Confronting Inequities in STI Prevention, Diagnostics and Care
Congress Speakers
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Amina Hanҫali
Morocco -
David Lewis
Australia -
Francis Ndowa
Zimbabwe -
Janet Wilson
United Kingdom -
Kees Rietmeijier
USA -
Philippe Mayaud
United Kingdom -
Remco Peters
South Africa -
Somesh Gupta
India -
Yonatan Grad
USA -
Linda-Gail Bekker
South Africa -
Frances Cowan
Zimbabwe/UK -
Meg Doherty
World Health Organization -
Carolyn Deal
USA -
Rashida Ferrand
Zimbabwe -
Odile Harrison
United Kingdom -
David Mabey
United Kingdom -
Yukari Manabe
USA -
Michael Marks
United Kingdom -
Nelly Mugo
Kenya -
Ghina Mumtaz
Lebanon -
LaRon Nelson
USA -
Jo-Ann Passmore
South Africa -
Jonathan Ross
United Kingdom. -
Kate Seib
Australia -
Katy Turner
United Kingdom -
Henry de Vries
Netherlands

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.

David Lewis
Australia
David Lewis is Director of the Western Sydney Sexual Health Centre and Professor at the University of Sydney. David also holds an Honorary Professorship in the Division of Medical Virology at the University of Cape Town. David’s research interests include antimicrobial resistance, STI surveillance as well as STI care in resource-poor settings. David is an elected Council Member of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. He is a former President of the International Union against STIs (IUSTI). He previously served on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research (ISSTDR). Within Australia, David serves on the International Advisory Board of the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine. David has provided technical advice to the World Health Organization for many years in respect of STI treatment guidelines, point-of-care diagnostics and antimicrobial resistance. Recently, David was appointed to WHO’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Francis Ndowa
Zimbabwe
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.

Janet Wilson
United Kingdom
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.

Kees Rietmeijier
USA
Dr Kees Rietmeijer is a retired STI clinician, researcher, and educator. He is a past president of the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association and past regional director of IUSTI North America. Between 2009 and 2016, Dr. Rietmeijer led an HIV/STI prevention training programme in Southern Africa and was a lead investigator on the Zimbabwe STI Etiology Study.

Philippe Mayaud
United Kingdom
Dr Philippe Mayaud is a Professor of Infectious Diseases & Reproductive Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (Faculty of Infectious & Tropical Diseases). A clinician by background turned epidemiologist, his research and teaching have focused on epidemiological, clinical and implementation aspects of HIV and STI control, in particular of viral infections such as herpes, HPV and cervical cancer, HHV-8, but also syphilis and gonorrhoea. He has predominantly worked in sub-Saharan Africa (notably Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana and Burkina Faso) and Brazil. He holds an Honorary appointment at the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and was recipient of a Visiting Professorship at the University Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has been a long standing advisor to WHO STI/HIV and Reproductive Health departments and is a current member of the Advisory Group of WHO HIV, Hepatitis, and STIs.

Remco Peters
South Africa
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.

Somesh Gupta
India
Dr. Somesh Gupta is a Professor in the Department of Dermatology and Venereology. He is currently serving as the Joint Editor for the Journal, Sexual Health (CSIRO, Australia). He has been actively associated with the Indian Association for the Study of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS as President (2018-2019) and the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI) as Regional Direction for Asia Pacific Region (2013-2021). He has recently been invited to serve as a member of World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Advisor on Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Yonatan Grad
USA
Yonatan is the Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and faculty in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned his MD and PhD at Harvard Medical School, trained in internal medicine at BWH and infectious diseases at BWH and Massachusetts General Hospital. The Grad lab focuses on how to prepare and respond effectively to infectious disease threats through understanding interacting processes from microbial evolution through human ecology. The lab uses interdisciplinary methods, including microbial genetics, population genomics, and mathematical modeling to move across these scales, with goals of advancing clinical and public health practices.

Linda-Gail Bekker
South Africa
Prof Linda-Gail Bekker is the Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town and Chief Executive Officer of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation. She is an NRF A-rated physician scientist and infectious disease specialist. Her research interests include programmatic and action research around antiretroviral roll out and TB integration, prevention of HIV in women, youth and MSM. She has led numerous investigator-driven studies in HIV treatment, prevention and tuberculosis. Bekker is involved in a number of COVID19 vaccine trials and co-leads the Sisonke Phase 3B study which has seen the vaccination of 500 000 health care workers in South Africa. She is a past president of the International AIDS Society (2016-2018) and served as the International Co-Chair of the 9th IAS Conference, the 22nd International AIDS Conference, and the 2021 Research 4 Prevention Conference.
Abstract
A Double Dividend: Multi-purpose technology for HIV and STIs.
Opportunities to protect against multiple health concerns simultaneously is an attractive option for users and clinicians alike. Multipurpose technology (MPT) offers the opportunity to address more than one health issue with a single technology. MPTs, including oral, parenteral, and novel drug delivery formulations, provide the potential opportunity for a dual hit on the syndemics of HIV and STIs. This talk will address what MPTs are, describe research and development pipeline, the evidence for need and potential benefit for HIV prevention.

Frances Cowan
Zimbabwe/UK
Frances Cowan is a clinical epidemiologist and Professor of Global Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She is based in Zimbabwe where she is the Executive Director of the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV AIDS Research (CeSHHAR) Zimbabwe, leading a portfolio of HIV prevention research, which includes large scale impact evaluations of national HIV programmes.

Meg Doherty
World Health Organization
Dr Doherty is the Director of the Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes (HHS) at the World Health Organization (WHO).
Appointed on the 1 February 2020, Dr Doherty was previously the Coordinator of Treatment and Care in the Department of HIV at WHO Headquarters starting in 2012. She has more than 25 years of experience working in HIV and infectious diseases, including leading WHO’s normative and programmatic work focusing on expanding HIV treatment to all and reducing inequalities in access to the most effective anti-retroviral drugs for people living with HIV. She brings many years of diverse country experience to this role, having spent 10 years living and working in low- and middle-income countries, advising ministries of health and international partners on implementing comprehensive HIV and infectious disease programmes, including 5 years in Ethiopia as the Director of Clinical and Training services for JHUTSEHAI, a PEPFAR implementing partner supported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prior to joining WHO, Dr Doherty was faculty member of the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she was responsible for the treatment and care of people living with HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases. Dr Doherty is a trained epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist and has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She received her MD from Harvard Medical School and her MPH and PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Under her leadership as Director, HHS department, the department will maintain and expand global efforts to eliminate HIV, hepatitis and STIs by 2030 with a strong emphasis on service integration and strengthening primary health care within the framework of UHC, while focusing on vulnerable populations and countries with the highest burden. The HHS department is committed to reaching the global targets through intensified engagement with WHO and partner regional and country offices to achieve impact and will be bringing new Global health sector strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2022-2030, for review and approval at the 75th World Health Assembly, May 2022.

Carolyn Deal
USA
Priorities in STI and HIV vaccines – product development and considerations for access in LMICs

Rashida Ferrand
Zimbabwe
I am a physician specialising in HIV and sexual health a clinical epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I have been based in Zimbabwe for 20 years and I work on strategies to incorporate STI testing in different healthcare settings and on integrating STI, HIV and SRH services.

Odile Harrison
United Kingdom
My research focusses on bacterial whole genome sequence data (WGS) which I use for the high-resolution characterisation of bacteria causing infectious diseases. I exploit WGS to catalogue, collect and forensically dissect bacterial pathogens. Such indexing allows properties conferring virulence and antimicrobial resistance to be investigated. It provides opportunities for diagnostics, vaccine development and molecular epidemiology. It facilitates a much richer understanding of individual genes and their role in bacterial virulence and fitness. Using WGS, I develop the methodology to define bacterial lineages to enhance surveillance. Importantly, the tools I develop are all available on online, publicly accessible databases that benefit the research community.
My work analyses WGS belonging to the sexually transmitted pathogens Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis as well as meningitis causing pathogens Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus agalactiae. More recently, through collaborations, we have implemented online platforms for the analysis of Treponema pallidum subspecies and Mycoplasma genitalium.

David Mabey
United Kingdom
David Mabey worked as a clinician in The Gambia for 8 years before moving to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where he is Professor of Communicable Diseases.
Abstract
Are we ready to move on from Syndromic Management?
Until recently WHO guidelines for the management of STIs recommended syndromic management for settings without access to a diagnostic laboratory. While this undoubtedly increased access to care in resource-limited settings, it led to unnecessary treatment for infections patients did not have and failed to identify those with asymptomatic infections. In particular, the syndromic management algorithm for the management of vaginal discharge lacked both sensitivity and specificity. Even in settings with access to laboratory testing, the fact that patients needed to return for their results a few days later meant that syndromic treatment was often given at the first visit. Point of care (POC) tests which met the ASSURED criteria (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User friendly, Robust and Rapid, Equipment free and Deliverable) were seen as the answer to these problems.
Several POC tests for Chlamydia trachomatis were approved for clinical use in high income countries in the early 2000s but proved to be less than 50% sensitive when independently evaluated, suggesting the regulatory framework was not fit for purpose. Treponemal POC lateral flow tests for syphilis, on the other hand, were shown to meet the ASSURED criteria, and have greatly increased access to syphilis screening for pregnant women in resource-limited settings. Sensitive and specific POC tests for Trichomonas vaginalis are also available. In 2021 the FDA approved the binx io molecular POC test for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and C. trachomatis which is sensitive, specific and rapid, but it remains to be seen whether it is affordable or deliverable in low resource settings.

Yukari Manabe
USA
Dr. Manabe is a Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases within the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As the Associate Director of Global Health Research and Innovation within the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health and the Director of the new Center for Innovative Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases, she is dedicated to accelerating infectious disease diagnostic development and particularly frugal innovation for rapid and point-of-care to increase diagnostic certainty and targeted treatment. She has published on a wide range of infectious disease diagnostics for HIV, TB, STI’s, and respiratory viruses (COVID-19, influenza) and their impact on patient-centered outcomes.
Dr. Manabe is an author of more than 250 peer-reviewed publications. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Yale University and her MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She joined the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty in 1999 after completing her residency in internal medicine and fellowship in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Existing point-of-care tests and future developments for diagnosis and antimicrobial resistance testing

Michael Marks
United Kingdom
Dr Marks an Associate Professor at LSHTM and an Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, University College London Hospital.
A major research interest is infections caused by Treponema pallidum including work on diagnostics and genomics.

Nelly Mugo
Kenya
Professor Nelly R. Mugo is a Senior Principal Clinical Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Associate Research Professor, Department of Global Health at the University of Washington and a reproductive health specialist with three decades of work experience. Her research focus has been on prevention of HIV and cervical cancer. She has been an investigator on the Partners PrEP study that contributed evidence to inform the change of indication for use of Truvada as HIV prevention pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and a protocol lead for the on-going ‘Kenya Single-dose HPV Vaccine-Efficacy (KEN SHE) Study’ that has provided evidence on efficacy of single dose HPV vaccination.

Ghina Mumtaz
Lebanon
Ghina Mumtaz is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at the American University of Beirut. She holds a PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The primary focus of her research is on characterizing the epidemiology of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and hepatitis C virus in the Middle East and North Africa, with a special focus on key populations and, more recently, refugees and internally displaced populations.
Epidemiology of STIs among refugees and displaced persons

LaRon Nelson
USA
Community engagement and inequities in STI services, including HIV: transformative visions for future

Jo-Ann Passmore
South Africa
Jo-Ann Passmore is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town. She heads the Mucosal Infections Group in the Division of Medical Virology. Jo-Ann’s research focuses on the role of genital tract inflammation and cellular activation on HIV risk in women, associated most commonly with undiagnosed sexually transmitted infections and bacterial vaginosis.

Jonathan Ross
United Kingdom.
Jonathan Ross is Professor of Sexual Health and HIV in Birmingham, UK.
His research interests relate to gonorrhoea, Mycoplasma genitalium, pelvic inflammatory disease, bacterial vaginosis and the delivery of sexual health services. He is a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) journal library editor and treasurer of the International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections. He is an associate editor of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections and a member of the editorial board for the European Sexually Transmitted Diseases Guidelines.
Professor Ross is the author of UK and European Guidelines on Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, and has written a number of chapters on pelvic infection for medical textbooks. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Cochrane Collaboration Sexually Transmitted Diseases Collaborative Review Group

Kate Seib
Australia
Professor Kate Seib is a Research Leader and the Associate Director (Research) at the Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University, Australia. Her expertise is in the field of molecular microbiology, with a focus on characterising virulence mechanisms and developing vaccine antigens for human mucosal pathogens including Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Gonococcal virulence factors and vaccine development.

Katy Turner
United Kingdom
Professor Katy Turner, BSc, PhD
Managing consultant Aquarius Population Health,, London, UK
Honorary Professor, University of Bristol, UK
Prof Katy Turner is an infectious disease epidemiologist, specialising in modelling sexually transmitted infections and antimicrobial resistance. Her passion is working with multidisciplinary teams at the intersection between theory, data and practice; her work is focused on applied questions to inform public health and clinical decisions, including chlamydia screening, point of care testing and vaccination. She holds a PhD from Imperial College and currently is honorary professor at Bristol Medical School. She has recently moved to a new role in health consultancy with Aquarius Population Health.

Henry de Vries
Netherlands
Henry de Vries is a dermatologist and Professor of skin infections. In addition to his work at the Amsterdam UMC (location AMC), he works at the Public Health Service (GGD Amsterdam) and is expert at the Dutch Institute for Public Health (RIVM). He is expert in clinical, epidemiological and diagnostic aspects of STI and emerging tropical skin infections.
His research topics are: cutaneous leishmaniasis, leprosy, STI in men who have sex with men (MSM), biomedical and behavioural interventions to curb HIV and STI transmission, gonorrhoea, lymphogranuloma venereum, and HPV related anal dysplasia.