Esther van Kleef is an infectious disease epidemiologist experienced in quantitative methodology including infectious disease modelling, and handling of surveillance data. Her research interests include understanding the transmission-dynamics and effectiveness of infection prevention and control strategies related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and emerging infectious diseases.
Over the years, she developed a keen interest in optimising the collection and use of conventional and innovative surveillance data sources and analytics to inform public health policies and decision-making. She is PI of the recently funded EC JPI AMR ALARUM project (developing One Health surveillance in LMICs using metagenomics). Furthermore, together with Prof Ben Cooper, she leads the modelling work for the EC JPI AMR CABU-EICO project (a multicentre AMR intervention study in Burkina Faso and Democratic Republic of Congo) and is Co-Investigator to the Belgian Pandemic Intelligence Network.
Esther completed a PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. This was followed by academic positions related to modelling the transmission-dynamics of AMR at Oxford University (Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Thailand) and Public Health England (former UKHSA). Prior to ITM, she worked as an epidemiologist at the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, coordinating AMR research informing the national surveillance strategy and ten consultant epidemiologists working on AMR surveillance at a regional level. In 2019-2020, she was involved as a WHO consultant in the 10th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leading a team of epidemiologists, analysts and data managers to provide real-time outbreak analytics for decision-making.
Esther is an advisory member to various committees affiliated to among others the World Health Organisation and ECDC, and teaches on various courses related to epidemiology, modelling and AMR.