Confronting Inequities in STI Prevention, Diagnostics and Care
Track 3: Epidemiology & Surveillance
Laith Abu Raddad
Chairperson, Qatar
Laith Abu-Raddad is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar, Cornell University. He is also the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Disease Epidemiology Analytics on HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and Viral Hepatitis. Previously he held academic and research positions at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Imperial College London and Osaka University. His research interests are multidisciplinary with emphasis on studying the epidemiology of infectious diseases using analytical and computational approaches in addition to conventional epidemiologic study designs. He has led several high-impact studies at the international and regional levels. His scientific research has been published in journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Science, JAMA, Nature Medicine, Lancet, PLOS Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Hepatology, and Clinical Infectious Diseases. He has worked on COVID-19, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis C virus, tuberculosis, and SARS. He is or has been the principal investigator of several projects funded by various funding agencies, and has acted as an expert advisor or a consultant for several international organizations. His research work has been key in the formulation of public health policy at the regional and international levels.
Sevgi Aral
USA
Sevgi O. Aral, PhD, MA, MS has been the Associate Director for Science in the Division of STD Prevention, Centers for Disease Control since 1993. She holds Professorial appointments at the University of Washington in Seattle; University of Manitoba in Winnipeg; and Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Aral has authored more than 250 scientific articles and edited 17 journal issues and 3 books.
Ivana Bozicevic
Croatia/UK
Ivana is director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Strategic Information in Zagreb, Croatia. She holds an MSc in Public Health and a doctorate in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her main research interest is HIV and STI epidemiology in key populations.
Patty Garcia
Peru
Dr Patty Garcia is a Professor at the School of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University (UPCH) in Lima-Peru and member of the US National Academy of Medicine. She is recognized as a leader in Global Health. She is actively involved in research and training in Global health, Reproductive health, STI/HIV, HPV, diagnostics and medical informatics.
Saidi Kapiga
Tanzania
Dr Saidi Kapiga is a Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Scientific Director of the Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit (MITU) in Mwanza, Tanzania. His main research interests are in the epidemiology and control of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Ghina Mumtaz
Lebanon
Ghina Mumtaz is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at the American University of Beirut. She holds a PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The primary focus of her research is on characterizing the epidemiology of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and hepatitis C virus in the Middle East and North Africa, with a special focus on key populations and, more recently, refugees and internally displaced populations.
Katy Turner
Honorary Professor, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol , UK
Managing Consultant, Aquarius Population Health
Katy is an infectious disease epidemiologist and mathematical modeller with more than 20 years’ experience. She specialises in delivering innovative applied health research on antimicrobial resistance, sexually transmitted infections, and point of care diagnostics. She holds an honorary Professor post at the University of Bristol and previously worked at Imperial College London and the Health Protection Agency.
Lei Zhang
Australia
Prof Zhang is an experienced modeller and epidemiologist in HIV/STI research. He has cross-disciplinary research experience in mathematics, epidemiology, artificial intelligence and cost-effectiveness evaluation. He specialised in quantitative research and health economy evaluation, and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers.