Erwin Cooreman graduated as medical doctor from the University of Ghent, Belgium. He obtained an additional degree in tropical medicine from the University of Liverpool and a Master’s degree in Global Health Policy from the University of London.
His career spans thirty years including a short stint as a junior doctor for the Belgian Red Cross in a refugee camp in Burundi and six years leading a tuberculosis and leprosy control project in three districts in Bangladesh. In 2000 he joined the World Health Organization where he served for 15 years as adviser for national tuberculosis control programmes in Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh and Myanmar as well as the Regional Office for South-East Asia. From 2015 till 2021, he headed WHO’s global leprosy programme.
In September 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he took up his current position as head of the WHO Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He published multiple articles on public health in peer-reviewed journals and authored chapters in several reference books on tuberculosis and leprosy.
He is a national of Belgium, married and father of two children.