference between fungi in their mouths compared to people who are healthy.

 

“We discovered there is a change in the mouth organisms of HIV patients. We noticed that when the germ Candia is present in the mouth, there is another germ in the mouth which is Pichia. We thought maybe they antagonize each other like one keeps control of the other.” This is what led to Dr. Ghannuom famous spray “Halo.” It is sold in CVS stores and simple to use, when you feel like you’re having a cold, you spray it in your mouth and it protect against it.”

Dr. Ghannoum does not care for the fame or the fortune, he just wants to better the world because this is what he truly loves to do. Dr. Ghannoum’s passion for public health and wellbeing makes him a true “Cleveland Renaissance” person. As Dr.Ghannoum says “select a career that you love. We spend our whole lives working, so it’s important to find something you enjoy.”

 

This man really is passionate about his career and everyone around him that he can reach out to. He believes any one of us can make it and be whoever they want to be. His inspiring advice to younger children such as myself, was “to keep our minds open and study harder, educate our self’s and just enjoy life.”