Chandini Raina Macintyre

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

Chronic hepatitis B prevalence is low in most Australian populations, with universal infant HBV vaccination introduced in 2000. Migrants from high prevalence countries are at risk of acquisition before arrival and non-immune adults are potentially at risk through skin penetrating procedures and sexual contact, particularly during international trav...

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice with significant clinical and economic burdens, largely driven by adverse cardiovascular outcomes and AF-related hospitalization. Left atrial (LA) parameters have been shown to have prognostic value in cardiovascular disease states. We sought to evalu...

The Australian Government began to roll out the national COVID-19 vaccination program in late February 2021, with the initial aim to vaccinate the Australian adult population by the end of October 2021. The task of vaccinating some 20 million people presents considerable logistic challenges, but a rapid rollout is essential to allow for the reopeni...

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...

Introduction: Cotton is a natural cellulosic polymer, predominant in textile owing to its softness, hygroscopic nature and wear comfort. Modification of cotton fabrics with graphene and nanoparticles can impart multifunctional properties, which makes it potential for diverse applications, especially as smart textiles, protective clothing and sensor...

A surge in the number of international arrivals awaiting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) screening overwhelmed health-care workers and depleted medical resources in designated hospitals in Beijing, China in March 2020. The People's Government of Beijing Municipality therefore issued a policy which required the mandatory transfer of all asymptom...

Objective: To estimate the proportion of influenza vaccines administered in non-medical settings in Australia in 2019 and identify factors associated with vaccination site. Methods: We surveyed 1,444 Australian adults online in October 2019. To identify factors associated with vaccination site, we used Pearson's chi-square test. We used thematic...

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...

Several vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are expected to be available in Australia in 2021. Initial supply is limited and will require a judicious vaccination strategy until supply is unrestricted. If vaccines have efficacy as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in contacts, this provides more policy options. We used a deterministic mathematical model of epidem...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most commonly encountered arrhythmia in clinical practice with an epidemiological coupling appreciated with advancing age, cardiometabolic risk factors, and structural heart disease. This has resulted in a significant public health burden over the years, evident through increasing rates of hospitalization and AF-rela...

From June 11, 2020, a surge in new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the largest wholesale market of Beijing, the Xinfadi Market, leading to a second wave of COVID-19 in Beijing, China. Understanding the transmission modes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the personal behaviors and environmental fact...

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: Universities are at risk for COVID-19 and Fall semester begins in August 2020 for most campuses in the United States. The Southern States, including Mississippi, are experiencing a high incidence of COVID-19. Aims: The objective of this study is to model the impact of face masks and hybrid learning on the COVID-19 epidemic on Mississipp...

Background: Each year tens of thousands of Australians become ill with influenza, resulting in thousands of severe infections that require hospitalisation. However, only 40% of adults receive the annual influenza vaccine. We surveyed Australian adults to provide up to date, population-specific data on the predictors and barriers of seasonal influe...

Between late December 2019 to early September 2020, over 10 million people globally were reportedly infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). In Africa, more than 300,000 infection occurred within the period, from which several viral genetic sequences were...

Background: Rotavirus is the leading cause of hospitalized diarrhea in Indonesia. Rotavirus vaccine has not been included on the Indonesian National Immunization Program (NIP). There are some key issues must be considered before introducing a new vaccine into a NIP. Our study aimed to explore the knowledge and attitudes of rotavirus diarrhea and ba...

Background: Tens of thousands of Australians become ill with influenza annually, causing thousands of severe infections that require hospitalisation. However, only 40% of adults receive the annual influenza vaccine. We surveyed Australian adults to provide up-to-date data on the predictors and barriers of seasonal influenza vaccination. Methods: We...

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...

Background Rhinoviruses (RV) represent the most common aetiological agent of all acute respiratory tract infections across all age groups and a significant burden of disease among children. Recent studies have shown that RV-A and RV-C species are associated with varying degrees of disease severity and clinical symptoms. Methods In this study, we un...

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...

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent disease with an associated mortality risk, mediated in large part through its associated cardiovascular risk factors. Standard Modifiable Cardiovascular Risk Factors (SMuRFs; hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking) are established drivers of cardiovascular disease, however the...

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice with a high clinical and economic burden, largely driven through hospital admissions. Left atrial (LA) size and function have been shown to be powerful predictors of cardiovascular disease. We evaluated the relationship between LA function and AF r...

Introduction: Chronicity of atrial fibrillation (AF) has been associated with poor cardiovascular outcomes. Left atrial function index (LAFI) is a rhythm-independent measure of LA reservoir function adjusted for LA size and stroke volume and is an established marker of risk for cardiac disease states. We sought to evaluate the role of LA function b...

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent disease with an associated mortality risk, mediated in large part through its associated cardiovascular risk factors. Standard Modifiable Cardiovascular Risk Factors (SMuRFs; hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking) are established drivers of cardiovascular disease, however the...

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice with a high clinical and economic burden, largely driven through hospital admissions. Left atrial (LA) size and function have been shown to be powerful predictors of cardiovascular disease. We evaluated the relationship between LA function and AF r...

Introduction: Chronicity of atrial fibrillation (AF) has been associated with poor cardiovascular outcomes. Left atrial function index (LAFI) is a rhythm-independent measure of LA reservoir function adjusted for LA size and stroke volume and is an established marker of risk for cardiac disease states. We sought to evaluate the role of LA function b...

Introduction: Cruise ship linked COVID-19 outbreaks have been identified as a potential source of community transmission of COVID-19 in Australia and worldwide. The risk factors and potential mitigation around COVID-19 infections on cruise ships and communities is a research gap. Methods: A correlation and regression analyses for risk factors for C...

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...

Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Arrhythmias are prevalent and reportedly, the second most common complication. Several mechanistic pathways are proposed to explain the pro-arrhythmic effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome...

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.

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...

Aims: The persistence of atrial fibrillation (AF) has been associated with differential clinical outcomes, with studies showing that persistent and permanent AF result in increased morbidity and mortality when compared to the paroxysmal subtype. Given the established prognostic implications of AF subtype, we sought to discern the clinical and struc...

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...

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...

As public health teams respond to the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), containment and understanding of the modes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission is of utmost important for policy making. During this time, governmental regulators have been instructing resident with a series of physical di...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role of international travel in spreading infections. Travellers visiting friends and relatives (VFR) are at higher risk of acquiring infections than other travellers, therefore improving the travel health behaviour of these travellers is important. Ethnic Chinese are one of the largest migrant g...

Background: With the spread of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide, understanding the basic epidemiological parameter values of COVID-19 from real-world data in mega-cities is essential for disease prevention and control. Methods: To investigate the epidemiological parameters in SARS-CoV-2 infected cases in Beijing, we studied all confirmed cases and close con...

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...

Background Anthrax is a potential biological weapon and can be used in an air-borne or mail attack, such as in the attack in the United States in 2001. Planning for such an event requires the best available science. Since large-scale experiments are not feasible, mathematical modelling is a crucial tool to inform planning. The aim of this study is...

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...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) related hospitalization has risen over the last two decades and is the most influential determinant of total disease-related expenditure. In this review article, we describe several identified drivers for hospitalization from several registries and large-scale clinical trials, including key cardiovascular and non-traditiona...

Background: Australia implemented a travel ban on China on February 1st 2020, while COVID-19 was largely localised to China. We modelled three scenarios to test the impact of travel bans on epidemic control. Scenario one was no ban, scenario two and three were the current ban followed by a full or partial lifting (allow over 100 000 university stu...

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)...

Cancer has become a prevalent disease, affecting millions of new patients globally each year. The COVID-19 pandemic is having far-reaching impacts around the world, causing substantial disruptions to health and health care systems that are likely to last for a prolonged period. Early data have suggested that having cancer is a significant risk fact...

Availability of time series data in different domains has resulted in approaches for outbreak detection. A popular alternative to detect outbreaks is to use daily counts of events. However, time between events (TBE) has proven to be a useful alternative, especially in the case of sudden, unexpected events. Past work that uses TBE for monitoring eve...

Introduction Transmission of COVID-19 within families and close contacts accounts for the majority of epidemic growth. Community mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing are thought to be effective but there is little evidence to inform or support community members on COVID-19 risk reduction within families. Methods A retrospective cohort...

Background. With the spread of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide, understanding the basic epidemiological parameter values of COVID-19 from real-world data in mata-cities is essential for disease prevention and control. Methods. To investigate the epidemiological parameters in SARS-CoV-2 infected cases in Beijing, we studied all confirmed cases and close contac...

Background. With the spread of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide, understanding the basic epidemiological parameter values of COVID-19 from real-world data in mega-cities is essential for disease prevention and control. Methods. To investigate the epidemiological parameters in SARS-CoV-2 infected cases in Beijing, we studied all confirmed cases and close contac...

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...

Background Influenza continues to cause seasonal epidemics and pandemics in humans. The burden of influenza is underestimated by traditional laboratory-based surveillance, and modelled estimates are required for influenza-attributable morbidity and mortality. We aimed to estimate the influenza-attributable hospitalisation in Australia, by influenza...

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...

‘Watch The Flu’ is a tool that monitors tweets posted in Australia for symptoms of influenza. The tool is a unique combination of two areas of artificial intelligence: natural language processing and time series monitoring, in order to assist public health surveillance. Using a real-time data pipeline, it deploys a web-based dashboard for visual an...

Background International students frequently return to their country of origin to visit friends and relatives (VFR), and are at increased risk of travel-associated infections. Little is known of their travel health seeking behaviours. China is the biggest source of international students studying in Australia and the unprecedented epidemic of COVID...

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...

Background: COVID-19 in China was first reported to the World Health Organization on December 31st 2019. The first cases were officially identified around December 8th 2019. The origin of COVID-19 is not confirmed, but half the early cases were linked to a seafood market in Wuhan. The first two documented cases did not attend the seafood market. N...

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...

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...

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...

Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality with a significant percentage classified as cryptogenic. Left atrial (LA) remodelling, a substrate for atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke development, may play a role in identification of the aetiology of cryptogenic stroke. We aimed to examine LA function to gain mechanis...

Background: The most recent documented Australian outbreak of enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) occurred in Sydney from 2012 to 2013. Over a four-month period more than 100 children presented to four paediatric hospitals with encephalitic presentations including fever and myoclonic jerks. The heterogeneous presentations included typical encephalomyelitis,...

Epidemic intelligence deals with the detection of outbreaks using formal (such as hospital records) and informal sources (such as user-generated text on the web) of information. In this survey, we discuss approaches for epidemic intelligence that use textual datasets, referring to it as “text-based epidemic intelligence.” We view past work in terms...