Issam is a medical doctor specialist in public health who has worked for years in leishmaniasis endemic areas in Morocco. He then worked as a representative of the Ministry of Health in Errachidia Province for three years. Since 2014, he is enrolled in a full-time PhD research project about how to control cutaneous leishmaniasis in Morocco. This project is supported by the Moroccan Ministry of Health and the DGD (Belgian cooperation) fellowship at the Institute of Tropical Medicine and the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
