Sylvie Briand

Director, Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness
World Health Organization

Switzerland
Sylvie Briand, MD, PhD, Dr., Director, Infectious Hazard Management (IHM) - Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases department, WHO Health Emergency Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Dr Briand is currently Director of the Infectious Hazard Management (IHM) - Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases department (PED) in WHO Health Emergency Programme (WHE) at World Health Organisation - Headquarter in Geneva. IHM-PED develops mechanism to address epidemic diseases under the International Health Regulations thereby reducing their impact on affected populations and limiting their international spread. She was head of the Global Influenza Programme (GIP) during the H1N1 2009 pandemic. She joined WHO in 2001 initially working as a medical officer in the Global Task Force on Cholera Control. Then, from 2004 to June 2007, she has been leading the Yellow Fever (YF) Programme including the management of the global Yellow Fever vaccine stockpile for emergency and the Yellow Fever Initiative funded by the GAVI Alliance. Her working experience in WHO has mainly been oriented towards alert and response to epidemic prone disease including deadly viral haemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola Marburg disease. Before working at WHO, Dr Briand was project director at the CREDES International, a consulting agency specialized in Public Health. She led various projects on health sector reform for Development Banks, European Commission and bilateral cooperation agencies. Previous to this experience, she spent 4 years in South America as director of PROCED, a regional project funded by the European Commission to support Andean countries in controlling the re-emergence of cholera outbreaks. Dr Briand holds a medical doctor degree, a master in Public health and a PhD (Epidemiology/Health Systems analysis).