Marc Bonten earned his MD (1991) and PhD (“the role of colonization of the upper intestinal tract in the pathogenesis of ventilator-associated pneumonia, 1994) at the Maastricht University Medical School, the Netherlands. He registered as an internist in 2000, an infectious disease specialist in 2002 and a clinical microbiologist in 2008, all at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Professor Karin Thursky is an infectious disease physician and clinician-researcher who is both nationally and internationally recognised as a leader and pioneer of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in Australia. She is the Director (CIA) of the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship (NCAS), which is a health services research Centre of Excellence, working across both human and animal health.
Dr Terezinha Marta Castiñeiras is an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) School of Medicine, Brazil. She is currently the Head of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
Dr Castiñeiras received her medical degree (cum Laude, 1997) and completed her residency in Infectious Diseases (1990) in the University Hospital CFF/UFRJ, Rio. Immediately after, she worked as staff in the State Institute of Infectology, where she developed a special interest in meningitis. She completed her academic training receiving an MD studying Streptococcus pneumoniae meningitis and a PhD studying the molecular epidemiology of invasive Neisseria meningitis.
In 1993, she became a Professor of Infectious Diseases in UFRJ. Since then, she has been teaching, coordinating disciplines and residence programs and taking part in research projects. In 2009, she was appointed visitor scientist at the Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Research Unit, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, working in a Project of bacterial meningitis with a grant of NIH. Dr Castiñeiras has been author or co-author of impact-peer reviewed articles on these fields, national and international conference abstracts and guidelines and textbooks chapter.
In the fields of vaccinology and travel medicine, Dr Castiñeiras was a member of the group responsible for important innovations in Rio/Brazil. First, she was founding member of the first Public Adult Vaccination Center in Rio (CVA-UFRJ, 1996); second, she was founding member of the first health information centre for travellers in Brazil – Cives (1997). Also, she was a founding member of the Brazilian Society of Travel Medicine (SBMV), being the current President since January 2019. Additionally she is a member of ISTM, has the Certificate of Travel Health (CTH) and works part-time as academic coordinator, staff and preceptor at Health Information Center for Travelers (Cives-UFRJ).
He has been involved in clinical research of central nervous system infections and complications, with a focus on HIV Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), an often deadly complication of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in persons living with AIDS with opportunistic infections such as cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis. Dr. Meya has led epidemiological and translational research studies as well as randomized clinical trials in Uganda in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Meya also has a specific interest in public health interventions to prevent meningitis at population level. He has advocated for cryptococcal antigen (CrAg) screening as a strategy to reduce deaths and hospitalizations from cryptococcal meningitis. Dr. Meya continues to lead the efforts to initiate implementation of the national CrAg screening program in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the Central public health laboratories and U.S. CDC.
Dr. Meya has been the Principal Investigator on NIH R01, CDC U01, and UK MRC grants and Industry-led research. Dr. Meya continues to be involved in advocacy to improve clinical care and outcomes in a predominantly HIV-infected patient population with limited resources for health.
David Lewis is Director of the Western Sydney Sexual Health Centre and Professor at the University of Sydney, where he is STI/HIV Discipline Leader for the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity.
David also holds an Honorary Professorship in the Division of Medical Virology at the University of Cape Town. David’s research interests include antimicrobial resistance, STI surveillance as well as STI care in resource-poor settings.
He is a former President of the International Union against STIs. David is a Joint Editor of Sexual Health and, for over a decade, served as Deputy Editor for Sexually Transmitted Infections. D
avid has provided technical advice to the World Health Organization for many years in respect of STI treatment guidelines, point-of-care diagnostics and antimicrobial resistance. He also supports the work of GARDP and GSK in respect of bringing new antimicrobial agents for gonorrhoea into clinical practice.
He holds Honorary Professorships at Imperial College London, UK, Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Health Science, and the First Medical School of the Fu, Shanghai, China. Fellow, Royal Society of Medicine, Ireland. Professor Pittet is Lead Adviser of the WHO “Clean Care is Safe Care” & the African Partnerships for Patient Safety programmes, Patient Safety, WHO Headquarter.
Professor Pittet is the recipient of several national and international honours including a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) awarded by Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II for services to the prevention of healthcare-associated infection in the UK (2007), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Lectureship for his contribution to infection control and healthcare epidemiology (2008), the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases’ Award for Excellence (2009) and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM/ICAAC 2016). The book “Clean Hands Save Lives” by the French writer Thierry Crouzet (2014), published in 17 languages, and the movie “Clean Hands” (2016), describe Didier Pittet medical odyssey to promote patient safety worldwide.
Professor Pittet is co-author of more than 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 50 textbook chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals and editorial consultant for the Lancet. The experience of his team in engaging nations and healthcare settings worldwide in a universal commitment to patient safety is unique.
Her specialist training is in Paediatric Infectious Diseases, and her fellowship research applied phylogenomics to the study of common pneumococcal protein vaccine candidates. As Assistant Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Minnesota she validated and evaluated molecular diagnostics as a method of surveillance in resource-limited settings.
She relocated to Malawi to head the paediatric research group, develop a research agenda relevant to paediatric and child health in Malawi, and to further pursue her interest in global health research, with a focus on paediatric translational research, clinical studies and trials