American infectious disease epidemiologist
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]
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]
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]
Van Kerkhove lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with her husband Neil and two sons.
[6]
Selected works and publications
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 .
WHO Ebola Response Team; Agua-Agum, J; Ariyarajah, A; Blake, IM; Cori, A; Donnelly, CA; Dorigatti, I; Dye, C; Eckmanns, T; Ferguson, NM; Fraser, C; Garske, T; Hinsley, W; Jombart, T; Mills, HL; Nedjati-Gilani, G; Newton, E; Nouvellet, P; Perkins, D; Riley, S; Schumacher, D; Shah, A; Thomas, LJ; Van Kerkhove, MD (7 January 2016).
"Ebola Virus Disease among Male and Female Persons in West Africa" . The New England Journal of Medicine . 374 (1): 96–8.
doi :
10.1056/NEJMc1510305 .
PMC
4812164 .
PMID
26736011 .
Wikidata ()
Aguanno, Ryan; ElIdrissi, Ahmed; Elkholy, Amgad A.;
Ben Embarek, Peter ; Gardner, Emma; Grant, Rebecca; Mahrous, Heba; Malik, Mamunur Rahman; Pavade, Gounalan; VonDobschuetz, Sophie; Wiersma, Lidewij; Van Kerkhove, Maria D. (November 2018).
"MERS: Progress on the global response, remaining challenges and the way forward" . Antiviral Research . 159 : 35–44.
doi :
10.1016/j.antiviral.2018.09.002 .
PMC
7113883 .
PMID
30236531 .
Bernard-Stoecklin, Sibylle; Nikolay, Birgit; Assiri, Abdullah; Bin Saeed, Abdul Aziz;
Ben Embarek, Peter Karim ; El Bushra, Hassan; Ki, Moran; Malik, Mamunur Rahman; Fontanet, Arnaud; Cauchemez, Simon; Van Kerkhove, Maria D. (14 May 2019).
"Comparative Analysis of Eleven Healthcare-Associated Outbreaks of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (Mers-Cov) from 2015 to 2017" . Scientific Reports . 9 (1): 7385.
Bibcode :
2019NatSR...9.7385B .
doi :
10.1038/s41598-019-43586-9 .
PMC
6517387 .
PMID
31089148 .
Wikidata ()
Farag, Elmoubasher; Nour, Mohamed; Islam, Md. Mazharul; Mustafa, Aya; Khalid, Minahil; Sikkema, Reina S.; Alhajri, Forhud; Bu-Sayaa, Abdulla; Haroun, Mohamed; Van Kerkhove, Maria D.; Elkholy, Amgad; Malik, Sk. Mamunur R.; Reusken, Chantal; Koopmans, Marion; AlHajri, Mohd M. (June 2019).
"Qatar experience on One Health approach for middle-east respiratory syndrome coronavirus, 2012–2017: A viewpoint" . One Health . 7 : 100090.
doi :
10.1016/j.onehlt.2019.100090 .
PMC
6462540 .
PMID
31011617 .
Wikidata ()
Ramshaw, Rebecca E.; Letourneau, Ian D.; Hong, Amy Y.; Hon, Julia; Morgan, Julia D.; Osborne, Joshua C. P.; Shirude, Shreya; Van Kerkhove, Maria D.; Hay, Simon I.; Pigott, David M. (13 December 2019).
"A database of geopositioned Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus occurrences" . Scientific Data . 6 (1): 318.
Bibcode :
2019NatSD...6..318R .
doi :
10.1038/s41597-019-0330-0 .
PMC
6911100 .
PMID
31836720 .
Wikidata ()
Memish, Ziad A; Perlman, Stanley; Van Kerkhove, Maria D; Zumla, Alimuddin (March 2020).
"Middle East respiratory syndrome" . The Lancet . 395 (10229): 1063–1077.
doi :
10.1016/S0140-6736(19)33221-0 .
PMC
7155742 .
PMID
32145185 .
Elkholy, Amgad A.; Grant, Rebecca; Assiri, Abdullah; Elhakim, Mohamed; Malik, Mamunur R.; Van Kerkhove, Maria D. (March 2020).
"MERS-CoV infection among healthcare workers and risk factors for death: Retrospective analysis of all laboratory-confirmed cases reported to WHO from 2012 to 2 June 2018" . Journal of Infection and Public Health . 13 (3): 418–422.
doi :
10.1016/j.jiph.2019.04.011 .
PMC
7102841 .
PMID
31056437 .
Tedros Adhanom – Ethiopian public health official (born 1965)Pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
Bruce Aylward – Canadian physician and epidemiologist
Michael J. Ryan (doctor) – Irish doctor and Chief Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme
^
a
b 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) .
^
a
b 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 .
^ Martin, Rachel; Van Kerkhove, Maria (20 March 2020).
"What Has The WHO Learned Since The COVID-19 Outbreak Began?" . NPR .
^ 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.
^
"Finding Joy" . Cornell74.org . Cornell Class of 1974. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020 .
^
a
b
"2017 Institut Pasteur – OMI Seminar in Pandemics" (PDF) . Institut Pasteur . August 2017.
^ 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...
^ 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 .
^
"Home - Dr Maria D Van Kerkhove" . www.imperial.ac.uk . Retrieved 2022-02-14 .
^ 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 .
^
a
b
c
"Dr Maria D Van Kerkhove, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health - Honorary Lecturer" . Imperial College London . Retrieved 25 March 2020 .
^
"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 .
^
"Member: Project Manager - Alumni Maria Van Kerkhove" . 2008. Archived from
the original on 15 February 2020.
^
"COVID-19 – Virtual Press conference 18 March, 2020" (PDF) . World Health Organization . 18 March 2020.
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