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
Professor Harish Nair is Chair of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health and 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 Respiratory Virus Global Epidemiology Network (RSV GEN). He also leads the Infectious Diseases Research Programme in the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health (RESPIRE). He is a co-founder of ReSViNET. In 2019, Professor Nair was awarded the Principal’s Medal for Exceptional Service by the University of Edinburgh; and the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award by the NRI Society of India.
Qualifications
MBBS, DCH, MSc, PhD, FRCPE, FFPH, FHEA
Responsibilities & affiliations
Professor Nair is the Post Graduate Research Advisor Global Health (PhDs) at the University of Edinburgh. Prof Nair is a member of several WHO Technical Advisory Groups and Chairs the External Advisory Group for WHO’s Global RSV Surveillance Programme. He is a member of the Independent Steering Committee for Global Influenza and RSV Initiative (GIRI). In 2014, Professor Nair was elected as a Member of Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland.
Professor Nair is a Regional Editor for the Journal of Global Health and Editor of two Journal of Infectious Diseases supplements on RSV.
Undergraduate teaching
Professor Nair is involved in supervision of 4-6 MBChB Student Selected Component (SSC) year 5 projects each year. He also supervises 1-2 MBChB students doing an intercalated (BMedSci) 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 to date over 50 of the student projects have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals including Lancet journals. He also encourages and facilitates 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 elective course “Epidemiology for Public Health” within the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme. He also lectures on the “Global Health Epidemiology” elective. He supervises (on an average) 2 MPH student dissertations every year.
Professor Nair has supervised 6 PhD students who have successfully defended their PhDs on Respiratory Viral Infections (4 students), Gender Inequity in Child Health (1 student) and Refugee Health (1 student). He is currently supervising 8 PhD students in Edinburgh on various topics related to his research interests and co-supervising 1 PhD student project outwith Edinburgh.
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Research summary
Professor Nair’s research focuses on child pneumonia. He has received over £49 million (£45 million as PI / Work Package Leader) in grant funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NIHR, World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Sanofi Pasteur.
He has led studies that reported the first and most widely cited disease burden estimates for RSV, influenza and human metapneumovirus related child pneumonia. The updated current estimates are regarded as the most comprehensive and respected in the field. 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 internationally leading research 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.RESCEU
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Costs of management of acute respiratory infections in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04096
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Disruption in accessing sexual and reproductive health services among border populations during COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04065
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Trends in the global burden of lower respiratory infections:: the knowns and the unknowns
In:
The Lancet Infectious Diseases
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00445-5
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (Published) -
Respiratory syncytial virus prevention within reach:: the vaccine and monoclonal antibody landscape
In:
The Lancet Infectious Diseases
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00291-2
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Clinical and Viral Factors Associated With Disease Severity and Subsequent Wheezing in Infants With Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection
In:
Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 226, pp. S45-S54
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac163
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Looking Back on 50 Years of Literature to Understand the Potential Impact of Influenza on Extrapulmonary Medical Outcomes
In:
Open forum infectious diseases, vol. 9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac352
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Introducing pulse oximetry for outpatient management of childhood pneumonia:: An implementation research adopting a district implementation model in selected rural facilities in Bangladesh
In:
EClinicalMedicine, vol. 50
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101511
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Community-based asthma assessment in young children: Adaptations for a multicentre longitudinal study in South Asia. Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Diseases
In:
Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Diseases
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
Success and time implications of SpO2 measurement through pulse oximetry among hospitalised children in rural Bangladesh: Variability by various device-, provider- and patient-related factors
In:
Journal of Global Health, vol. 12, pp. 04036
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04036
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Derivation and validation of a novel risk assessment tool to identify children aged 2-59 months at risk of hospitalised pneumonia-related mortality in 20 countries
In:
BMJ Global Health, vol. 7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008143
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)