Dr. El-Helou is an assistant professor in the Division on Infectious Diseases of the Department of Medicine at McMaster University and plays a role in both the undergraduate and residency programs. He is also a co-director of the Special Immunology Services Clinic at the McMaster University Medical Center and the head of the Service of Infectious Diseases at St. Joseph’s Healthcare.

He earned his medical degree at the University of Ottawa and completed a fellowship in Internal Medicine at the Royal College of Canada. There, he was awarded chief medical resident at Sunnybrook Hospital. He then went on to complete fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at the Albert Einstein University in New York.  His subspecialty is infectious diseases.

Dr. El-Helou’s research interests are centered on co-infection of Herpes Simplex Virus and HIV, acute HIV infection, and investigating novel drug therapies for HIV infection.

He contributed to a CTN research publication which tested the benefits of early initiation of antiretroviral therapy.