Abrar Ahmad Chughtai

UNSW Sydney | UNSW · School of Public Health and Community Medicine

Background: There is widespread hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Objective: To identify predictors of willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 in five cities with varying COVID-19 incidence in the US, UK, and Australia. Design: Online, cross-sectional survey of adults from Dynata's resea...

Cloth masks can be an alternative to medical masks during pandemics. Recent studies have examined the performance of fabrics under various conditions; however, the performance against violent respiratory events such as human sneezes is yet to be explored. Accordingly, we present a comprehensive experimental study using sneezes by a healthy adult an...

Introduction Rumors and conspiracy theories, can contribute to vaccine hesitancy. Monitoring online data related to COVID-19 vaccine candidates can track vaccine misinformation in real-time and assist in negating its impact. This study aimed to examine COVID-19 vaccine rumors and conspiracy theories circulating on online platforms, understand their...

A monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria during 2017-2020 provides an illustrative case study for emerging zoonoses. We built a statistical model to simulate declining immunity from monkeypox at 2 levels: At the individual level, we used a constant rate of decline in immunity of 1.29% per year as smallpox vaccination rates fell. At the population level, the...

Objectives To determine patterns of mask wearing and other infection prevention behaviours in cities where mask wearing is not a cultural norm, over two time periods of the pandemic. Methods A cross-sectional survey of masks and other preventive behaviours in adults ≥18 years was conducted in five cities (Sydney, Melbourne, London, Phoenix and New...

Background Some studies have shown that statins reduce the efficacy of influenza vaccine. The aim was to examine the impact of statins on influenza and influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE). Methods This study was a post-hoc analysis of subjects in a prospective case-control study of influenza and acute myocardial infarction, where data on influenza...

Background Healthcare workers (HCWs) in high tuberculosis (TB) burden countries are at increased risk of TB infection due to increased exposures to TB patients and inadequate implementation of TB infection prevention and control (TB IPC) measures in health settings. While various guidelines on TB IPC exist, there is little understanding of the cont...

In Bangladesh, there is currently no data on the burden of latent TB infection (LTBI) amongst hospital healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aimed to determine the prevalence of LTBI and compare the prevalence among HCWs in two public tertiary care hospitals. Between September 2018 and August 2019, we conducted a cross-sectional study in two public...

A common mode of infection spread is through the pathogen laden droplets expelled during natural respiratory activities and infection control guidelines dictate a spatial separation of 1 – 2 m as the safe distance to prevent the spread of infection through these droplets. This limit is based on assumptions of risk of droplet spread from coughing, s...

Objectives To estimate the impact of a smallpox attack in Mumbai, India, examine the impact of case isolation and ring vaccination for epidemic containment and test the health system capacity under different scenarios with available interventions. Setting The research is based on Mumbai, India population. Interventions We tested 50%, 70%, 90% of...

Infection control guidelines suggest a spatial separation of 1 - 2 m as the safe distance between a health worker and an infected patient. This is based on assumptions of the risk of droplets spread from various respiratory exhalations. Most flow visualisation studies to date, provide only qualitative data, and do not provide sufficient details to...

Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the association of influenza infection and vaccination with extent of cardiac damage during acute myocardial infarctions (AMIs) as measured by serum biomarkers and left ventricular ejection function (LVEF) in patients. Methods: Post-hoc analysis was performed on data from a prospective case-control stud...

Background: The 2017 A/H3N2 influenza season was the most severe season since the 2009 influenza pandemic. There were over 591 influenza outbreaks in institutions across the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia. Aim: To describe the epidemiology of influenza outbreaks in nine Sydney aged care facilities in 2017. Methods: Study data were...

Introduction There is no publicly available national data on healthcare worker infections in Australia. It has been documented in many countries that healthcare workers are at increased occupational risk of COVID-19. We aimed to estimate the burden of COVID-19 on Australia healthcare workers and the health system by obtaining and organizing data on...

Choral singing has become a major risk during COVID-19 pandemic due to high infection rates. Our visualisation and velocimetry results reveal that majority of droplets expelled during singing follow the ambient airflow pattern. These results point toward the possibility of COVID-19 spread by small airborne droplets during singing.

Background In a previous randomised controlled trial (RCT) in hospital healthcare workers (HCWs), cloth masks resulted in a higher risk of respiratory infections compared with medical masks. This was the only published RCT of cloth masks at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective To do a post hoc analysis of unpublished data on mask washing a...

Face masks and respirators are the most widely used intervention measures for respiratory protection. In the wake of COVID-19, in response to shortages and lack of availability of surgical masks and respirators, the use of cloth masks has become a research focus. Various fabrics have been promoted with little evidence-based foundation and without g...

Graphene derivatives have the capability of forming chemical bonding with fabrics and show the potential to be used in smart textiles. However, the challenge is to fabricate highly conductive multifunctional fabric with good washing durability. Herein, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and silver (Ag)/copper (Cu) nanoparticles (NPs)-coated durable elect...

Infodemics, often including rumors, stigma, and conspiracy theories, have been common during the COVID-19 pandemic. Monitoring social media data has been identified as the best method for tracking rumors in real time and as a possible way to dispel misinformation and reduce stigma. However, the detection, assessment, and response to rumors, stigma,...

Introduction: Pertussis is a highly infectious disease that remains endemic despite a rising vaccination coverage rates globally. Due to the lack of global surveillance data for pertussis, the unconventional use of open-source data gives a glimpse into global outbreaks, compensating for the lack of national reporting systems in some countries. The...

Aim To compare the clinical features of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) infection between paediatric and adult cases. Methods Using multiple public data sources, we created an enhanced open‐source surveillance dataset of all MERS‐CoV cases between 20 September 2012 and 31 December 2018 in Saudi Arabia including available ri...

Background Homemade cloth products are increasingly being used as a preventive measure against COVID-19, with various methods promoted through do-it-yourself (DIY) videos available on YouTube and other websites. While guidance has been provided by key organisations on how to create face masks, the extent to which this is being accurately disseminat...

Respiratory activities such as sneezing generate pathogen laden droplets that can deposit in the respiratory tract of a susceptible host to initiate infection. The extent of spread of these droplets determines the safe distance between a patient and health care worker. Here, we have presented a method to visualize the droplets expelled by a sneeze...

Cloth masks have been used in healthcare and community settings to protect the wearer from respiratory infections. The use of cloth masks during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is under debate. The filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators; however, cloth masks may provide some...

There are few published data on the protection of masks or respirators against coronavirus infections. This is an important research question to inform the response to the COVID-19 epidemic. The transmission modes of human coronaviruses are similar, thought to be by droplet, contact and sometimes airborne routes. There are several randomised clinic...

Background Over the last two decades, Australia has experienced four severe influenza seasons caused by a predominance of influenza A (A/H3N2): 2003, 2007, 2012, and 2017. Methods We compared the epidemiology, genetics, and transmission dynamics of severe A/H3N2 seasons in Australia from 2003 to 2017. Results Since 2003, the proportion of notific...

Graphene coated fabrics with incorporated nanoparticles can be smart textiles for multiple applications. The presence of an ample amount of oxygen-bearing functional groups on the surface can make the cotton fabric more suitable for modifications and functionalization. Here, we report the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) coated-copper (Cu)...

Objective In the current absence of vaccine for COVID-19, public health response target breaking the chain of infection by focusing on the mode of transmission. This paper summarizes current evidence-base around the transmission dynamics, pathogenic, and clinical features of COVID-19, to critically identify if there are any gaps in the current IPC...

This study compared the phylogeography of MERS-CoV between hospital outbreak-associated cases and sporadic cases in Saudi Arabia. We collected complete genome sequences from human samples in Saudi Arabia and data on the multiple risk factors of human MERS-CoV in Saudi Arabia reported from 2012 to 2018. By matching each sequence to human cases, we i...

Disease outbreaks can adversely impact the health and economic status of the affected populations. The notification of disease outbreaks to public health authorities can take months, delaying efficient response to those outbreaks. However, disease outbreak data gathered from informal sources such as media reports prove to be a good, resource-light...

Cases of COVID-19 have been reported in over 200 countries. Thousands of health workers have been infected and outbreaks have occurred in hospitals, aged care facilities and prisons. World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidelines for contact and droplet precautions for Healthcare Workers (HCWs) caring for suspected COVID-19 patients, whilst...

Health workers facing critical shortages of masks in the US and other countries are searching for evidence on their use. Agencies such as the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend use of home made cloth masks as a last resort. [1] The only randomised controlled clinical trial (RCT) of cloth masks currently available was published by our re...

Background The pandemic of COVID-19 is growing, and a shortage of masks and respirators has been reported globally. Policies of health organizations for healthcare workers are inconsistent, with a change in policy in the US for universal face mask use. The aim of this study was to review the evidence around the efficacy of masks and respirators for...

Critical shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) have resulted in the US Centers for Disease Control downgrading their recommendations for health workers treating COVID-19 patients from respirators to surgical masks and finally to home-made cloth masks. As authors of the only published randomised controlled clinical trial of cloth masks, w...

Awareness and concern over the occupational health and safety of first responders to biological threat and other hazardous exposures has grown. Law enforcement personnel play an important role in the response to such events and may even be the first on the scene to hazardous exposures. Front line police entering a property and expecting to find dru...

Salmonella is one of the leading causes of foodborne outbreaks globally, with chicken and eggs the most common food vehicles associated. Fruit and vegetables have increasingly been reported as vehicles for salmonella. Aims: We aimed to determine the trends in salmonella outbreaks associated with cucumbers, as well as other fruit and vegetables fro...

First reported in March 2014, an Ebola epidemic impacted West Africa, most notably Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. We demonstrate the value of social media for automated surveillance of infectious diseases such as the West Africa Ebola epidemic. We experiment with two variations of an existing surveillance architecture: the first aggregates tweet...

The Grunow–Finke assessment tool (GFT) is an accepted scoring system for determining likelihood of an outbreak being unnatural in origin. Considering its high specificity but low sensitivity, a modified Grunow–Finke tool (mGFT) has been developed with improved sensitivity. The mGFT has been validated against some past disease outbreaks, but it has...

Objectives: Infection control policies and guidelines recommend using facemasks and respirators to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from respiratory infections. Common types of respirators used in healthcare settings are filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) and powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs). Aims of this study were to examine the cu...

Like other low-income countries, limited data are available on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in Pakistan. We conducted a systematic review of studies on PPE use for respiratory infections in healthcare settings in Pakistan. MEDLINE, Embase and Goggle Scholar were searched for clinical, epidemiological and laboratory-based studies i...

Hospital-acquired tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers is a global concern due to the increased attributable risk of tuberculosis infection among this group. To reduce healthcare workers’ exposure to airborne Mycobacterium tuberculosis, various policies and guidelines have been developed and updated by the World Health Organisation (WHO)...

Background: Children aged under 5 years are particularly vulnerable to influenza infection. In this study, we aim to estimate the number and incidence of influenza among young children and estimate the impact of childhood vaccination in different scenarios from 2013/14 to 2016/17 seasons. Methods: The number and incidence rate of influenza infectio...

Aged care facilities (ACFs) are residential communities with a concentration of vulnerable individuals with increased risk of severe influenza infection and complications such as outbreaks, hospitalisations and deaths. Aged care workers (ACW) are potential sources of influenza introduction and transmission in ACFs. Little is known about vaccine upt...

Objectives In this study, we aimed to measure the awareness, acceptability and perceptions of current issues in biosecurity posed by infectious diseases dual-use research of concern (DURC) in the community. DURC is conducted today in many locations around the world for the benefit of humanity but may also cause harm through either a laboratory acci...

Background: Internet-based surveillance systems have become invaluable tools to complement traditional surveillance in the early detection of infectious disease outbreaks. Search results limited to only English-language sources may lead to missed opportunities in global outbreak monitoring efforts. The Malay language has 290 million native speakers...

Influenza is a respiratory illness which results in significant morbidity and mortality, especially in the older population. Older people living in Long-Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) have a significantly higher risk of infection and complications from influenza. Influenza vaccine is considered the best strategy to prevent infection in high-risk popu...

Introduction Smallpox has been eradicated but advances in synthetic biology have increased the risk of its re-emergence. Residual immunity in individuals who were previously vaccinated may mitigate the impact of an outbreak, but there is a high degree of uncertainty about the duration and degree of residual immunity. Both cell-mediated and humoral...

Background Human Papillomavirus (HPV) causes significant burden of HPV-related diseases, which are more prevalent in immunosuppressed compared to immunocompetent people. We conducted a multi-centre clinical trial to determine the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of HPV vaccine in immunocompromised children. Here we present the immunogenicity resul...

Personal protective clothing is intended to protect the wearer from various hazards (mechanical, biological, chemical, thermal, radiological, etc.) and inhospitable environmental conditions that may cause harm or even death. There are various types of personal protective clothing, manufactured with different materials based on hazards and end user...

Introduction: Influenza causes a significant burden among Australian adults aged 50-64, however, vaccine coverage rates remain suboptimal. The National Immunisation Program (NIP) currently funds influenza vaccinations in this age group only for those at high risk of influenza complications. Aims: The main aim of this study was to determine wheth...

Background In 2016, Australia introduced the “No Jab, No Pay” legislation, which removed the option of non-medical exemptions from the vaccination requirements to receive certain family and child care tax benefits. We aimed to gauge parental support for “No Jab, No Pay” and explore how it has impacted parental attitudes towards vaccination, particu...

Background Medical masks are commonly used in health care settings to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from respiratory and other infections. Airborne respiratory pathogens may settle on the surface of used masks layers, resulting in contamination. The main aim of this study was to study the presence of viruses on the surface of medical masks. Me...

Introduction Influenza vaccine is recommended for high-risk populations in Australia (including those aged over 65 years) but is less effective in the elderly due to a progressive and predictable age-related decline in immune function, referred to as immunosenescence. Aged care facilities (ACF) are known to be at high risk of explosive outbreaks of...

Introduction Smallpox has been eradicated, but advances in synthetic biology have increased the risk of its re-emergence. Residual immunity in individuals who were previously vaccinated may mitigate the impact of an outbreak, but there is a high degree of uncertainty regarding the duration and degree of residual immunity. Methods A systematic lite...

Objectives The aim of this survey was to investigate parental vaccination attitudes and responses to vaccine-related media messages from political and medical leaders. Design This was a cross-sectional study using a semiquantitative questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, X ² tests and logistic regression. Setting Data wer...

Successful identification of unnatural epidemics relies on a sensitive risk assessment tool designed for the differentiation between unnatural and natural epidemics. The Grunow–Finke tool (GFT), which has been the most widely used, however, has low sensitivity in such differentiation. We aimed to recalibrate the GFT and improve the performance in d...

Objective: To understand the global outbreak surveillance needs of stakeholders involved in epidemic response in selected countries and areas in the Asia-Pacific region to inform development of an epidemic observatory, Epi-watch. Methods: We designed an online, semi-structured stakeholder questionnaire to collect information on global outbreak s...

Background The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of pneumonia and secondary bacterial infections during the pandemic of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09. Methods A systematic review was conducted to identify relevant literature in which clinical outcomes of pandemic influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 infection were described. Published studies (between 0...

We analyzed surveillance data for 2 sentinel hospitals to estimate the influenza-associated severe acute respiratory infection hospitalization rate in Beijing, China. The rate was 39 and 37 per 100,000 persons during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 influenza seasons, respectively. Rates were highest for children <5 years of age.

Background: Rotavirus is a leading cause of severe diarrheal disease, and one of the common causes of death in children aged under five years old. The dominant epidemic strains may change in different years in the same area. In order to provide evidence for rotavirus epidemic control and inform vaccine development, we analyzed epidemiological patt...

BACKGROUND Influenza causes serious illness requiring annual health system surge capacity, yet annual seasonal variation makes it difficult to forecast and plan for the severity of an upcoming season. Research shows that hospital and health system stakeholders indicated a preference of forecasting tools that are easy to use and understand, to assis...

Background: Influenza causes serious illness requiring annual health system surge capacity, yet annual seasonal variation makes it difficult to forecast and plan for the severity of an upcoming season. Research shows that hospital and health system stakeholders indicate a preference for forecasting tools that are easy to use and understand to assi...

Background: The aim of this study was to describe the risk of self-contamination associated with doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and to compare self-contamination with various PPE protocols. Methods: We tested 10 different PPE donning and doffing protocols, recommended by various health organizations for Ebola. Ten participants we...

Background The benefit of school‐based influenza vaccination policy has not been fully addressed in Beijing. Objectives To evaluate the benefit of school‐based influenza vaccination policy launched in Beijing. Methods Using existing surveillance and immunization data, we developed a dynamic transmission model to assess the impact of influenza vac...

We built a SEIR (susceptible, exposed, infected, recovered) model of smallpox transmission for New York, New York, USA, and Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that accounted for age-specific population immunosuppression and residual vaccine immunity and conducted sensitivity analyses to estimate the effect these parameters might have on smallpox r...

Description of the SEIR (susceptible, exposed, infected, recovered) model of smallpox transmission and model parameters.