Alex Opio is a public health specialist. He recently retired from civil service and is currently serving as the Project Coordinator for the East Africa Public Health Laboratory Networking Project under the Ministry of Health. He is also a Co-Director of the Public Health Fellowship Program. At the time of his retirement, he was serving as the Commissioner of Health Services in charge of the National Disease Control Department.Before retirement, he worked for 35 years in the public sector. Over the years of his work as a civil servant, he directed top priority health programs; including, the National Expanded Program on Immunization, HIV/AIDS Control Program, National Tuberculosis Control Program, National Malaria Control Program and Surveillance of Communicable Diseases.

He was very instrumental and played a leading role in the development and formulation of a number of national policies and strategies for the prevention and control of communicable diseases. Notably, he oversaw the development of the Uganda National Health Laboratory Policy, Policy for Co-trimoxazole prophylaxis among HIV-infected persons, Uganda National Safe Male Circumcision Policy and Safe Male Circumcision Technical Guidelines.

He has been active in research, providing leadership and technical guidance in some public health evaluations. He has conducted research in a number of important public health areas, including in HIV/AIDS field. Currently, he is the Survey Director of the ongoing Uganda Population-based HIV/AIDS Impact Assessment (UPHIA). This is a nationwide survey which among others aims at determining HIV incidence and HIV prevalence at both national and regional levels. He was also the Team Leader for the Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey 2011 and Uganda HIV Sero-Behavioral Survey 2004-05.