Affiliated Members

Professor Erika Vlieghe is an Infectious Diseases clinician with professional experience within and outside Belgium (UK, Uganda, Ecuador, Cambodia). She studied medicine at the Leuven Catholic University (1996), Tropical Diseases at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM, 1997) and specialized in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Leuven Catholic University (2004).

From 2004-2017 she has been working as a senior staff member and researcher at the ITM. Since 2017 she is heading the Department of General Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the University Hospital of Antwerp (UZA); she teaches tropical medicine and infectious diseases at various undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Antwerp and the ITM. Over the past few years she has been involved in research and capacity building on antibiotic resistance; she obtained a Phd on blood stream infections in Cambodia in 2014. From October 2014 – October 2015 Erika Vlieghe was appointed 'National Ebola-coördinator' in Belgium. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis she has been heading several scientific committees advising the federal government on pandemic management and preparedness. Since 2022 she is also a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Medicine and the president of the Flemish Recognition Board for Clinical Infectiology. On November 23d, she was appointed to coordinate the scientific advice underlying the National Sepsis Plan. She is currently the (co)-promotor of 5 research projects, and supervising 6 PhD-students. In 2020, she was awarded the ‘Gold medal’ from the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2023,she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hasselt for her enduring scientific advisory function with public health policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her main research interests include interventions for antimicrobial stewardship, pandemic preparedness and the role of professional education in these fields.

E-mail: erika.vlieghe@uantwerpen.be 

Tel: +3238213466

​List of Publications​

Ann Versporten was in charge of the data management for the last two years (up to 2011) of ESAC (European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption), after which the project was transferred to the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) as ESAC-Net. She was responsible for the data management of 2 European projects. One focusing on antimicrobial consumption in outpatient settings (the appropriateness of prescribing antibiotics in primary health care in Europe with respect to antibiotic resistance – APRES), the other on antimicrobial consumption among hospitalized children (Antibiotic Resistance and Prescribing in European Children – ARPEC). She was further in charge of the antimicrobial consumption data management for 14 non-EU countries of the WHO European region in close collaboration with the WHO/EUROPE. From 2014 upwards, she will mainly work on the hospital-based Global Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance (Global-PPS). Her main field of interest is antibiotic use among children and the methods to employ to express antibiotic use in order to enhance evidence base of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. Ann is preparing a PhD.

Office: S2.36

E-mail: ann.versporten@uantwerpen.be

Tel.: +32 3 265 24 18

List of Publications

Ines graduated as a Master of Science in Drug Development from KU Leuven in 2013. Before joining the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology she worked as a pharmacist and as a researcher at the Belgian Scientific Institute of Public Health. She joined the Global-PPS team at the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology in 2018 and is pursuing a PhD on the implementation of hospital antimicrobial stewardship programmes with a focus on low- and middle-income countries

Office: S2.36

E-mail: ines.pauwels@uantwerpen.be

Tel.: +32 3 265 93 17

​List of Publications

Annelies graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Amsterdam in 2017 and with a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the University of Antwerp in 2022. After graduating, she has been working with professor Nele Brusselaers on projects related to Clostridioides difficile infections. Annelies has recently joined the Global-PPS team at the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology in 2023 and is currently pursuing a PhD on antimicrobial consumption and stewardship in specialist outpatient care.  

Office: S2.36

E-mail: annelies.boven@uantwerpen.be  

Tel.: +32 3 265 9 2 28 

​List of Publications

After my Applied Computer Science studies in Brussels, I started working as a Software Developer for the Flemish Government. Subsequently, I worked as an ICT consultant in the private sector. Through this job I gained experience in different sectors and deepened my knowledge by taking on different roles ranging from Software Developer to Software Architect. I have also functioned in both technical and non-technical leadership roles. Currently I am using my expertise within the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences to take the Global-PPS project to the next level.

Office: S2.36

E-mail: jimmy.keustermans@uantwerpen.be