Margarida Tavares graduated in Medicine from the University of Porto Medical School and holds a Master of Public Health degree with a specialization in Infectious Risk from the École de Santé Publique Pasteur – Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Pasteur-Cnam School of Public Health) in Paris, France.
She is currently a consultant in Infectious Diseases and Director of the Board of the Autonomous Unit for Emergency and Intensive Care at the Unidade Local de Saúde de São João (ULSSJ).
She is a member of the EPI Unit research group at the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto (ISPUP) and of the Associated Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health (ITR, LA/P/0064/2020).
She served as Deputy Minister of Health and Secretary of State for Health Promotion in the XXIII Government of the Portuguese Republic (2022-24), Director of the National Program for STIs and HIV Infection (2021-22), and Clinical Director of the São João University Hospital Center (2010-15)
She was an invited professor at the University of Porto Medical School and responsible for the Control of Communicable Disease Unit of the Master of Public Health at the University of Porto. (2018-2022).
She was also a member and spokesperson for the National Rapid Response Team to the Emergence of Human Infection by Monkeypox Virus (Mpox), a member of the COVID-19 Task Force, and of the National Operational Group for the Flu Pandemic at the Directorate-General of Health.
Key professional and technical areas: Emerging Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology and Public Health, and Health Policy and Health Services Management.
Research interests: Emerging Infectious Diseases, HIV Infection, Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, and Public Health.
