Prof. Eyal Leshem, MD, DTM&H(Glasg.) is the director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer in Israel. Prof. Leshem is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, is a clinical associate professor in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the School of Medicine in Tel Aviv University and served as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO). He has lead and co-authored over a hundred articles and book chapters.
Prof. Leshem received his medical degree from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Sheba Medical Center. In 2014, he graduated from his training as an epidemic intelligence service (EIS) officer at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During his training at the CDC he investigated multiple outbreaks including acute gastroenteritis, enterovirus D68 associated acute flaccid myelitis, fungal meningitis and MERS-CoV.
Upon graduating from EIS, Prof. Leshem worked as a medical epidemiologist in the viral gastroenteritis team at the CDC. His work focused on diarrheal diseases surveillance, rotavirus vaccine impact and viral disease outbreak investigations. Prof. Leshem participated in CDC and WHO led surveillance and evaluation projects assessing vaccine impact and effectiveness in Haiti, Burkina Faso, Togo, the Philippines, Brazil, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Kosovo, the United States and Israel.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Prof. Leshem participated in the Lancet COVID-19 Commission Task Force on Public Health and studied BNT162b2 vaccine impact and effectiveness. Other research interests include vaccine preventable diseases, arboviruses, and malaria epidemiology. Prof. Leshem serves as president elect of the Asia Pacific Travel Health Society, as past chair of the International Society for Travel Medicine pediatric traveler interest group and as an associate editor of the Journal of Travel Medicine.
