Charles Shey Wiysonge

Director, Cochrane South Africa, South African Medical Research Council Honorary Professor, School of Public Health. UCT

Professor Wiysonge is a physician with postgraduate training in epidemiology, evidence-based health care, and vaccinology. His qualifications include Doctor of Medicine from the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon, Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge in the UK, and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cape Town. He also undertook postgraduate research training at the UK Cochrane Centre and the University of Oxford in the UK and is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Professor Wiysonge is an Honorary Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Cape Town, a Senior Director at the South African Medical Research Council, an Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University. His previous appointments include Deputy Director of the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care and Professor of Community Health at Stellenbosch University; Manager of the Vaccines for Africa Initiative at the University of Cape Town; Chief Research Officer at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland; Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Central Technical Group in charge of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation at the National Ministry of Public Health in Cameroon; Medical Epidemiologist at the Pasteur Centre of Cameroon; and Physician at the University Hospital Centre (CHU) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

He is a member of numerous South African, African, and global advisory committees on vaccination, research, and evidence-based health care. Professor Wiysonge has published more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and his current research interests include vaccine hesitancy, acceptance, and uptake.