Eyal Leshem, MD, DTMH, is the director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer in Israel, a guest researcher at the viral gastroenteritis team, the United States Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta and a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Leshem is a clinical associate professor in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv University. He has lead and co-authored over ninety 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 the Sheba Medical Center. In 2014, he graduated from his training as an epidemic intelligence service (EIS) officer at the CDC. During his training, he investigated multiple outbreaks including acute gastroenteritis, enterovirus D68, fungal meningitis, and MERS CoV.
Upon graduating from EIS, Prof. Leshem worked as a medical epidemiologist in the viral gastroenteritis team. His work focused on diarrheal diseases surveillance, rotavirus vaccine impact, and viral disease outbreak investigations. Prof. Leshem continues to participate in CDC and WHO-led surveillance and evaluation projects assessing vaccine impact and effectiveness in Haiti, Burkina Faso, Togo, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Israel.
Ongoing projects include evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, HPV vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, Dengue virus, Zika virus, malaria, and travel-associated infectious diseases. Prof. Leshem serves as councilor and co-chair of the Asia Pacific Travel Health Society Conference scientific committee, as chair of the International Society for Travel Medicine pediatric traveler interest group, and as an associate editor of the Journal of Travel Medicine.
