Steering Committee

Steering Committee

The Steering committee is an independent group of HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections experts and is instrumental in helping achieve the aims and objectives of EuroTEST (formerly HIV in Europe).

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Ann Sullivan

Chelsea & Westminister Hospital, United Kingdom

Dr Ann Sullivan trained in Australia and London, gaining an MD in HIV Immunology. She is now a Consultant at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College, London. Her clinical and research interests include HIV testing, PrEP and HIV-specific PROMS. She is currently EACS Secretary and co-leads the EACS Standards of Care programmes. She has been involved in a number of European projects: HIDES, OptTEST and INTEGRATE.

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Ann-Isabelle Von Lingen

European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG), Belgium

Ann Isabelle von Lingen is Programme Manager for Combination Prevention, as well as a Policy and Advocacy Manager at EATG. She also supports EuroTEST advocacy as part of its policy secretariat. She was previously policy officer at EATG. Prior to EATG, she was working on justice and anti-discrimination at Open Society Foundations.

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Ben Collins

ReShape, IHP, United Kingdom

Ben Collins is a community organiser; director, ReShape/IHP; board member, EATG; co-chair, European Testing Week working group; co-founder, European Chemsex Forum; advisory committee, EACS’ WAVE; collaborator, Science Health Education (SHE) Centre; HIV+, 1982; undetectable; 1998.

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Brian Gazzard

Professor of Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine HIV Research Director, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, United Kingdom

Brian Gazzard is the founding chairman of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) and sits on the Editorial Board of the BHIVA/EACS journal HIV Medicine.

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Cary James

Chief Executive – World Hepatitis Alliance United Kingdom

Cary James is chief executive of the World Hepatitis Alliance – a network of community-based organisation in over 100 countries. He is the former Head of Health Improvement Programmes at the Terrence Higgins Trust and head of the HIV Prevention England (HPE) programme in the United Kingdom. Cary was the European Testing Week Working Group Co-chair from 2016-2017. He holds a masters degree in Health and Social Marketing.

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Daniel Simões

Grupo de Ativistas em Tratamento (GAT), Portugal

Daniel is a Psychologist, and a Global Health PhD, working in the third sector since 2004. He has been working with GAT (Portugal) since 2011 in both project management and policy/advocacy. He is an EATG member, and co-chair of EuroTEST.

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Daniela Rojas Castro

Coalition PLUS, France

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Ferenc Bagyinszky

AIDS Action Europe, Germany

Ferenc Bagyinszky is an HIV and human rights activist from Hungary, currently based and working in Berlin, Germany as project manager at AIDS Action Europe a network of over 420 NGOs in Europe and Central Asia. He is working at the European advocacy level on issues of affordability of medications and access to combination prevention, treatment and care programs for key populations, especially from the aspect of legal environments and stigma and discrimination. He was also member of the NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board from 2016 to 2018.

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Francesco Negro

European Association for the Study of the Liver, Switzerland

Francesco Negro is Emeritus Professor, formerly at the Departments of Medicine and of Pathology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland. After obtaining his MD from the University of Turin, Italy, he was Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Rockville, MD, USA, before joining the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH. He then moved to the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland, where he became Full Professor in 2014, focusing his research on the metabolic alterations induced by HCV, and on epidemiology and public health issues related to viral hepatitis. He is member of the Governing Board of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), and member of several panels of viral hepatitis guidelines for EASL and WHO.

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Igor Karpov

Professor, Department of Infectious Disease Belarus State Medical University

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Irith De Baetselier

Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium

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Jack Lambert

University College Dublin, Ireland

Professor Jack Lambert is a Consultant in Infectious Diseases and genitourinary medicine at the Mater hospital and Rotunda Maternity hospital in Dublin since 2005. He also has an adjunct academic teaching appointment at the UCD School of Medicine. Professor Lambert has over 25 years experience in Infectious Diseases covering HIV, Hepatitis C, and other disease areas. He trained in the USA, UK, and worked for 6 years in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins Institutes and the University of Maryland Institute of Human Virology, where he developed his skills in vaccinology, HIV, and Lyme and Co Infections. He has consultant specialty certifications in adult and pediatric infectious diseases, general medicine and pediatrics, and in sexual health (genitourinary medicine). He was director of the National Isolation Unit at the Mater Hospital from 2010-2018. He has also been involved in the Sexual Health Strategy group in Ireland and teaching GP’s throughout the country on the subject of STD’S. During his time in Ireland, he has presented widely in the field of HIV, hepatitis, tropical medicine, and lyme and co infections.

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Jens D. Lundgren

MD, Professor of Viral Diseases, University of Copenhagen; Director, CHIP, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jens Lundgren, MD, DMSc, Professor, Senior Consultant, Academic Chair, Director. Director of CHIP – Centre of Excellence for Health, Immunity and Infections – and co-founder of the EuroTEST initiative (formerly HIV in Europe). Heads PERSIMUNE (Centre of Excellence for Personalized Medicine of Infectious Complications in Immune Deficiency). Member of the Executive Committee of the NIH/NIAID funded INSIGHT network (International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials), chairs its scientific steering committee. Chair, scientific steering committee STRIVE (Strategies and Treatments for Respiratory Infections and Viral Emergencies); global research platform as part of global pandemic preparedness. Co-chair of the scientific steering committee RESPOND (global infectious disease consortium). Primary research focus on clinical and public health aspects of HIV infection and its infectious and non-infectious associated morbidities. In recent years, focus expanded to include respiratory infections (e.g. influenza and recently SARS-CoV-2), and infections in patients with other types of immune dysfunction (incl transplantation, oncology, hematology, and treated patients with autoimmune disease).

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Johanna Brännström

Department of Infectious Diseases, South Hospital & Institute of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Johanna Brännström is a MD, PhD and Senior Consultant, trained at Karolinska Institute (KI), Stockholm. She has >20 years of experience in Infectious Diseases, with a sub-specialisation in HIV. Her main focuses in research are the Continuum of Care (CoC), the undiagnosed population and late diagnosis of HIV-1 infection, which was also the focus of her thesis; Assessment of patients with late diagnosis and missed opportunities in the Swedish HIV-1 epidemic, 2016. Currently she is working as a Senior Consultant at the Clinic of Infectious diseases/Venhälsan at Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, combining clinical work with translational research at KI, Karolinska University Hospital. She is the PI for the Swedish “TIME” study, which aims at developing methodology for assessment of the undiagnosed HIV population and a representative in EuroSIDA (Respond). She is a Steering Committee member of InfCareHIV, the national Swedish HIV quality register and research database. She also provides expert advice to the Infectious Diseases Control Unit in Stockholm and to the Public Health agency of Sweden.

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Jordi Casabona

Scientific Director, Center for HIV/STI Epidemiological Studies of Catalonia (CEEISCAT)

Jordi Casabona is a medical epidemiologist working on the HIV/STI field since 1989. He is the Scientific Director of the Center for Epidemiological Studies on HIV/STI of Catalonia (CEEISCAT) (www.ceeiscat.cat), President of the Fundació Sida i Societat, Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and of Health Community Research at Universitat de Manresa https://www.umanresa.cat). He has been acting as an expert consultant for a number of international agencies in Latin America, has implemented different interventions in Guatemala, was the co-chair of the XIV International AIDS Conference (Barcelona 2002) and has been leading several European Union funded projects, during last years focusing in the monitoring and evaluation of HIV/STI and in particular community based testing.

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Jürgen Rockstroh

MD, Professor of Medicine and Head of the HIV Outpatient Clinic at the University of Bonn, Germany

An active member of the HIV/AIDS treatment community, Dr Rockstroh was the Chairman of the German Clinical AIDS Working Group (KAAD) from 1998 to 2007. From 2007 to 2011, he was elected as the president of the German AIDS Society. He is currently President of the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) Governing Board.

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Olesia Murha

TB Coalition Europe, Ukraine

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Lella Cosmaro

Fondazione LILA Milan, Italy

Lella Cosmaro has been working in the HIV field since 1993 in an Italian NGO, LILA - the Italian League for Fighting AIDS - one of the leading national organizations. Over the years, LILA has become more and more involved in European policies and networks: Lella is the Italian member of the EU HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis Civil Society Forum, which she co-chaired for the period 2012-2015. She has been a Steering Committee member of AIDS Action Europe from 2011 thru 2016, is one of the External Advisory Board Members of the EATG, has been the civil society expert in a number of WHO missions in the European Region and is involved in some of the ECDC advisory groups. LILA has been and still is a partner of many European projects and Joint Actions and is deeply involved in Italian projects, advocacy and policy issues.

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Liudmyla Maistat

Policy and Advocacy Manager, The Medicines Patent Pool, Geneva, Switzerland

Liudmyla possesses more than 15 years of policy and advocacy experience in HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and access to medicines. She used to work as Senior Program Advisor with the Alliance for Public Health (International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine) where she led policy and policy activities to support the scale-up of hepatitis C diagnostics and treatment in Ukraine, EECA and other countries where Alliance operates. Liudmyla is a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategy and Technical Advisory Group on viral hepatitis and the WHO guidelines’ development and peer-review groups as well as a member of the Lancet Commission on Accelerating the Elimination of Viral hepatitis. She used to chair the Hepatitis C Group for Unitaid’s NGO delegation, worked closely with various civil society groups and other stakeholders working to expand access to treatments, and continues to serve as a member of organizing and scientific committees for international conferences and meetings on HIV, viral hepatitis and access to medicines. Liudmyla was recognized by the Economist as one of the leading voices for advocacy to increase access to affordable diagnostics and treatment of viral hepatitis. Liudmyla now works with the Medicines Patent Pool as Policy and Advocacy Manager to scale up access to affordable and quality assured HIV, viral hepatitis and TB medicines in low- and middle income countries.

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Magnus Unemo

WHO Collaborating Centre for Gonorrhoea and Other STIs, National Reference Laboratory for STIs, Örebro University Hospital, Sweden

Magnus Unemo, PhD, Professor, is a Senior Researcher and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Gonorrhoea and other STIs, based at Örebro University Hospital. He serves as an advisor to WHO and leads various STI research projects, developmental work and training of professionals from other countries or students. He is also responsible for the Swedish Reference Laboratory for STIs with similar obligations. In addition, he is responsible as the main contractor of the ECDC funded European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (Euro-GASP), which is performed in collaboration with UK Health Security Agency.

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Mojca Matičič

University Medical Centre Ljubljana

Professor Mojca Matičič is the Head of the Viral Hepatitis Unit at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Febrile Illnesses, and Head of the Outpatient STI Service at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana. She leads the multidisciplinary National Viral Hepatitis Expert Group of Slovenia and is an active member of the HIV/AIDS Committee at the Slovene Ministry of Health. She is an active member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), European Aids Clinical Society (EACS) and advisor at WHO HIV/STD/Viral Hepatitis sector, ECDC Viral Hepatitis Monitoring team, Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, and Correlation-European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN). She serves also as an expert in a working group of European Code Against Cancer (ECAC)

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Nikos Dedes

Positive Voice, Greece

Nikos Dedes is the founder and chair of ‘Positive Voice’, the Greek Association of People Living with HIV and the founder and vice-chair of ‘Prometheus’, the Hellenic Liver Patient Association. He is a past member of the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and past Chair of the Board of Directors European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG). Nikos participates on the Steering Committees of NEAT id (European HIV Clinical Trials Foundation) and the “HIV Outcomes – Beyond Viral Suppression” initiatives. He is a member of the HIV Treatment Guidelines Panel of the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) and a member of the Coordinating Team of the HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis & TB Civil Society Forum, an advisory group to DG Sante of the European Commission. He is also a member of the National Clinical Trials Ethics Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP).

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Nino Tsereteli

Tanadgoma, Georgia

Nino Tsereteli, psychologist by background, has been working in the field of HIV/AIDS for more than 20 years. In 2000, together with the group of young professionals, she founded a Non-Governmental Organization “Center for Information and Counseling on Reproductive Health – Tanadgoma”. In 2007 Ms. Tsereteli was appointed as Executive Director of the organization. Tanadgoma is implementing sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as mental health programs. Prevention, research and advocacy in the field of HIV, STIs, Tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, etc. is one of the major areas of Tanadgoma’s work.

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Rajul Patel

Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Southampton University Hospitals & International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI), United Kingdom

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Tom Platteau

HIV/STI clinic of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp

Tom Platteau is a sexologist and mental health scientist. He obtained a PhD on combination prevention for HIV. He works at the outpatient clinic of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (Belgium) as a clinician and researcher where he has been coordinating HIV/STI testing projects since 2009. These projects consist of outreach activities and online testing approaches. He is a member of EuroTEST Steering Committee since 2015.

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Valerie Delpech

Director of Public Health in Northern New South Wales, Australia

Independent public health consultant Valerie Delpech has 25+ years experience in public health research, and a particular interest in HIV epidemiology. Dr Delpech is currently Director of Public Health in Northers NSW, Australia, and has extensive experience in HIV and other communicable diseases. She has worked in leadership public health and epidemiology roles for several decades at the local, national and international level. She was head of the national HIV surveillance programme at Public Health England from 2005-2021. She is a co-investigator on numerous research groups and provides expert advice on national and international committees in relation to HIV, TB and STI surveillance, prevention and guideline development. She has provided regular technical assistance to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the World Health Organisation (WHO). Valerie is a member of the EuroTEST Steering Committee.

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Yazdan Yazdanpanah

ANRS Maladies Infectieuses Emergentes, France

Yazdan Yazdanpanah is Director of the French ANRS emerging infectious diseases agency that fund and coordinates research on HIV, Hepatitis, STIs, Tuberculosis and emerging and re-emerging infections. He is Director of Aviesan Institute of Immunology, Inflammation, Infectiology, and Microbiology which gathers the main stakeholders of this thematic in France in the frame of Aviesan (French National Alliance for Life Sciences and Health). He is the head of the Infectious Disease department at Bichat Hospital, and he is Professor of Medicine at Paris Diderot University, France. He is the Chair of « The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership » (EDCTP) board and the Vice-Chair of the « Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) board. Master of Science degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health and a Ph.D degree in public health from the Bordeaux School of Public Health.

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Observers to the EuroTEST Steering Committee

European Centre for Disease Preventon and Control (ECDC): Anastasia Pharris

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMDCCA): Thomas Seyler

World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe: Stela Bivol (overall), Viatcheslav Grankov (HIV/STI), Marcelo Naveira (viral hepatitis)