Ayesha Verrall

Ayesha Jennifer Verrall FRACP is a New Zealand infectious diseases physician and researcher with expertise in tuberculosis and international health. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Otago, Wellington, and since 2019 has been a member of the Capital and Coast District Health Board. During the 2019–20 coronavirus epidemic, she provided the New Zealand Ministry of Health with an independent review and recommendations for its contact tracing approach to COVID-19 cases.

Ayesha Verrall

FRACP
Born
Ayesha Jennifer Verrall

Invercargill, New Zealand
Alma materUniversity of Otago (MB ChB, PhD)
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (MSc)
Gorgas Institute (DipTropMedH)
Scientific career
FieldsInfectious diseases
InstitutionsUniversity of Otago, Wellington
ThesisInnate Factors in Early Clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (2018)
Doctoral advisorsPhilip Hill
Katrina Sharples
Reinout van Crevel
Bachti Alisjahbana
WebsiteUniversity of Otago profile

Early life and education

Verrall was born in Invercargill to Lathee and Bill and raised in Te Anau. Her mother, who grew up in the Maldives, was the first person in the country to pass Cambridge examinations in English and study in New Zealand on a scholarship.[1][2] Verrall is named after her grandmother who died when Lathee was two years old.[3]

Verrall trained in medicine at the University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine, where she obtained her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) in 2004.[4] She was president of the Otago University Students' Association in 2001 where she lobbied for interest-free student loans[2] and in 2003 also led the formation of the New Zealand Medical Student Journal (NSMJ).[5]

During the next decade, Verrall trained in tropical medicine, bioethics and international health in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Peru.[6] Verrall earned an MSc from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the University of Alabama through the Gorgas Institute in Lima, Peru.[7][8]

In 2018, Verrall completed her PhD in tuberculosis epidemiology at the University of Otago, in collaboration with Padjadjaran University in Indonesia and Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Her research investigated the early clearance immune response to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection among Indonesian people who were highly exposed to the bacteria, yet remained uninfected.[7][9]

Career

Verrall is a senior lecturer at University of Otago in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. She teaches microbiology to medical students and researches tuberculosis epidemiology, immunology and host-pathogen interactions.[7]

Verrall is an infectious diseases physician at the Capital and Coast District Health Board in Wellington and became an elected member of its board in the 2019 local elections. She stood for the Labour Party and has been appointed by the Minister of Health, David Clark, as deputy board chair. She also provides advice to the government on vaccines, outbreaks and disease prevention.[10] During the 2019–2020 New Zealand measles outbreak, she advocated for a more strategic approach to allocating more government funding and resources towards increasing vaccination rates for measles, as well as preventing future outbreaks.[11]

In March 2020, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Verrall called for the New Zealand Government to urgently improve their data on community spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 through expanding the testing criteria beyond sick people, increasing laboratory testing and contact tracing capabilities.[12] At the time, the Ministry of Health was tracing the contacts of 50 cases per day; Verrall called for up to 1000 people's contacts to be traced every day by increasing the number of staff in public health units, central call centres and investing in technology that could make the contact tracing process instantaneous.[13]

Subsequently, Verrall was commissioned by the ministry to provide an independent audit of its contact tracing programme.[14] The report was initially submitted to the ministry in early April and made publicly available on 20 April to allow the government time to respond and implement some of the recommendations.[15][16] Verrall's audit identified shortcomings in the health sector's approach, which she concluded was "understaffed and lacked cohesion"[17] and could only trace up to 185 cases.[3] The country's 12 "devolved" public health units made it difficult to coordinate data systems nationally and slowed down the process of contacting people. The ministry had developed a national automated system for contact tracing which had yet to be rolled out at the time of Verrall's audit.[18] Verrall cautioned that although the quality of the contact tracing was good, its scalability remained an issue.[18] The ministry accepted Verrall's recommendations and began implementing them, as well as improving and implementing its nationwide automated contact tracing system, as the country moved to a less-strict lockdown measure on 28 April.[16][19] In June 2020, Verrall was invited by the World Health Organization to share her audit report as an example of best practice.[20]

Political career

In June 2020 it was announced Verrall would seek election to the New Zealand Parliament, running for the Labour Party. The party placed her 18th on its party list, which all but guaranteed she would enter Parliament.[21][22]

Awards and honours

Verrall is Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP).

The Verrall Award granted by the New Zealand Medical Student Journal is named after her, to honour her efforts to form and secure funding for the journal in 2003.[23][5]

Selected works and publications
  • Verrall, Ayesha J.; Alisjahbana, Bachti; Apriani, Lika; Novianty, Novianty; Nurani, Andini C.; van Laarhoven, Arjan; Ussher, James E.; Indrati, Agnes; Ruslami, Rovina; Netea, Mihai G.; Sharples, Katrina (28 March 2020). "Early clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: the INFECT case contact cohort study in Indonesia". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 221 (8): 1351–1360. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiz168. ISSN 0022-1899.
  • Verrall, Ayesha J.; Chaidir, Lidya; Ruesen, Carolien; Apriani, Lika; Koesoemadinata, Raspati C; van Ingen, Jakko; Sharples, Katrina; van Crevel, Reinout; Alisjahbana, Bachti; Hill, Philip C.; on behalf of the INFECT study group (8 January 2020). "Lower BCG protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection after exposure to Beijing strains". American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine: rccm.201912–2349LE. doi:10.1164/rccm.201912-2349LE. ISSN 1073-449X.
  • Koeken, Valerie A. C. M.; Verrall, Ayesha J.; Ardiansyah, Edwin; Apriani, Lika; dos Santos, Jéssica C.; Kumar, Vinod; Alisjahbana, Bachti; Hill, Philip C.; Joosten, Leo A. B.; van Crevel, Reinout; van Laarhoven, Arjan (2020). "IL-32 and its splice variants are associated with protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and skewing of Th1/Th17 cytokines". Journal of Leukocyte Biology. 107 (1): 113–118. doi:10.1002/JLB.4AB0219-071R. ISSN 1938-3673. PMC 6972663. PMID 31378983.
  • Steigler, Pia; Verrall, Ayesha J.; Kirman, Joanna R. (2019). "Beyond memory T cells: mechanisms of protective immunity to tuberculosis infection". Immunology & Cell Biology. 97 (7): 647–655. doi:10.1111/imcb.12278. ISSN 1440-1711.

Personal life

Verrall has one daughter with her partner Alice.[3]

References
  1. Gibb, John (20 August 2018). "'Reason to hope' in face of workplace bullying". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  2. Gibb, John (8 November 2014). "Natural immunity: solving a Tb mystery". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  3. Macdonald, Nikki (25 April 2020). "The story behind the doctor pushing for better Covid-19 contact tracing". Stuff. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  4. "Ayesha Verrall". Career Development Centre | otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  5. "History". New Zealand Medical Student Journal. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  6. Gibb, John (28 November 2012). "Graduate funded for Tb study". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  7. "Dr Ayesha Verrall | Division of Health Sciences". otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  8. "Dr Ayesha Verrall | Centre for International Health". otago.ac.nz. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  9. Verrall, Ayesha Jennifer (2018). Innate Factors in Early Clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Thesis thesis). University of Otago.
  10. "CCDHB Board Members". ccdhb.org.nz. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  11. Macandrew, Ruby (14 May 2019). "Concerted effort needed to increase measles vaccinations and prevent further outbreaks – expert". Stuff. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  12. "Coronavirus: Doctors warn of blind spot in Government's COVID-19 response plan". Newshub. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  13. "Location rules out nurse's bid to join contact tracing team". Otago Daily Times Online News. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  14. Verrall, Ayesha (20 April 2020). "Rapid Audit of Contact Tracing for COVID-19 in New Zealand". Ministry of Health (New Zealand). Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  15. Davison, Isaac; Johnston, Kirsty (18 April 2020). "Covid 19 coronavirus: Scientists sound level 3, contact tracing alarm bells". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  16. "Coronavirus: Dr Bloomfield announces advancements in contact tracing". Newshub. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  17. "Contact tracing audit exposes significant shortcomings in health system". Newshub. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  18. "Dr Ayesha Verrall cautiously optimistic about contact tracing improvements". RNZ. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  19. Manhire, Toby (20 April 2020). "NZ to exit alert level four after Anzac weekend, Jacinda Ardern reveals". The Spinoff. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  20. "Covid-19 adviser Ayesha Verrall to be candidate for Labour Party". RNZ. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  21. Spinoff, The (15 June 2020). "Live updates, June 15: Ayesha Verrall bound for parliament as Labour releases election list". The Spinoff. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  22. "Labour reveals fresh-faced party list for 2020". Stuff. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  23. "Verrall Award". New Zealand Medical Student Journal. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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