Dr Kevin De Cock starts as the New HIV/AIDS Director at WHO
Kevin M. De Cock, MD, is the director of the WHO Department of HIV/AIDS, a post to which he has been appointed after serving six years as Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Kenya. In his new role, Dr De Cock will oversee all of WHO’s work related to HIV/AIDS, focusing on initiatives to assist developing countries in scaling up their treatment, prevention, care and support programmes.
Dr De Cock is an infectious disease specialist, with expertise in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, liver disease and tropical diseases such as yellow fever and viral hemorrhagic fevers. As CDC Kenya Director, Dr De Cock supervised programmes and activities including the CDC Global AIDS Program’s prevention work, the International Emerging Infections Program, a longstanding research collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and a collaboration with the World Health Organization for polio eradication. He has also served, among other posts, as Director of the CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Surveillance and Epidemiology in Atlanta, USA.
A native of Belgium, Dr De Cock received Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.Ch.B.) and M.D. degrees from the University of Bristol and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Liverpool University School of Tropical Medicine. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Medicine and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Dr De Cock has served on a number of notable professional committees, including the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS, the WHO Stop TB TB/HIV Core Group and the UNAIDS Data and Safety Monitoring Board. He co-edited the book AIDS in Africa, Second Edition (Rapid Science Publishers, London, 1997). He has also served on editorial boards and panels for journals including AIDS, The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine and is the recipient of numerous professional awards for his contributions to tropical medicine research.