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Heidelberg Institute of Global Health
Kliniken &… Institute Global Health Staff Lang, Hans-Jörg
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Dr. Hans-Jörg Lang; MD, PHD, FRCPCH-UK

Paediatrician; Group lead: Global Child Health: Advancing Child Health in Humanitarian Contexts and Among Disadvantaged Populations

Hans-Jörg Lang focuses on strengthening essential emergency and critical care (EECC) capacity in low-resource and humanitarian settings, with an emphasis on child health, epidemic preparedness, and climate-resilient healthcare systems.

His work includes capacity-building initiatives integrated into national training programs, aiming to reduce mortality among critically ill newborns, children, and pregnant women. He collaborates with international partners to improve paediatric care during health emergencies and epidemic responses, including high-consequence infectious diseases such as Filovirus outbreaks.

His interests extend to climate-resilient health systems, particularly integrating renewable energy solutions to aiming to improve access to essential paediatric and newborn care. Through multi-sectoral collaboration, he aims to contribute to context-adapted, good-quality care by linking public health interventions, capacity building, and implementation research to develop scalable, replicable pilot projects that address health inequities in fragile systems.

  • Medical Doctor (University Freiburg/Germany)
  • PHD (Centre for International Health, University Bergen, Norway); https://www.uib.no/en/cih
  • FRCPCH-UK; Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; United Kingdom.
  • MRCPCH- Member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; United Kingdom.
  • Paediatrician & completion of paediatric intensive care medicine training in the UK.

Hans-Jörg Lang, a medical graduate from Berlin and Freiburg, Germany, completed specialized training in paediatrics and paediatric intensive care medicine in the UK. He has worked for several years with development and humanitarian organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and briefly in Afghanistan, including MSF, ALIMA, and GIZ/CIM. 

Hans-Jörg Lang has played an active role in international outbreak responses, including Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019–2020), Guinea (2021), Uganda (Sudan ebolavirus outbreak, 2022), and the Marburg virus outbreak in Equatorial Guinea (2023). He has contributed to WHO-led technical working groups, focusing on Filovirus clinical care training, guideline development (e.g., Filovirus clinical care, diphtheria management), oxygen access strategies, and the design of rapidly deployable treatment units for high-consequence infectious diseases. Additionally, he has supported the development of international standards for emergency medical teams responding to epidemics.

Additionally, Hans-Jörg Lang contributes to the review of guidelines within the paediatric surviving sepsis campaign network and participates in scientific committees of the World Federation of Paediatric Intensive and Critical Care Society.

While contributing  to multidisciplinary global child health initiatives at HIGH, he continues to work as a paediatric and critical care referent for the NGO Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), based in Dakar, Senegal.   

*DED: Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst; GIZ/CIM: Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit/Centre for International Migration; MSF: Médecins sans Frontières; ALIMA: Alliance for International Medical Action.

Projects & Grants

In progress. 

Other scientific projects and initiatives

Collaboration with Levy Mwanawasa Medical University (LMMU), Lusaka, Zambia.

Collaboration with Dr. Nellie Bell, Head of the Paediatric Department, Ola During Children’s Hospital, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Collaboration with Prof. Diavolana Adrianarimanana, Faculté de Médicine, Mahajanga, Madagascar.

Collaboration with the Climate Action Accelerator initiative/Geneva

Collaboration with Prof. Walter Commerell, Technical University of Ulm, Germany.

Ongoing collaboration as paediatric and critical care advisor with the NGO Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), Dakar, Senegal.

Publications

Publications:1-27

1. Kabami Z, Ario AR, Harris JR, et al. Ebola disease outbreak caused by the Sudan virus in Uganda, 2022: a descriptive epidemiological study. Lancet Glob Health 2024. HJ Lang was part of the Uganda Ebolavirus response team.

2. Ijaz N, Nader M, Ponticiello M, …Lang HJ… et al. Contextual factors influencing bubble continuous positive airway pressure implementation for paediatric respiratory distress in low-income and middle-income countries: a realist review. The Lancet Global Health 2024.

3. Fontana L, Ondo Avomo CO, Ngomo Mikue LE, …Lang HJ…. et al. Case Series of Patients with Marburg Virus Disease, Equatorial Guinea, 2023. N Engl J Med 2024; 391(3): 283-5.

4. Duvignaud A, Etafo IC, Jaspard M, ….. P Lang HJ*, Ayodejo OO*resentation and outcomes of Lassa fever in children in Nigeria: a prospective cohort study (LASCOPE). J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc 2024.*both as last authors.

5. Pare BC, Camara AM, Camara A, …Lamg HJ. Ebola outbreak in Guinea, 2021: Clinical care of patients with Ebola virus disease. S Afr J Infect Dis 2023; 38(1): 454.

6. Lang HJ, Fontana L, Lado M, Kojan R. Triage of patients with Ebola virus disease. Lancet Infect Dis 2023; 23(1): 10-2.

7. Jaspard M, Mulangu S, Juchet S, …Lang HJ…..et al. Development of the PREDS score to predict in-hospital mortality of patients with Ebola virus disease under advanced supportive care: Results from the EVISTA cohort in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. EClinicalMedicine 2022; 54: 101699.

8. Gao Y, Zhao Y, Guyatt G, et al. Effects of therapies for Ebola virus disease: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Lancet Microbe 2022; 3(9): e683-e92. HJ Lang was part of the guideline development 'collaborators'.

9. Galatsch M, Lang HJ, Noa C, et al. A mixed-methods study on evaluating an updated, francophone version of ETAT+ training in Madagascar. South Afr J Crit Care 2022; 38(2).

10. Wooldridge G, O'Brien N, Muttalib F,…Lang HJ…. et al. Challenges of implementing the Paediatric Surviving Sepsis Campaign International Guidelines 2020 in resource-limited settings: A real-world view beyond the academia. Andes Pediatr 2021; 92(6): 954-62.

11. Lang HJ. Treatment of the critically ill child in low-resource settings : Essential paediatric emergency and critical care. 2021. https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/handle/11250/2825050PHD).

12. Jaspard M, Sow MS, Juchet S, …Lang HJ.et… al. Clinical presentation, outcomes and factors associated with mortality: A prospective study from three COVID-19 referral care centres in West Africa. Int J Infect Dis 2021; 108: 45-52.

13. Singh Y, Tissot C, Fraga MV, Lang HJ… et al. International evidence-based guidelines on Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) for critically ill neonates and children issued by the POCUS Working Group of the European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC). Crit Care 2020; 24(1): 65.

14. Lang HJ, Amito J, Dünser MW, Giera R, Towey R. Intensive-care management of snakebite victims in rural sub-Saharan Africa: An experience from Uganda. Southern African Journal of Critical Care (Online) 2020; 36: 39-45.

15. Myers S, Dinga P, Anderson M, …Lang HJ.. Use of bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) in the management of critically ill children in a Malawian paediatric unit: an observational study. BMJ Open Respir Res 2019; 6(1): e000280.

16. Levin M, Cunnington AJ, Wilson C, Lang HJ…et al. Effects of saline or albumin fluid bolus in resuscitation: evidence from re-analysis of the FEAST trial. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 2019; 0.

17. Fitzgerald E, Mlotha-Mitole R, Ciccone EJ, Lang HJ….et al. A pediatric death audit in a large referral hospital in Malawi. BMC Pediatr 2018; 18(1): 75.

18. Lang HJ, Tasker RC. Sepsis kills: suspect it, recognise it and be prompt with treatment. Arch Dis Child 2017; 102(1): 2-4.

19. Hansmann A, Morrow BM, Lang HJ. Review of supplemental oxygen and respiratory support for paediatric emergency care in sub-Saharan Africa. Afr J Emerg Med 2017; 7(Suppl): S10-s9.

20. Walk J, Dinga P, Banda C, …Lang HJ. Non-invasive ventilation with bubble CPAP is feasible and improves respiratory physiology in hospitalised Malawian children with acute respiratory failure. Paediatr Int Child Health 2016; 36(1): 28-33.

21. O'Hare B, Phiri A, Lang HJ, et al. Task sharing within a managed clinical network to improve child health in Malawi. Hum Resour Health 2015; 13: 60.

22. Lang H, Mlotha-Mitole R, Phiri A, et al. Abstract 34: REDUCTION OF PAEDIATRIC HOSPITAL MORTALITY IN A MALAWIAN REFERRAL HOSPITAL. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine 2014; 15: 11-2.

23. Yacoub S, Lang HJ, Shebbe M, et al. Cardiac function and hemodynamics in Kenyan children with severe malaria. Crit Care Med 2010; 38(3): 940-5.

24. Nayak PP, Morris K, Lang H, et al. Lack of agreement between arterial and central venous blood glucose measurement in critically ill children. Intensive Care Med 2009; 35(4): 762-3.

25. Nayak P, Lang H, Parslow R, Davies P, Morris K. Hyperglycemia and insulin therapy in the critically ill child. Pediatr Crit Care Med 2009; 10(3): 303-5.

26. Afzal N, Lang HJ, Mills S, et al. INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE PHENOTYPE IN BRITISH CHILDREN OF SOUTH ASIAN ORIGIN. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 2006.

27. Greenlee MW, Lang HJ, Mergner T, Seeger W. Visual short-term memory of stimulus velocity in patients with unilateral posterior brain damage. J Neurosci 1995; 15(3 Pt 2): 2287-300.

Contribution to guideline development & expert panels

Staff

Contact Information

E-Mail: Hansjoerg.Lang(at)alima.ngo 

hansjoerg.lang(at)uni-heidelberg.de  

HIGH Working Group on Global Child Health