World Health Assembly Resolution 60.131calls on Member States to find alternative safe, effective, and affordable medicines for oral, parenteral, or topical administration involving shorter treatment cycles, less toxicity, and new drug combinations, and to define appropriate doses and duration of therapy schedules for these medicines. WHO expert committee report on the control of Leishmaniasis2 (Technical Report Series 949, 2010) recommends eco-epidemiological endemic area-specific treatment regimens.
There is new evidence available for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa and South Asia, respectively. To review all evidence, the WHO Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases has initiated the process of developing guidelines for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa and South-East Asia. It is expected that these guidelines would improve decision-making, provide up-to-date knowledge to policy-makers to inform national policies on the use of combination regimen towards better control of leishmaniasis.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering the following experts to join its Guideline Development Group (GDG) for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa and South-East Asia:
Ahmed, Be-Nazir
Institutional affiliation(s): Country Lead, ASCEND, Crown Agents, 2019-present
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, M.PH, M.Phil
City and Country of primary residence: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Biography
Be-Nazir Ahmed graduated with a medical degree from the Rajshahi University, Bangladesh in 1983 followed by Master in Public Health (1993) and Master of Philosophy in 1998. Between 1985-2017, he served with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in different teaching and administrative positions including as the Director, Disease Control and Line Director, Communicable Disease Control.
He is a member of the Regional Technical Advisory Group for Kala-azar in WHO South East Asia Region.
Since 2019, he has been acting as Country Lead, Accelerating the Sustainable Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (Ascend) through the Crown Agents funded by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Burza, Sakib
Institutional affiliation(s): Senior Medical & Research Director, Health in Harmony- March 2022-present
Academic degrees: MBChB, MSc Public Health, PhD Medicine
City and Country of primary residence: London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Biography
Dr Sakib Burza is currently working as a Senior Medical & Research Director, Health in Harmony. He has worked as a Medical Advisor, Asia in Médecins Sans Frontières from Feb 2016- Feb 2022, responsible for expanding, designing, and implementation of MSF Spain medical operations in Asia, including a wide portfolio of diseases such as leishmaniasis, meliodosis, anti-microbial resistance, malaria, advanced HIV.
He also worked as Regional Coordinator, KalaCORE, South Asia from Sept 2013- Feb 2016, to support governments in achieving and sustaining the elimination of Visceral Leishmaniasis (Nepal, Bangladesh, and India).
He has published widely on visceral leishmaniasis in the Indian subcontinent.
Costa, Dorcas Lamounier
Institutional affiliation(s): Associate Professor, Federal University of Piauí, Brazil- since 2017-present
Academic degrees: Bachelor degree in Medicine, Master of Science in Tropical Public Health, PhD, City and Country of primary residence: Teresina, Brazil
Biography
Dr Dorcas received a Bachelor's degree in Medicine from the University of Brasilia (1979), Master degree in Tropical Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health (1991), and a PhD in Tropical Medicine and Infectiology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. She is currently an associate professor at the Federal University of Piaui. Has experience in Medicine, focused on Pediatrics and Infectiology, working primarily in the following subjects, visceral leishmaniasis, epidemiology, and AIDS.
She has undertaken short courses on a wide range of topics including Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. She is part of several academic activities such as a representative of the Maternal and Child Department at the Departmental Council, biostatistics applied to health sciences etc.
She has published more than 60 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals with the main topic on visceral leishmaniasis.
Chatterjee, Mitali
Institutional affiliation(s): Professor & Head, Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, India,- since 2013-present
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, MSc (Medical Sciences), MD (Pharmacology), PhD (Life Sciences)
City and Country of primary residence: Kolkata, India
Biography
Dr Mitali is a Professor & Head of the Department of Pharmacology at the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research in Kolkata, India. Her main area of research interest is immunopharmacology.
She is responsible for multiple ongoing projects (2020-2025)- Developing a novel test for PKDL/Leprosy diagnosis (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded), Longitudinal monitoring of parasite dynamics in Leishmaniasis (Government of India funded), Establishment of a test of cure ttool for monitoring Visceral Leishmaniasis and Post kala-azar dermal Leishmaniasis; a multi centric study (Government of India funded).
In the last five years, she has completed multiple projects (2017-20121)- Identification of clinico-immunological determinants for macular vs. polymorphic post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) (Government of India funded), A transcriptomics approach to identify the clinico- immunological determinants of Post Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (Government of India funded), Towards a global research network for the molecular pathological stratification of Leishmaniasis (Government of India funded).
She has supervised 20 PhD, and multiple postgraduate MD. She has published extensively on leishmaniasis in peer-reviewed journals.
Diro, Ermias
Institutional affiliation(s): Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of General Internal Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA,- since July 2022-present
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, Postgraduate in Internal Medicine, PhD in Medical Sciences
City and Country of primary residence: Seattle, USA
Biography
Dr Diro is a PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He has held several positions in academic institutions as well as in hospitals. He has served as Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer of Medicine in the University of Gondar, Ethiopia (2002-03, 2003-2004), Assistant and Associate Professor of Medicine in the University of Gondar, Ethiopia (2008-12, 2012-2019).
In 2016, he received a Gold Medal Award for Research from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ethiopia. He has acted as a member of the national task force for the leishmaniasis control programme of Ethiopia (2010-2017), and as a member of the neglected tropical disease regional programme review group of the WHO regional office for Africa (2016-2018).
He has been involved in several projects for research and local capacity strengthening for leishmaniasis control.
Den Boer, Margriet Leontine
Institutional affiliation(s): Neglected Tropical Diseases Advisor, Médecins Sans Frontières (Operational Centre Amsterdam)- since 2012-present
Academic degrees: Master of Science, Pharma D (Doctor of Pharmacy), Masters of Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
City and Country of primary residence: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Biography
Dr Margriet is working as Advisor, Neglected Tropical Diseases in Médecins Sans Frontières (Operational Centre Amsterdam). She is collaborating with internal and external colleagues in operational research, strategy, and advocacy related to specific NTDs (visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis (VL and CL), snakebites, Noma).
In 2022-2023, she did consultancies with the visceral leishmaniasis/Prevention Treatment and Care Unite/NTD department at WHO headquarters to draft a strategy for visceral leishmaniasis elimination in Eastern Africa. Between 2013-2019, she provided technical leadership with the KalaCORE (Tackling visceral leishmaniasis in South Asia and East Africa) project funded by Department for International Development (now replaced by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
In 2021 and 2023, she received funds from Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative (DNDi) for a blinded review of outcomes of a clinical trial on post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in South-East Asia and drafting of manuscript. In 2022, she received funds from DNDi and participated as a technical advisor on access to existing treatments for visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa.
Hailu, Asrat
Institutional affiliation(s): Professor, Immunoparasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia,- since 2005-present
Academic degrees: M.Sc (Medical Parasitology), PhD (Tropical Medicine/Immunoparasitology)
City and Country of primary residence: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Biography
Dr Asrat is a Professor of Immunoparasitology in Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He is also a Professor in the Department of Parasitology at the University of Gondar and a Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Arba Minch University.
Dr Asrat is also heading the leishmaniasis research & and diagnostic laboratory at Addis Ababa University. His main interest is research focusing characterization of the immunological profile of visceral leishmaniasis patients.
In 2021, he received funds from DNDi to support the design of the clinical trial for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa.
Hasker, Epco
Institutional affiliation(s): Professor of Mycobacterial diseases and Neglected Tropical Diseases, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium,- since June 2020-present
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, PhD, Fellowship in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Fellowship in Travel Medicine
City and Country of primary residence: Madrid, Spain
Biography
Epco Hasker is a professor of tropical infectious diseases, originally from the Netherlands, with 15 years’ working experience in lower and middle-income countries. He graduated as a medical doctor in 1989 and later obtained the degree of epidemiologist. While abroad he worked mostly on tuberculosis and leprosy control in Africa (Nigeria), Asia (Afghanistan/ Pakistan), and in the former Soviet Union (Ukraine and Central Asia). Since 2008 he has been working in Belgium for the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) at the Department of Public Health. His core responsibilities include technical support to epidemiological studies in Africa and Asia, and lecturing epidemiology and statistics to international MPH students. In his department, he is a resource person for technical support on epidemiology and statistics. In 2010 he obtained a PhD based on his research on the control of chronic infectious diseases in low-resource settings, tuberculosis, visceral leishmaniasis, and human African trypanosomiasis. In June 2020 he was appointed professor of mycobacterial diseases and NTDs at ITM.
He has published more than 80 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Mwiti, Daniel Ringera
Institutional affiliation(s): Programme Manager, Leishmaniasis Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Kenya
Academic degrees: Bachelor of Science (Medical Lab Sciences), Master of Science (in progress)
City and Country of primary residence: Nairobi, Kenya
Biography
Daniel Mwiti is working as a Programme Manager of the Leishmaniasis Control Programme at the Ministry of Health, Kenya. As a programme manager he coordinates and manages leishmaniasis control activities in the Kenya, develops plans of action for disease vectors, disease control and surveillance. He also undertakes epidemiological investigations for outbreak and mapping surveys for the distribution of disease vectors in the country.
He has been involved in the evaluation of the efficacy of new pesticide products before registration by Pest Control Products Board of Kenya. He has also been involved in National Malaria Entomological surveillance to map malaria vector composition and malaria transmission indices in Kenya.
Lopez-Velez, Rogelio
Institutional affiliation(s): Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, PhD, Fellowship in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Fellowship in Travel Medicine
City and Country of primary residence: Madrid, Spain
Biography
Dr Rogelio Lopez-Valez works with the National Referral Unit for Tropical Diseases, Infectious Diseases Department. As a teaching faulty he is also associated with Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain for academic courses: 1998-2001; 2004-to date. He was a visiting doctor to St. John of Gog Hospital in Sierra Leona in 2016. He was an international observer of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), November-December 2014 at Alexander von Humboldt, Tropical Medicine Institute Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University, Lima, Perú. He was a visiting doctor to St. John of God Hospital (Sefwi-Asafo via Wiawso, Ghana, 2009.
He held the position of Director of the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Community Health at the Centro Universitario de Salud Pública (CUSP), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain: 1989-1993; and at the Ilustre Colegio de Médicos de Madrid: 2001-2005. He was Thesis director for 9 times, Member of the thesis examining committee 17 times, and has published more than 300 papers/articles.
Akl, Elie A.
Institutional affiliation(s): American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Academic degrees: MD, MPH, PhD
City and Country of primary residence: Beirut, Lebanon
Biography
Elie Akl is a practicing general internist and a health research methodologist. After finishing medical school in Lebanon, he moved to the United States in 2000, where he trained in Internal Medicine and General Preventive Medicine, and earned a masters in public health (MPH) then a PhD degree in epidemiology and community health. He moved back to Lebanon in 2012 to join the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he directs the Clinical Research Institute, and the AUB GRADE center, and leads the division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. His areas of research interest include systematic review methodology, dealing with missing data in meta-analysis, practice guideline methodology, conflicts of interest in health research, and physicians-pharma interactions. He is an active member of the GRADE working group. He has contributed to the development of practice guideline for the World Health Organization, European bodies, and North American professional societies, among others. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed publications and was listed by Thomson Reuters as one of the "world s most influential scientific minds" in 2015, and as a Highly Cited Researcher yearly since 2015.
Gustavo Adolfo Sierra Romero
Institutional affiliation(s): Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brasilia- January 2017-present
July 2002-present- Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brasilia, Brazil
Academic degrees: Doctor in Tropical Medicine, Master in Tropical Medicine, Specialist in Internal Medicine, Medico y Cirujano, Specialist in Hospital Administration
City and Country of primary residence: Brasilia, Brazil
Biography
Dr Gustavo is currently (since January 2017) Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brasilia. He has been Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brasilia (July 2002 – present). His main responsibilities include- Graduate and postgraduate teaching, design and implementation of clinical research, postgraduate tutorship. He was a senior visiting research fellow – Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (July 2012 – December 2016) with main responsibilities of consultant for the leishmaniasis unit, leading the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee, postgraduate tutorship. He was also coordinator of the Multicentric Efficacy and Safety Study of Antileishmanial Drugs for Treatment of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Brazil (January 2010-2017) design and implementation of the clinical trial protocol, leading the Principal Investigators research team, etc.
Since September 2009-present, he is the Coordinator of the Centre for Tropical Medicine, University of Brasilia responsible for development of the institutional policy, leading the research team composed by 22 PhD investigators and leading the administrative team for supporting research.
He has been a member of the ethics committee of the university of Brasila (October 2014-2016), Deputy Director (May 2007-August 2008) and Director General (December 2008-April 2011) of the Brasila University Hospital.
Jain, Tanu
Institutional affiliation(s): Director, National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India- since November 2021-present
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, MD (Community Medicine)
City and Country of primary residence: New Delhi, India
Biography
Dr Jain is the Director of National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control under Directorate General of Health Services, India. As a Director, she is responsible for overall coordination and management of six major vector-borne public health programmes for kala-azar, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis in India.
She has previously held wide portfolios such as Deputy Director General, Assistant Director General in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Safi, Sayda El
Institutional affiliation(s): Professor of Immunology, Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum,- since 2004-present
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, M.Sc, Diploma in Clinical Pathology, PhD (Protozoal Immunology)
City and Country of primary residence: Khartoum, Sudan
Biography
Dr Sayda is a Professor of Immunology in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. She has held several key positions in the academic arena. Her field of work and research areas are related to immunology and tropical medicine with particular interest in leishmaniasis. She is a member of the Leishmaniasis Task Force in Sudan. She has been the Principal Investigator on several research projects on leishmaniasis funded by TDR/WHO and other agencies.
She has published more than 70 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Ramesh, V
Institutional affiliation(s): Professor & Head, ESI Medical College & Hospital, Faridabad, India- since September 2022-present
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, Postgraduation in DVD & MD
City and Country of primary residence: New Delhi, India
Biography
Dr Ramesh is currently acting as Professor & Head, ESI Medical College &Hospital, Faridabad, Haryana, India. Before that he was Professor & Head, Department of Dermatology, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi.
He is a reviewer for the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, editor for Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology & Leprology. He is also an expert member of the National Kala-azar Eradication Programme and the Post kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL) Consortium.
He has worked extensively on post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis and has published more than 80 scientific articles on a wide range of topics.
Zijlstra, Edward
Institutional affiliation(s): Rotterdam Center for Tropical Medicine,- since 2011-present
Academic degrees: MSc (Clinical Tropical Medicine), Diploma Tropical Medicine & International Health, PhD
City and Country of primary residence: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Biography
Dr Zijlstra has held several key positions including as Director, Rotterdam Centre for Tropical Medicine. He was a Chairman, Concilium for International Health and Tropical Medicine (CIGT), Netherlands Society of Tropical Medicine and International Health, 2015 – 2023. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of Medicus Tropicus Bulletin (The Journal of the Netherlands Society of Tropical Medicine and International Health), since 2010. Chief Editor ad interim from 2021.
He has published on a wide range of subjects on leishmaniasis, mycetoma, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, etc. His research interest score is 5,051, citations 11,234, and h-index 57.
Uranw, Surendra
Institutional affiliation(s): Assistant Professor, Tropical & Infectious Disease Centre, Department of Internal Medicine, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), Dharan, Nepal- since January 2015-present
Academic degrees: Bachelor s degree in Nursing, Master of Public Health, PhD (Public Health)
City and Country of primary residence: Dharan, Nepal
Biography
Dr Uranw is working as Assistant Professor, Tropical & Infectious Disease Centre, Department of Internal Medicine, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. He has worked in the area of visceral leishmaniasis in various positions in wide range of projects like KALANET, KalaDrug etc.
He is a member of the Research Committee at the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal as well as web editor Journal of BPKIHS and member of the Kala-azar Technical Working Group at Ministry of Health, Nepal.
Sundar, Shyam
Institutional affiliation(s): Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Benares Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India- 2019-present
Professor of Medicine- 1997-2018, Institute of Medical Sciences, Benares Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India
Academic degrees: Medical Doctor, MD (Internal Medicine)
City and Country of primary residence: Varanasi, India
Biography
Dr Shyam Sundar is the distinguished Professor of Medicine at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Benares Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. He is Fellow of all 4 Indian Science / Medical Academies, a Fellow of Royal College of Physicians, London and a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He has received 35 awards and has received 6 training fellowships (USA, Morocco, Thailand, Ethiopia). He is a member of 51 important committees, advisory groups, commissions etc, some of which are WHO/TDR. He is the editor/assistant editor of 4 journals and has 70 review experts journal. Some of his work in clinical excellence is- He described single-dose liposomal amphotericin B in the treatment of kala-azar, he led the testing of the only oral drug miltefosine for kala-azar, leading to its approval worldwide, he developed a rapid clinical diagnostic test using k39 antigen possible to diagnose kala-azar from a drop of finger prick blood, being used extensively worldwide, he was the first to describe the multidrug therapy for kala-azar and he established centre of excellence at Benares Hindu Hospital, only one between Delhi and Kolkata, 8000 HIV patients registered, 5000 initiated therapy.
In 2021, he led a clinical trial on short treatment regimen on post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in India, sponsored by DNDi.
He has 580 publications (475 in PubMed), published in high impact factor journals. Citations are more than 28000, h-Index 84 and i-10 index 339.
Olliaro, Piero L.
Institutional affiliation(s): Professor and Chair of Poverty Related Infectious Diseases, University of Oxford, UK- 2019-present
Academic degrees: MD (Pavia, IT), Post-graduation in Infectious Diseases (Pavia, IT), PhD (Rome, IT), MA (Oxford, UK), HDR (Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches, Grenoble, FR), Membre Etranger de l'Académie Nationale de Médecine (France)
City and Country of primary residence: Geneva, Switzerland
Biography
Dr Olliaro is currently working as Professor and Chair of Poverty Related Infectious Diseases, University of Oxford. He is also Director of Science, International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium at Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, UK and Senior Scientific Advisor at FIND (The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics), Geneva, Switzerland.
Between 2013-2018, he was a Leader, Intervention & Implementation in Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), Geneva, Switzerland. Before 2018, he held several key positions with TDR.
He has published 438 peer-reviewed papers in indexed journals (as per PuBMed search
For comments and inquiries
For comments and inquiries regarding the list of potential members of the guidelines development group, please write to jainsau@who.int with the subject line “VL treatment guidelines web consultation”.
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