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David Murdoch

Co-leader of The Infection Group
Co-director of One Health Aotearoa
Vice-Chancellor Designate

MB ChB, MD (Otago), MSc (Lond), DTM&H (Liv), FRACP, FRCPA, FFSc(RCPA)

Email david.murdoch@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 479 8253

Current roles

Professor David Murdoch is the co-leader of The Infection Group, the co-director of One Health Aotearoa, a Senior Associate in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and a clinical microbiologist at Canterbury Health Laboratories.

Professor Murdoch served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago from February 2022 to March 2023.

Research interests

David's main research interests are the epidemiology, diagnosis and prevention of respiratory tract infections, pneumococcal disease, legionellosis, bloodstream infections, and the role of vitamin D in infectious diseases.

He has a particular interest in the microbial aetiology of pneumonia, and is the Laboratory Director of the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) project which is focused on determining the causes of severe pneumonia in young children from developing countries. David has ongoing projects based in nine countries in Africa and Asia.

Publications

Gallagher, K. E., Awori, J. O., Knoll, M. D., Rhodes, J., Higdon, M. M., Hammitt, L. L., … Murdoch, D. R., … for The PERCH Study Group. (2024). Factors predicting mortality in hospitalised HIV-negative children with lower-chest-wall indrawing pneumonia and implications for management. PLoS ONE, 19(3), e0297159. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297159

Carter, M. J., Shrestha, S., O'Reilly, P., Gurung, P., Gurung, M., Thorson, S., … Murdoch, D. R., … on behalf of the PneumoNepal Study Group. (2024). Evaluation of acute and convalescent antibody concentration against pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides for the diagnosis of pneumococcal infection in children with community-acquired pneumonia. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 43(2), e67-e70. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000004185

Murdoch, D., & French, N. (2023, November). Infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness. Special Seminar, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. [Research Presentation].

Shaw, D., Abad, R., Amin-Chowdhury, Z., Bautista, A., Bennett, D., Broughton, K., … Murdoch, D., … Brueggemann, A. B. (2023). Trends in invasive bacterial diseases during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic: Analyses of prospective surveillance data from 30 countries and territories in the IRIS Consortium. Lancet Digital Health. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/s2589-7500(23)00108-5

Chambers, S. T., Scott-Thomas, A., Storer, M., Slow, S., Williman, J., Epton, M., Murdoch, D. R., Metcalf, S., Carr, A., Isenman, H., & Maze, M. (2023). Adjunctive intravenous then oral vitamin C for moderate and severe community-acquired pneumonia in hospitalized adults: Feasibility of randomized controlled trial. Scientific Reports, 13, 11879. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37934-z

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