Maria Van Kerkhove

Last updated
Maria D. Van Kerkhove
Born
Maria Rosanne DeJoseph

(1977-02-20) February 20, 1977 (age 46)
Education Cornell University (BS, 1999)
Stanford University (MS, 2000)
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (PhD, 2009)
Spouse
Neil Van Kerkhove
(m. 2003)
Children2
Scientific career
Thesis H5N1/highly pathogenic avian influenza in Cambodia : evaluating poultry movement and the extent of interaction between poultry and humans.  (2009)

Maria DeJoseph Van Kerkhove (born February 20, 1977) is an American infectious disease epidemiologist. With a background in high-threat pathogens, Van Kerkhove specializes in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and is based in the Health Emergencies Program at the World Health Organization (WHO). [1] She is the technical lead of COVID-19 response and the head of emerging diseases and zoonosis unit at WHO. [2] [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Van Kerkhove was born Maria Rosanne DeJoseph in New Hartford, New York. [4] [5] [6] [7] In 1999, she received a B.S. in biological sciences from Cornell University. [8] [9]

In 2000, she received an M.S. in epidemiology from Stanford University School of Medicine.

In 2009, she earned a Ph.D. in infectious disease epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where she wrote her thesis on the avian flu in Cambodia. [10]

Career

Van Kerkhove began her research career while an undergraduate student at Cornell University. She worked as a research assistant with Eloy Rodriguez studying the medical plants of the Amazon. As a masters student, she continued as a research assistant at Stanford University Medical School.

From 2000 to 2005, Van Kerkhove was a senior epidemiologist at Exponent's health sciences practice in New York City. After this, she worked as an epidemiologist at the Institut Pasteur de Cambodia from 2006 to 2008, while conducting field studies on H5N1 for her Ph.D.

Van Kerkhove was a senior research fellow in the Medical Research Council Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial College London from 2009 to 2015. She specialized in Ebola, Marburg, influenza, meningitis, MERS-CoV, and yellow fever. In April 2009, she began working as a technical consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) in its Global Capacities, Alert and Response Cluster. [11] In 2013, she was a technical consultant for WHO as a member of the MERS-CoV task force. [12]

From 2015 to 2017, Van Kerkhove was the head of the Outbreak Investigation Task Force at the Institut Pasteur’s Center for Global Health, conducting field research into surrounding zoonoses, respiratory viruses and emerging/re-emerging viruses such as Zika, MERS-CoV, Ebola and Marburg. [13] She specialized in field research to gather data on the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI/H5N1), with a focus on transmission risk from poultry to humans. [11]

Van Kerkhove has been an honorary lecturer at Imperial College London since 2015. [11] She has been Scientist, Technical Lead MERS-CoV at WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, since March 2017. She is currently the head of the Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit in the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. She also serves as the COVID-19 technical and health operations lead. As part of her work with WHO, Van Kerkhove appears in regular press conferences by WHO regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] [14] Van Kerkhove has provided answers to common questions about the pandemic. Van Kerkhove spent two weeks in China in February 2020 to better understand the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand how China was trying to control the virus. [1]

Personal life

Van Kerkhove lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with her husband Neil and two sons. [6]

Selected works and publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avian influenza</span> Influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds

Avian influenza, also known as avian flu, is a bird flu caused by the influenza A virus, which can infect people. It is similar to other types of animal flu in that it is caused by a virus strain that has adapted to a specific host. The type with the greatest risk is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris is a Hong Kong-based Sri Lankan virologist, most notable for being the first person to isolate the SARS virus.He is the current Tam Wah-Ching Professor in Medical Science, and Chair Professor of Virology at the Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong. He was a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization of the World Health Organization from 2009 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. Ian Lipkin</span> Professor, microbiologist, epidemiologist

Walter Ian Lipkin is the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and a professor of Neurology and Pathology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He is also director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, an academic laboratory for microbe hunting in acute and chronic diseases. Lipkin is internationally recognized for his work with West Nile virus, SARS and COVID-19.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Farrar</span> British medical researcher

Sir Jeremy James Farrar is a British medical researcher who has served as Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization since 2023. He was previously the director of The Wellcome Trust from 2013 to 2023 and a professor of tropical medicine at the University of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MERS</span> Viral respiratory infection

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory infection caused by Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe depending on age and risk level. Typical symptoms include fever, cough, diarrhea, and shortness of breath. The disease is typically more severe in those with other health problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public health emergency of international concern</span> Formal declaration by the World Health Organization

A public health emergency of international concern is a formal declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) of "an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response", formulated when a situation arises that is "serious, sudden, unusual, or unexpected", which "carries implications for public health beyond the affected state's national border" and "may require immediate international action". Under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), states have a legal duty to respond promptly to a PHEIC. The declaration is publicized by an IHR Emergency Committee (EC) of international experts, which was developed following the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riamilovir</span> Chemical compound

Riamilovir is a broad-spectrum antiviral drug developed in Russia through a joint effort of Ural Federal University, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Center for Biopharma Technologies and Medsintez Pharmaceutical. It has a novel triazolotriazine core, which represents a new structural class of non-nucleoside antiviral drugs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christl Donnelly</span> American-British epidemiologist (born 1967)

Christl Ann Donnelly is a professor of statistical epidemiology at Imperial College London, the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford. She serves as associate director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Ferguson (epidemiologist)</span> British epidemiologist and researcher

Neil Morris Ferguson is a British epidemiologist and professor of mathematical biology, who specialises in the patterns of spread of infectious disease in humans and animals. He is the director of the Jameel Institute, and of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, and head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Vice-Dean for Academic Development in the Faculty of Medicine, all at Imperial College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael J. Ryan (doctor)</span> Irish doctor and Chief Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme

Michael Joseph Ryan is an Irish epidemiologist and former trauma surgeon, specialising in infectious disease and public health. He is executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, leading the team responsible for the international containment and treatment of COVID-19. Ryan has held leadership positions and has worked on various outbreak response teams in the field to eradicate the spread of diseases including bacillary dysentery, cholera, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Marburg virus disease, measles, meningitis, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, SARS, and Shigellosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Aylward</span> Canadian physician and epidemiologist

Bruce Aylward is a Canadian physician and epidemiologist. Since September 2017 he has been Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization. He is part of the implementation of the WHO's COVAX Facility. He has past experience in the areas of polio eradication, Zika virus, and Ebola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Van-Tam</span> British public health physician

Sir Jonathan Stafford Nguyen Van-Tam is a British healthcare professional specialising in influenza, including its epidemiology, transmission, vaccinology, antiviral drugs and pandemic preparedness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caitlin Rivers</span> American emerging infectious disease epidemiologist

Caitlin M. Rivers is an American epidemiologist who as Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, specializing on improving epidemic preparedness. Rivers is currently working on the American response to the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the incorporation of infectious disease modeling and forecasting into public health decision making.

Maimuna (Maia) Majumder is a computational epidemiologist and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital's Computational Health Informatics Program (CHIP). She is currently working on modeling the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convalescent plasma</span> Blood plasma from disease survivor

Convalescent plasma is the blood plasma collected from a survivor of an infectious disease. This plasma contains antibodies specific to a pathogen and can be used therapeutically by providing passive immunity when transfusing it to a newly infected patient with the same condition. Convalescent plasma can be transfused as it has been collected or become the source material for the hyperimmune serum which consists largely of IgG but also includes IgA and IgM. or as source material for anti-pathogen monoclonal antibodies, Collection is typically achieved by apheresis, but in low-to-middle income countries, the treatment can be administered as convalescent whole blood.

Allison Joan McGeer is a Canadian infectious disease specialist in the Sinai Health System, and a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. She also appointed at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, and is a partner of the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases. McGeer has led investigations into the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Toronto and worked alongside Donald Low. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McGeer has studied how SARS-CoV-2 survives in the air and has served on several provincial committees advising aspects of the Government of Ontario's pandemic response.

Sir William John Edmunds is a British epidemiologist, and a professor in the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Koopmans</span> Dutch virologist

Maria Petronella Gerarda Koopmans is a Dutch virologist who is Head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience. Her research considers emerging infectious diseases, noroviruses and veterinary medicine. In 2018 she was awarded the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Stevin Prize. She serves on the scientific advisory group of the World Health Organization.

Sylvie Champaloux Briand is a French physician who is Director of the Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases Department at the World Health Organization. Briand led the Global Influenza Programme during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Briand launched the WHO Information Network for Epidemics which looked to counter the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.

The Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework is a public health instrument developed by the World Health Organization with the purpose to address pandemic influenza. The PIP Framework has supported countries to enhance their capacities to detect, prepare for and respond to pandemic influenza.

References

  1. 1 2 Kuzmanovic, Aleks; Van Kerkhove, Dr Maria (17 March 2020). "Q&A on Coronavirus - COVID-19 with WHO's Dr Maria Van Kerkhove". World Health Organization (WHO).
  2. 1 2 Lovelace, Berkeley Jr.; Higgins-Dunn, Noah; Feuer, William (16 March 2020). "WHO considers 'airborne precautions' for medical staff after study shows coronavirus can survive in air". CNBC.
  3. Martin, Rachel; Van Kerkhove, Maria (20 March 2020). "What Has The WHO Learned Since The COVID-19 Outbreak Began?". NPR.
  4. Segelken, Roger (10 January 1997). "Cornell student ethnobotany expeditions to Amazon, Yucatan may yield secrets of Indian herbal medicines". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 9 June 2020. Maria DeJoseph, a sophomore from central New York who traveled to the Yucatan, wants to pursue a Ph.D. in pharmacology, chemical ecology or ethnobotany.
  5. "Finding Joy". Cornell74.org. Cornell Class of 1974. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  6. 1 2 "2017 Institut Pasteur – OMI Seminar in Pandemics" (PDF). Institut Pasteur. August 2017.
  7. Wilson, Reid (20 April 2020). "EXCLUSIVE: Meet the top American fighting COVID-19 at WHO". The Hill. Retrieved 9 June 2020. A native of New Hartford, N.Y., Van Kerkhove is one of a growing generation of global public health leaders...
  8. Price, Dalton (25 March 2020). "Letter to the Editor: Let's Not Forget the Women, Van Kerkhove '99 Leads Global COVID-19 Response". The Cornell Daily Sun.
  9. "Home - Dr Maria D Van Kerkhove". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  10. Van Kerkhove, Maria D (2009). H5N1/Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Cambodia: Evaluating poultry movement and the extent of interaction between poultry and humans (PDF) (PhD thesis). London: University of London: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. doi:10.17037/PUBS.00682389. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-04-13. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  11. 1 2 3 "Dr Maria D Van Kerkhove, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health - Honorary Lecturer". Imperial College London. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  12. "WHO: Biographies of the members of, and advisers to, the IHR Emergency Committee concerning Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV): Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Head, Outbreak Investigation Task Force, Center for Global Health, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France". World Health Organization. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  13. "Member: Project Manager - Alumni Maria Van Kerkhove". 2008. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020.
  14. "COVID-19 – Virtual Press conference 18 March, 2020" (PDF). World Health Organization. 18 March 2020.