Good water and air quality form the basis of good health for every human being, and in particular vulnerable groups in society, such as children. Achieving the millennium development goals is one of the important developments to which contributions can be made globally and by myself in order to keep environmentally transmitted infectious diseases under control.

Prof. Dr Doctor (Doctor) Ana Maria de Roda Husman studied molecular biology at VU University Amsterdam (1991). In 1995, she earned her PhD with her thesis ‘Human Papillomaviruses and cervical carcinogenesis’ at the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam. She then worked at a postdoctoral study ‘Viral and host determinants of HIV-1 infection AIDS pathogenesis’ at the central laboratory for the Sanquin Blood Supply in Amsterdam. 

In 1998, she came to work for RIVM as a Health related Water Virologist. At the end of 2002, she became the project leader for Health related Water Microbiology. She is currently leading the environmental division at the Centre for Infectious Disease Control (CIb) at RIVM (since 2009). In May 2012, Ana Maria de Roda Husman was appointed professor of ‘Global changes and environmentally transmitted infectious diseases’ at Utrecht University. 

Ana Maria de Roda Husman works at RIVM as well as Utrecht University in prevention and control of infectious diseases that can be transmitted through the environment, i.e. by water, soil, and air. Changes in the environment, e.g. climate change, in the pathogen, e.g. antimicrobial resistance, and the human host, e.g. technical innovations and ageing, are playing an important role in exposure to pathogenic viruses, parasites and bacteria and the subsequent disease burden.

Areas of expertise

• Environmentally transmitted pathogens
• Micro-organisms
• Hygiene and public health
• Risk Assessment and Risk Management 

Contact

E-mail: info@rivm.nl