2022 Adult Immunisation Forum

This one day event continues to build on the aims:

• To better understand the burden of vaccine preventable diseases in adults
• To build an awareness of the challenges and strategies for improved vaccination in adults
• To hear the latest developments in vaccine programs for adults
• To consider ways of improving knowledge about immunisation best practice

with particular interest to health professionals, immunisation specialists, policy makers and anyone else working on the front line of public health.

Chaired by: Professor Robert Booy
Professor Robert Booy is Head of the Clinical Research team at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS). He is a medical graduate of the University of Queensland (1984) and trained in Paediatrics at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane. Over the past 15 years, Professor Booy has been increasingly recognised as an expert in the respiratory virus field, supervising many studies addressing the burden and prevention of influenza disease in children and adults in the UK, Australia and among Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. In addition he has led intervention studies with new vaccines, new vaccine delivery methods and alternate methods for preventing disease and transmission such as antivirals and personal protective equipment.

Session 1: COVID

• COVID vaccination of 5-11 year-olds
  • Presented by Robert Booy
• Adult COVID advocacy & families
  • Presented by Paul Griffin
• Experience in the Long COVID Unit
  • Presented by Lou Irving
• Aged care: Flu & COVID epidemiology & prevention
  • Presented by Michael Murray

Q&A session

• Professor Robert Booy – see above for bio.
• An Infectious Diseases Physician and Microbiologist, Dr Paul Griffin was appointed as the Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services in 2013. In addition, Dr Griffin continues appointments as Principal Investigator at Q-Pharm, as Visiting Scientist/Honorary Research Fellow at Mater Medical Research Institute and Queensland Institute of Medical Research, and also as Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland.

  Dr Paul Griffin’s primary research interests include clinical trials in the field of infectious diseases particularly malaria human challenge and transmission blocking studies, as well as the detection of antibiotic resistance particularly VRE by mass spectrometry in the clinical microbiology laboratory.

• Associate Professor Lou Irving is a Respiratory Physician at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Director of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine and Director of Clinical Training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Associate Professor Irving has clinical, teaching and research interests in lung cancer, advanced bronchoscopy and COPD and has published over 250 scientific papers.
• As the Divisional Medical Director of Continued Care, Head of Geriatric Medicine and Medical Lead of Patient Flow at Austin Health, Associate Professor Michael Murray AM brings extensive experience in the health, education and the aged care industry.

  With nearly 30 years involvement in geriatric care, Michael’s career highlights include extensive work in continence, public health and public policy, as well as working in education and service development. In 2019 Michael was appointed as the interim Chief Clinical Advisor to the first Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner. Michael holds several board and committee positions with a variety of health and educational institutions Michael has been the National Chairperson of the Continence Foundation of Australia for several years, prior to which he was the Victorian State President. Michael is the president of the National Ageing Research Institute. Michael was recently appointed as the Geriatrician Lead to the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre (VACRC) for Covid-19.

Session 2: Modes of immunisation

• Different flu vaccines
  • Presented by Paul Van Buynder
• Influenza and cardiac disease
  • Presented by Tim Tan
• Passive immunisation for Alzheimer’s disease
  • Presented by Colin Masters
• New research in influenza/COVID – diabetes, obesity
  • Presented by Kirsty Short

Q&A session

• Professor Paul Van Buynder is the Chairman of the Australia Immunisation Coalition and a Public Health physician with the Gold Coast Health Service. He also holds an appointment as a Professor in the School of Medicine at Griffith University in Queensland. He has held senior public health positions in a number of Australian states, at the Centre for Infections in the United Kingdom and in two Canadian provinces. His research interests include vaccine effectiveness studies with new enhanced influenza vaccines, and the evaluation of programs and marketing to maximise vaccine coverage. He has over 50 refereed book chapters and articles.
• Dr Tan is a Consultant Cardiologist at Westmead Hospital and Blacktown Hospital, Conjoint Professor at the Blacktown Clinical School, Western University, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Medical Sciences at the University of New South Wales. Dr Tan graduated from Sydney University and completed a PhD in Cell Signalling at the Children’s Medical Research Institute, University of Sydney. He underwent basic physician and specialty cardiology training at Westmead Hospital and went on to complete sub-specialty training in Cardiac Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he worked with some of the world’s top imaging experts. His special interest is in cardiac imaging (echocardiography, cardiac CT, and cardiac MRI) with a niche interest in using novel techniques in various imaging modalities to gain mechanistic insights into cardiac pathology and to track progression of cardiac disease. Dr Tan is also passionate about research and has contributed to a number of publications. Dr Tan has a keen interest in the education of junior medical staff and is currently a mentor and supervisor to many basic physician trainees and cardiology advanced trainees.
• Professor Colin Masters’ major research achievements include isolating and characterising elements of the primary pathway causing Alzheimer’s disease. His findings are now the subject of intense world-wide research for diagnosis and drug discovery. Professor Masters’ current studies focus on the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. His collaborations with industry – he was a founding director of Prana Biotechnology Limited and consultant to Merck, BayerSchering Pharma – are directed at identifying compounds that can inhibit the production or aggregation of toxic proteins in the brain. Professor Masters has won many prizes and awards including the Potamkin Prize (American Academy of Neurology 1990), the Max Planck Award (von Humboldt Foundation 1991), Alzheimer Award (University of Munich 1998) and then the Florey Medal in 2002. He also went on to win the Lennox K Black Award (Thomas Jefferson University 2006).
• Dr. Kirsty Short is an Australia Research Council DECRA research fellow in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland in Brisbane Australia. She completed a PhD in 2013 at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. In 2013 she was also awarded an NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship to go to the Netherlands to work in the Department of Virosciences at Erasmus Medical Centre. She returned to Australia at the end of 2015 and in 2017 she established her independent research group at the University of Queensland. She works on many different aspects of influenza virus pathogenesis, understanding how the flu virus affects different animal species, investigating the role of the immune system in severe flu infections and the interactions between the flu and chronic medical conditions such as diabetes and obesity.

Session 3: Other infectious diseases

• Herpes zoster
  • Presented by Tony Cunningham
• Meningococcal disease update
  • Presented by Robert Booy
• Trends in evolving pneumococcal serotypes & impact of NIP change
  • Presented by Allan Cripps
• Pertussis in children & adults
  • Presented by Nick Wood

Q&A session

• Professor Anthony (Tony) Cunningham, AO,FAHMS is an infectious diseases physician, clinical virologist and scientist, internationally renowned for his research on the immunobiology of HIV and herpesviruses, 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 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 Robert Booy – see above for bio.
• Professor Allan Cripps is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Medicine and Dentistry and is a member of Mucosal Immunology Research Group at the Menzies Health Institute Queensland at Griffith University, Australia. Allan is a distinguished academic, clinical scientist and health services leader, having made significant contributions in immunology, diagnostics and health services delivery. In 2015, Professor Cripps was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his distinguished service to tertiary education as a senior administrator and to public health as a leading immunologist, academic and researcher in the field of immunisation.
• Nick is a staff specialist general paediatrician and Associate Professor and Sub-Dean (Postgraduate Research) in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney. He holds anNHMRC Career Development Fellowship. He leads the NSW Immunisation Specialist Service and coordinates the Immunisation Adverse Events Clinic at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He is interested in maternal and neonatal immunisation, as well as research into vaccine safety and the genetics of adverse events.

Session 4: Other vaccines

• Tropical diseases (including JE, in children & adults)
  • Presented by Cameron Webb
• New technologies in vaccines
  • Presented by Paul Griffin

Q&A session

• A/Prof Cameron Webb has over 25 years experience in mosquito and mosquito-borne disease research and management through work with NSW Health Pathology and University of Sydney. Cameron provides advice to local, state, and federal government agencies on mosquito control and surveillance programs as well as public health interventions to reduce the pest and public health threats to the community.
• Professor Paul Griffin – see above for bio.

Session 5:

• Risk communications (CoRiCal)
  • Presented by Carissa Bonner

Q&A Session

• Dr Bonner is a behavioural scientist who applies evidence-based decision making and risk communication strategies to address problems in public health. Her research is focused on improving the implementation of disease prevention guidelines in primary care using ehealth interventions, and developing patient decision aids across a range of health topics. She has published 47 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 17; >11,000 citations), including leading international journals in medicine (e.g. Lancet, BMJ, MJA), ehealth (e.g. JMIR) and behavioural science (e.g. Health Psychology, Implementation Science). Her current NHMRC/Heart Foundation Fellowship is focused on implementing new ehealth tools to support GPs’ use of cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines.