Confronting Inequities in STI Prevention, Diagnostics and Care
International Organising Committee
Francis Ndowa
23rd IUSTI 2022 Congress President, Zimbabwe
Director, Skin & GU Medicine Clinic, Harare, Zimbabwe
Regional Director, IUSTI Africa-MENA Region
Dr Francis Ndowa is a specialist venereologist based in Zimbabwe with expertise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and dermatology. He is one of the two Directors at the Skin & Genito-Urinary Medicine Clinic in Harare.
Francis is an international consultant on surveillance, management and control of STIs). He is the Regional Director of the Africa and Middle East & North Africa Branch of the International Union against STIs (IUSTI Africa-MENA).
He is a member of the WHO SRH/HRP Scientific and Technical Advisory Group and a member of the ReAct Toolbox International Advisory Group on antimicrobial resistance. He is a member of Antimicrobial Resistance Programme Advisory Committee of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Regional Director, IUSTI Africa-MENA Region
Dr Francis Ndowa is a specialist venereologist based in Zimbabwe with expertise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and dermatology. He is one of the two Directors at the Skin & Genito-Urinary Medicine Clinic in Harare.
Francis is an international consultant on surveillance, management and control of STIs). He is the Regional Director of the Africa and Middle East & North Africa Branch of the International Union against STIs (IUSTI Africa-MENA).
He is a member of the WHO SRH/HRP Scientific and Technical Advisory Group and a member of the ReAct Toolbox International Advisory Group on antimicrobial resistance. He is a member of Antimicrobial Resistance Programme Advisory Committee of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Janet Wilson
23rd IUSTI 2022 Congress co-President
Leeds Teaching Hospitals and University of Leeds, United Kingdom;
President of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections
Dr Janet Wilson has been a clinician specialising in STIs and HIV at Leeds, UK, since 1991. She has been on the World Executive Committee of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI) since 2007 in the posts of Assistant Secretary General, Secretary General, and President-Elect. She became President of IUSTI in 2019.
She is a Past-President of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) and was a member of the group producing the 2019 BASHH National Standards for the Management of STIs. She is also co-author of several IUSTI and BASHH guidelines.
Her main areas of clinical and research interest are the clinical application and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic tests for chlamydia and gonorrhoea, and managing recurrent vaginal infections and infections in pregnancy.
President of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections
Dr Janet Wilson has been a clinician specialising in STIs and HIV at Leeds, UK, since 1991. She has been on the World Executive Committee of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI) since 2007 in the posts of Assistant Secretary General, Secretary General, and President-Elect. She became President of IUSTI in 2019.
She is a Past-President of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) and was a member of the group producing the 2019 BASHH National Standards for the Management of STIs. She is also co-author of several IUSTI and BASHH guidelines.
Her main areas of clinical and research interest are the clinical application and cost-effectiveness of diagnostic tests for chlamydia and gonorrhoea, and managing recurrent vaginal infections and infections in pregnancy.
Jo-Anne Dillon
Chairperson, International Scientific Committee, Canada
Jo-Anne Dillon, the President-elect of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections, is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology and a Research Scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Organization of the University of Saskatchewan. Prof Dillon obtained her PhD at Queen’s University (Canada) and has held leadership positions in science and administration throughout her career, including national and international science organizations. She is the recipient of many honours including recognition for her contributions to research both by the Canadian Society of Microbiologists and the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada. Prof Dillon is recognized for her research leadership in the antimicrobial resistance, biology (including cell division mechanisms) and molecular epidemiology of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. She co-founded the World Health Organization-sponsored International Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Program (GASP) and has promoted international health initiatives regarding STIs. Professor Dillon is the author of over 500 publications including peer-reviewed articles and abstracts and holds several patents. She has mentored students and trainees who now hold leadership positions in academia, industry and public institutions around the world.
Remco Peters
co-Chairperson, International Scientific Committee, South Africa
Remco Peters, MD, PhD, is an HIV/STI clinician, epidemiologist, and researcher based in East London, South Africa. He is Head of Research at the Foundation for Professional Development and appointed extraordinary professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Pretoria and honorary associate professor in the Division of Medical Microbiology at the University of Cape Town.
Prof Peters leads several clinical research studies on STI programme implementation, STI diagnostics and antimicrobial resistance. He is the site-PI responsible for clinical trials of novel HIV prevention options at the rural FPD-DTHF Ndevana Community Research Site. He is member of the South African STI technical working group, chair of the STI guidelines committee for the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society and assistant secretary of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Prof Peters leads several clinical research studies on STI programme implementation, STI diagnostics and antimicrobial resistance. He is the site-PI responsible for clinical trials of novel HIV prevention options at the rural FPD-DTHF Ndevana Community Research Site. He is member of the South African STI technical working group, chair of the STI guidelines committee for the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society and assistant secretary of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Amina Hanҫali
Morocco
PhD in Microbiology, is a member of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections “IUSTI” world Executive Committee and Regional Chair of the IUSTI Africa Mena. She is the head of the National Reference laboratory on STI at the National Institute of Hygiene, Ministry of Health of Morocco. Her main research focuses on Neisseria gonorrhoeae antimicrobial susceptibility testing and other bacterial STIs. She has been involved in several research studies with the National AIDS Progam. She is member of the STI Guideline Development Group – WHO Geneva and member of the national committee for STIs management and Co founder of the national working group on AMR surveillance in Morocco. Thanks to her experience in laboratory technologies, she was assigned as a member of the National Commission for the Registration of In Vitro Diagnostic Laboratory Reagents at the Moroccan Ministry of Health since 2007 and Sworn Member of this Commission at the Rabat Court of First Instance since 2015. She is member of the WHO Strategic Group of Experts on In Vitro Diagnostics (SAGE IVD) since May 2021.
Laith Abu-Raddad
Chairperson Track 3: Epidemiology & Surveillance, Qatar
Laith Abu-Raddad is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar, Cornell University. He is also the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Disease Epidemiology Analytics on HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and Viral Hepatitis. Previously he held academic and research positions at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Imperial College London and Osaka University. His research interests are multidisciplinary with emphasis on studying the epidemiology of infectious diseases using analytical and computational approaches in addition to conventional epidemiologic study designs. He has led several high-impact studies at the international and regional levels. His scientific research has been published in journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Science, JAMA, Nature Medicine, Lancet, PLOS Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Hepatology, and Clinical Infectious Diseases. He has worked on COVID-19, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis C virus, tuberculosis, and SARS. He is or has been the principal investigator of several projects funded by various funding agencies, and has acted as an expert advisor or a consultant for several international organizations. His research work has been key in the formulation of public health policy at the regional and international levels.
Sara Lowe
IUSTI/Newlands Clinic, Zimbabwe
Dr Sara Lowe is a Specialist Physician trained in the U.K in Genitourinary Medicine. She has been working in the field of HIV and STI medicine since 2007 and relocated to Zimbabwe in 2014. Currently she is working as a lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe and as the Deputy Medical Director at Newlands clinic in Harare.
Hicham Oumzil
Morocco
Hicham OUMZIL, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Medical School, University Mohammed V in Rabat, Head of the Virology Department, at the National Institute of Hygiene (MoH, Morocco).
In January 2002, Dr. H. OUMZIL received his PhD in Biology from the Mohamed V University in Rabat, and was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow for at Neurovirology laboratory at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Fontenay aux Roses, France, before joining the National Institute of Hygiene.
Over a decade, Professor Oumzil research focused on communicable diseases surveillance, infectious disease epidemiology, virological diagnosis strategies assessment, Rapid testing and evaluations of point-of-care technologies, laboratory capacity building and settlement of national laboratory networks.
In view of his expertise in laboratory technologies, he was assigned as a member of the national authorisation commission for laboratory reagents at the ministry of Health, and served on a number of panels dealing with different issues of epidemiology, disease surveillance and public health policies.
Currently, he is serving also as a key a coordinator of the virological surveillance of SARS-CoV2, influenza and respiratory viruses in Morocco, in the framework of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) program with support of the WHO, and also in a grant funded by the CDC. He is also the lead virologist for the management of several public health programmes: HIV, Hepatitis, Polio, Measles.
In January 2002, Dr. H. OUMZIL received his PhD in Biology from the Mohamed V University in Rabat, and was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow for at Neurovirology laboratory at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Fontenay aux Roses, France, before joining the National Institute of Hygiene.
Over a decade, Professor Oumzil research focused on communicable diseases surveillance, infectious disease epidemiology, virological diagnosis strategies assessment, Rapid testing and evaluations of point-of-care technologies, laboratory capacity building and settlement of national laboratory networks.
In view of his expertise in laboratory technologies, he was assigned as a member of the national authorisation commission for laboratory reagents at the ministry of Health, and served on a number of panels dealing with different issues of epidemiology, disease surveillance and public health policies.
Currently, he is serving also as a key a coordinator of the virological surveillance of SARS-CoV2, influenza and respiratory viruses in Morocco, in the framework of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) program with support of the WHO, and also in a grant funded by the CDC. He is also the lead virologist for the management of several public health programmes: HIV, Hepatitis, Polio, Measles.