Osterhaus was born into a Roman Catholic family of seven and grew up in Slotermeer, Amsterdam. From 1967 onwards he studied veterinary medicine at Utrecht University and graduated cum laude in 1974. He received his PhD degree in 1978 at the same university for a dissertation entitled "Feline infectious peritonitis: identification, propagation and epidemiology". He fulfilled several positions in his 16-year career at the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, the last of which was head of the laboratory for Immunobiology. During that period he was also a part-time Professor of Environmental Virology at the Institute for Virology in Utrecht, a position he still holds as of 2009. In 1993 he became Professor of Virology at the Medical Faculty of Erasmus University and also head of the Department of Virology at Erasmus University Medical Centre Rotterdam. In 2013, he stepped down from his position as head of the department of Viroscience, as the Virology department is now known, and handed over the reins to Professor Marion Koopmans, formerly attached to the Dutch National Institute of Health, the RIVM. Osterhaus did not rest and set up a new institute looking at the zoonotic side of virology at TiHo in Hannover, Germany. He also holds a position at Artemis BV in Utrecht. Osterhaus played an important role in the identification of the SARS coronavirus. In February 2004, his team found that Pegylated interferon alpha, a drug used for the treatment of patients with Hepatitis C, helps combat the virus that causes SARS. Osterhaus holds various editorial positions for scientific journals, holds several patents, has been supervisor of more than 40 PhD students and has identified more than a dozen “new” viral pathogens and he is author of more than 1000 scientific papers, including journals like Nature, Science and The Lancet. Osterhaus served as member and chairman of many international scientific committees, most notably four WHO reference centres, the Dutch Influenza Centre, the Dutch Health Council and the European Scientific Working group on Influenza.
Osterhaus has been criticised for what has been described as a 'fear campaign', for exaggerating the consequences of the 2009 flu pandemic and pushing for extensive measures, even though the pandemic influenza is now treated as if it were a common flu. Physician and microbiologist Miquel Ekkelenkamp called Osterhaus a 'scaremonger' in an opinion piece in nrc.next and said: "'Expert' Osterhaus should be banned indefinitely from television. Everything he claimed turned out to be untrue: we're not all going to die like we did in 1918, not everyone needs a vaccination, we are not going to give Tamiflu to everyone and the virus has not mutated into something much more dangerous." Osterhaus claimed he has not exaggerated the risks. During debate 'De Kwestie live' he said "I have named a wide spectrum of possibilities and minister Ab Klink decided to go for the worst-case scenario" In September 2009, a controversy arose when it became known Osterhaus has a 9.8% share in ViroClinics B.V, a pharmaceutical company that supposedly benefits from the 34 million vaccines Health minister Ab Klink bought based on his advice as government consultant. Osterhaus maintains he did nothing against the law and that he does not personally benefit from the order.
