This is the 3rd ‘Young ISSAD’ Committee Seminar 2023 Series on 20th July 2023. The Research Day webinar is part of the YIC actions to celebrate the GBS Awareness Month. The invited speaker for this seminar was Dr Anne Schuchat.

Anne Schuchat, MD is an internist and epidemiologist whose career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spanned 33 years. She was the agency’s Principal Deputy Director from 2015-2021 and served twice as acting director. From 2006-2015, she was the first Director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), leading the nation’s immunization program through recommendations for several new vaccines and the global deployment of vaccines against pneumonia and meningitis. From 1998-2005, Dr. Schuchat was Chief of the Respiratory Diseases Branch. She first joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in 1988. She was instrumental in decades of CDC emergency responses including the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019 outbreak of vaping associated lung injuries, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and the 2003 SARS outbreak where she deployed to Beijing. She collaborated on meningitis, pneumonia, and Ebola vaccine trials in West Africa and surveillance and prevention projects in South Africa. In the 1990’s, Dr. Schuchat spearheaded guidelines for prevention of perinatal group B streptococcus, preventing an estimated 100,000 newborn life-threatening infections so far. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and received the USPHS Distinguished Service Medal, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Lifetime Achievement Award and was a finalist for the Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement Medal from the Partnership for Public Service. Dr. Schuchat retired as a Rear Admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the USPHS in 2018 and from CDC in 2021. She serves on the boards of Swarthmore College and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.

International Symposium on ‘Streptococcus agalactiae’ Disease (ISSAD) are a biennial International Conference dedicated to Group B streptococcus (GBS). Group B Strep is a type of bacteria that can exist in the female reproductive tract without causing symptoms. Up to 30% of healthy women can carry Group B Strep, which usually does not cause problems. However, sometimes it can lead to severe infection of the bloodstream, infection of the placenta, or urinary tract infection. Group B Strep can also have severe consequences for the baby, causing potentially life-threatening conditions in the newborn, including meningitis, pneumonia, and sepsis.