Dirk Engels

Dr. Engels, a Belgian and Swiss national, was Director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) in the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. Dr Engels studied medicine at the University of Antwerp and graduated in 1979. He further holds diplomas in tropical medicine and epidemiology, a Masters in Health Services Research from Erasmus University in Rotterdam and a PhD in parasitology from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. During the first 15 years of his professional career he successively worked in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Rwanda and Senegal, in clinical tropical medicine, public health and tropical disease control, mostly serving people in poor rural settings. In 1998 he joined WHO as a Medical Officer and in 2005 became Coordinator of the Preventive Chemotherapy and Transmission Control Unit of the NTD Department. In this capacity, he led a team of professionals in developing norms and standards for the implementation of integrated large-scale preventive treatment interventions for the control or elimination of multiple tropical diseases. This resulted in one of the largest global public health interventions to date, with currently over 1 billion people benefitting annually from preventive chemotherapy treatment worldwide. Dr Engels has revitalized and overhauled WHO’s Dracunculiasis Eradication Programme, emphasizing surveillance and prompt reporting of cases. Today, the disease is on the verge of eradication. Since becoming Director of the NTD Department in 2014, he has made the case for achieving universal health coverage against NTDs within the new SDG framework, and for increased domestic investments to move the NTD agenda forward. He has further strengthened intersectoral interventions to prevent NTDs, such as vector control and veterinary public health, and has reached out to the PHE Department to strengthen interdepartmental collaboration to improve equitable access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services for NTD affected populations.