August report for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Modelling

5 August 2020

Keynote and invited presentations

Danielle Ingle was invited to talk at the ASM Hour Symposium on 'Multidrug resistant Shigella circulating in Australia'.

Outreach and engagement

Meru Sheel has completed a 9-week deployment for COVID19 response with WHO Papua New Guinea.

Meru Sheel is also a panellist on ‘COVIDSafe four weeks in’, a discussion hosted by the HMI project at ANU, and the Australian Academy of Science. The panel, chaired by Prof. Seth Lazar (Philosophy, ANU), will also feature Dr Katherine Kemp (Law, UNSW), Assoc. Prof. James Wood (Epidemiology, UNSW) and Assoc. Prof. Vanessa Teague (Thinking CyberSecurity).

Media releases/interest

Meru Sheel has provided comments and featured in a number of recent media reports:

  1. The Canberra Times, 29 July 2020, ‘Explainer: When will Victorian lockdown lead to decline in coronavirus case numbers?’, (https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6853114/why-are-victorian-case-numbers-still-rising-halfway-through-lockdown/)
  2. ABC, 24 July 2020, ‘The Drum Friday’, (https://iview.abc.net.au/show/drum/series/0/video/NC2007H125S00)
  3. The Guardian, 13 April 2020, ‘How long will Australia have social distancing? I'm an epidemiologist and the truth is, nobody knows’, (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/13/how-long-will-australia-have-social-distancing-im-an-epidemiologist-and-the-truth-is-nobody-knows)
  4. Croakey, 30 March 2020, ‘Calling young adults: Why staying physically apart is so important, while connecting socially’, (https://croakey.org/calling-young-adults-why-staying-physically-apart-is-so-important-while-connecting-socially/)
  5. The Conversation, 13 April 2020, ‘How long are you infectious when you have coronavirus?’, (https://theconversation.com/how-long-are-you-infectious-when-you-have-coronavirus-135295)
  6. The Conversation, 22 April 2020, ‘Can coronavirus spread 4 metres?’, (https://theconversation.com/can-coronavirus-spread-4-metres-136239)
  7. The Conversation, 12 May 2020, ‘Contact tracing apps are vital tools in the fight against coronavirus. But who decides how they work?’, (https://theconversation.com/contact-tracing-apps-are-vital-tools-in-the-fight-against-coronavirus-but-who-decides-how-they-work-138206)
  8. 3CR Community Radio, 23 March 2020, ‘Women on the Line - "Working together (and staying apart) during COVID-19"’, (https://www.3cr.org.au/womenontheline/episode-202003230830/working-together-and-staying-apart-during-covid-19)
  9. Power 94.9FM - More from Breakfast with Andy & Kaley, (https://www.949powerfm.com.au/podcast-player/show/7556887-epidemiologist-dr-meru-sheel/power-fm-breakfast)
  10. KNX1070 NewsRadio, 5 May 2020, ‘KNX In Depth: just when you think you get to know a coronavirus it mutates, should plastic surgeries count as elective procedures and how they controlled the outbreak Down Under’, (https://knx1070.radio.com/media/audio-channel/knx-in-depth-just-when-you-think-you-get-to-know-a-coronavirus-it-mutates-should)
  11. Devex, February 2020, ‘Is the Pacific ready for coronavirus?’, (https://www.devex.com/news/is-the-pacific-ready-for-coronavirus-96658)

Papers accepted/published:

  1. Camphor HS, Viney K, Polkinghorne B, Pennington K. (2020) Retrospective analysis of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis case notifications in Australia (1999-2018). Communicable Diseases Intelligence. Vol 44.
  2. Mboera LEG, Akipede GO, Banerjee A, Cuevas LE, Czypionka T, Khan M, Kock R, McCoy D, Mmbaga BT, Misinzo G, Shayo EH, Sheel M, Sindato C, Urassa M. Mitigating lockdown challenges in response to COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa. Int J Infect Dis. 2020 Jul;96:308-310. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.05.018. Epub 2020 May 11. PMID: 32437938; PMCID: PMC7211664.
  3. Qian W, Viennet E, Glass K, Harley D. (2020) Epidemiological models for predicting Ross River virus in Australia: a systematic review. PLOS NTD (in press, accepted July 2020).
  4. Seale H, Heywood AE, Leask J, Sheel M, Thomas S, Durrheim DN, Bolsewicz K, Kaur R. COVID-19 is rapidly changing: Examining public perceptions and behaviors in response to this evolving pandemic. PLoS One. 2020 Jun 23;15(6):e0235112. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235112. PMID: 32574184; PMCID: PMC7310732.
  5. Sheel M, Tippins A, Glass K, Kirk M, Lau CL. Electronic immunization registers - A tool for mitigating outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in the Pacific. Vaccine. 2020 Jun 9;38(28):4395-4398. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.04.071. Epub 2020 May 12. PMID: 32414655.
  6. Vardoulakis S, Sheel M, Lal A, Gray D. COVID-19 – Environmental Transmission and Preventive Public Health Measures. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Public Health (accepted for publication July 2020).
  7. Wallace R, Bulach DM, Jennison AV, Valcanis M, McLure A, Smith JJ, Graham T, Saputra T, Firestone S, Symes S, Waters N, Stylianopoulos A, Kirk MD, Glass K. (2020) Molecular characterization of Campylobacter spp. recovered from beef, chicken, lamb and pork products at retail in Australia. PLOS One (in press, accepted July 2020).

Wallace RL, Bulach D, McLure A, Varrone L, Jennison A, Valcanis M, Smith JJ, Polkinghorne B, Glass K, Kirk MD. (2020) Antimicrobial Resistance of Campylobacter spp. Causing Human Infection in Australia: An International Comparison. Microbial Drug Resistance (in press, accepted July 2020).