Maria Van Kerkhove

Maria Van Kerkhove is a US-born epidemiologist who serves as WHO Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, a role she assumed in 2024 following the retirement of Sylvie Briand. She joined WHO in 2017 and previously led the Emerging Diseases and Zoonosis unit, becoming publicly prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic as a technical lead for WHO's Health Emergencies Programme. She is known for calibrated public risk communication, consistently distinguishing between what is confirmed, what is plausible, and what remains unknown in fast-moving outbreak situations. Her academic background spans epidemiology and infectious disease, with field experience in MERS, Ebola, and influenza response before COVID.

Van Kerkhove publicly characterised the MV Hondius hantavirus cluster as "serious but not the next COVID" in May 2026, following confirmation of Andes virus in a Swiss disembarkee, the only hantavirus with documented person-to-person transmission capability. Her framing was load-bearing: it held the line between appropriate monitoring urgency and public alarm while acknowledging that Andes virus behaves differently from all other hantaviruses. WHO's Disease Outbreak News 599, published 2 May 2026, predated the Andes strain confirmation and carried a rodent-only risk framing that became outdated within days of publication. Van Kerkhove's position as the WHO's most visible communicator on the cluster made her assessment the reference point for national health agencies calibrating their response.