Wim Van Damme is Professor in Public Health and Health Policy at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. He has extensive experience in many countries. He has a keen interest in the role of disease-specific programmes in Health Systems Strengthening.

He has been living and working in Kinshasa, DRC, collaborating with INRB, where Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe and Professor Steve Ahuka Mundeke lead the “Riposte corona”.

On COVID in sub-Saharan Africa, he has recently co-authored:

• Van Damme W, et al. The COVID-19 pandemic: diverse contexts; different epidemics—how and why? BMJ Global Health 2020;5:e003098. (doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2020-003098) and
• Wamai RG, et al. What Could Explain the Lower COVID-19 Burden in Africa despite Considerable Circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 8638. (https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168638.)

In May 2022, he participated in the investigation of a large outbreak of Monkeypox in the Maniema province, DRC. (BBC interview: Monkey Pox in Central Africa: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/monkeypox-in-central-africa/id261779764?i=1000563892915 ).