Newsletter of School of Public Health and Community Medicine 1CRE Immunisation Annual Report -2014 -15

ANNUAL REPORT 2014 -2015

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ContentsTABLE OF CONTENTS

DIRECTOR’S REPORT 3SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD 4NHMRC ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR CREs 4

STREAM 1 ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER VACCINATION NEEDS 5

STREAM ACTIVITIES 5RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 5OTHER ACTIVITIES 6

STREAM 2 NEONATAL AND PARENTAL VACCINATION STRATEGIES 8STREAM ACTIVITIES 8RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 8WORKSHOPS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 9

STREAM 3 FRAIL ELDERLY VACCINATION 10STREAM ACTIVITIES 10RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 10WORKSHOPS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 12

STREAM 4 VACCINATION IN MIGRANTS, TRAVELLERS AND REFUGEES 14STREAM ACTIVITES 14RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 14OTHER ACTIVITIES 15

CRE METHOD STREAMS 17

CRE GRANTS/FUNDING -2014 - 2015 20New Research grants secured by CRE members 2014 - 2015 202015 202014 20Fellowships awarded to CRE members 2014 - 2015 20

PUBLICATIONS – 2014 - 2015 212015 212014 22

APPENDIX, CRE MEMBERS – 2014 - 2015 24Chief investigators 24Associate investigators 26Professional Research Persons 28CRE Postgraduate students 32Members of the Scientific Advisory Board 33

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We recognise the unique position of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia’s culture and history, and acknowledge them as the traditional owners of the land. The Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) in Immunisation in Under-studied and Special Risk Populations is funded from 2012-16 by the NHMRC, and is dedicated to addressing an identified gap in knowledge using high quality, multi-method research in a collaborative team environment. The mission of the CRE is to address gaps in knowledge in immunisation of under-studied and special-risk populations through research, consultation, advocacy, policy and capacity building. The use of vaccines at the population level has increased substantially in both cost and complexity in Australia and internationally over the past decade or more. The National Immunisation Program (NIP) is the single most costly publicly-funded preventive program in Australia, making high quality research evidence to underpin vaccine policy is essential. Such evidence relating to vulnerable population subgroups at high disease risk usually remains

beyond the scope of funding from government or industry. In industry-sponsored clinical trials, high-risk groups are often specifically excluded. Such research is not commercially viable and is usually outside the remit of government agencies. High-risk groups suffer disproportionate morbidity and mortality, either because of less robust immunity (such as neonates, pregnant women and the frail elderly) or because of co-morbidities and environmental factors (such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, migrants, travellers and refugees). The CRE brings together experts in the field from the University of New South Wales, The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, The Kirby Institute, The Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, The University of Sydney and the University of Antwerp. We fund a range of talented post-doctoral researchers and research students who work with the team of chief and associate investigators to fulfilling our goals under four streams of the CRE:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vaccination needs

Neonatal and Parental vaccination strategies

Frail elderly

Migrant, traveller and refugee health

DIRECTOR’S REPORT We had a very productive and busy time from 2014 -2015; The CRE team was successful with a range of new grants and fellowships, outlined in this report 43 publications out of CRE related projects were published. A range of new students, post-doctoralresearchers and fellows also joined the CRE, bringing a wider range of research interests and expertise to the group.

The New South Wales Refugee Health Unit awarded the CRE a Certificate of Recognition for highly valued contribution to the promotion of health and wellbeing of refugees and humanitarian entrants, the award was presented at the Refugee week event ‘ innovation in Refugee Health” on 18th June 2014.

In June 2014 we conducted a workshop in Melbourne, ‘Equity in disease prevention: vaccines for the elderly with Max Walker AM as one the keynote speakers, representing the healthy ageing message. This was well attended, and received widespread media coverage. It also led to my being invited to deliver a similar plenary on elderly vaccination in New Zealand in 2015.The valuable feedback received provided at our 2nd SAB in 2014 has helped guide the strategic direction of the CRE.This document includes summaries of CRE’s streams output for the current period,

Professor Raina MacIntyre

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1. Generate new knowledge leading to improved health outcomes

2. Ensure effective transfer of research outcomes into health policy and/or practice

3. Develop the health and medical research workforce by providing opportunities to advance the training of new researchers, for future independent research and leadership roles

4. Facilitate collaboration

5. Record of Research and Translation Achievement

A Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) was established to provide expert advice and strategic direction for the CRE. The 2015 SAB members are Professor Margaret Burgess (Chair), Dr Wendy Bissinger, Professor Lisa Maher, Professor Terry Nolan, Professor Ross Andrews, Professor Sandra Eades, Dr Margaret Kay Professor Nicholas Zwar and Professor Adrian Miller

The terms of reference of the SAB are:

• To advise on the conceptualisation, methods and implementation of the CRE research program;

• To act as a source of expert advice on strategic priorities and policies relevant to the research program;

• To work with the research team to facilitate a research transfer strategy;

• To facilitate communication with government and non-government organisations and their employees;

• To review the scientific quality and outputs of the CRE research program

The third SAB meeting was held in November 2014 at UNSW with more than 30 attendees, including SAB members and CRE members. The valuable feedback provided at the meeting has helped guide the strategic direction of the CRE

CRE members

NHMRC ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR CREs

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

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Team members: AI James Ward (Stream Leader), CI Peter McIntyre, CI John Kaldor, CI Rob Menzies, CI Julie Leask, PRP Telphia Joseph, PRP Heather Gidding, PRP Tom Snelling, PRP Bette Liu, CRE fellow Royle, CRE Fellow Kong, Mrs Creighton, PRP Williams

New Students/Fellow and affiliates

Dr Marlene Kong – Kirby Institute: Dr Kong is the Program Head of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program; she is CRE fellow under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stream of the CRE. Marlene is an Aboriginal doctor from the Worimi people of Port Stephens.Marlene is currently enrolled at UNSW as a candidate for the DrPH. She is working under the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, specifically within the Muru Marri Indigenous Health Unit. As a doctoral candidate, she participates in the Future Health Leaders Program. She is also an advanced trainee of Public Health Medicine with the Faculty of Public Health Medicine Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Fleur Webster – UNSW: Fleur Webster holds a Masters in Public Health and a Masters in Science. She commenced her PhD studies this year as part of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Population Health Research examining ‘Immunisation in Understudied and Special Risk Populations’. Her topic is ‘Immunisation delivery through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical services: an examination of coverage rates and critical success factors’ under the supervision of Dr Robert Menzies, Dr Heather Gidding, Dr Veronica Matthews and Dr Hal Willaby. Her background is in public health research, policy and management having worked in the field of cancer for the past 20 years

STREAM 1

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES

STRAIT ISLANDER

VACCINATION NEEDS

STREAM ACTIVITIES

Linkage of the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) and State-based registers to evaluate and inform Australia’s Immunisation programs (Heather Gidding, Bette Liu, Peter McIntyre and WA researchers)All 13 linked data sets required for the project have been obtained by the researchers and cleaning of the data has started. To celebrate the successful linkage of the data, the project was officially launched at the PHAA Communicable Disease Control Conference in June 2015. A face to face investigators’ meeting was held on 23 April and priorities for analysis were discussed. These include the enhancement of Aboriginal status identification and estimating vaccine effectiveness and coverage for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children.

The first estimates of vaccination coverage (with pneumococcal vaccine) should be available by the end of the year.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

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The Aboriginal Immunisation reference group had a successful face to face meeting with the investigators in May, 2015 and since then have contributed to the development of algorithms to identify Indigenous status in our study cohort. We believe this is the only community-based Aboriginal immunisation reference group in Australia and their expertise has also been sought by ATAGI to inform the development of the all age Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).

Developing modules for adult and adolescent immunisation on Pen CAT – pilot study at Queensland Aboriginal and Islander health Council (CI R Menzies)The pilot study has been successfully completed in 4 AICCHS, one general practice in Queensland, and 2 general practices in New South Wales. A report of the pilot study was completed in the end of 2014.

Next stepsFollowing successful completion of the pilot study, the investigators would like to collect the vaccination coverage data submitted by AIHCCS participating in Continuous Quality Improvement program using these new modules. Data from other programs where vaccination coverage data are available – Australian Primary Collaborative and Medicine Insight – would also be collected. A validation study on these data would then be conducted to assess whether they could be used for ongoing surveillance of vaccination coverage in subpopulations for whom data are rarely available – Indigenous adults, people aged >6 months with medical risk factors, and pregnant women. Discussions are underway on the development of a NHMRC Partnership Project grant application.

‘Gaba Binggi (Good Needles) Developing an understanding of how two Aboriginal communities see and experience immunisation during pregnancy (A Creighton) Amy Creighton started this project in 2013 under supervision of Julie Leask as part of MPhil program. This study uses a participatory action research (PAR) framework to better understand how two rural Aboriginal communities see and experience immunisation during pregnancy. This qualitative study is progressing well with all Interviews have been completed with 25 participants and Analysis of data is ongoing and it is expected that the project will be completed by early 2016. This project is funded by CRE Immunisation

‘Identification of culturally sensitive approaches to improve immunization coverage and timeliness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families’ (J Royle)

This project aims to identify the strategies in place to maintain and increase immunisation coverage and timeliness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children up to 5 years of age. Culturally sensitive approaches to providing immunisations to the Aboriginal Community in Victoria are being examined. The project involves visiting Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations throughout Victoria, and targeted General Practices and Council Clinics in an area of northern Melbourne to identify successful approaches to providing immunisations for Aboriginal children and their families. The project has been approved by VACCHO and VAHS (the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service) and has ethics approval from the University of New South Wales. Pilot interviews have commenced at VAHS, informing approaches to recruitment and interviews state-wide. There have been three VAHS site visits and four interviews conducted with staff thus far. The project is ready to commence across Victoria. Jenny’s involvement in Aboriginal health includes providing education sessions at ACCHOs, Aboriginal mother and baby groups and participation in a Cancer Council Victoria Aboriginal adolescent immunisation advisory group. Seed funding was provided by the NHMRC CRE. A small project grant was provided by LearnMed, a not-for profit company, who spend the money they earn from their on-line support for FRACP trainees on Aboriginal health initiatives.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

CRE member Megan Williams was awarded her PhD at UNSW, titled Connective services: Post-prison release support in an urban Aboriginal population. Megan is a lecturer at Muru Marri, the Aboriginal health unit in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW and is a descendent of the Wiradjuri

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peoples of central NSW through her father’s family. Megan’s PhD research was a study of the processes, timing and strategies for support that Aboriginal service providers, family members and Elders support people use in assisting Aboriginal people transition from prison to community life, and to prevent reincarceration.Megan will continue contributing to teaching as well as researching Aboriginal leadership to reduce prison rates and promote health equity. For the CRE Immunisation, she is currently designing a qualitative study of immunisation among Aboriginal men’s particularly those with low levels of access to services and previous contact with the criminal justice system, with partner Mibbinbah Men’s Spaces.

From left to right: UNSW Chancellor David Gonski, Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver, Dr Megan Williams, Ms Sally Fitzpatrick, A/Professor Melissa Haswell and Professor Terry Campbell

CRE members, Telphia Joseph and Julie Leask

Ms Telphia Joseph was awarded a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) from Sydney University .

The title of her theses is ‘Aboriginal Medical Services contribution to Indigenous childhood immunisation in New South Wales and evaluation of reporting of the immunisations to the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register’ The findings revealed that ACCHS’s in NSW are taking active steps to achieve an improvement in coverage and timeliness of immunisations that occur under NCIP for Aboriginal Children. In addition, the observations revealed various systematic processes in some AMS’s that directly contributed to up to 96% coverage of NCIP vaccines for regular clients. It also highlighted specific program implementation and community events that compliment immunisation through health promotion, reminders and follow up at different AMS’s.

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NEONATAL AND PARENTAL

VACCINATION STRATEGIES

STREAM 2

Team members: CI McIntyre (Stream Leader), CI N Wood, CI Jones, CI Leask, AI Macartney, AI Marais

New Students and affiliates 2014 -2015

Lucy Deng, University of New South Wales (Supervisor Bette Liu) MIPH student “Prevalence of hepatitis B among antenatal women in New South Wales”

Edward Brown, University of Sydney medical student “Review of national RSV hospitalisation data: as part of research project within University of Sydney MD

Ahmed Moustafa, University of Sydney (Supervisors Nicholas Wood, Helen Quinn) MPhil candidate “Early infant pertussis: prevention and outcomes study (EIPPOS)”

STREAM ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

We have completed both the birth pertussis vaccine trial and a follow up of a subset of primary study participants examining immunogenicity and reactogenicity of a booster dose of DTPa vs dTpa vaccine in the second year of life. Immunogenicity results from the NHMRC funded birth acellular pertussis vaccine trial were accepted for oral presentation at the IDSA conference in San Diego in October 2015 (by Dr Wood) and at the International Neonatal and Maternal Immunisation Symposium in the Gambia in November 2015 (by Professor Peter McIntyre) . Longer term follow up of this unique cohort to measure immunogenicity and safety following the 4 year old DTPa booster dose is underway.

Edward Brown – commenced a research project examining the burden of RSV hospitalisations in early infancy as part of his MD degree at the University of Sydney. The aim of this study is to better understand the early infant burden and severity to inform the potential effectiveness of an RSV vaccine in pregnancy

Feasibility and pilot testing of a suite of decision tools to assist pregnant women deciding to vaccinate themselves against influenza and pertussis (PRP K Wiley, CI J Leask)This project will build on the research completed under the MumVacc and other related studies undertaken into Australian maternal influenza and pertussis vaccination behaviours, and the suite of decision tools developed based on the study findings. This study aims to 1) ascertain the feasibility of the decision tool suite, 2) refine it to contain the most recent evidence, and 3) to pilot test it in a number of antenatal care settings. Seed funding has been awarded by the CRE and the Marie Bashir Institute

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Participants at the neonatal vaccines workshop

Best practices for communicating pertussis booster recommendations to pregnant women (CI N Wood, PhD student E Hayles)Elizabeth Hayles’ PhD (co-supervised by Nick Wood) on uptake of pertussis vaccine in the peripartum period, together with a randomised control trial on health message framing. Results from this study have been presented at 8th Vaccine Congress and International Society of Vaccines in Philadelphia, USA. Aims of this project are to determine how to most effectively communicate the benefits of pertussis booster vaccination to pregnant women; to determine the rate of uptake of vaccination in new mothers and their immediate family; to determine what barriers may exist to implementation of routine vaccination of new mothers. Elizabeth Hayles has submitted her PhD for examination to the University of Sydney.

Evaluation of long term effectiveness of the infant hepatitis B vaccination strategy among antenatal women in the Northen Territory (CI J Kaldor, PRP B Liu, CRE Fellow M Kong and other researchers, MIPH Student Lucy Deng)This initial project aimed to evaluate the impact of newborn and catch-up Hepatitis B vaccination programs on Hepatitis B prevalence birthing women up to 20 years after program implementation in the Northern Territory. Discussions are now underway to extend this method to other jurisdictions. Linked data has been obtained in NSW and discussions are underway in QLD to conduct similar analyses. Expected Outcomes at End of Project: A better understanding of the impact of HBV vaccination in Australia and improved systems for HBV surveillance in Australia. An MIPH student (Lucy Deng) is conducting analysis of NSW data under supervision of the team

Immunogenicity and safety of an alternate pertussis (2 +1) vaccine schedule in infants (CI N Wood and P McIntyre)In 2015 recruitment for an infant pertussis vaccine trial was completed, this was fundedby the Financial Markets Foundation for Children to examine a 2+1 accelerated infant pertussis vaccine schedule, with doses being given at 6 weeks, 12 weeks and 10-11 months old, using data from controls in the neonatal trial as the comparator. Consideration to following up these infants to aged 4 years is currently underway to assess the longevity of immune responses following an alternate schedule.

WORKSHOPS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES

Some participants at the neonatal vaccines workshopDr Anita van den Biggelar (UWA). A/Prof Katie Flanagan (Monash and U Tas); Prof Nigel Curtis (U Melb), A/Prof Chris Blyth (UWA), Prof Margaret Burgess, Dr Elizabeth Wilson (NZ) ,A/Prof Kristine Macartney, Dr Jenny Royle ,A/Prof Helen Marshall (U Adel), Prof Peter McIntyre, Prof Robert Booy, Dr Nicholas Wood

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Neonatal Vaccines Workshop

Following the successful workshop in Melbourne in 2014 to explore the issue of induction of allergy by early vaccination, an invitee only workshop on “Neonatal vaccination – current and future role in Australia and the region - a research and policy seminar” was held on October 21st and October 22nd 2015, attended by 19 researchers in neonatal vaccination from across Australia and from New Zealand. The workshop heard presentations on current Australian neonatal vaccination studies including pertussis (Wood/McIntyre), BCG (Prof Nigel Curtis ,RCH and U Melb), rotavirus (Prof Julie Bines RCH and U Melb) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Dr Anita van den Biggelar and A/Prof Chris Blyth UWA) and discussed questions arising from this research and next steps. These included evidence gaps needed to progress neonatal immunisation, connection between neonatal and maternal vaccination initiatives; and opportunities for research and collaboration. . The meeting endorsed the value of continuing to develop a report of current burden of vaccine-preventable diseases in the first 3 months of life, initiated through the rotavirus project under student Vyoma Patel in 2013/14. Proceedings and recommendations of this workshop will be produced for publication

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FRAIL ELDERLY

VACCINATION

STREAM 3

Team members: CI MacIntyre (Stream leader), CI Booy, AI Poulos, PRP Heywood, PRP Seale, PRP Liu

New Students/Fellow and affiliates 2014 - 2015Christine Cooper, University of New South Wales (Supervisor, Raina MacIntyre, Anita Heywood) – Dr Ph student, “Barriers to elderly pneumococcal vaccination”

Sevan Dirmesropian, University of New South Wales (Supervisors Anthony Newall, James Wood, Raina MacIntyre) – PhD student, “The impact and cost-effectiveness of vaccination programs in the elderly”.

Amalie Dyda, University of New South Wales (Supervisors Bette Liu, John Kaldor, Raina MacIntyre) PhD student, “Influenza vaccination in the elderly (45 and up study)”

Surendra Karki – University of New South Wales (Supervisor, Bette Liu) – Post doc, “Identifying predisposing factors for, and the consequences of, common and emerging infectious diseases- A prospective cohort study of adults

STREAM ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Providing the evidence to guide adult immunisation strategies: a novel approach using a large prospective cohort study and record linkage (CI R MacIntyre, CI P McIntyre, PRP B Liu, PRP A Newall, PRP A Heywood, Postdoc S Karki, PhD Student A Dyda)

Current NHMRC project grant led by PRP Bette Liu which uses data linkage within the 45 and Up Cohort Study to examine risk factors and burden associated with vaccine preventable diseases in older adults with a focus on informing elderly vaccination programs. PhD student Amalie Dyda has conducted research on adult influenza vaccination

The immunogenicity of 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV- 7) in vulnerable elderly populations at high risk for invasive pneumococcal disease (CI R MacIntyre, CI P McIntyre) Aims: To compare impact of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) with that of the 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) in hospitalised frail elderly, comparing the current and longstanding pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (23vPPV) to the newer 7-valent conjugate (PCV7) vaccine followed by

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23vPPV 6 months later. This study shows the value of vaccination on the frail elderly. A paper was published in PLOS one in 2014A randomized clinical trial of the immunogenicity of 7-Valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine compared to 23-Valent polysaccharide vaccine in frail, hospitalized elderly (MacIntyre et al) published in 2014. This study also has a long-term duration of immunity study for which recruitment is complete and testing is underway

Acute myocardial infarction, influenza infection and vaccination: a meta-analysis of case-control studies (CRE Fellow M Barnes, CI R MacIntyre, PRP A Heywood, PhD student A Mahimbo, B Rahman, PRP A Newall)A systematic review with meta-analysis of case control studies examining the link between influenza infection, influenza vaccination and acute myocardial infarction was performed to estimate this association. We found that individuals who have suffered an influenza infection have approximately double the risk of experiencing an AMI compared to those without a history of recent influenza infection, while the influenza vaccination was protective against AMI, with a vaccine efficacy of against AMI of nearly 30%. This study was completed in October 2014. Preliminary results were presented at the European Influenza Conference held in Latvia, September 2014. A paper has been published in BMJ Heart (August 2015).

The impact and cost-effectiveness of vaccination programs in elderly: understanding the interaction between infant and elderly vaccination (PhD student S Dirmesropian, Co-primary supervisors: PRP A Newall and PRP J Wood Co- supervisor: CI R MacIntyre)Although the majority of vaccination programs are targeted at children, several vaccination programs also exist for the elderly. Pneumococcal and zoster are of two vaccination programs which fall in this category. Assessing the impact of these programs can be complex as childhood program using alternative vaccines also exist to target these infections and these programs can impact disease in the elderly through herd immunity effects. The elderly programs have generally received less attention from the research community and there has been limited research on the interaction between the childhood and elderly programs. An invited review on PCV13 cost-effectiveness in the elderly has been submitted to Human Vaccine and Immunotherapeutics.

Mr Max Walker and Professor David Goldblatt, key note speakers at the Elderly vaccines workshop

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WORKSHOPS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES

Workshop : Equity in disease prevention - vaccines for th eElderly

The CRE in association with the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) held an international workshop on Vaccination in the Elderly on Friday 20 June 2015 in Melbourne. The workshop included the latest scientific developments in elderly vaccines and thought-provoking discussions on ageism in health care. The workshop brought together more than 150 national and international stakeholders in immunisation, ageing and health, primary care, health services providers for the elderly group, insurance, researchers, government and non-government organisations, community representatives, federal and state government policy makers and advocacy groups. This had widespread media coverage and impact.As a result of this workshop the Victorian Immunisation Section initiated a quarterly article for the e – newsletter of the senior program in the Ageing & Aged Care Branch of the Health Department to communicate with the elderly and raise awareness of vaccine recommendations due to their health, age, lifestyle or occupation risk factors.

• Proceedings and recommendations from elderly vaccines workshops to be published in a suitable format.

• Influenza Specialist Group is planning an adult vaccines symposium for 2016, CRE members will be involved

• Professor Raina MacIntyre invited to speak at a GP conference in New Zealand on elderly vaccinations in May 2015.

Panel discussion ‘How good is good enough for the elderly?’ at the Elderly vaccines workshop

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Consultations in 2014 - National Seniors Australia

PHAA National Immunisation Achievement Award – 2014 The Public Health Association of Australia has awarded Professor Raina MacIntyre the National Immunisation Achievement Award to honour and recognise her outstanding research in the field of immunisation/vaccine preventable diseases. This Award is the Association’s pre-eminent prize in the field of immunisation and vaccine preventable diseases. Professor MacIntyre received this award at the PHAA 14th National Immunisation Conference in Melbourne.

Professor Peter McIntyre presenting award to Professor Raina MacIntyre at the PHAA 14th National Immunisation Conference in Melbourne

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VACCINATION IN MIGRANTS,

TRAVELLERS AND REFUGEES

STREAM 4

Team members: PRP Heywood (Stream leader), CI MacIntyre, CI Booy, CI Dwyer, PRP Seale, PRP Sheikh, PRP Rashid

New Students/Fellow and affiliates 2014 -2015

Amani Alqahatani, University of Sydney (Supervisors Harunor Rashid, Anita Heywood, Robert Booy and Kerrie Wiley ) PhD student, “Vaccination and non- pharmaceutical use among Australian Hajj pilgrims”

Abela Mahimbo, University of New South Wales (Supervisors Anita Heywood, Holly Seale and Mitchell Smith) PhD student, “Barriers and facilitators in the provision of immunisation services to newly arrived refugees under different models of care in Australia”

Amit Saha , University of New South Wales (Supervisors, Raina MacIntyre, Andrew Hayen) PhD student, “Field application of oral cholera vaccine, Shanchol and determination of the factors affecting vaccine delivery and estimates of effectiveness of oral cholera vaccine in an endemic setting”

Mohammad Alfelali University of Sydney (Supervisors, Harunor Rashid and Robert Booy) PhD student, “Evaluating the effectiveness of influenza vaccine among Hajj pilgrims”

Dr Almamoon Badahdah University of Sydney (Supervisors, Harunor Rashid and Robert Booy) PhD student ‘Meningococcal carriage, disease and vaccination’

STREAM ACTIVITES

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

GP travel medicine survey to understand barriers to the provision of pre-travel preventative health advice to migrant Australians in primary care. (PRP A Heywood, PRP H Seale). Funded through investigator-driven research grant from Sanofi Pasteur; this study aimed to investigate the barriers to the provision of pre-travel preventative health advice to migrant Australians in primary care. A paper was published in the Journal of Travel Medicine in 2015.

ARC Discovery Project Grant: Travellers visiting friends and relatives: New approaches to understanding and reducing infectious disease risks.(CI Macintyre, PRP A Heywood, PRP Seale, PRP Sheikh)Specific projects include an enhanced surveillance project (completed), key stakeholder interviews (completed) and a quantitative survey of VFR travellers recruited through travel agents (commenced).

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Hajj research: Several projects related to prevention and control of respiratory infection risk in Hajj pilgrims under supervision of Robert Booy and Harunor Rashid, with funding from Qatar National Research Fund, GSK, and Pfizer have been addressing VPDs, including vaccine uptake, optimising immune response to conjugate vaccinations in Australian Hajj pilgrim, the risk of respiratory tract infections among Australian Hajj pilgrims and the effective use of preventive measures during Hajj. New studies include an RCT of different meningococcal vaccines addressing meningococcal carriage, and an investigation of respiratory/GI colonization acquisition with VPDs. This work is now included in the work-plan of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Mass Gathering Medicine (Australia)

Refugee immunisation projects related to current immunisation policy in Australia for newly arrived refugees (PhD student A Mahimbo, PRP S Heywood, PRP H Seale)This PhD project aims to review current refugee health and immunisation policies in Australia and determine gaps in current immunisation strategies and recommendations, including funding for catch-up programs for this target group.

University student travel-health and immunity study (PRP A Heywood, PRP Seale, CI Macintyre). This GSK funded study commenced in 2015 and aims to investigate Australian University student travel-health and immunity and has two components: (1) an online survey of travel, health seeking behaviour and risk perception in the university student population; and (2) a serosurvey of university students.

Modelling of travel-related infections (CRE fellow L Gardner, PRP A Heywood, CI R MacIntyre). This NHMRC Project Grant commenced in 2015 with the aim of developing models using transport networks and travel data to predict transmission of travel-related infectious diseases across borders.

BCG vaccine: a review of policy and practices in Australia (G Khandakar, F Beard, AI K Macartney). Aim of this project is to review the existing policy and practice regarding the use of BCG vaccine at national and jurisdictional level in Australia, and in relation to other countries with similar TB incidence

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Certificate of recognition for contribution to the promotion of health and wellbeing of refugees and humanitarian entrants: The NSW Refugee Health Service hosted a Refugee week event ‘Innovation in Refugee Health” to cerebrate innovative projects, policy and research and to acknowledge the contribution of health professionals and services to the health of people in New South Wales from a refugee background.

During this event NSW Health awarded the CRE immunisation a Certificate of Recognition for its highly valued contribution to the promotion of health and wellbeing of refugees and humanitarian entrants (June 2014)

Consultation with Australia’s Grand Mufti regarding safety and Halal suitability of vaccines for Australian Muslims including Hajj pilgrims; outcome was successful with him endorsing vaccine safety. This is an important outcome for promotion of vaccines for Hajj pilgrims.

Recomendations and proceedings of the Migrant, refugee and traveller immunisation workshop has been sent to NIC, CDNA and ATAGI for consideration

Consultation with Border Health, Department of Health and Ageing – traveller airport survey (September 2013; April 2014)

Consultation with WHO collaboration Centre for Mass Gatherings

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Dr Heywood presented a symposium session, titled: The Intersection of Migrant and Travel Health on VFR travellers at the 14th Conference of the International Society of Travel Medicine which was held in May 2015 in Quebec Canada. On the basis of this presentation, she, and Prof Nick Zwar have been invited to write and editorial for the Journal of Travel Medicine

PhD student Mohamed Tashani was awarded the 2014 Robert Austrian Research award in Pneumococcal Vaccinology for his research ‘Optimising immune responses to vaccination in Australian Hajj Pilgrims’. Every 2 years, five Robert Austrian Research Awards in Pneumococcal Vaccinology are awarded to one applicant from each of the geographical regions; Africa, Asia/Australasia, Europe, Latin America and North America. Mohamed Tashani will present his research at the 10th International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD)- 2016 in Glasgow, UK

Certificate of recognition of CRE’s contribution to the promotion of health and wellbeing of refugees and humanitarian entrants

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CRE METHOD STREAMS Clinical and Epidemiological Research

Team members: CI Booy (Stream Leader), CI MacIntyre, CI McIntyre, CI Dwyer, CI Kaldor, CI N Wood, CI Jones, AI Skinner, AI Poulos, PRP Heywood, PRP Seale, PRP Snelling, PRP Rashid, PRP Sheikh.

CI Booy continued with studies of infections in the Hajj pilgrimage, involving RCTs (individual and cluster-randomised), observational cohort and classical case-control methodology and newer molecular epidemiological methods for characterizing microbes and their antibiotic resistance. In addition, long-term immunity following meningococcal vaccination is being investigated in Australian and UK cohorts to characterize susceptibility and natural boosting. Detailed neuro-psychological follow-up of meningococcal B disease survivors in NSW is being undertaken to inform cost-effectiveness deliberations.

CI MacIntyre continued with long term follow up studies of immunogenicity of pneumococcal conjugate and polysaccharide vaccines in the elderly. CI Wood continued his studies of the effectiveness of influenza vaccination in pregnant women – as part of the NHMRC funded “Flumum” study. 2015 was the last year of recruitment for this study. Collaborations with RNSH, including Elizabeth Hayles and Dr John Sinn (neonatologist) is continuing – the current study examines factors predicting uptake of dTpa vaccine during pregnancy given the recent NSW Ministry of Health funded antenatal pertussis vaccine program. Longer term follow up of the birth acellular pertussis vaccine trial participants continues and recruitment is expected to be finished in 2016. .

New Students/Fellow and affiliatesSonya Nicholl, University of New South Wales (Supervisors Holly Seale and Raina MacIntyre) DrPH student “- state based measles and pertussis vaccination programs.

Disease and economic modelling

Team members: CI Beutels (Stream leader), PRP J Wood (Stream Sub-leader), PRP Newall (Stream Sub-leader), PRP Liu, PRP Gidding, CRE Fellow Gardner.

Stream activitiesThis stream has attracted new PhD students and affiliates, including new collaborations in travel related infec-tions modelling. In 2015, PhD students of Dr Newall and Dr Wood (Sevan Dirmesropian and Nicole Mealing) visited University of Antwerp, Belgium, and spent time with the Dr Beutels. In addition, PRP Dr Newall visited the University of Antwerp for collaborations. Dr Gidding has been involved in developing a new course in data linkage and big data.

New Students/Fellow and affiliates Nicole Mealing, University of New South Wales (Supervisors Anthony Newall and James Wood) PhD student “The impact of vaccines programs for children”

Valentina Costantino , University of New South Wales (Supervisors James Wood, Heather Gidding) MPhil

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student “Modelling the impact of zoster vaccine on zoster morbidity in Australia”

Social Sciences

Team members: CI Leask (Stream leader), PRP Seale, PRP Heywood, PRP Joseph, PRP Sheikh, AI Skin-ner.

Stream Activities Capacity building workshop: 2014 CRE Immunisation held Capacity building workshop on Monday 1st December 2014 at the University of New South Wales. The aim of the workshop was to explore the opportunities available post PhD and to outline strategies to develop and sustain research career. Staff from NCIRS, the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society and Sax Institute joined staff from the UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine to present the workshop. 20 postgraduate students and early career researchers attended the workshop

Participants at the capacity building workshop

Professor Andrew Hayen presenting at the capacity building workshop

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Immunisation advocacy workshop: 2015

The workshop focused on advocacy for increasing immunisation rates of existing NIP vaccines across the age spectrum. The PHAA participated in planning the workshop with significant in-kind contribution of committee membership, advice, Michael Moore as guest speaker and advertising. Its focus was informed by previous SAB discussions and a draft plan was refined through feedback from the 2014 SAB meeting. In the workshop, advocacy strategies were discussed such as media advocacy, community advocacy, policy advocacy, engaging with or within government departments and grass roots citizen advocacy. The workshop took Moore’s definition “persuading decision makers of the need for change through identifying desired public health outcomes and effective and feasible methods of achieving that change.” The different groups embodying the components of advocacy were invited: those in research, citizen groups, mass media, social media, migrant health, Aboriginal health and clinical practice.The workshop attracted more than 200 immunisation researchers, practitioners, program managers, policy makers,organisations in health, consumers and others with a stake in improving immunisation programs.

CRE members have been active in policy advice and media advocacy in relation to:• Improving reminder systems;• ACIR streamlining;• Universal record checks at school entry with exemptions;• Expanding the Immunisation Register beyond childhood;• Free catch up vaccines for children born overseas.

Professor Raina MacIntyre at the Immunization advocacy workshop

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CRE GRANTS/FUNDING -2014 - 2015

New Research grants secured by CRE members 2014 - 2015

2015• NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence “Aboriginal Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses” (Ward)

• NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence “Integrated Systems for Epidemic Response (ISER)” (MacIntyre)

• NHMRC Project grant “Quantifying the effectiveness of pertussis vaccine in older adults” (Liu)

• NHMRC Project grant “Novel interventions to address methamphetamines in Aboriginal communities, including a randomised trial of a web based therapeutic tool used to treat dependence in clinical” (Ward)

2014• GSK Investigator Sponsored Studies Program. “University student travel-health and immunity study”

(Heywood, Seale and Macintyre)

• NHMRC Project grant “Case-cohort study of the association between pertussis vaccination in infancy and the risk of IgE-mediated food allergy” (Snelling et al )

• NHMRC Project grant “Real time models to inform prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases” (MacIntyre, Heywood, Gardner)

• NHMRC Project grant “Economic evaluation of alternative pneumococcal vaccination strategies” (Newall , Beutels , Menzies)

• NHMRC Project grant “Vaccination timeliness in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal infants: risk factors for delayed vaccination and impact on disease burden—a record linkage study” (Gidding, McIntyre, Liu, Jorm, Snelling, and other WA researchers)

• Australian Government Department of Health Grant “Evaluation of long-term effectiveness of the infant Hepatitis B vaccination strategy among antenatal women in the Northern Territory” (Kaldor et al)

• NHMRC Project Grant: “Providing the evidence to guide adult immunisation strategies: a novel approach using a large prospective cohort study and record linkage” (Liu , Newall , MacIntyre , McIntyre)

Fellowships awarded to CRE members 2014 - 2015

• Career Development Fellowship (CDF) Reducing sexually transmissible infections and blood borne viruses and associated risks among Australia’s First Peoples 2015 (James Ward)

• Career Development Fellowship (CDF) Population Health Level 1 (2014): “Large scale studies to inform and guide public health policy” - Bette Liu

• CDF Clinical Level 1 (2014) : “Immunisation safety and adverse events: Improving our understanding of causes and management” - Nicholas Wood

• NHMRC Postgraduate scholarship (2014): Amalia Dyda

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PUBLICATIONS – 2014 - 2015

2015

1. Heywood AE, Forssman BL, Seale H, MacIntyre CR, Zwar N. General Practitioners’ Perception of Risk for Travelers Visiting Friends and Relatives. Journal of Travel Medicine. 22(6): 368–374. October 2015.2. Liu B, Heywood AE, Reekie J, Banks E, Kaldor JM, McINTYRE P, Newall AT, Macintyre CR. Risk factors for herpes zoster in a large cohort of unvaccinated older adults: a prospective cohort study. Epidemiology and Infection. 143 (3) 2871-2881. October 2015. [Full text]3. Karki S, Gidding HF, Newall AT, McIntyre PB, Liu B. Risk factors and burden of acute Q fever in older adults in New South Wales, Australia: a prospective cohort study. Medical Journal of Australia. In press. October 2015.4. Karki S, McIntyre P, Newall AT, MacIntyre CR, Banks E, Liu B. Risk factors for pertussis hospi-talizations in Australians aged 45 years and over: A population based nested case–control study. Vac-cine. 33(42): 5647–5653.October 2015. [Full text]5. Barnes A, Heywood AE, Mahimbo A, Rahman B, Newall AT, Macintyre CR. Acute myocardial in-farction and influenza: a meta-analysis of case–control studies. BMJ. Epub ahead of print. August 2015. [Full text]6. Alqahtani AS, BinDhim NF, Tashani M, Willaby HW, Wiley KE, Heywood AE, Booy R, Rashid H. Pilot use of a novel Smartphone application to track travellers’ health behaviour and collect infectious disease data during Mass gathering: Hajj pilgrimage 2014. Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health. Epub ahead of print. August 2015. [Full text]7. Dyda A, MacIntyre CR, Banks E, Kaldor J, Newall AT, McIntyre P, Liu B. Medicare Benefits Schedule data to monitor adult influenza immunisation in Australian adults. Public Health Research and Practice. Accepted for publication. August 2015.8. Salmon DA, MacIntyre CR, Omer SB. Making mandatory vaccination truly compulsory: well-intentioned but ill conceived. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 15(8):872-3. August 2015.9. Heywood AE, Forssman BL, Seale H, MacIntyre CR, Zwar N. General Practitioners’ Perception of Risk for Travelers Visiting Friends and Relatives. Journal of Travel Medicine. Published online. July 2015.10. Li-Kim-Moy J, Yin JK, Rashid H, Khandaker G, King C, Wood N, Macartney KK, Jones C, Booy R . Systematic review of fever, febrile convulsions and serious adverse events following administration of inactivated trivalent influenza vaccines in children . Eurosurveillance. 20(24): pii=21159. June 2015. [Full text]11. Dyda A, MacIntyre CR, McIntyre P, Newall AT, Banks E, Kaldor J, Liu B. Factors associated with influenza vaccination in middle and older aged Australian adults according to eligibility for the national vaccination program.Vaccine. 33(29):3299-305. May 2015. [Full text]12. Ma T, Heywood A, MacIntyre CR. Chinese travellers visiting friends and relatives - A review of infectious risks.Travel Medicine Infectious Diseases. S1477-8939(15)00083-6 [Epub ahead of print]. May 2015. [Full text]13. Dirmesropian S, Wood JG, MacIntyre CR, Newall AT. A review of economic evaluations of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) in adults and the elderly. Human Vaccines & Im-munotherapeutics.11(4):818-25. May 2015. [Full text]14. MacIntyre R, Stein A, Harrison C, Britt H, Mahimbo A, Cunningham A . Increasing Trends of Herpes Zoster in Australia. PLoS ONE. 10(4): e0125025. April 2015. [Full text]15. Alqahtani AS, Wiley KE, Willaby HW, BinDhim NF, Tashani M, Heywood AE, Booy R and Rashid H. Australian Hajj pilgrims’ knowledge, attitude and perception about Ebola, November 2014 to Febru-ary 2015. Eurosurveillance. 20 (12):pii=2107. March 2015. [Full text]

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16. Wood JG, Goeyvaerts N, MacIntyre CR, Menzies RI, McIntyre PB, Hens N. Estimating vaccine cover-age from serial trivariate serologic data in the presence of waning immunity. Epidemiology. Published ahead of print. March 2015. [Full text]17. Newall AT, Dehollain JP. The cost-effectiveness of influenza vaccination in elderly Australians: An ex-ploratory analysis of the vaccine efficacy required. Vaccine. 32(12):1323–1325 . March 2015. [Full text]18. Wang X, Wu S, MacIntyre CR, Zhang H, Shi W, Peng X, et al. Using an adjusted serfling regression model to improve the early warning at the arrival of peak timing of influenza in beijing.. PLoS ONE. 26(3): 381–389. March 2015. [Full text]19. Gao Z, Wood J, Gidding H, Newall A, Menzies R, Wang H, McIntyre P, MacIntyre C. Control of vari-cella in the post-vaccination era in Australia: a model-based assessment of catch-up and infant vaccination strategies for the future. Epidemiology and Infection. 143(7): 1467-1476. March 2015. [Full text]20. Wood J G, Heywood A E, Menzies R I, McIntyre P B, MacIntyre CR . Predicting localised measles outbreak potential in Australia. Vaccine. Online publication . January 2015. [Full Text]21. Rahman B, Heywood A, Moa A, MacIntyre CR. Influenza vaccination and cardiovascular risk in pa-tients with recent TIA and stroke. Neurology. 84(1):105. January 2015.22. Hayles H.E , Cooper SC, Wood N, Sinn J, Skinner S.R. What predicts postpartum pertussis booster vaccination? A controlled intervention trial. Vaccines. 33(1): 228–236. January 2015. [Full text]Year Published: 2014

201423. Barasheed O, Rashid H, Heron L, Ridda I, Haworth E, Nguyen-Van-Tam J, Dwyer DE, Booy R on behalf of the Hajj Research Team. Influenza vaccination among Australian Hajj Pilgrims: Uptake, attitudes, and barriers. Jounal of Travel Medicine. 21(6): 384-390. November 2014. [Full text]24. Ridda I, Heywood A, Hueston L, Dwyer D, MacIntyre CR. The burden of pertussis in patients with and without recurrent ischaemic vascular events. Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets. [Epub ahead of print]. Octo-ber 2014.[Abstract]25. McIntyre PB, Clark TA. Pertussis vaccine in pregnancy—first dose for every infant? Commentary. The Lancet. 384 (9953): 1484-1486. October 2014. [Full text]26. Quinn HE, Wood NJ, Cannings KL, Dey A, Wang H, Menzies RI, Moberley S, Reid S, McIntyre PB, Macartney KK. Intussusception following monovalent human rotavirus vaccine in Australia: severity and com-parison of using healthcare database records versus case-confirmation to assess risk. The Pediatrics Infec-tious diseases.33(9):959-965. September 2014. [Full text]27. Wiley KE, Cooper SC, Wood N, Leask J. Understanding Pregnant Women’s Attitudes and Behavior Toward Influenza and Pertussis Vaccination. Qualitative Health Research. Published online. September 2014. [Full text]28. Menzies RI, Jayasinghe SH, Krause VL, Chiu CK, McIntyre PB. Impact of pneumococcal polysaccha-ride vaccine in people aged 65 years or older. The Medical Journal of Australia. 200 (2): 112-115. August 2014. [Full text]29. Heywood AE, Macartney KK, Wang H, McIntyre P. Varicella and herpes zoster hospitalizations before and after implementation of one-dose varicella vaccination in Australia: an ecological study. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation. 92: 593–604. August 2014.30. Macartney KK, Heywood AE, McIntyre PB. Vaccines for post-exposure prophylaxis against varicella (chickenpox) in children and adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Online publication . July 2014. [Full text]31. Gardner LM, Rey D, Heywood AE, Toms R, Wood J, Waller ST, Sheikh M, Macintyre CR. Discrepan-cies between observed and expected epidemiology of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and the Hajj 2012 – a scenario-based approach. Risk Analysis. 34(8):1391-400. July 2014.

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32. Tashani M, Barasheed O, Azeem M, Alfelali M, Badahdah AM, Bokhary H, Almasri N, Alshehri J, Mat-bouly G, Kalantan N, Heron L, Ridda I, Haworth E, Asghar A, Rashid H, Booy R. Pneumococcal Vaccine Uptake Among Australian Hajj pilgrims in 2011-13. Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets. 4(2): 117-124. July 2014. [Full text]33. O’Grady KF, McHugh L, Nolan T, Richmond P, Wood N, Marshall HS, Lambert SB, Chatfield M, Andrews RM. FluMum: a prospective cohort study of mother-infant pairs assessing the effectiveness of maternal influenza vaccination in prevention of influenza in early infancy. BMJ Open. 4:6 e005676. June 2014. [Full text]34. Chow MY, Yin JK, Heron L, Morrow A, Dierig A, Booy R, Leask J. The impact of influenza-like illness in young children on their parents: a quality of life survey. Quality of Life Research. 23(5):1651-60. June 2014. [Full text]35. Wood N1, Marshall H, White OJ, Holt PG, McIntyre P. Antibody and cell mediated immunity to pertussis 4 years after monovalent acellular pertussis vaccine at birth. The Pediatrics Infectious diseases . 33(5):511-7 . May 2014.[Full text]36. Maher L, Dawson A, Wiley K, Hope K, Torvaldsen S, Lawrence G, Conaty S. Influenza vaccination during pregnancy: a qualitative study of the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of general practitioners in Cen-tral and South-Western Sydney. BMC Family Practice. 15(1):102. May 2014. [Full text]37. Luyten J, Desmet P, Dorgali V, Hens N, Beutels P. Kicking against the pricks: vaccine sceptics have a dif-ferent social orientation. European Journal of Public Health. 24(2):310-314. April 2014. [Full text]38. C. Raina MacIntyre, Iman Ridda, Zhanhai Gao, Aye M. Moa mail, Peter B. McIntyre, John S. Sullivan, Thomas R. Jones, Andrew Hayen, Richard I. Lindley . A Randomized Clinical Trial of the Immunogenicity of 7-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Compared to 23-Valent Polysaccharide Vaccine in Frail, Hospitalized Elderly.PLOS ONE. 24(2):310-314.. April 2014. [Full text]39. Cunningham AL, Litt J and MacIntyre CR. Immunisation for herpes zoster: current status. The Medical Journal of Australia. 200(5):243-244. March 2014. [Full text]40. Newall AT, Dehollain JP. The cost-effectiveness of influenza vaccination in elderly Australians: An explor-atory analysis of the vaccine efficacy required. Vaccine. 32(12):1323-5. March 2014. [Full text]41. Quinn HE, Snelling TL, Macartney KK, McIntyre PB . Duration of protection after first dose of acellular pertussis vaccine in infants. Pediatrics. 133(3):513. March 2014. [Full text]42. MacIntyre, CR., Heywood, AE. The Bradford-Hill criteria and evidence of association between influenza vaccination and ischaemic heart disease. Heart. Online publication. January 2014. January 2014.43. R. MacIntyre, A. Heywood, P. Koovor . Influenza virus vaccine reduces risk of ischemic events: time for a large-scale randomized trial?. Future Cardiology. 10(1) 35-37 . January 2014.

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Chief investigators

Chief Investigator A

Raina MacIntyre is Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW. She is an international leader in emerging infections and vaccinology, and is involved in numerous influenza and respiratory virus research studies that directly inform national and international policy and practice in communicable disease control.

Professor MacIntyre is Director of this CRE and also Stream Leader for Frail elderly In addition to providing overall direction on the CRE, she also has a key role in building capacity in methodological research across these areas by acting as a mentor to post-doctoral researchers within the CRE.

Chief Investigator B

Professor McIntyre has a clinical appointment at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead as a Senior Staff Specialist in Infectious Diseases and a conjoint academic

appointment as Professor in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health and in the School of Public Health of the University of Sydney.As a Chief Investigator B on the CRE, Peter McIntyre provides leadership and mentoring through his role as Director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance andworks closely with CIA MacIntyre with respect to governance and external relationships for the CRE. His primary research theme is neonatal and maternal vaccination and he forms the link for the indigenous research theme between the CRE and the activities of the SEARCH cohort study (on which he is a CI) being conducted through a number of Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Services in New South Wales. His primary method stream contribution is in clinical trials and the use of routine data sets to inform policy.

Chief Investigator C

Robert Booy is Head of Clinical Research at NCIRS. His research interests extend from understanding the genetic basis of susceptibility to, and severity of, infectious diseases, especially influenza and invasive disease caused by encapsulated organisms; the clinical, public health, social and economic burden of these diseases; and

means by which to prevent or control serious infections through vaccines, drugs and non-pharmaceutical measures. Professor Booy is developing a research program and research capacity in clinical vaccine research focusing on children, and the frail elderly.

Chief Investigator D

Julie Leask is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, School of Public Health and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance. She has a background in nursing and midwifery with a Master of Public Health (1998) and PhD (2003) from the University of Sydney. She is an affiliated with the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine at the University of Sydney and was a visiting research fellow with the School of Healthcare University of Leeds, UK. Her research has focused on social and behavioural determinants of immunisation uptake and risk communication.A/Professor Leask leads the social sciences component of the CRE. This includes mentoring postdocs and supervision of postgratuates. A particular focus has been in developing and running workshops for capacity building and she is particularly involved in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stream

APPENDIX, CRE MEMBERS – 2014 - 2015

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Chief Investigator E

Dr Nicholas Wood is a staff specialist general paediatrician and senior lecturer in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney. He is involved in the Immunisation Adverse Events Clinic and Refugee Clinic at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Dr Wood is NHMRC Career Development Fellow. He is interested in maternal and neonatal immunisation, as well as immunisation in lndigenous communities and developing countries

Dr Wood assists the design and conduct of maternal and newborn vaccine program at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW) site. He has extensive experience in the recruitment of infants onto clinical trials and has conducted two successful neonatal vaccine trials. He is also experienced in the management of immunisation adverse events and this will be an asset to any study where safety of vaccines is one of the outcome measures.

Chief Investigator F

Professor Cheryl Jones is Head of the Centre for Perinatal and Emerging Infection Research at The Children’s Hospital at

Westmead (CHW), a bench to bedside research program that spans laboratory based research, epidemiology and surveillance of infectious diseases to clinical research and translation into practice and policy. Professor Jones leads research themes of vaccinology as it applies to newborn vaccination (with CI Wood) and maternal vaccination to prevent vertical transmission of infections. She coordinates CRE in vaccinology with University of Sydney initiatives in the field, particularly the. Sydney Emerging Infectious Diseases Institute activities. She utilises her educational expertise to contribute to programs for mentorship, and professional development for postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical researchers employed on this CRE.

Chief Investigator G

Rob Menzies has more than 20 years’ experience in communicable disease control, specialising in vaccine preventable disease epidemiology, evaluation of immunisation programs, and applying vaccines to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. His research interests include improving immunisation program delivery, continuous quality improvement, and the use of large routine data collections.

Chief Investigator H

Professor John Kaldor is Professor of Epidemiology at KIRBY Institute, based at the UNSW in Sydney. His interests have included the development and implementation of public health surveillance systems, investigations of HIV-related cancer, cohort and cross-sectional investigations of risk factors for infectious disease transmission, and interventional trials of potential biomedical prevention agents.With his background in the technical methods of quantitative study design and analysis, and experience across a very wide spectrum of research topic, John Kaldor acts as an advisor at both the strategic and technical level in the development and conduct of research projects undertaken by the CRE. He works with AI James Ward and post doc Bette Liu on investigating the impact of vaccines for hepatitis B and human papillomavirus in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, determining the extent and risk factors for incomplete uptake, and devising and evaluating strategies for closing coverage gaps for these vaccines in Indigenous populations

Chief Investigator I

Philippe Beutels is currently

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Associate Professor and scientific director of the Center for Health Economics Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases (CHERMID) of the Vaccine & Infectious Disease Institute at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. His main research interests are health economic evaluation, modeling infectious diseases and economics of infectious disease prevention and control. He is the Senior Visiting Fellow in School of Public Health and Community Medicine at The University of New South Wales. He supervises pre and post doc researchers in relation to modeling and economic evaluation in Antwerp and Sydney during this CRE, and works closely with CIA MacIntyre in building the links between his organisation and the Australian-based organisations in the CRE.

Chief Investigator J

Professor Dominic Dwyer is a medical virologist and infectious diseases physician in the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services,located in the ICPMR at Westmead Hospital, Sydney. He has a clinical and research interest in viral diseases of public health importance. This includes HIV (where he coordinates an active program in antiretroviral drug resistance and HIV molecular epidemiology in Australia and the region), influenza and other respiratory viruses, and arboviruses. He

leads an antiviral trials unit that has participated in over sixty studies of antiviral drugs and vaccines. His influenza research includes assessing interventions to prevent influenza transmission in closed environments, and developing assays for seasonal and pandemic influenza. CIDMLS has enhanced the laboratory investigative capacity in NSW for infectious disease outbreaks, with his particular focus being rapid detection and molecular epidemiology of outbreak and emerging viruses.Dominic Dwyer mentors researchers involved in the laboratory aspects of the CRE, and in some of the planned clinical trials.

Associate investigators

Associate Professor Christopher Poulos is the Hammond Chair of Positive Ageing at UNSW He works on frail elderly vaccinology research within the Hammond care aged care facility. He holds a Master’s Degree in health policy and management, and in 2012 was awarded his PhD for work on utilisation review and the rehabilitation patient journey. He has many years of clinical experience working with people with disabling conditions, helping them to achieve their maximum level of functioning, quality of life and independence. He is an experienced researcher and teacher in the areas of rehabilitation and aged care and is a Visiting Principal Fellow with the Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong. In addition, he has undertaken a number of consultancies about the delivery of rehabilitation and sub-acute care services. His main clinical and research focus is on helping individuals and their carers achieve whole person wellness and developing workforce models to promote this aim

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Associate Professor James Ward is, a Pitjantjatjara Nurrunga man, is the Head of Infectious Diseases Research Program-Aboriginal Health at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. He has progressed research in the areas of sexually transmissible infections (STIs), blood borne viruses (BBVs), vaccine preventable diseases and offender health. James is recognized as a key opinion leader on issues confronting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health. He has led national research projects in Aboriginal health; sexually transmissible infections and blood borne viruses, including issues surrounding injecting drug use. His important work has made a significant impact over recent years, contributing to the development of national guidelines, as well as influencing policy and practice surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health in Australia.James Ward is Stream Leader of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Immunisation in the CRE.

Dr Rachel Skinner is Associate Professor in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney and Adolescent Physician

at the Children’s Hospital Westmead in Sydney, Australia. Her clinical work is focussed on sexual and reproductive health and she consults in adolescent gynaecology through the Adolescent Medicine Unit at the Children’s Hospital Westmead. She works on social science research around HPV vaccination.

Dr Ben Marais is a South African trained Infectious Diseases Paediatrician who is an internationally recognized researcher in international child health, particularly tuberculosis, and other diseases affecting poor and marginalized populations.

His contribution to the CRE will be to undertake the study of travel related disease in children including in migrant and refugee children. He utilises the PAEDS national surveillance system to monitor causes of fever in children hospitalized following recent international travel, to inform pre-travel advice, travel vaccination and parental knowledge/attitudes would be assessed.

Associate Professor Kristine Macartney is a paediatrician specialising in infectious diseases. She is a medical graduate of the University of New South

Wales, and gained much of her experience in the United States where she worked at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her Doctorate of Medicine was on rotavirus infection, in particular the mucosal immune response to novel vaccine candidates. She was also a member of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and is interested in all aspects of vaccine preventable disease research.Associate Professor Macartney has a clinical appointment at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead as a Staff Specialist in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and a conjoint academic appointment as Associate Professor in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health of the University of Sydney. She is a member of the Therapeutic Good’s Administration Advisory Committee on the Safety of Vaccines (ACSOV). She works on pregnancy perinatal studies, safety issues, and policy related projects on the CRE

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Professional Research Persons

Ms Telphia Joseph, a Yamatji woman from Western Australia and the National Indigenous Immunisation Coordinator based with NCIRS. She has qualifications in Community Development which led to her initial interest in environmental health and otitis media. Telphia has a qualitative research base and now acts in a liaison position between the National Immunisation Committee and service providers offering immunisation programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She has completed Master of Philosophy at the University of Sydney involving an evaluation of immunisation activities in Aboriginal Medical Services and their reporting procedures to the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register. She is a member of the National Immunisation Committee and moderates the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Immunisation Network.The CRE project with the help of Professional Research Person Ms Joseph will focus on behaviour, attitudes and barriers to HPV vaccination in Indigenous women in remote and urban settings in Australia

Dr James Wood leads the mathematical modelling group and is senior lecturer at SPHCM UNSW specialising in modelling of infectious diseases. He gained his PhD in 2004 at University of Queensland. He will be responsible for developing transmission models that specifically incorporate infection and disease risk factors that relate to the special populations (modelling analysis of maternal infections and comparisons of the effectiveness vaccination options for pertussis) in CRE. Dr Wood works closely with CI Beutels and his modelling group in Belgium, collaborating with key researchers in the European Union through this link.

Dr Mohamud Sheikh is a Senior Lecturer in International Health, Tropical and Infectious diseases at SPHCM, UNSW. He graduated from the University of Sydney with double Master in Health Sciences and International Public health and a doctorate in public health. Dr Sheikh has established himself as a young leader in research and intervention to improve the health of immigrants and refugees. His research focuses on immigrants and refugees health within CRE specific projects and has

extensive links and networks with key refugee and migrant groups in Australia. His other research interest include, infectious diseases research (such as TB, Malaria, Vaccine Preventable diseases among other), International Health Development, Infectious Diseases Outbreak Investigation and Humanitarian Emergencies, Public Health Anthropology, Human Rights and Public Health, Tropical Diseases Surveillance and Control among other. He has had several peer reviewed publications and also reviews for several international health journals.

Dr Holly Seale, a Senior Lecturer at SPHCM, UNSW, completed her PhD at the University of Sydney in 2008. She has qualifications and experience in microbiology, virology, public health and epidemiology of vaccine preventable diseases. As an infectious disease public health researcher, she has conducted clinical, behavioural and data based research. She is currently working with Dr Anita Heywood on improving the uptake of immunisation amongst migrants and refugees.

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Dr Anthony Newall is a Associate Professor of health economics at the SPHCM, UNSW. He completed his PhD at the University of Sydney on the economic evaluation of vaccination programs. He has published cost effectiveness, statistical and epidemiological analyses on a range of infectious diseases. He contributes to disease and economic modelling projects within the CRE, working with CI Beutels and other CRE members.

Dr Bette Liu is a medically trained epidemiologist and Associate Professor at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW, obtained her PhD in 2009. She has extensive experience in conducting large-scale epidemiological studies involving record linkage and amalgamation of individual data. She contributes her epidemiologic expertise to the analysis and interpretation of the study results on the CRE.

Dr Anita Heywood is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Senior

lecturer at SPHCM, UNSW. Her doctoral work commenced in 2007. Her research focuses on traveller behaviours and travel patterns of Australian international air traffic examining the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of international travellers to infectious disease risks and preventative health practices. She works on attitudes and risk perceptions in travellers and travel health within CRE specific projects, focusing on migrant VFR travellers and their risk of introducing vaccine-preventable diseases into Australia.

Dr Heather Gidding is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and biostatistician and Senior Research Fellow at SPHCM, UNSW. She completed her PhD in 2011 while working at the Kirby Institute. Her main areas of interest include the use of routinely collected data for epidemiological research, in particular using data linkage methods, and longitudinal data analysis techniques. She has comprehensive training in diagnostic microbiology, infectious diseases epidemiology, vaccinology and biostatistics. Her experience in managing complex epidemiological studies and analysing large longitudinal datasets contributes widely in this study.

Dr Harunor Rashid received paediatric training in Bangladesh, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UK ultimately receiving, in 2009, Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of London for the thesis entitled, ‘Epidemiology of respiratory infections associated with Hajj pilgrimage’. He joined NCIRS in June 2011 as an epidemiologist. He is particularly interested in vaccine-preventable infections among travellers

Dr Tom Snelling is a paediatric infectious diseases physician at Princess Margaret Hospital and NHMRC Frank Fenner Early Career Research Fellow at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. His work has a strong focus on vaccine-related questions in relation to Aboriginal and international child health, in particular the evaluation of vaccination and other public health strategies to minimise the burden of infectious diseases. His PhD studied the impact of vaccination in reducing gastroenteritis in remote Australian settings. His post-doctoral work will investigate optimal schedules for delivering rotavirus vaccines in remote Australia and in resource poor settings. He is also investigating the safety of pertussis vaccination in early infancy, and the relationship (if any) with the risk of allergic disease.

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His contribution to the CRE is on the application of case-control and other epidemiological methods to answer vaccine-related policy-driven questions, particularly in relation to Aboriginal and international child health. He is convening the National Indigenous Immunisation Research Workshop in November 2013.

Dr Megan Williams is a descendent of the Wiradjuri people through her father’s family. She has experience in health service delivery and research, she has completed PhD program about social support among urban Aboriginal people post-prison release works with AI James Ward on immunisation issues in Aboriginal people, with a focus on adults and vulnerable populations. She has a rare mix of qualitative and quantitative research specialising in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health

CRE Fellows and postdocs

Dr Jenny Royle is an Immunisation Paediatrician who has 15 years of experience working at the Immunisation Service of the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), Melbourne, providing clinical immunisation advice for parents and staff, Community Immunisation Providers and the Victorian Department of HealthHer contribution to the CRE is a project looking at the identification of culturally sensitive approaches to improve immunisation coverage and timeliness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. She will be collaborating with Prof Peter McIntyre, Dr Julie-Anne Leask, Dr Robert Menzies, Ms Telphia-Leanne Joseph, Dr Nick Wood and other members of the team.

Dr. Lauren Gardner is a lecturer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales. Her core research area is network modelling; specifically developing network based mathematical models to quantify metrics for risk, health, economic, environmental and societal impacts of transport

systems. Her contribution to the CRE is a project on quantifying the combined impact transportation systems, ecological systems and social networks have on the epidemiological process. She has recently developed predictive models which exploit the use of network optimization tools, real-time infection data, ecological models, and properties of the transport system. These models can aid in surveillance and policy decisions for the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases. She will be collaborating with Prof Raina MacIntyre, Anita Heywood, James Wood and other members of the team.

Dr Virginia Wiseman joined SPH&CM (part time) in 2012 where she leads an AusAID funded study assessing equity in health care financing in the Pacific. She continues to work at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she has been based for the past 12 years working across a range of Sub-Saharan countries. Virginia conducts research in the fields of health care financing, economic evaluation of complex public health interventions, health systems strengthening and health equity analysis. Much of this work has been in the area of malaria control investigating ways of improving access to malaria treatment. She currently leads a study evaluating alternative

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strategies for the deployment of artemisinin-based combination therapy and rapid diagnostic tests at the community level in Nigeria and Cameroon (ACT Consortium funded by the Gates Foundation: http://www.actconsortium.org/).

Dr Michelle Barnes is an advanced paediatric trainee registrar at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. She completed a PhD examining the symptomatic and serologic epidemiology of pertussis in Australia, which had significant impact on Australian immunisation policy.Dr Barnes projects include an immunogenicity study of the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine in immuno-compromised children; the character of the relationship between influenza infection, influenza vaccination and acute myocardial infarcts; immunogenicity and safety profile of the pneumococcal conjugated vaccine in children who have underwent haematopoietic stem cell transplantation; as well as researching the epidemiology of Ebola virus to provide information that can be translated into a meaningful way to assist health care workers involved in the current pandemic. She will be working with Prof Raina MacIntyre Dr Holly Seale and Dr Anita Heywood, as well as other members of the CRE team.

Dr David Muscatello is a Senior Lecturer at the School. He has a PhD in the epidemiology of influenza. He also has many years experience in government as an epidemiologist specialising in acute disease surveillance using administrative databases, public health intelligence and biostatistics including time series analysis. He played a major surveillance role in the New South Wales government response to pandemic influenza in 2009 and has served on the Australian National Influenza Surveillance Committee. David is also a graduate of the New South Wales Public Health Officer Training Program and has supervised and trained numerous Public Health Officer and Biostatistical trainees.

Dr. Abrar Chughtai Dr Abrar is a public health practitioner and epidemiologist with 15 year track record of infectious disease control and research at national and international levels. His professional training is in Medicine, with academic training (MPH and PhD) from the University of New South Wales. He has been working for World Health

Organization (WHO) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for more than seven years. He has extensive experience of Public Health Programs, particularly Tuberculosis Control in developing countries. His main areas of interest include influenza, emerging infectious diseases, vaccine preventable diseases and personal protective equipment.

Dr Alexander RosewellAlex is a graduate of the Australian Field Epidemiology Training program, the MAE at ANU, and completed his PhD on “Strengthening Disease Surveillance in Papua New Guinea” at UNSW, while working in the Emerging Diseases Surveillance and Response Team in WHO. He has extensive experience in infectious diseases outbreak control including enteric, vector borne, vaccine preventable and other diseases. He has field experience with WHO within AMRO, AFRO, EMRO, WPRO and SEARO. He is currently the administrator of the ARM network for Australian outbreak response www.arm.org.au and the UNSW focal person for the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN),and is actively involved in outbreak response and risk assessment through GOARN.

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Dr Marlene Kong – Kirby Institute: Dr Kong is the Program Head of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program; she is CRE fellow under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stream of the CRE. Marlene is an Aboriginal doctor from the Worimi people of Port Stephens.Marlene is currently enrolled at UNSW as a candidate for the DrPH. She is working under the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, specifically within the Muru Marri Indigenous Health Unit. As a doctoral candidate, she participates in the Future Health Leaders Program. She is also an advanced trainee of Public Health Medicine with the Faculty of Public Health Medicine Royal Australasian College of Physicians

CRE Postgraduate students

Amy Creighton is an MPhil student with the University of Sydney with supervisors Associate Professor Julie Leask and Dr Peter Massey. Amy is a Gomeroi Murri woman from northern NSW and has over 20 yrs experience in Aboriginal health. She works directly with some Aboriginal communities on a research project to develop understandings about immunisation during pregnancy.

Dr Teresa Wozniak is a Public Health Officer Trainee at the NSW Ministry of Health and is completing DrPH in the UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine under the supervision of Professor. Raina MacIntyre. Her background is medical research where she worked on designing a vaccine against tuberculosis. Currently, her research interests are in public health surveillance and hospital acquired infections.

Dr Catarina Aneman is a Physician specialised in Infectious Diseases and Infection Prevention and Control. She is a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health & Community Medicine at UNSW under supervision of Dr Holly Seals and Prof Raina MacIntyre. In her PhD she is investigating the prevalence and severity of Clostridium difficile infections in hospitalised patients and treatment and prevention of infections, specifically among elderly and immuno compromised patients

Tara Jane (Chun Hin) Ma is a PhD student of CIA Professor Raina MacIntyre and PRP Dr Heywood. Her PhD is on Australian Chinese travellers visiting friends and relatives: New approaches to understanding and reducing infectious disease risks. She previously completed an undergraduate medical degree and master degrees in public health and infection and immunity. In her PhD she investigates the travel health related attitudes and behaviours of first and second generation ethnic Chinese immigrants to Australia when they are travelling overseas to visit friends and relatives.

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Elizabeth Hayles is currently a PhD candidate of the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, under the supervision of Associate Professors Rachel Skinner and John Sinn, and Dr Spring Cooper-Robbins. She received an NHMRC scholarship to conduct her research, entitled ‘Best practice for the communication of perinatal pertussis booster recommendations and optimisation of the cocooning strategy.

Amalie Dyda completed a Master of Applied Epidemiology at ANU in 2010. Following this she has worked in food borne disease surveillance and Aboriginal health. She is currently undertaking a PhD investigating vaccine preventable diseases in adults, linking data from the 45 and Up study with other routinely collected datasets. She also works part time as a senior researcher in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The Kirby Institute

Abela Mahimbo holds a Doctor of

Medicine degree. She completed a dual Masters degree in Public Health and Health Management at UNSW in 2013.She is currently undertaking a PhD in determining the barriers and facilitators around the provision of immunisation services to newly arrived refugees under different models of care in Australia. Her supervisors are Dr Holly Seale, Dr Anita Heywood and Dr Mitchell Smith (NSW Refugee Health Service)

Fleur Webster holds a Masters in Public Health and a Masters in Science. She commenced her PhD studies this year as part of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Population Health Research examining ‘Immunisation in Understudied and Special Risk Populations’. Her topic is ‘Immunisation delivery through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical services: an examination of coverage rates and critical success factors’ under the supervision of Dr Robert Menzies, Dr Heather Gidding, Dr Veronica Matthews and Dr Hal Willaby. Her background is in public health research, policy and management having worked in the field of cancer for the past 20 years

Dr. Mohamed Tashani is a medical graduate with M.B.B.Ch from Tripoli University /Jan 2007/Tripoli, Libya.He was appointed as a demonstrator (teaching assistant) at University of Tripoli Paediatric department after finishing his internship in 2008. After two years of involvement in clinical and educational work in Libya, he joined the University of New South Wales as a masters student where he obtained Master of Public health and Health Management in 2011, in addition to a Master of International Public Health in 2012. Due to his interest in the field of public health and clinical trials, he joined the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance in Sydney as a PhD student through the University of Sydney. Currently, Dr Tashani is a member of a Hajj research team lead by Prof Robert Booy; and his clinical research involves exploring conjugate vaccines interactions aiming to optimise the immunity of Australian Hajj pilgrims

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Members of the Scientific Advisory Board

Professor Margaret Burgess (Chair) was the founding director of NCIRS and held the position of Professor of Paediatrics and Preventive Medicine at the University of Sydney. She was a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation as well as a number of international committees including the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) for Vaccines and Biologicals of the World Health Organization. Professor Burgess carried out the first trials of rubella vaccination in Australia and has a long-standing clinical and research interest in immunisation and in vaccine preventable and congenital infections, especially rubella and varicella. She currently holds the positions of Honorary Professor in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at The University of Sydney and Emeritus Consultant Physician at the Children’s Hospital Westmead.

Professor Lisa Maher holds appointments as a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the

University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, Program Head at the Kirby Institute for infection and immunity and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow. She has extensive experience in research, program development and service delivery with drug users, sex workers and people living with HIV in North America, South East Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

Her research focuses on the prevention of infectious disease in vulnerable populations and she currently leads a randomised controlled trial of hepatitis B vaccine completion in people who inject drugs and a program of hepatitis C vaccine preparedness studies, including a cohort of anti-HCV negative people who inject drugs. She is an investigator on longitudinal studies of drug users and female sex workers in Canada, female sex workers in Cambodia, and an international collaboration of cohorts examining acute HIV and HCV infection in people who inject drugs and two large community randomised prevention trials. Professor Maher is also responsible for a national program of viral hepatitis surveillance, including Australia’s internationally renowned system for monitoring anti-HIV and anti-HCV prevalence and associated risk behaviour in people who inject drugs.

Professor Ross Andrews is an epidemiologist with major research

interests in vaccine preventable diseases and Indigenous health. He is the Head of the Child Health Division at Menzies and leads the Immunisation Team. He is a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and a number of associated working parties: ATAGI Pneumococcal Working Party, the ATAGI Influenza Working Party and the ATAGI Hib Working Party. He has public health experience at local, state and national government level and has published his work on pneumococcal disease and polysaccharide vaccine in the international literature. He played a major role in the establishment of enhanced surveillance for invasive pneumococcal disease in Victoria and has been invited to contribute to the revision of recommendations related to the use of polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine for the 9th edition of the Australian Immunisation Handbook.

Professor Terry Nolan is the Head of the School of Population Health and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at The University of Melbourne. He is also Head of the Vaccine and Immunization Research Group, a joint initiative of the Melbourne School of Population Health and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

His research is in the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable disease and clinical trials of new vaccines.

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He is the Chair of the ATAGI, and is a member of the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Medicine.

Dr Wendy Bissinger: Representative of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) in 2013, working as a Public Health Medical Officer at Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Inc

Professor Sandra Eades is a Noongar woman from Mount Barker, Western Australia. She is Australia’s first Aboriginal medical doctor to be awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy (2003). She started her career in health research at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research where her focus was on the epidemiology of Indigenous child health in Australia. Over the past decade she has made substantial contributions to the area of Aboriginal health and has provided leadership at a national level in Aboriginal research. She is acknowledged as a leader and role model in Indigenous health research. Professor Eades is the Head, Indigenous Maternal and Child Health and Associate Head, Preventative Health Research, at the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute and currently based in the Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney.

Dr Margaret Kay is senior lecturer at Discipline of General Practice, School of Medicine, the University of Queensland. Dr Kay’s clinical and research areas of interest include doctors’ health and refugee health. She is a Fellow of the RACGP, Hons Secretary of Doctors’ Health Advisory Service Qld and is immediate past chair of Refugee Health Network of Australia (RHeaNA). She is also a member of the Australasian Doctors’ Health Network, a member of RACGP Refugee Health Special Interest Group (RHSIG) and member of the Australian Medical Association (Qld)

Professor Nick Zwar MBBS, MPH, PhD FRACGP is Professor of General Practice in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW. Nick has a long term clinical, teaching and research interest in travel medicine. He has been involved in research on hepatitis A and hepatitis B risk and vaccination of Australian travelers. He was a founding member of the Australian Travel Health Advisory Group which is a joint medical and travel industry group promoting health travel. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. Nick has written a regular column

on travel medicine for Australian Doctor for the last 17 years. He is a member of the International Society for Travel Medicine and holder of the ISTM Certificate in Travel Health

Professor Adrian Miller is of the Jirrbal people of North Queensland and is the Professor of Indigenous Research at Griffith University leading the Indigenous Research Unit and Network. During the past 20 years in higher education, Adrian’s experience has been in management, leadership, academic program development, teaching and research. He has made significant contributions to Indigenous health and education, and has undertaken leadership roles in community-based and government committees to advocate the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Research capacity development has been a primary focus in his research activities and has led to positive outcomes for Indigenous community members and organisations. The highly collaborative manner in which Adrian has undertaken research has contributed to intellectual and methodological developments in health and education fields. He has a strong interest in applied and translational research and has twice been awarded Australian College of Educators Teaching Award. Adrian currently holds Professorial adjunct appointments with University of the Sunshine Coast, James Cook University and Southern Cross University.