David Durrheim

David Noel Durrheim AM is a public health physician who has been director of health protection in Hunter New England, New South Wales, Australia, Conjoint Professor of Public Health Medicine at the University of Newcastle and Adjunct Professor of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at James Cook University, since 2005. He has chaired the Western Pacific Region’s Measles and Rubella Elimination Verification Commission since its inception in 2012 and has chaired the National Polio Certification Committee in Australia since 2013. Dr Durrheim was appointed as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for “service to public health medicine and international health” in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours. He was conferred the honour of Freeman of the City of Lake Macquarie in 2024, only the 10^th person to be so recognised in forty years. This was for an “outstanding contribution to public health and his unwavering dedication during the COVID-19 pandemic”

Early Life

David Durrheim was born in East London, South Africa. He graduated from Newcastle Senior High School, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa in 1980 as dux scholar and deputy school captain. David attended the University of Pretoria and completed a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery 1986. He married Jenny (nee Ansell) in 1985. They have two children, Joanne (b. 1991) and Jonty (b.1993). After registrar training in neurology at the Ga-Rankuwa Hospital, South Africa, he relocated to London as a visiting Registrar in Public Health Medicine at St George's Medical School while based at Croydon District Health Authority (1992-1993).

On his return to South Africa, he completed a post-graduate Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene through the University Witwatersrand in 1994, a post-graduate Diploma in Community Health through the University of Pretoria in 1995, and Masters of Public Health and Tropical Medicine through James Cook University in 1998.

Career

With Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa, Dr Durrheim was recruited to the new position of Consultant in Communicable Disease Control for Mpumalanga Province where he served from 1994 to 2001. He established a district-based infectious disease syndromic surveillance and response programme, which proved highly effective in limiting the impact of cholera and invasive meningococcal disease, while meeting global benchmarks in acute flaccid paralysis reporting and reassuring zero-reporting rates.[1] He also introduced confidential inquiries for all malaria, cholera and rabies deaths to identify and address health system weaknesses.[2] He analysed the impact of these public health surveillance innovations during a doctoral placement at Harvard School of Public Health made possible by the Takemi Program in International Health.

The district-based communicable disease control coordinator model proved highly effective in delivering a supplementary measles vaccination campaign, in fact analysis conducted by Durrheim during a doctoral placement at the University of Oxford demonstrated that well planned and conducted campaigns could preferentially reach zero-dose children in rural African settings.[3]

Innovative work by African doctoral students supervised by David, demonstrated the value of multi-faceted pharmacovigilance during the community introduction of antimalarial treatment,[4] the role of geographical information systems for efficiently targeting malaria control programmes [5] and exploiting a unique colony of Anopheles arabiensis mosquitoes, naturally breeding in a remote pristine wilderness area, for eliciting behavioural characteristics amenable to measures to reduce personal malaria risk. [6]

From 2002-2004 he was Head of the School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, Director of the Anton Breinl Centre for Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborative Centre for Vector-borne Diseases (now Vector-borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases) at James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.

During this period he piloted an adapted version of the southern African syndromic surveillance system successfully in partnership with the Tuvalu Department of Health.[7] In March 2010 this syndromic surveillance system was successfully expanded across all Pacific Island Countries and Areas (PICs) to meet the requirements of International Health Regulations.[8] It remains a cornerstone surveillance strategy in the PICs being a core requirement for sub-regional measles and rubella elimination verification.[9]

From 2009 and until 2012, David served as member of the Strategic Advisory Groups of Experts (SAGE) on Immunisation advising the Director-General of the World Health Organization.[10] He also served on multiple SAGE working groups including: Vaccination in humanitarian emergencies; meningococcal vaccines; measles and rubella vaccines; Ebola vaccine and vaccination; and COVID-19 vaccines. He was a member of the Scientific Organising Committee for the Global Vaccine and Immunization Research Forum from 2013-2021, which organised four global research forums. Professor Durrheim was listed on the International Health Regulations Expert Roster, and has served as an expert advisor to the Western Pacific Technical Advisory Group on Immunization and Vaccine-preventable Diseases since 2012.

David and two of his doctoral scholars established Australia’s longest running One Health Network in 2005. David and his team have continued to innovate with crowd-sourced syndrome surveillance, most notably in tracking influenza-like illness in multiple countries and adverse events following immunisation.

He has co-authored over 450 peer-reviewed scientific publications received many millions of dollars in research funding. Most recently his team at the University of Newcastle received a $7.5 million grant to strengthen field epidemiology capacity, surveillance and outbreak response in Pacific Island countries. [11]

Honours

2024: Freeman of the City of Lake Macquarie [12]

2022: Ambassador of Lake Macquarie [13]

2021: Appointed as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) for service to public health medicine and international health [14]

2021: The Queen's Birthday COVID-19 honour roll [15]

2011: James Cook University Outstanding Alumni Award [16]

2007: Government of New South Wales Medal for Service - Emergency and Recovery Response - 2007 Hunter and Central Coast Storms

2001: Fred Katz Memorial Medal for Service to Medical Education for outstanding educational initiatives in developing countries (joint recipient with Professors Rick Speare and Peter Leggat), Australasian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Education

1999: Australian College of Tropical Medicine Medal for the highest achievement in Masters Programme in Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Fellowships

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences: 2018– [17]

Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine: 2005-

Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine: 1999-

Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene: 1993-