Hilmir Asgeirsson

Hilmir Asgeirsson, MD, PhD, is a specialist in internal medicine and infectious disease, working as Senior consultant at the Department of Infectious at Karolinska University Hospital. He is a member of Karolinskas Expertise group on tropical medicine, responsible for internal guidelines and development. He is also medically responsible for the High-Level Isolation Unit at Karolinska. The unit manages suspected and confirmed viral haemorrhagic fevers (e.g., Ebola, Marburg, CCHF, Lassa fever) and other high consequence infectious diseases.

His research interests have mostly been within the fields of tropical and travel medicine, with national and international collaborators. He has also done research on severe bacterial infections (endocarditis, bacteraemia) and infections requiring isolation measures (e.g. tuberculosis, mpox).

Dr Asgeirsson is involved in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet. He is and has been responsible for both national and international courses in tropical medicine involving numerous visits to hospitals and other health facilities in various African countries (e.g., Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Madagascar). Through Karolinska Institutet he has in 2023 participated in a teacher exchange program visiting the Medical Faculty of Universidad del Azuay in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Dr Asgeirsson is a counsellor on the Executive Board of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) since 2021. He serves as the vice-chair of the of the Swedish Society for Tropical Medicine, and heads it’s grant committee. He is also a member of the board of the Swedish Society of Travel Medicine since 2019.