Connie Erkens joined KNCV in 2003. She has a broad experience as TB control physician and as Epidemiologist within the Municipal Public Health Services (MPHS) in The Netherlands. Previously she worked 8 years as a general physician in rural hospitals in Zambia and Malawi.

At KNCV she is a Project Leader for KNCV, support to the Dutch national TB program and Executive Secretary of the Committee for Practical TB control (CPT). Her specific tasks include guideline development in specific areas. In addition, Connie is project leader for the project leader of the ZonMW research project TB Endpoint on behalf of a research consortium of MPHSs, EMC, UvA, RIVM and GGD GHOR Netherlands. The 4-year project focusses on the optimal implementation of latent tuberculosis infection screening among new immigrants and asylum seekers in the Netherlands.

Her fields of expertise are: Tuberculosis monitoring and evaluation, TB surveillance and epidemiology, TB control policy development, Operational research, Childhood TB, Contact investigation and management of latent TB (LTBI).

Recent publications

 

Spruijt I, Joren C, van den Hof S, Erkens C et al. Tailored approaches facilitate high completion of tuberculosis infection treatment among migrants. Eur Respir J 2021. Preventive Therapy for Persons With HIV Infection: A Randomized Trial. Aug 24. Abstract

---

Van de Berg SEJ, Erkens C, Mulder C. Tuberculosis contact investigation following the stone-in-the-pond principle in the Netherlands – Did adjusted guidelines lead to improved efficiency?. Eurosurveillance 2021. Accepted for publication.

---

Gafar F, Ochi T, Van’t Boveneind-Vrubleuskaya N, Erkens C, van den Hof S, van der Werf TS, et al. Towards elimination of childhood and adolescent tuberculosis in the Netherlands: an epidemiological time-series analysis of national surveillance data. Eur Respir J. 2020. Abstract

---

Spruijt I, Haile DT, Erkens C, van den Hof S, Goosen S, Ten Kate A, et al. Strategies to reach and motivate migrant communities at high risk for TB to participate in a latent tuberculosis infection screening program: a community-engaged, mixed methods study among Eritreans. BMC Public Health 2020 12;20(1):315. Abstract

---

Ineke Spruijt, Connie Erkens, Susan van den Hof, Frank Cobelens. Comment: Latent tuberculosis screening and treatment among asylum seekers: a mixed-methods study. Eur Respir J. 2020;55(4) No abstract available.

---

Erkens C, Spruijt I, van den Hof S. et al. Preventing TB among immigrants; aiming for an integrated approach to infectious diseases. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2020 Jul 16;164:D4538.Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2020. PMID: 32757512 Abstract

---

de Vries G, Commandeur S, Erkens C, Haddad W, Jansen N, Kouw P et al. Towards selective tuberculosis screening of people in prison in a low-incidence country. Eur Respir J. 2020 9;55(4):1902209. No abstract available.

---

Gupta RK, Calderwood CJ, Yavlinsky A, Krutikov M, Quartagno M, Erkens C et all. Discovery and validation of a personalized risk predictor for incident tuberculosis in low transmission settings. Nat Med. 2020; Dec;26(12):1941-1949. Abstract

 

read all the KNCV publications