Steven Van Gucht

Steven’s division integrates several national reference centres for medical microbiology, including the Belgian National Reference Centre of Influenza, Hepatitis Viruses A, B, C, D and E, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Rabies and Human Papillomaviruses.
In 2012, he was nominated as the Belgian National Microbiology Focal Point for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC, Stockholm). As such, he represents the Belgian public health microbiology system at the ECDC and assists the ECDC with advice on public health microbiology structures and processes, laboratory quality, biosafety, capacity building and reference laboratory activities.
Since January 2020, he advices the Belgian government on the risks and management of the COVID-19 pandemic, first as president of the Scientific Committee COVID-19 and later as member of Celeval-1 and GEMS. He also served as Interfederal Spokesperson on the COVID-19 crisis providing daily and later weekly press conferences with the current state of affairs of the coronavirus outbreak in Belgium. In mid-December 2020, he was honored with the ‘Wablieft Prize’ for his clear use of language in his communication during the COVID-19 crisis.