Cheryl Cohen

Cheryl Cohen is Professor in epidemiology at the University of the Witwatersrand and heads the Centre for Respiratory Disease and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa. She leads a team responsible for national surveillance and generation of evidence to guide policy for control of respiratory diseases and meningitis for South Africa. Her research focuses on key pathogens such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), SARS-CoV-2 and pneumococcus, among others. Key research areas include burden of disease, transmission, risk groups for severe illness and assessment of the impact and effectiveness of interventions, such as vaccination. She is a member of several national and international advisory committees and working groups mainly related to influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory diseases, including the WHO COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group on COVID vaccine strain selection (TAG-CO-VAC).