Jorge Alvar graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1979, and a diploma of Tropical Medicine & Parasitology in Hamburg, Germany. Further, he obtained his PhD in Medicine before completing a post doctorate at Cambridge University. He was the Medical Officer in charge of the Leishmaniasis Control Programme in the Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO), having launched an ambitious strategic plan and specific control programmes in different regions and countries. Prior to this he was the director of the National Centre of Tropical Medicine at the Institute of Health Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Jorge has considerable expertise in, and has received awards for his research in leishmaniasis epidemiology, chemotherapy and diagnosis, canine infection, and AIDS co-infection. He has a wide publication record spanning over 25 years and is also member of the editorial board for different journals, and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Spain. His leishmaniasis expertise and advocacy has resulted in a global donation campaign of liposomal amphotericin B which he now administers from DNDi.