Invited speakers

Prof Pier Paolo Balladelli, MD, PhD
Bologna, Italy

Pier Paolo Balladelli (Italy) is a former senior officer at the United Nations, WHO, PAHO and a member of the Italian Medical Association – Bologna.

He has spent his 38-year international career in political affairs, diplomacy, sustainable development, public and global health, health systems, medical anthropology, conflict prevention and humanitarian affairs.

Dr Balladelli holds a Doctor of Medicine magnum with laude at the University Alma Mater in Bologna-Italy with a thesis on Statistics Policy. At the same university, he was accredited a 4-yr post-graduate degree in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, with a thesis on Health Economics.
Dr Balladelli up to date has worked in the following roles:

• PAHO Subregional Director – South America (SAM), 2021-22
• United Nations Resident Coordinator in Angola from 2015 to 2020;
• WHO Regional Director for the Syria Crisis based in Amman, Jordan (2013);
• PAHO/WHO Rappresentative in Angola, Argentina, Colombia, Croatia, Guatemala and Venezuela;
• Country Director for the Italian Cooperation in Uganda, Bolivia and Ecuador.

His fields of research include sustainable development, humanitarian assistance, conflict prevention and mediation, diplomacy, global public goods, indigenous systems.

Accredited as UN Resident Coordinator (Surrey London 2008).
Accredited as UN Humanitarian Coordinator, he has participated in high level trainings humanitarian international law and humanitarian mediation (Geneva 2007-2010).

In 2008 at the Imperial College of London, he was a member of an American group for the mathematical modelling on the HIV Pandemic.

He speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, Andean Quechua and French, Italian (mother tongue).

Balladelli published a textbook on ethnomedicine: Balladelli P. [Between the magic and the natural – Spanish’, Abya Yala, Ecuador, (1988) and a number of scientific articles.

Tea Burmaz, MD
Venice, Italy

Tea Burmaz was born in 1969 in Split, Croatia where she attended primary and secondary school. At the age of 18, she enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Trieste where she graduated in April 1996.

From 1997 to 2019, she worked occasionally in general paediatric outpatient clinics. From February 1998 to May 2000, she attended the Master in Mother and Child Health, (MCH) at IMIP – Institute of Mother and Child from Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. Master deals with public health issues related to maternal and child health. The master’s dissertation evaluated a local project aimed at reducing infant mortality and was entitled Assessment of the influence of the Salva-Vidas project on community health workers’ activities in the two rural counties of Pernambuco.

From 2000 to 2006, she was a member of the scientific committee of the ONLUS (nonprofit organization) CSB Centro per la Salute del Bambino (Center for Child Health) founded in February 1999 by a group of professionals working in the field of childhood health.

In the period from 2001 to 2005, she collaborated annually in the post graduate training course on tropical medicine and international health Infectious and Tropical Diseases Clinic, Spedali Civili, University of Brescia, Italy.

In August 2001, she moved to Albania where she worked for two Italian Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) as a consultant.

From 7 to 28 July 2003, she went to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and co-conducted a training course Planning for Appropriate Perinatal Care designated for decision-makers in the health policies of the following countries: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

From July 2011 to July 2016, she attended a Specialization course in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Padua, Italy.

In October 2016, she started to work as public health specialist at the Prevention Department, Hygiene and Public Health Unit, in Venice, Italy. The main activities the Prevention Department concern public health issues such as immunization, control of infectious diseases, public health communication, Emergency Preparedness, promotion of a healthy lifestyle, management of environmental threats and preventive measures for travelers.

She is fluent in Italian, English, Portuguese, and basic in Spanish, Macedonian and Slovenian.

Prof Sead Karakaš, MD, PhD
Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Prof Karakaš was born on July 10, 1961 in Pljevlja, Montenegro where he graduated from primary and secondary school. He graduated and obtained both his master’s and doctorate from the School of Medicine, University of Sarajevo. He has been elected to the scientific-teaching title of associate professor in the subject Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zenica (2020) and the scientific-teaching title of associate professor in the narrower scientific teaching field: Public health and preventive medicine at the University of Vitez (2020). He has been teaching since 2007. Engaged at the University of Bihać – in the course of General Epidemiology and Epidemiology (2012-2016), as well as at the University of Tuzla – in the course of Biostatistics (2014-2016).

He was the mentor for four doctoral theses, 12 master’s and more than 30 graduate and final theses. He is the author of four university textbooks and more than 50 original scientific and professional papers published in various scientific journals in the country and abroad. He was the president and member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Public Health Specialists of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2014-2017; 2017-2021), president of the epidemiologist section of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He was the president and the member of the organizing and scientific committee of several domestic and international conferences. Since 1999, he has participated in almost all preventive and promotional programs at the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He initiated several very important projects for the cantonal level. He actively participated in numerous scientific conferences in the country and abroad. With the decision on the formation and start of work of the Institute for Public Health of the Central Bosnian Canton – Travnik (2002), he was appointed the first director and continues to perform this function today.

Prof Mario Poljak, MD, PhD
Ljubljana, Slovenia

Mario Poljak, MD, PhD, specialist in clinical microbiology, is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Head of Laboratory for Molecular Microbiology at Institute of Microbiology and Immunology at Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

He was President of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) from 2016-2018 and member of ESCMID Executive Committee from 2012-2020. ESCMID has 9,000+ members from all European countries and all continents and is organising the world largest conference in the field of infection – ECCMID – with 14,000+ delegates. He was member of the ECCMID Program Committee from 2010-2020.

Professor Poljak´s laboratory offers 80 different molecular and serological assays and is also working on the development of new molecular diagnostic methods, improvement and evaluation of virological methods/assays.

The research of Prof. Poljak and his co-workers is focused on all diagnostic aspects and genetic heterogeneity of human papillomaviruses, human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, coronaviruses, H. pylori and M. tuberculosis, etiopathogenesis of head and neck carcinomas, etiopathogenesis and natural history of HPV-related benign tumors and intrahospital and unusual transmission of blood-born microorganisms

He is author of 442 original research or review articles published in PubMed-cited journals. His papers have been cited more than 16,600 times (Hirsch index = 62).

As invited speaker he gave 420 lectures at international and national scientific and professional meetings.

He is Associate Editor of Journal of Clinical Virology, Editor of mBio, Journal of Infection in Developing Countries and Acta Dermatovenerologica APA, and Editorial Board member of Journal of Clinical Microbiology, AIDS Reviews, Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy and Tumor Viruses Research. He serves as peer reviewer for more than 80 scientific journals.

He was supervisor of 35 PhD thesis in the field of clinical microbiology and in 2016 was awarded as Doctoral Mentor of the Year in Slovenia.

Professor Poljak is recipient of the prestigious career achievement award from the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology (PASCV), The PASCV Diagnostic Virology Award 2018 which acknowledges an individual whose contributions to viral diagnosis have had a major impact on the discipline.

In 2021 he was elected as Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology (F-AAM).

Prof Ivan Vasilj, MD, PhD
Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Prof Ivan Vasilj has been a full professor at the School of Medicine University of Mostar since 2017. He was born in 1959 in Mostar. He finished elementary and high school in Čitluk, and the School of Medicine, University of Sarajevo. He received his master’s degree and doctorate from the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb. He specialized and passed the specialist exam in epidemiology in Zagreb.He received the title of primarius at the Federal Ministry of Health in Sarajevo for his professional work.