NCIRS staff support countries in the region in various capacities, including providing advice on immunisation policy and implementation and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NCIRS is also a Vaccine Safety Net (VSN) member, a global network of websites, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), which provides reliable information on vaccine safety.

NCIRS Director Professor Kristine Macartney 

Professor Kristine Macartney has provided expert advisory support across a range of global and regional committees. Highlights include:

  • WHO Pacific COVID-19 Joint Incident Management Team – Invited expert. January 2021 - Support Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and WHO in preparing for the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines and coordinate efforts between key health development partners
  • 2020: Delivered ‘Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) surveillance strengthening causality assessment workshop’. Attendees included Timor-Leste National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (NITAG), Ministry of Health staff, Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP) and WHO staff, Dili, Timor-Leste 
  • 2019: Delivered ‘Evidence-based decision-making workshop’ and provided support to NITAG multi-year work plan and NITAG Pneumococcal Subcommittee meeting. Dili, Timor-Leste 
  • 2019: Invited participant to ‘WHO Western Pacific Region (WPRO) and South East Asian Region (SEARO) meeting of NITAGs from ASEAN countries’. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2019: Invited participant to 'WHO South East Asia Region Regional meeting on strengthening capacity of national immunization technical advisory groups’. New Delhi, India

Professor Macartney is also a member of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) and WHO GACVS Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety COVID-19 vaccine working group where she provides  scientific advice and recommendations on all vaccine safety matters. 

NCIRS Public Health Physician Dr Sarah Sheridan

Dr Sarah Sheridan, a public health physician with expertise in applied epidemiology and vaccine preventable disease control, has been deployed to Timor-Leste to support the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health planning and implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine program in Timor-Leste. Read more here.

NCIRS Surveillance Manager Dr Aditi Dey

Dr Aditi Dey is on a roster of consultants and experts for the World Health Organization South East Asia Regional Office (WHO SEARO) to provide technical guidance on immunisation and vaccine preventable disease surveillance. Throughout 2020 and in 2021, Aditi has supported WHO SEARO in establishing databases and database management systems for invasive bacterial diseases, rotavirus and Japanese encephalitis. Aditi also helped develop the diphtheria outbreak guide for the region.

NCIRS epidemiologist Kaitlyn Vette

Kaitlyn was deployed in early 2020 through the ARM network to WHO WPRO where she led the formulation of a regional COVID-19 surveillance strategy with corresponding tools and guidance to create country-specific plans that utilise and build on existing multi-source surveillance capabilities. Kaitlyn also piloted the surveillance strategy and tools in Cambodia, where she worked with the Ministry of Health and WHO country office to produce a plan to utilise and enhance community surveillance of COVID-19. 
 

Last updated April 2023