120 years of ITM: standing strong together in the fight against tropical diseases and HIV/AIDS

INTERVIEW - Over the course of 120 years, the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) has grown from a colonial institution to a renowned research and teaching institute committed to long-term, equal partnerships. We spoke with Executive Director Dr Özge Tunçalp.

An elegant Art Deco building on Nationalestraat in Antwerp has been the home of the Belgian knowledge centre on tropical diseases since 1933: the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), popularly known as the Tropical Institute.

But its origins go back even further. In fact, it was preceded by the School for Tropical Diseases, founded in 1906 by King Leopold II and established in a Brussels villa. This means that 2026 will mark its 120^th anniversary, a milestone that the ITM does not want to go unnoticed.

The ITM has undergone a remarkable evolution over all that time: from colonial institution to highly valued partner of the Global South. Belgians may know the ITM as a travel clinic for vaccinations and travel advice - provided by the online Wanda tool – as well as for the treatment of tropical diseases and HIV/AIDS.

The institute has also been responsible for several important scientific breakthroughs, such as those around Ebola and HIV/AIDS. Finally, with the fifth five-year framework agreement nearing its end, the ITM has been a valued partner of FPS Foreign Affairs for decades, more specifically our Directorate General Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid. The institute thus provides numerous training programmes for professionals from around the world.

The 120^th anniversary is the perfect opportunity to delve a bit deeper into ITM's role. That's why we were pleased to talk about this with Executive Director Dr Özge Tunçalp, who has overseen a significant piece of history for the past year.

The Institute of Tropical Medicine’s history comes back to the colonial period. What exactly was the original mandate?

In 1906, Leopold II felt he needed a School for Tropical Diseases to train doctors and nurses to go work in the Congo Free State. In 1933, the institute moved from Brussels to its current location in Antwerp due to the convenience of the port. This way, they were right where the ships arrived with patients who had contracted diseases in the colonies. They were treated here.

The ITM has gone through a remarkable evolution since that time. How does the ITM currently view its cooperation with the Global South?

The colonial roots are not an easy chapter, but we have made tremendous strides since then. We gradually provided more and more training, including to people from all over the world. And sound academic teaching must be accompanied by equally sound scientific research.

To this day, we seek to push the boundaries of science, innovation and high-quality care. We do this in co-leadership with partners from the Global South and really put in the effort to ensure our collaboration is a 'two-way street'.

It's also important to note that we work on more than some isolated, individual projects. We are especially committed to long-term partnerships in which we travel a path together. We realise that we do not necessarily know better and can learn a lot from our partners.

In 2008, the ITM launched the 'Switching the Poles' motto, indicating our desire to transfer not only expertise but also resources and decision-making to the Global South.

The ITM is a major partner for the Belgian Development Cooperation, managed by our FPS. What exactly do you do?

We are a scientific institution, not an NGO and not the Belgian agency for international cooperation Enabel. We work long-term with institutional partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America to strengthen research capacity, healthcare systems and disease control.

We do this through (1) joint research programmes, (2) sharing expertise with partners, (3) training and granting policy support to countries and (4) finding grants for health professionals and researchers. So, we provide numerous medical education and training programmes, doctorates, master's degrees and more.

Our classes are incredibly diverse, which is an asset. For example, the first course I taught last year on sexual and reproductive health had 21 non-Europeans out of a total of 24 students! In fact, all master's level students are equally our colleagues with whom we learn together.

As I said earlier, we work on more than just individual projects. We especially want to strengthen the ecosystems that allow for sound research to be carried out. Long-term partnerships are essential for this. We are now at the end of the fifth five-year framework agreement with FPS Foreign Affairs, which means we have been building equal partnerships for decades! It is long-term commitments like this that make scientific breakthroughs possible.

The book marking 120 years of ITM (see box), features a fantastic testimony by Dr Halidou Tinto. He talks about how a 'return grant' led him to decide to return to his home country of Burkina Faso to found the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN), rather than take up an attractive postdoctoral offer in the US. Today, his research institution has 400 employees and carries out world-leading malaria research.

In preparing a new framework agreement, we’re asking for our partners insights. What are the blind spots? How can we collaborate even better on an equal footing? We also recently organised a public event with university umbrella organisations VLIR-UOS and ARES on decolonisation in research and education with Professor Seye Abimbola. This resulted in very productive conversations and reflections.

The ITM also provides travel advice and serves as an outpatient clinic for tropical diseases and HIV/AIDS. Does people travelling more often and farther have any noticeable effect? Are they taking enough precautions?

The very fact that people come to us - and consult our Wanda app - before they leave on a trip indicates that they are taking precautions. In 2025, we administered more than 43,500 vaccines and registered more than 22,700 consultations regarding travel advice.

Yes, people do return with diseases, including from southern Europe. These could include dengue, chikungunya and malaria. There was a recent outbreak of chikungunya in La Réunion and later in Cuba and Suriname, which is something we also report on Wanda.

There is also a growing concern that tropical diseases could take hold in Belgium as a result of climate disruption. How do you estimate the risk? And what is the ITM doing about it?

Due to global warming, we are seeing certain mosquito’s species appear in places where they have never been seen before. For example, we worked with Sciensano to set up a collaborative science platform to track the tiger mosquito, where citizens can among other things help report the presence of tiger mosquitoes in Belgium.

We are also launching the be-IMPACT project, a national initiative that responds to the rising number of malaria cases among returning travellers and the increasing number of treatment failures, often due to resistance of the parasite to medication.

In addition, we conduct research on how climate can affect diseases. In doing so, we really look at the broad picture. How do interactions occur between pathogens, patients and the population? How can we identify new breakthroughs? In addition to climate, we also include the impact of urbanisation, migration and the like.

Being an international research institute with global partners gives us an advantage on this matter. We know how our partners in the tropics deal with it, so we are well prepared should the diseases appear here. And we can give the correct advice to the government.

So to sum up: yes, the risk is increasing, but so is our expertise!

As you said, research is also an essential pillar of the ITM. Can you highlight some notable breakthroughs from the past 120 years?

It is safe to say that we have become a centre of excellence and a leader in preventing, treating and eradicating tropical infectious diseases.

For example, sleeping sickness is on the verge of elimination. By the way, did you know that we are the only ones who produce diagnostic kits - the so-called CATT test - for sleeping sickness, which we supply to the World Health Organization (WHO)? It's an example of how market mechanisms can fall short: it was not financially attractive enough for the pharmaceutical industry. An institution like ours fills those gaps.

We are also strong in the fields of malaria and tuberculosis (TB). The WHO relies on our very extensive collection of TB strains for identification.

We have also played an important role in HIV research. HIV/AIDS was initially thought to be limited to homosexual men but, thanks to our partners in Congo, we showed that heterosexual people could also contract the disease.

What are some current important research subjects?

We're focusing on emerging infectious diseases and outbreak preparedness, disease prevention, control and eradication. Antimicrobial resistance - resistance to antibiotics - is another important issue. We also reflect on how artificial intelligence (AI) can affect the way we conduct research. AI cannot be an end in itself but must contribute to our vision.

Equitable, sustainable and resilient healthcare systems are also very important to us, because they’re the only viable solution to be truly prepared for pandemics and epidemics. Take sleeping sickness, for example. As mentioned, we designed a diagnostic test and contributed to the development of a non-toxic, single dose medication.

But that is not enough to eradicate the disease in DR Congo. We also need a healthcare system that ensures that health workers, medicines and supplies get to the patients.

Nor do we shy away from difficult, topical issues. Just last week we organised a conference on chemsex. This concerns the use of drugs before or during sex, often involving prolonged sexual sessions, multiple partners and increased health risks. Conference participants included scientists, healthcare providers, NGOs and people with experience in the area.

An expert by experience testified how no one has ever asked how they could help him or what he needed. And that is exactly what the ITM wants to do for people living with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs): provide a safe space and explore together how we can help. Mental health is very important to us. One of the speakers said that, to his knowledge, only two such 'safe spaces' existed in Europe: one in London and one in Antwerp.

These days, in international cooperation, they like to talk about 'mutually beneficial partnerships'. Can you give some examples of that in your work?

During an mpox outbreak in 2022, we were able to identify the first Belgian patient and more than 790 cases were eventually confirmed. Thanks to our large HIV and STI clinic and our wide expertise in tropical viruses, the ITM played a crucial role in containing the outbreak. Thanks to partnerships with our colleagues in DR Congo, who had been working on mpox for some time, we were able to respond this quickly.

We already talked about the increased risk of so-called tropical diseases in Belgium due to the climate crisis. Thanks to our partnerships with institutions in the Global South, we are the most appropriate institution to prepare for this because our partners are already dealing with these diseases.

We further see cutbacks being made everywhere, not only in international cooperation, but also on science, health, etc. Our partners have always had to deal with limited resources, so we can learn from their ‘out of the box’ ways of thinking to develop solutions.

Finally, I want to highlight our work on HIV and STIs. Our HIV clinic supports 3,500 HIV patients in Belgium. We not only offer them a safe space but also reach out to those who have more difficult access to care. There are also such people in Belgium!

Working on these issues has become trickier due to the current difficult state of global politics, especially in the US. This makes our role even more important, and we are happy to be able to bridge the gap. Hopefully, the Belgian government will also continue to stand up for these issues.