Maria Imelda Josefa (Mamel) Quelapio

Dr Mamel Quelapio is an infectious disease specialist from the Philippines. She started her work in the TB field as a clinic physician in 1999 in a private-public mix DOTS clinic in an NGO (Tropical Disease Foundation), the first DOTS-Plus pilot project approved by the Green Light Committee, a WHO-hosted network of international TB experts evaluating the feasibility of TB programmes implementing interventions tackling drug-resistant forms of TB.

With Global Fund support, she led a team in the expansion of the programmatic management of drug-resistant TB in the Philippines in collaboration with the National TB Programme. In 2011, she joined the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific as a Technical Officer, serving as the regional Focal Point for drug-resistant TB, giving her the opportunity to work closely with countries. Between 2016 and 2019, she worked as a senior technical staff at the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, assisting National TB Programmes in the adoption of novel drugs and shorter regimens for drug-resistant TB. She was appointed as the Chair of the regional Green Light Committee for Western Pacific from 2020 to 2022, and presently, she is a member of the TB Technical Advisory Group in the region.

Currently, Dr Quelapio coordinates the operational research on the 6BPaL regimen in some parts of Asia through the TB Alliance. As an independent consultant, she provides technical assistance to high-burden countries, particularly in the introduction and programmatic scale-up of patient-friendly regimens.