What’s new in pneumococcal vaccination for infants, children and adolescents

Kristine Macartney is a paediatrician and infectious disease specialist. She is a medical graduate of the University of NSW and has over 20 years of experience in vaccinology.

She has experience working in the US at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was a founding member of the US 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 is a Staff Specialist in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and has a conjoint academic appointment as Professor in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney.

Sanjay Jayasinghe is an epidemiologist with experience in vaccinology research and vaccine policy and guideline development. He is a Senior Research Fellow at NCIRS and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer of the Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney. He is also a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Fellow. He currently chairs the Enhanced Invasive Pneumococcal Disease (IPD) Surveillance working group that oversees national IPD surveillance. Sanjay’s PhD was on pneumococcal disease epidemiology and effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines in children.

Philippe De Wals is a member of research centers at the Quebec University Hospital, the Sherbrooke University Hospital and the Quebec Heart and Lung University Institute. He also serves as Medical Advisor to the Quebec National Institute of Public Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Philippe has a Medical Degree and Doctorate in Public Health from the Louvain Catholic University in his home country of Belgium. He has over 40 years’ experience in public health and epidemiology, and has received multiple awards recognising his work.

He has an interest in the epidemiology of infectious diseases, reproductive abnormalities, and the assessment of health services and public health programs and policies. He is the author of more than 200 articles published in scientific journals and has contributed several chapters to textbooks.

Chris Blyth is a clinical academic and mid-career clinician-scientist. He is Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, and head of the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, The Kids Research Institute. His research focuses on influenza, COVID-19 and other vaccine preventable respiratory tract infections.

He has served as a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI; 2012–2021) and was instrumental in the development and implementation of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination program. He is leading evaluations on state and national RSV prevention programs.

Rosalind Webby is a general practitioner and public health physician. She is a remote medical practitioner working in Top End, Northern Territory (NT) and acting Deputy Director of Medical Services for Population and Primary Health NT Health. She previously led the Immunisation program for NT for over 10 years. She is a current member of ATAGI. 

Peter McIntyre is a paediatrician specialising in infectious diseases, a public health physician and Professor in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health of the University of Otago. He was Director of NCIRS from 2005–2017 and received an Order of Australia (AO) in 2020.

He has served as a member of ATAGI (1999–2017), World Health Organization (WHO) Immunisation and Vaccines Implementation Research Advisory Committee (2012–2017) and WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (2019–2024). He was a member of New Zealand’s COVID-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group 2020–2023 and is an honorary medical advisor to the Immunisation Advisory Centre at University of Auckland.

Peter completed his PhD in 1995 and Doctor of Medical Science in 2021 from the University of Sydney. He has authored over 450 publications and has special interests in pertussis, pneumococcal disease and, most recently, waning immunity to measles.