08 Nov 2021
Non-COVID health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
WHEN
08 Nov 2021
12.30 - 1.30pm
WHERE
Online
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect health systems globally, and there is widespread concern about the indirect impacts of COVID-19. One of the critical indirect impacts of the pandemic has been severe disruptions to the delivery and use of routine health services. In this seminar, three experts will discuss the indirect impact of the pandemic. Professor Caroline Homer will address the indirect impact on pregnant and postpartum women and the maternity system. Professor Steve Graham will focus on maintaining attention to old pandemics in the time of COVID. Dr Meru Sheel will give an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on health systems in the Pacific region, including routine immunisations and service delivery.
Speakers
- Professor Caroline Homer: is Co-Program Director, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne and Honorary Emeritus Professor of Midwifery in the Faculty of Health at UTS. In the last 18 months, she has collaborated on a number of studies on the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women, partners, midwives, midwifery students and medical doctors and more recently on COVID-19 vaccination. She is a member of the Victorian Consultative Council on Maternal and Perinatal Morbidity and Mortality and authored the recent COVID-19 Communique analysing the indirect impact of CPOVID-19 on pregnant women. She has worked closely with the Australian College of Midwives to develop new free resources for midwives on COVID-19 vaccination (http://acmcovid19info.org/).
- Professor Steve Graham is a member of the leadership team for Melbourne Children's Global Health, with appointments with University of Melbourne, MCRI and Burnet Institute. He is a paediatrician with clinical, research and health service experience in child health, including strengthening services for tuberculosis in Victoria and elsewhere in the world. Since the emergence of COVID, he has maintained collaborative projects with colleagues based in the African and Asia-Pacific regions while supporting updates to WHO guidelines for tuberculosis and child pneumonia.
- Dr. Meru Sheel is a Westpac Research Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University. Meru is an infectious diseases epidemiologist with expertise in health emergencies and immunisation. Meru earned a PhD from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Queensland University of Technology working on group A streptococcal vaccines and rheumatic heart disease. Meru then completed her post-doctoral training in parasite immunology with a focus on malaria and leishmaniasis; before transitioning into public health, and undertaking the MAE program from the Australian National University. In 2019, Meru awarded the Science and Medicine category prize for 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians; and the 2020 ANU Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Impact and Engagement.
Chair
- Stephen Rogerson; is Professor of Medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Melbourne. His laboratory is based in the university’s Doherty Institute. His interests include the pathogenesis of malaria in pregnant women and young children and the prevention of malaria in pregnancy. He has long-established research links in Malawi and Papua New Guinea.