Oly Ilunga Kalenga (born 24 June 1960) is a Belgian–Congolese medical doctor who was the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Minister of Public Health The Minister for Public Health and Women's Health is a junior ministerial post in the Scottish Government. The minister is not a member of the Scottish Cabinet, however, they report to the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care. ...

from 2016 to 2019. He resigned his post on 22 July 2019, then was arrested on 14 September 2019 for allegedly mismanaging a portion of Congo's $4.3 million in Ebola response money, an allegation that he denies.

Early life and career in Belgium

Oly Ilunga Kalenga moved to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

aged 13. He studied medicine at the University of Namur and the University of Louvain (UCLouvain). His MD was followed by a PhD in

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

and

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evide ...

and an MBA specialising in

health economics Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behavior in the production and consumption of health and healthcare. Health economics is important in determining how to improv ...

at the Louvain School of Management of the UCLouvain in Louvain-la-Neuve. He worked at the Cliniques de l'Europe (Europe Hospitals) in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, specialising in internal medicine and

intensive care Intensive care medicine, also called critical care medicine, is a medical specialty that deals with seriously or critically ill patients who have, are at risk of, or are recovering from conditions that may be life-threatening. It includes pro ...

, rising to head the intensive care unit, and then became the hospital's medical director and managing director (2013–16).

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ilunga Kalenga began consulting for the

(DRC) health ministry in 2000 and was appointed DRC's

in December 2016. After two-and-a-half years, on 22 July 2019, Kalenga resigned after his mandate was curtailed to only non-Ebola public-health matters, attributing his departure to the Congolese President

Félix Tshisekedi Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo (; born 13 June 1963) is a Congolese politician who has been the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 24 January 2019. He is the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) ...

's decision to oversee the DRC's Ebola response personally, and to his desire to avoid "creating confusion" and to avert the "inevitable...predictable ublicoutcry" such a sharing of oversight entailed. Tshisekedi then appointed a team of experts, led by Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, described by ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

'' as Africa's Ebola hunter, to direct the Congo's Ebola response. His tenure as public health minister was marked by two outbreaks of Ebola virus disease in the country, in Équateur in May–July 2018 and in Kivu and Ituri from August 2018 (ongoing as of April 2020). Vaccination was key to the successful control of the Équateur outbreak, and Ilunga Kalenga stated that he was vaccinated "to show the vaccine's safety and break the stigma around it." He also served on the board of the African Constituency Bureau (2018–20).

Selected publications

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilunga Kalenga, Oly 1960 births Living people People from Lubumbashi Université de Namur alumni Université catholique de Louvain alumni Belgian intensivists Government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo medical researchers