I have always had a special interest in pediatric infectious diseases and lung health. My initial work as an undergraduate student on the role of respiratory viruses in children with cystic fibrosis resulted in my PhD proposal, which investigated the role of respiratory viruses in respiratory illnesses early in life in a large Dutch pediatric birth cohort. I was awarded a PhD fellowship in the Alexandre Suerman program for my PhD research, which included a 2-year bursary to conduct clinical research leading towards a PhD. Whilst performing my PhD research, I had the opportunity to improve my epidemiological skills by completing a Masters’ degree in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Utrecht. After completion off my PhD I specialized to become a pediatrician. Based on my strong interest to work in sub-Saharan Africa, I completed part of my clinical training in pediatrics at Tygerberg Hospital, Stellenbosch University, South Africa and later also at Red Cross Childrens’ Hospital. During this time, I realized my passion was to improve health care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like South Africa, by performing highly relevant clinical research to address the pressing health care issues experienced in these settings. I started working at the Desmond Tutu TB centre, Stellenbosch University in 2014 and have since received multiple grants for my work on lung health in children with pulmonary tuberculosis and respiratory viruses (including COVID-19), including NIH and EDCTP career fellowships.

After completing his medical studies in 2005 at the University of Leuven (BE), Dr. Koen Vanden Driessche moved to Kinshasa (DRC) where he worked for the University of North Carolina (USA) and helped scaling up integrated HIV care for TB patients. In 2007 he obtained his tropical medicine degree from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (BE). He combined his paediatric training (2007-2011) at Amalia Children’s Hospital in Nijmegen (NL), with teaching Pediatrics at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine. His Pediatric Infectious Diseases subspecialty training compromised of a 3-year fellowship (2011-2014) at B.C. Children’s Hospital, Vancouver (CA) and 6-months fellowship (2018) at Sophia Children’s Hospital, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam (NL). Since 2019 he works as a Pediatric Infectious Diseases specialist in the Antwerp University Hospital (BE). His research activities focus on prevention of infectious diseases that can spread through the airborne route, including SARS-CoV-2. In Vancouver they were able to validate the guidelines that ask all CF patients to wear a surgical mask when entering healthcare settings. At Stellenbosch University in Cape Town (SA) they are investigating airborne transmission of TB.

Mexican pediatric infectologist, currently professor of pediatrics and pediatric infectology in Hospital Universitario at Monterrey city. Areas of interest in infections in immunocompromised children.

Md. Ms. and Pediatric Infectious diseases physician

PhD Dermatologist of Santa Casa de São Paulo Hospital: head of the Infectious Dermatosis Sector at the Dermatology Clinic Assistant Professor at Santa Casa of São Paulo School of Medical Sciences Responsible for the Mycology Laboratory of the Hospital President of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology - Regional São Paulo (2021/22)

Lilly is a paediatrician / fellow paediatric infectious diseases and immunology and a clinician scientist and epidemiologist. Over the past years, she initiated multiple translational studies deciphering the host mucosal immunological factors defining susceptibility to respiratory infections in The Netherlands, sub-Saharan Africa and South America. As a Board / Scientific Committee member of the European and World Societies for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID and WSPID), she has been involved in the organization of conferences, guideline development and (online) educational activities. Further, she founded ‘Young WSPID’ in November 2019 (https://wspid.org/ywspid/), a group of under-40s that aims to create a global network for exchange of knowledge in paediatric infectious diseases with a particular aspiration to support mentorship for young professionals.

I am a Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science, graduated from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Currently working on projects related to the identification of antibiotic resistance in medically important bacteria using molecular techniques. In addition to that, working on an epigenetics study about the association of cord blood DNA methylation with maternal BMI and GWG. I have completed the laboratory work relevant to the M.Phil research; pneumococcal colonization in health and respiratory diseases among a group of Sri Lankan children between two months to two years

Dr Paola Villanueva is a paediatrician and clinical research fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne Australia. She is currently undertaking a PhD through the University of Melbourne, with the Infectious Diseases Research group on Melbourne Children’s Campus. She has strong interests in paediatric antimicrobial stewardship, the immune response to BCG vaccine, as well as paediatric tuberculosis immunodiagnostics.

My career has focused on the clinical and molecular aspects of antimicrobial resistance with emphasis on Gram-negative bacteria and how to translate that knowledge into therapeutic decisions, which is now recognized as Antimicrobial Stewardship. My path to research started in 2001, shortly after finishing my training in ID, when I recognized the need for formal training in clinical microbiology. The goal was to understand basic concepts of microbiology and be able to integrate them in clinical and therapeutic decisions for better patient care (MSc). Following that path, between September 1999 and December 2000, I joined the University of Miami, School of Medicine, where I studied the clinical and epidemiological aspects of Acinetobacter infections, followed by training in the lab of John P Quinn MD at the University of Illinois at Chicago, learning techniques for studying extended-spectrum β-lactamases. Subsequently, I joined CIDEIM (Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Medicas) in January 2001, with the goal of establishing a hospital national network for the study of bacterial resistance in Gram-negative bacteria (“Colombian Nosocomial Resistance Study Group”). Since then, this growing network has performed surveillance on emergent mechanisms of resistance, applied state of the art tool for molecular epidemiology and evaluated the clinical impact of bacterial resistance and healthcare-associated infections. This knowledge has provided useful evidence to hospital infection committees in the design of efficient and effective control strategies. Currently, the network comprises 35 public and private hospitals in 12 cities, and tracks antimicrobial resistance based on half-yearly data submitted by the hospitals to CIDEIM (until January 2017) and now Universidad El Bosque (starting February 2017) using WHONET. The information received is turned into a six-month individual report for each hospital, and includes resistance patterns of microorganisms, magnitude of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in different hospital areas, molecular characterization of mechanisms of resistance, analysis of outbreaks whenever they are suspected and antibiotic suggestions. These reports also allow the hospitals to compare their individual performance with prior study periods. Finally, a visit to each hospital (including the infectious diseases committee) is carried out during the year in order to discuss antibiotic policies and guidelines. The information discussed during my visit, has helped the infection prevention and control committees to take antimicrobial stewardship actions at the local level. During these research efforts we published the unique patterns of β-lactamases that have emerged in Colombia with the characterization of novel ESBLs and carbapenemases which have become the focus of attention in our country and the rest of the world. My current research interests are nosocomial infections and the molecular epidemiology and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance of the gram-negative bacilli as well as implementing antimicrobial stewardship programs in hospitals.

Dr. Villena holds a Medical Doctor Degree as well as a Specialization and Sub-specialization in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Disease from the University of Chile. He was appointed as Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Chile. Since 2012, Dr. Villena has been the Head of both the Infectiology Unit and the Infection Control Program at Children's Hospital Dr. Exequiel González Cortés. In addition to tutoring the research work of trainees in pediatrics specialization, he has been involved as Principal Investigator and co-investigator in several clinical trials, from phases I to IV, assessing the safety, immunogenicity, efficacy and persistence of protection of different vaccines and monoclonal antibodies in children and adolescents, including recombinant vaccine for Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B.