Allan Rosenfield, who as dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University became a leading advocate for women's health during the global H.I.V./AIDS epidemic, died on Sunday at his home in Hartsdale, N.Y. He was 75.
The cause was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., said his son, Paul Rosenfield.
Dr. Rosenfield, who learned he had A.L.S. in 2005, also had another progressive disease, myasthenia gravis, but he continued to work until his retirement in June 2008, after 22 years as dean of the school. He worked for more than four decades on women's reproductive health and human rights, innovative family planning studies and strategies to address maternal deaths because of AIDS in developing countries. Perhaps his most notable effort was the Mother-to-Child Transmission program, which has so far brought comprehensive health care to more than 500,000 women and infants.