Kerrigan Mccarthy Email & Phone Number

Johannesburg, Gp, Za

City Of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

My responsibilities include surveillance, epidemiology and laboratory diagnostics for measles, rubella polio, hepatitis A, B, C & E. I lead the wastewater surveillance team, which currently conducts surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, and which is expanding to conduct testing for other vaccine-preventable diseases in wastewater

Sandringham, Johannesburg

As a consultant in the Division of Public Health, Surveillance and Response, I offer technical support within the Division for outbreak investigation, notifiable medical conditions and laboratory-based surveillance programmes. I provide support to the Provincial Epidemiology Team lead and nine provincial epidemiologists. I facilitate development and implementation of enhancements to the notifiable medical conditions surveillance system. I respond to enquiries regarding diagnosis of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever. I support the infectious disease consultant who is responsible on a rotational basis for holding the NICD 24 hour hotline. I teach post-graduates on outbreak investigation and management at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand. I lecture on ethical aspects of communicable disease control.

Sandringham, Johannesburg

I was responsible with a team of Field Epidemiologists, and under the Deputy Director, Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response, for providing technical expertise for the verification and management of outbreaks of communicable disease. I worked with national, provincial and district health departments to ensure appropriate and effective responses through provision of technical support, including advice on infection control, pre and post-exposure prophylaxis, contact tracing, diagnostic testing, clinical management and vaccination campaigns. I was the Incident Manager for the joint WHO/RSA Listeria Outbreak Incident Response team (March-July 2018). I co-ordinated outbreak investigations prior to the WHO presence in the country to establish the source of the infection. After WHO joined us, together with the team, I implemented enhanced surveillance to ensure a decline in cases, and detection of other sources of processed meat contamination. I was the Incident Manager for the relocation of mental health care patients from community care back to institutionalised care during the 'Life Esidimeni' health crisis. We relocated around 780 mental health care users, many of whom did not know their names in 36 working days. I co-ordinated a team of mental health care practitioners, emergency medicine professionals, occupational therapists and psychologists and family committee members. These teams assessed patients at community care before arranging relocation.

Parktown, Jhb

I co-ordinated the national evaluation of the Xpert MTB/Rif technology for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. We recruited over 4,500 persons investigated for tuberculosis symptoms across 40 clinics in 4 provinces in South Africa. The study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We were partnered by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Yeoville

I was the attending clinician and consultant TB/HIV specialist, for persons presenting for HIV testing, diagnosis and management at Nazareth House hospice and ART clinic. The hospice was funded in part through the Catholic Bishop's Conference, the Sisters of Nazareth, and the Gauteng Department of Health. Ill patients who required medium to long term care were admitted to the 'hospice'. I maintained a close relationship with the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, where I admitted persons requiring diagnosis and acute care, usually for communicable disease (TB, cryptococcal meningitis, or sepsis)

I conducted operational and implementation science research into TB/HIV integration, including screening for TB, TB diagnosis, TB infection control, isoniazid prophylaxis. The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy took place in South Africa in 2004, and health systems were not able to provide integrated care for both TB and HIV. We developed tools to support monitoring and evaluation, flow charts to help health care workers manage TB and HIV, and tools to facilitate infection control for TB, to prevent nosocomial transmission

I conducted and co-ordinated EQA services including panel testing of microbiological, parasitic and mycobacteriological laboratories for the NHLS and for the WHO-AFRO EQA programmes. I conducted research for cryptococcal disease including surveillance, molecular epidemiology, antifungal susceptibility testing

Fellow Of College Of Pathology, Medical Microbiology And Bacteriology

Master Of Philosophy (Mphil), Theology/Theological Studies

Modules completed include Dignity of the Human Person, New Testament Studies, Old Testament Studies, Christology, Spirituality.

Mbbch

Education record

Diploma In Tropical Medicine And Hygiene

Phd, Public Health