Associate Professor Pamela Palasanthiran

Biography

Professor Pamela Palasanthiran is a paediatric infectious diseases specialist and joint Head of Department, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Sydney Children's Hospital Network, Randwick (SCHN, R). She is a graduate of the University of Melbourne. She completed her training in paediatrics at both, the Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville and the then, Prince of Wales Children's Hospital, Randwick. She undertook specialist training in Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Centre, Durham, North Carolina (USA). She also completed a Doctorate of Medicine (MD) at UNSW in the area of perinatal HIV. She took up the appointment of specialist consultant in paediatric communicable diseases at the (now called) Sydney Children's Hospital Network, Randwick and has been running the infectious diseases service there for nearly 3 decades. She is the co-chair of the Infection Prevention and Control Committee and a member of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme, with an active interest in both these important hospital-wide fields of quality and safety in health care. Primarily a clinician, she is also actively engaged in the education of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, other health professionals, guideline development and research in many areas of paediatric infectious diseases.

My Qualifications

MB BS (Uni Melb), Doctor of Medicine (MD,UNSW), FRACP, GradDip Child Development (Melb)

My Research Activities

Professor Palasanthiran has an interest in a wide range of paediatric infectious diseases and publishes in these areas. Her primary research areas are in perinatal infections particularly congenital CMV, paediatric HIV, acute bacterial meningitis, influenza, paediatric tuberculosis and infection control. She supervises ILP students some of whom are involved in aspects of the research interests below.

Current research studies include:

1) Congenital CMV (cCMV): Epidemiology and clinical outcomes of congenital CMV in Australian children. This includes collaborative studies in cCMV including

Australian cCMV Registry (neurodevelopmental outcomes: cCMV Registry (Australia and New Zealand)
prospective national surveillance of congenital CMV via a surveillance reporting system (the APSU: the Australasian Paediatric Surveillance Unit)
Optimising the detection of congenital CMV in children who fail the universal newborn hearing screen
Describing the clinical outcomes of congenital CMV children to inform practice
Factors influencing the severity of congenital CMV
Genomics (viral) of CMV in congenital CMV

2) Postnatal CMV

Epidemiology
Clinical characteristics and outcomes
Short term morbidity
Long term morbidity
Breast milk and reduction strategies
Screening

2) Paediatric HIV

Follow up of infants at risk of mother to child transmission of HIV (MTCT) who are uninfected (HEUC): in progress
Adolescent paediatric HIV: in progress
APSU: surveillance of MTCT HIV: in progress
Many aspects of guidelines in paediatrc HIV

3) Acute bacterial meningitis

Evidence based guidelines in the acute bacterial management
Longitudinal academic outcome in survivors of acute bacterial meningitis in childhood: ILP study, linkage study in progres

4) Infection Prevention and Control

Quality studies on IPC signage
De-isolation of MRSA patients
Personal Protection Equipment in Infection Control

5) Cryptococcal disease in paediatrics: epidemiology

6) Influenza vaccination: ongoing ILP and BMed Sc studies in qualitative assessments in uptake of the influenza vaccine in health care workers (perceptions and uptake)

7) Perinatal infections: Algorithms in the management of infections on pregnancy and the newborn; Guidelines - on going evidence-based medicine projects

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

cmv

hiv

Areas of supervision

Postgraduate -

- Antibiotic use
- Paediatric HIV
- Congenital CMV
- Postnatal CMV
- COVID - 19
- Infectious diseases in refugee health

Undergraduate
- Acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) in children: Epidemiology at a tertiary paediatric centre
- Adherence to ABM guidelines;
- Antibiotic usage: Novel method to monitor antibiotic usage in a tertiary paediatric centre
- Acute bacterial meningitis and scholastic performance (Children). Congenital CMV.
- Postnatal CMV: Determinants of outcomes in postnatal CMV.
- Postnatal CMV: characteristics and outcomes.
- Strategies to minimise breast milk transmission of CMV to vulnerable infants