Research Projects

Testing of sewage for the presence of infectious disease, known as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), is used to assess disease burden in communities without the need for individualised testing. It allows for cost-effective, non-invasive and unbiased disease screening of whole communities, and can be deployed in areas traditionally underserved by healthcare surveillance.

This project has strong potential to inform local and national preventative measures when integrated with other surveillance systems.

This project will review Aotearoa New Zealand’s current ID surveillance systems and assess their ability to support the prevention and control of important IDs in a timely and equitable manner.

Vibrio infections present as gastroenteritis or tissue infections that can be mild or very serious. These bacteria live naturally in aquatic environments and people become infected from eating contaminated kaimoana (seafood) or coming into contact with contaminated water.  

This project involves a community-based carriage study for bacterial species that cause invasive meningococcal disease and invasive pneumococcal disease, with a focus on households in high prevalence areas. It will help to understand where transmission happens within a household and factors that might influence carriage and transmission.

Kiribati has one of the highest rates of leprosy in the world and with sea level rise threatening its existence there is likely to be mass migration of i-Kiribati people to neighbouring countries such as Aotearoa New Zealand.

This project will use a next generation deep sequencing technique to identify drug resistant leprosy and the potential impact of mass treatment of household contacts of those newly-diagnosed with the disease in Kiribati. The project will also explore the degree of susceptibility to severe adverse reactions to common treatments for leprosy.