Events |

NCIRS Seminar/Webinar: 2020 influenza program update: Tuesday 17 March 2020 - REGISTER NOW

Influenza remains a common cause of hospitalisation and death in Australia, and 2019 saw high disease rates in the community and an early start and unusual distribution of disease burden across the ‘season’. 

Recent years have seen changes to the vaccines funded and available under the National Immunisation Program (NIP), with special vaccines for older Australians and free vaccines now on offer for more Australians than ever before.

In this seminar/webinar, Professor Kanta Subbarao, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, will provide an update on influenza disease worldwide, challenges and future opportunities for prevention and control.

Professor Kristine Macartney, NCIRS Director, will then provide an overview of the vaccines available, funded and recommended for 2020, as well as strategies for improving influenza vaccination uptake across the Australian population to reduce disease burden in the community. 

Learn what you need to know about influenza vaccination in 2020. 

Time: Tuesday 17 March 2020, 1.00 pm – 2.00 pm (AEDT)
Location: Kids Research Seminar Room, Children’s Hospital at Westmead, 178 Hawkesbury Road, Westmead, NSW (entry to the Kids Research building is opposite the Ambulance Bay adjacent to the Emergency entry and Clinical Research Centre)
    
The session will also available via Zoom webinar for those viewing and listening remotely.

REGISTER HERE TO ATTEND (for catering purposes please)
REGISTER HERE TO VIEW LIVE VIA ZOOM WEBINAR 

Speakers: 

Professor Kanta Subbarao
Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza

KSKanta Subbarao was appointed Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in 2016. Before coming to Melbourne, she was Chief of the Emerging Respiratory Viruses Section of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States (the US) from 2002 to 2016 and chief of the Molecular Genetics Section of the Influenza Branch at the US CDC from 1997 to 2002. Kanta is a virologist and a physician with specialty training in paediatrics and paediatric infectious diseases. Her research is focused on newly emerging viral diseases of global importance, including pandemic influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

Professor Kristine Macartney
Director of NCIRS

KMKristine Macartney is a paediatrician and infectious disease specialist. She is a medical graduate of the University of NSW and has almost 20 years of experience in vaccinology. She has experience working in the USA at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she was a founding member of the Vaccine Education Center. Her Doctorate of Medicine was on rotavirus infection, in particular the mucosal immune response to novel vaccine candidates. She is interested in all aspects of vaccine preventable disease research, particularly policy development, vaccine safety and prevention of viral diseases. She is the senior editor of the Australian Immunisation Handbook. Kristine 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 Professor in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The University of Sydney.