Philippe Clevenbergh

Philippe Clevenbergh is a clinician specialized in Internal Medicine and in particular Infectious Diseases. He got his MD degree from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1988. He is involved in HIV care since 1993 leading to a PhD thesis on “Key determinants for effective, safe and efficacious antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected persons” at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. This convinced him of the importance of access to care in developing countries. His atypical career path-way brought him from bedside highly sophisticated clinical care to the implementation of a HIV treatment program in Myanmar. Working for the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease since 2005, he is the Country Director of the Myanmar Office. The Integrated HIV Care program, supported by The Union, is providing antiretroviral therapy to about 4000 adult and pediatric HIV-infected patients, with the scope of providing ART to an additional 12,000 patients by end 2015. It is implemented in the public sector in collaboration with National Tuberculosis and AIDS Programs. The program is using a public health approach in order to provide care to a maximum number of HIV-infected patients while aiming at maintaining quality standards for each individual.