This seminar features two Varicella Zoster Virus international experts.
A/Prof Kristine Macartney (Deputy Director, NCIRS) provides an overview of the impact of varicella vaccination in Australia, and the introduction of the live-attenuated Zoster vaccine, and Prof Tony Cunningham, AO (Executive Director, WIMR) speaks on the clinical development and potential impact of the new non-live, adjuvanted, subunit (HZ/su) vaccine, Shingrix.

Video resources

Talk 1: Varicella and Zoster vaccination Australian update by A/Prof Kristine Macartney

Talk 2: The new Herpes zoster vaccine by Prof Tony Cunningham

Questions & Discussion: Varicella Zoster Virus Vaccines: Preventing Chicken Pox & Shingles

Associate Professor Kristine Macartney
Deputy Director, NCIRS

Associate Professor Kristine Macartney is a paediatrician and infectious disease specialist. 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 and is on a number of peak advisory committees to Commonwealth and state governments. 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 Associate Professor in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney.


Professor Anthony (Tony) Cunningham
Executive Director, the Westmead Institute for Medical Research

Professor Cunningham is an infectious diseases physician, clinical virologist and scientist, internationally renowned for his research on the immunobiology of HIV and herpes viruses, his work on vaccine and microbicide development, and as an antivirals expert.

He is the Director of the Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH2), a Commonwealth Government-funded institute that aims to combat the impact of HIV and hepatitis in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region by bringing together basic researchers with translational scientists and physicians.

Professor Cunningham has made key contributions to human immunology and neurobiology of Herpes simplex virus (HSV), leading to the development and trialing by GSK of a partly successful candidate HSV vaccine and recently, a highly efficacious vaccine for Herpes zoster. Professor Cunningham serves on numerous international expert panels on HIV/HSV, antivirals and vaccines and as a member of the Australian Centre for Vaccine Development Scientific Advisory Committee. In 2010 he was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for ‘service to medicine, particularly in the field of viral research and through the development and leadership of medical and biomedical research’.

Last updated February 2019