In the last two years we have seen infectious disease shape and change our world. In our work to inform public health measures, analysing the distribution of COVID-19, we have had data – health and non-health - available at a scale and speed not previously seen. Yet in my career as an infectious disease epidemiologist (before it became fashionable!) as much as I have spent time considering data on disease, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time considering what is not there.

In my lecture, in terms of understanding infection, and informing public health interventions, I will reflect on the importance of data collection where it is most difficult - a task far from any epidemiological armchair. I will reflect on the importance of understanding the community context, surveillance design and laboratory methodology. I will draw on my experiences in Kenya, Ethiopia, and the UK, and demonstrate the parallels across geographies and contexts: maternal and new-born health, antimicrobial resistance and emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

Biography

Anna trained in medicine and specialised initially in paediatrics. She then developed research interests in neonatal infection, and in particular Group B Streptococcus, working at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Centre in Kenya, through the University of Oxford. She completed her clinical training in public health and developed a programme of work at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, setting up a new Gates-funded research programme in Eastern Ethiopia, in collaboration with Haramaya University, to investigate the specific causes of death in children. She also took up a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship to investigate the infectious causes of perinatal death in Kenya and Ethiopia. Anna subsequently used her public health experience and infectious disease research to lead the research programme of the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, developing multi-disciplinary research projects in outbreaks of infectious diseases in low-resource settings, and supporting capacity development in outbreak response. During the COVID-19 pandemic she seconded to the Joint Biosecurity Centre where she led an interdisciplinary team to provide public health analytics on disease prevalence, health care, vaccine impact and variants, to inform the national response. She continues to provide scientific advice to the UK Health Security Agency, and is the public health lead for the Institute for Global Pandemic Planning at the University of Warwick, developing a programme of interdisciplinary research and working with colleagues from across the University.