Good News

Danielle Ingle was awarded an EL1 Investigator Grant on Enhancing Control of Enteric Bacteria Through Pathogen Genomics. This means that UniMelb will become her primary affiliation.

Rhiannon Wallace has accepted a permanent Research Scientist position within Agriculture Canada and will be starting her own program of research in the area of food and environmental microbiology later this year. She will continue to be involved with RSPH and NCEPH as an honorary lecturer.

New grants/funding

• Danielle Ingle EL1 Investigator Grant
• The MAE is collaborating with the Society, Culture and Health group and the Canadian FETP program to produce e-learning contact tracing materials with a focus on social determinants and culture, and psychological wellbeing. We have received USD 40 000 from TEPHINET to fund this work.

RSPH workshops and seminars

Katie Glass took part in a webinar run by RSP on “The impact of information (and misinformation) on mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19”.  The recording is now available online through the RSPH YouTube account.

Outreach and engagement

Tambri Housen has been seconded by the Commonwealth DoH to ACT Health as the COVIDnet epidemiologist. COVIDnet is a network of epidemiologists from all states and territories established by the commonwealth to support co-ordination of information flow related to the COVID-19 response with a focus on outbreak and cluster investigation. In this role Tambri has been working with the Health Emergency Control Centre (HECC) on their outbreak management plan and surveillance plan for COVID-19, in addition to working with the data management team to streamline processes in preparation for phase 2. Tambri is also the ACT Health representative on a National sero-surveillance project for COVID-19.

Two MAE alumni have also been seconded to assist ACT with the response. Callum Thirkell has established the database for contact tracing and case management and follow-up, Alex Marmour is working with the Communicable Disease Control section as the OzFoodNet epidemiologist.

Tambri was part of a team asked to review and provide input into the WHO contact tracing guidance prior to its finalisation. The guidance is now available online https://www.who.int/publications-detail/contact-tracing-in-the-context-of-covid-19

Tambri Housen and Meru Sheel are also part of an international group that meets weekly to discuss contact tracing. This group includes representation from GOARN, the WHO Health Emergencies program, many different field epidemiology programs, TEPHINET, among other stakeholders.

Papers accepted/published:

Parry et al., (2020) Study Protocol: Building an evidence base for epidemiology emergency response, a mixed methods study, BMJ – accepted.