The Human face of Vaccine Trials

Catherine Burns is an Associate Professor of History based at the WITS Adler Museum of Medicine, and a medical and health historian educated in South Africa and the USA. She inaugurated the first medical humanities interdisciplinary programme in the Southern African region and has taught undergraduates and supervised many graduate students in humanities and health sciences faculties. Her interests include: health in the history of African societies; missionary, colonial and biomedical health systems; the history of clinician-led research; reproduction and sex (midwifery, obstetrics, contraception, children¡¯s hospitals, the history of sexuality and gender roles); epidemics in Southern African history, nursing and medical education; health systems development; and ethics, race and power in African health settings.

Shabir Madhi is Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; and co-founder and co-Director of the African Leadership Initiative for Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE). Professor Madhi completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand, qualifying as paediatrician in 1996 and obtaining his PhD in 2003.
He currently also holds the positions of Director of the South African Medical Research Council Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytical Research Unit (VIDA) and is Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases of Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation. He currently serves as the Chair of the National Advisory Group on Immunization in South Africa and is a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) since 2019.

Shabir has co-authored over 460 scientific publications since 1997. His research has focused on the epidemiology, and clinical development of lifesaving vaccines against pneumonia and diarrheal disease. Over the past decade, he has focussed on vaccines being developed for immunization of pregnant women for the benefit of the women and their young infants. He is leading the first two COVID-19 vaccine studies being undertaken in Africa.

Marta Nunes is a Associate Professor, at the Vaccine Preventable Diseases Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Marta developed her PhD work at the Department of Neurology & Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, USA and obtained her PhD from the University of Lisbon, Medical College, Portugal. After her post-doctoral training at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, where she developed different projects aimed at understanding the cell biology of Plasmodium falciparum and to identify molecular candidates for malaria vaccines for pregnant women. She moved to South Africa in 2009, where the focus of her research has been on the interaction of different putative pathogens on respiratory disease in children and the different manifestations in health and disease to these infections. To approach the problem of infant morbidity and mortality related to infections she is exploring the potential of intervening through vaccination of pregnant women to protect the women and their babies against infections. This also includes the evaluation of this intervention in reducing adverse birth outcomes.