Dr. Dirk Engels, former director of WHO NTD programme appointed as visiting professor to NIPD
On April 18, 2019, Dr. Dirk Engels, former
Director of the Department of Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Control of the
World Health Organization (WHO), was appointed as a visiting professor.
Director Zhou Xiaonong issued a letter of appointment. Director Zhou Xiaonong,
Deputy Director Xiao Ning, and Director of the Global Health Center, Guan Yayi,
had a heated discussion with Professor Dirk Engels on the progress and
challenges of global health cooperation. Dirk Engels suggested that China has a
wealth of practical experience that is very valuable to Africa and that Chinas
experience and technology in media control, zoonosis and environmental
transformation can be prioritized. In addition, health economics is an
indispensable and important aspect. I hope that China can pay attention to the
application of the theory of health economics in the design and evaluation of
health projects.
Professor Dirk Engel holds a doctorate in
medicine from the University of Antwerp, Belgium and a doctorate in
parasitology from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. Before joining the
World Health Organization, he worked in African countries for 17 years. In
1998, Professor Dirk Engel joined the World Health Organization and made
outstanding contributions to the World Health Organizations strategy for
prevention, control and elimination of tropical diseases, including the development
and implementation of lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and
trachoma. Within the norms and standards for large-scale integrated preventive
therapeutic interventions for neglected tropical diseases (NTD); as Director of
the Neglected Tropical Disease Control Division, directing global expansion
control and elimination of NTD prevention and control measures. Under his
leadership, the World Health Organization has implemented a new comprehensive
strategy to strengthen the control of neglected tropical diseases, bringing
neglected tropical diseases into the global health agenda.