Harish Nair
Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health
- Usher Institute
- College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Contact details
Address
- Street
-
Usher Institute – University of Edinburgh
Old Medical School
Teviot Place - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AG
Background
Trained in clinical Paediatrics and Epidemiology, Professor Harish Nair leads the Respiratory Viral Epidemiology research programme at the 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.
Undergraduate teaching
Professor Nair is involved in supervision of MBChB Student Selected Component (SSC) year 5 projects. He also supervises 1-2 MBChB students doing an intercalated degree in Epidemiology and Global Health. Students are generally offered projects that are part of the large research programme that he leads. He generally encourages all his students to take their work to publication and indeed most of his students have published in leading peer-reviewed journals. He also encourages and facilitate his students to do an internship with WHO. Previous students have found these opportunities to be very exciting and have managed to publish manuscripts based on their work at WHO.
Postgraduate teaching
Professor Nair leads the course titled “Epidemiology for Public Health” within the Master of Public Health (MPH) curriculum. He also lectures on the “Global Health Epidemiology” course. He supervises (on an average 2) MPH student dissertations every year.
Professor Nair is currently supervising 6 PhD students in Edinburgh on various topics related to his research interests – viral respiratory infections (2 students); refugee health (3 students); and gender inequities in child health (1 student). He is also co-supervising 2 PhD student projects on viral respiratory infections outwith Edinburgh.
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Research summary
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 disaese 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.
Project activity
Professor Harish Nair’s projects include work on child pneumonia, RSV, influenza and other infectious diseases like pneumococcus, meningococcus and Clostridium difficile.
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Global seasonality of human seasonal coronaviruses: a clue for post-pandemic circulating season of SARS-CoV-2 virus?
In:
The Journal of Infectious Diseases
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaa436
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
The role of viral co-infections in the severity of acute respiratory infections among children infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV):: a systematic review and meta-analysis
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 10, pp. 010426
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010426
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Protecting children in low-income and middle-income countries from COVID-19
In:
BMJ Global Health, vol. 5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002844
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Editorial (E-pub ahead of print) -
Validating a GPS-based approach to detect health facility visits against maternal response to prompted recall survey
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 10
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010602
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Respiratory syncytial virus-related death in children with Down syndrome: The RSV GOLD study
In:
Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0000000000002666
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Global burden of respiratory infections associated with seasonal influenza in children under 5 years in 2018: a systematic review and modelling study
In:
The Lancet Global Health, vol. 8, pp. e497-e510
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(19)30545-5
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
An evidence-based framework for priority clinical research questions for COVID-19
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 10
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.011001
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Cost of Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Acute Lower Respiratory Infection Management in Young Children at the Regional and Global Level: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
In:
The Journal of Infectious Diseases
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz683
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Determinants and patterns of care-seeking for childhood illness in rural Pune District, India
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 10
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010601
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Does respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory illness in early life cause recurrent wheeze of early childhood and asthma?: Critical review of the evidence and guidance for future studies from a World Health Organization-sponsored meeting
In:
Vaccine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.01.020
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)