Professor Keiji Fukuda joined the School of Public Health in December 2016 and was the School Director during 2017 through 2021. Under him, the School emphasised taking a broader global and real-world perspective towards public health. The School pioneered a holistic and multi-sectoral undergraduate programme emphasising public health and development as integral aspects of each other, established new research directions such as antimicrobial resistance and fostered collaborations and initiatives aimed at developing the next generation of health leadership particularly in Asia. During Covid-19, he has been highly active speaking to international and local media and others, and was a member of several committees that provided public health and scientific guidance to the Hong Kong Government. Since retiring from HKU, he has become an Honorary Professor at its School of Public Health, a Board Member of the China Medical Board, the RIGHT Foundation, and an Advisory Board Member to Ending Pandemics. In 2023, he received an Honorary University Fellowship from HKU.

He previously (2005 – 2016) worked at the World Health Organization (WHO) in different capacities as Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment, Special Adviser to the Director-General on Pandemic Influenza, Special Adviser to the Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance and Director of the Global Influenza Programme. He led global approaches to strengthen health security including the development and adoption of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework and implementation of the International Health Regulations in the context of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. He had leading roles in global investigations and responses to events such as the emergence of avian influenza H5N1 and H7N9 and SARS in China, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the emergence of the Middle East Respiratory virus (MERS), the 2014 epidemic of Ebola in West Africa and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). He led WHO’s international health diplomacy contributions to a global initiative that resulted in the 2016 historic Heads of State level meeting at the United Nations (UN) and a UN resolution on AMR. Professor Fukuda frequently was WHO’s main global media spokesperson on health security related events and AMR.

Before joining WHO, he worked at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As Chief of Epidemiology, Influenza Branch, he personally led CDC field teams that assisted Hong Kong during the 1997 avian influenza H5N1 outbreak and many other field investigations. He worked extensively in China on issues such as strengthening influenza surveillance, SARS and influenza H7N9. He helped develop new models combining epidemiological and laboratory data to improve US influenza surveillance and disease burden estimates, supported development of US influenza vaccination policy and led the international team that redefined the chronic fatigue syndrome. He is a physician and epidemiologist and received his BA from Oberlin College, MD from the University of Vermont, MPH from the University of California, Berkeley and EIS training at CDC.

1. Monto AS, Fukuda K. Lessons From Influenza Pandemics of the Last 100 Years. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Feb 14;70(5):951-957. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciz803. PMID: 31420670; PMCID: PMC7314237.
2. Hu Y.J., Cowling B.J. and Fukuda K., What is missing in surveillance for control of antimicrobial resistance?, The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2018, 18: 597-598. [IF 27.52 (2018), rank 1/89 infectious diseases]
3. Marc Sprenger and Keiji Fukuda. New mechanisms, new worries. Science 2016; 351:1263-64. [IF 41.06 (2018), rank 2/69 multidisciplinary sciences]
4. Fukuda, K., Wang, R., Vallat, B. Naming diseases: First do no harm. Science. 2015, 348(6235): 643. [IF 41.06 (2018), rank 2/69 multidisciplinary sciences]
5. Keiji Fukuda and Marie Paule Kieny. Different Approaches to Influenza Vaccination. New England Journal of Medicine. 2006; 355:2586-2587. [IF 70.67, rank 1/160 medicine, general & internal]
6. Martin I Meltzer, Kathleen M Neuzil, Marie R Griffin, Keiji Fukuda. An economic analysis of annual influenza vaccination of children. Vaccine 2005;23:1004-1014. [IF 3.27 (2018), rank 57/136 medicine, research & experimental]
7. William W Thompson, David K Shay, Eric Weintraub, Lynnette Brammer, Carolyn B. Bridges, Margarette S Kolczak, Nancy J Cox, Keiji Fukuda. Influenza-associated hospitalizations in the United States from the 1979/1980 through the 2000/2001 respiratory seasons. Journal American Medical Association 2004;292: 1333-1340.
8. Carolyn Buxton Bridges, William W. Thompson, Martin I. Meltzer, Gordon Reeve, Walter Talomonti, Nancy J. Cox, Heather Lilac, Henrietta Hall, Alexander Klimov, Keiji Fukuda. Effectiveness and cost-benefit of influenza vaccination of healthy working adults: a randomized placebo controlled study. Journal of the American Medical Association 2000;284:1655-62.
9. Izurieta H.S., Thompson W.W., Kramarz P., Shay D.K., Davis R.L., DeStefano F., Black S., Shinefield H., Fukuda K. Influenza and the rates of hospitalization for respiratory disease among infants and young children. New England Journal of Medicine 2000;342-232-9.
10. Buxton Bridges C., Katz J.M., Seto W.H., Chan P.K.S., Tsang D., Ho W., Mak K.H., Lim W., Tam J., Clarke M., Williams S.G., Mounts A.W., Bresee J.S., Conn L.A., Rowe T., Hu-Primmer J., Abernathy R.A., Lu Xiuhua L., Cox N.J., and Fukuda K. Risk of Influenza A (H5N1) Infection Among Healthcare Workers Exposed to Patients with Influenza A (H5N1), Hong Kong. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2000;181:344-348.
11. Mounts A.W., Kwong H., Izurieta H.S., Ho Y.Y., Au T.K., Lee M., Bridges C.B., Williams S.W., Mak K.H., Katz J., Thompson W.W., Cox N.J., Fukuda K. Case-control study of risk factors for avian influenza A(H5N1) diseases, Hong Kong, 1997. Journal of Infectious Diseases 1999;180:505-8.
12. Meltzer M., Cox N.J., Fukuda K. The economic impact of pandemic influenza in the United States: Priorities for intervention. Emerging Infectious Diseases 1999;5:1-13
13. Fukuda K., Nisenbaum R., Stewart G., Thompson W.W., Robin L., Washko R.M., Noah D.L., Barrett D.H., Randall B., Herwaldt B.L., Mawle A.C., Reeves W.C. A chronic multisymptom illness affecting Air Force Veterans of the Gulf War.  Journal of the American Medical Association 1998;280:961-989.
14. Simenson L., Clarke M.J., Schonberger L.B., Arden N.H., Cox N.J., Fukuda K. Pandemic versus epidemic influenza mortality: a pattern of changing age distribution. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 1998;178:53-60.
15. Subbarao K., Klimov A., Katz J., Regnery H., Lim W., Hall H., Perdue M., Swayne D., Bender C., Huang J., Hemphill M., Rowe T., Shaw M., Xu X., Fukuda K., and Cox N. Characterization of an avian influenza A (H5N1) virus isolated from a child with a fatal respiratory illness. Science 1998;279:393-396.
16. Fukuda K., Straus S.E., Hickie I., Sharpe M.C., Dobbins J.G., Komaroff A. and the international CFS study group. The Chronic fatigue syndrome: A comprehensive approach to its definition and study. Annals of Internal Medicine 1994;121:953-959.