Respiratory viral epidemiology in children - Harish Nair

Harish Nair is based in the Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics. His main research interests lie in the epidemiology of childhood respiratory infections.

Professor Harish Nair trained in clinical Paediatrics and Epidemiology.  He now leads the Respiratory Viral Epidemiology research programme at the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh.

He has led several large collaborative projects on global child health and infectious diseases. He currently leads (and is the co-ordinator of) the REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope (RESCEU) and the RSV Global Epidemiology Network (RSV GEN). He is a co-founder of ReSViNET.

Professor Nair is both medically and scientifically trained (MBBS from Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi in India and PhD from University of Edinburgh).  His research focuses on child pneumonia.

He has received more than £31 million in grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, European Commission, World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Sanofi Pasteur.

He has led studies that reported the first and most widely cited disease burden estimates for RSV and influenza related child pneumonia. 

Apart from his main interest in child pneumonia epidemiology, he has a strong interest in refugee health and gender inequities in child health and has contributed to internationaly leading resarch on neonatal health, maternal health and health sector reforms.