Professor Fiona Russell
Role:
Team Leader/Principal Research Fellow
Phone:
+61 (3) 9345 4077
Email:
Available for Student Supervision
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Professor Fiona Russell
Biography:
Professor Fiona Russell is a paediatrician with qualifications in public health and epidemiology. In particular she is interested in vaccination and completed her PhD evaluating alternative pneumococcal vaccination schedules in infants in Fiji, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). She was awarded both the Chancellor and Dean's Prize for PhD Excellence by The University of Melbourne. The findings informed the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) schedules in the latest WHO PCV position paper.
She has undertaken consultancies for WHO, UNICEF, and Australian Aid in the Asia-Pacific region, and Africa on the disease burden of vaccine preventable diseases, provided technical advice of new vaccine introduction in the region, and has written national child health policies to accelerate progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) four and five – to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.
Prof Russell was awarded the Young Investigator Award by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2001 and the Early in Career Researcher from the Public Health Association of Australia in 2008. Until recently she was based in Hanoi, and prior to that she lived in Fiji.
Awards:
- 2007: Quintiles Fellowship, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 2007
- 2008- 2009: National Health and Medical Research Council Scholarship
- 2011: Cottrell Fellowship, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- 2012: 2015: NHMRC Early in Career Fellowship, NHMRC
- 2012: Chancellor's and Dean's Prize for Excellence in a PhD thesis, The University of Melbourne
- 2016: Research Fellowship, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Research:
Professor Fiona Russell's interest is evidence-based decision making for child health interventions in low-income countries. She partners with local Ministries of Health, WHO, and local research institutions. In 2011, she undertook a global review on the age distribution of pneumococcal disease which was used to update the latest WHO PCV position paper.
She currently leads the New Vaccine Evaluation Project (NVEP), evaluating the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), the rotavirus vaccine, funded by the Australian Government. NVEP is also evaluating reduced dose HPV vaccine schedules, and is evaluating the effect of HPV vaccine on infection rates in Fiji. She also leads the Bill & Melinda Gates funded study assessing the effect of social contact behaviour on pneumococcal carriage.
In Laos, she leads the Gavi Alliance funded project documenting the impact of PCV on pneumonia and pneumococcal carriage. In Vietnam and Ethiopia Prof Russell is evaluating a screening tool to identify neonates at high risk of mortality and prematurity.
She also leads a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded study to demonstrate how pneumococcal carriage surveillance in children with pneumonia can be used to estimate the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine coverage required to show evidence of herd immunity. This study is based in Laos, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea and will provide information for national planners to maximize the effectiveness of their immunization programs.
Projects:
- PneuCAPTIVE- Nasopharyngeal carriage surveillance in children hospitalised with respiratory illness or pneumonia to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine programs in Lao, Mongolia and PNG
- Modelling the Effect of Social Contact on Pneumococcal Carriage
- New Vaccine Evaluation Project, Fiji
- Evaluation of the impact of national pneumococcal conjugate vaccine introduction in Lao PDR
- Pneumococcal Vaccinology Centre for Research Excellence
- Vietnam reduced dose pneumococcal clinical trial
- Examination of the impact of alternative pneumococcal vaccination schedules on immunological memory and nasopharyngeal carriage in infants 3-5 years of age, Fiji
- CIE on the NHMRC Pneumococcal Vaccinology Centre for Research Excellence
- Evaluating a screening tool to identify neonates at high risk of mortality and prematurity in Ethiopia
- Immunology of young children with thalassaemia and children at-risk of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies
Lai J, Nguyen CD, Tabwaia B, Nikuata A, Baueri N, Timeon E, Diaaldeen M, Iuta T, Ozturk MH, Moore A, Hall A, Nyambat B, Davis S, Rahman A, Erasmus W, Fox F, Russell FM. Temporal decline in diarrhoea episodes and mortality in Kiribati children two years following rotavirus vaccine introduction, despite high severe acute malnutrition rates: a retrospective review. BMC Infect Dis 2019 (accepted).
Toh ZQ, Kosasih J, Russell FM, Reyburn R, Fong J, Tuivaga E, Ratu FT, Nguyen CD, Matanitobua S, Do LAH, Menheniott T, Frazer I, Garland SG, Mulholland EK, Licciardi PV. Persistent HPV31 antibody responses six years following one, two, or three doses of quadrivalent HPV vaccine in adolescent Fijian girls, and subsequent boosting responses to cross-neutralising HPV types following a single dose of bivalent HPV vaccine. Vaccines 2019.
Neal EFG, Flasche S, Nguyen CD, Ratu FT, Dunne EM, Koyamaibole L, Reyburn RC, Rafai E, Kama M, Ortika BO, Boelsen LK, Kado J, Tikoduadua L, Devi R, Tuivaga E, Satzke C, Mulholland EK, Edmunds WJ, Russell FM. Vaccine-type pneumococcal carriage three years following PCV10 introduction in Fiji is associated with physical contact frequency with older children: a cross-sectional study. Vaccine 2019.
Workneh N, Berhane M, Girma T, Abdissa A, Lim R, MBBS, Lee KJ, PhD, Nguyen CD, Russell FM. Anthropometric measures that identify premature and low birth weight newborns in Ethiopia. Arch Dis
Eileen M. Dunne, Molina Choummanivong, Eleanor F. G. Neal, Kathryn Stanhope, Cattram D. Nguyen, Anonh Xeuatvongs, Catherine Satzke, Vanphanom Sychareun, Fiona M. Russell. Factors associated with pneumococcal carriage and density in infants and young children in Laos PDR. PLoS One 2019.
Szanyi J, Vereti I, Tuivaga E, Ratu FR, Milner KM, Russell FM. High rates of mortality among Fijian neonates with respiratory distress syndrome: a retrospective cohort study. Pacific Health 2019.
M Berhane, N Workneh, T Girma, MD, A Abdissa, R Lim, KJ Lee, C Nguyen, FM Russell. Predictors of premature and low birth weight newborns in Ethiopia. Ethiopian J of Pub Health 2019.
Eleanor Neal, Cattram Nguyen, Felista Ratu, Silivia Matanitobua, Eileen M Dunne, Rita Reyburn, Mike Kama, Rachel Devi, Kylie Jenkins, Lisi Tikoduadua, Joseph Kado, Eric Rafai, Catherine Satzke, Edward Mulholland, Fiona M Russell. A comparison of pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage in very young Fijian infants born by vaginal or caesarean delivery. JAMA Network Open 2019; 2(10):e1913650
Chan J, Nguyen CD, Satzke C, Dunne EM, Mulholland K, Russell FM. Using pneumococcal carriage studies to monitor vaccine impact and pneumococcal serotypes in low- and middle-income countries. Vaccine 2019. 37(43):6299-6309.
Russell FM, Reyburn R, Chan J, Tuivaga E, Lim R, Lai J, Van HMT, Choummanivong M, Sychareun V, Dung KTK, de Campo M, Enarson P, Graham S, La Vincente S, Mungun T, von Mollendorf C, Mackenzie G, Mulholland K. Implications of the change of the WHO severe pneumonia case definition on the evaluation of pneumonia interventions: case studies from Africa and the Asia-Pacific using pneumococcal conjugate vaccine as an example. Bulletin of World Health Organ 2019;97(6):386-39
Russell, FM, Azzopardi, P. WASH- a basic human right, and essential intervention for child health and development, including stunting. Lancet Global Health, Letter to the Editor, 2019; 7(4):e417
Chan J,, Nguyen CD, Moore KAM, Lai JYR, Dunne EM, Blyth C, Datta S, Fox K, Ford R, Hinds J, La Vincente S, Lehmann D, Mungun T, Nation ML, Newton PN, Phetsouvanh R, Pomat W, Xeuatvongsa A, von Mollendorf C, Dance DAB, Satzke C, Mulholland EK, Russell FM. Determining the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine coverage required for indirect protection within Asia and the Pacific. Lancet Global Health, 2019; (7)1:S1-S51.
Russell, FM, Mulholland K. Invited Commentary, Pneumococcal vaccines in Nepal. Lancet Infectious Diseases 2019; 19(2):115-116.
Satzke C, Dunne EM, Choummanivong M, Ortika BD, Neal EFG, Pell CL, Nation ML, Fox K, Nguyen CD, Gould KA, Hinds J, Chanthongthip A, Xeuatvongsa A, Mulholland EK, Sychareun V, Russell FM. Pneumococcal carriage in vaccine-eligible children and unvaccinated infants in Lao PDR two years following the introduction of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Vaccine 2019;37(2):296-305.
Chan J, Nguyen CD, Lai JYR, Dunne EM, Andrews R, Blyth CC, Datta S, Fox K, Ford R, Hinds J, La Vincente S, Lehmann D, Lim R, Mungun T, Newton PN, Phetsouvanh R, Pomat W, Xeuatvongsa A, von Mollendorf C, Dance DAB, Satzke C, Mulholland K, Russell FM. Determining the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine coverage required for indirect protection against vaccine-type pneumococcal carriage in low- and middle-income countries: a protocol for a prospective observational study. BMJ Open 2018;8:e021512.
Dunne E, Satzke C, Ratu FT, Neal EFG, Boelsen LK, Matanitobua S, Pell CL, Nation ML, Ortika BD, Reyburn R, Jenkins K, Nguyen C, Gould K, Hinds J, Tikoduadua L, Kado J, Rafai E, Kama M, Mulholland EK, Russell FM. Direct and indirect effects of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine introduction on pneumococcal carriage in Fiji: results from four annual cross-sectional carriage surveys. Lancet Global Health 2018; 6(12):e1375-e1385.
Ratu FT, Reyburn R, Jenney A, Tuivaga E, Russell FM. The epidemiology of intussusception in Fiji and active surveillance following the introduction of rotavirus vaccine: an observational study. Sci Report 2018; 8:11194.