Center for Global Health Faculty

Executive Director, PneumoADIP; Director, Special Studies, AVI TAC

Academic Degrees

Departmental Address

Contact Information

Email:

olevine+jhsph.edu

Phone:

443 287-2019

Fax:

410 502-3732

Link:

Personal Website

Link:

SciVal Experts Research Profile

Research and Professional Experience

My research interests include the epidemiology, control and prevention of infectious diseases, especially respiratory infections in developing countries. I have worked for over 15 years on efforts to accelerate the development, evaluation and introduction of new vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type B and Streptococcus pneumoniae into routine immunization programs in developing countries. Currently, I serve as Executive Director, PneumoADIP, a project sponsored by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization to accelerate pneumococcal vaccine access for children in the world's poorest countries. I am also P.I. of the Gates Foundation funded PERCH (Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health) project that aims to prepare the evidence base for pneumonia prevention from 2015 onwards.

Keywords

• vaccine
• international health
• respiratory infections
• epidemiology
• vaccine financing
• implementation
• pneumonia
• vaccine preventable diseases
• vaccine policy

Selected Publications

Madhi S, Levine OS, Hajjeh R, Mansoor OD, Cherian T. Vaccines to prevent pneumonia and improve child survival. Bull WHO. 2008: 86:365-72.

Bliss SJ, O’Brien KL, Cotton M, Musoke P, Coovadia H, Janoff E, Levine OS. The evidence for using conjugate vaccines to protect HIV-infected children against pneumococcal disease. Lancet Infect Dis. 2008:67-80.

Sinha A, Levine OS, Knoll MD, Muhib F, Lieu TA. Cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination in the prevention of child mortality. Lancet 2007; 369:389-96.

Levine OS, O'Brien KL, Knoll M, Adegbola RA, Black S, Cherian T, Dagan R, Goldblatt D, Grange A, Greenwood B, Hennessey T, Klugman KP, Madhi SA, Mulholland K, Nohynek H, Santhosham M, Saha SK, Scott A, Sow S, Whitney CG, Cutts F. Time to begin pneumococcal vaccination in developing countries. Lancet 2006; 367:1880-2.

Watt JP, Levine OS, Santosham M (editors). Global reduction of Hib disease: What are the next steps. Proceedings of meeting. J Pediatr 2003;143:S163-S187.

Robinson KA, Rothrock G, Phan Q, Sayler B, Stefonek K, Van Beneden C, Levine OS; Active Bacterial Core Surveillance/Emerging Infections Program Network. Risk for severe group A streptococcal disease among patients' household contacts. Emerg Infect Dis 2003;9:443-7.

Lucher LA, Reeves MW, Hennessy T, Levine OS, Popovic T, Rosenstein N, Parkinson AJ. Reemergence of invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b disease in southwest Alaska due to strains indistinguishable from those isolated from vaccinated children. J Infect Dis 2002; 186:958-965.

The Prevention of Invasive Group A Streptococcal Infections Workshop Participants. Prevention of invasive Group A Streptococcal disease among household contacts of case patients and among postpartum and postsurgical patients. Clin Infect Dis 2002; 35:950-9.

Levine OS, Wenger JD. Defining the burden of Hib disease in India. Indian Pediatrics 2002; 39:3-9.

Romero-Steiner S, Fernandez J, Biltoft C, Wohl ME, Feris J, Balter S, Levine OS, Carlone GM. Functional antibody activity elicited by fractional doses of the Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate (PRP-T) vaccine. Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology 2001; 8:1115-9.

Levine OS, Jernigan DB, Leidtke L, Van Beneden C, Strasbaugh L, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America Emerging Infections Network. Controversies in management of patients with invasive group A streptococcal illness and their household contacts: experience of infectious disease physicians. Infect Dis Clin Practice 2001;10:14-16.

Fernandez J, Levine OS, Sanchez J, Balter S, LaClaire L, Feris J, Romero-Steiner S. Prevention of Haemophilus influenzae type b colonization by vaccination: correlation with serum anti-capsular IgG concentration. J Infect Dis. 2000;182(5):1553-1556.

Fernandez J, Balter S, Feris J, Gomez E, Garib Z, Castellanos PL, Sanchez J, Romero-Steiner S, Levine OS. Randomized trial of the immunogenicity of fractional-dose regimens of PRP-T Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2000;62:485-490.

Dowell SF, Garman R, Gang L, Levine OS, Yang Y-H. Evaluation of a urine antigen detection assay (Binax NOW) for pneumococcal disease in children. Clin Infec Dis 2001; 32:824-5.

Gomez E, Peguero M, Sanchez J, Castellanos PL, Feris J, Peña C, Brudzinski-LaClaire L, Levine OS. Population-based surveillance for bacterial meningitis in the Dominican Republic: implications for control by vaccination. Epidemiol Infect 2000;125:549-554.

Millar EV, O’Brien KL, Levine OS, Kvamme S, Reid R, Santosham M. Toward Elimination of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) Carriage and Disease Among High Risk American Indian Children. Am J Publ Health 2000;90:1550-4.

Singleton R, Bulkow LR, Levine OS, Hennessy T, Butler J, Parkinson A. Experience with the prevention of invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b disease by vaccination in alaska: the impact of persistent oropharyngeal carriage. J Pediatr. 2000;137(3):313-20.

Levine OS, Van Beneden C, Schwartz B. Risk factors for invasive pneumococcal disease in children: a population-based case-control study in North America [letter]. Pediatrics 2000;105:1172-3.

Levine OS, Liu G, Garman RL, Dowell SF, Yu S, Yang Y-H. Defining the role of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae type B as causes of pneumonia in children in Beijing, China. Emerg Inf Dis 2000; 6:165-70.

Levine OS, Lagos R, Muñoz A, Villaroel J, Alvarez AM, Abrego P, Levine MM. Defining the burden of pneumonia in children preventable by vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae type B. Pediatr Infect Dis J 1999; 18:1060-4.

Levine MM, Cohen D, Green M, Levine OS, Mintz ED. Fly control and shigellosis Lancet 1999; 353:1020.

Wenger JD, DiFabio JL, Landaverde JM, Levine OS, Gaafar T. Introduction of Haemophilus influenzae type B conjugate vaccines in the nonindustrialized world: experience in four ‘early adopting’ countries. Vaccine 1999; 18:736-42.

Schuchat A, Zywicki SS, Dinsmoor MJ, Mercer B, Romaguera J, O’Sullivan MJ, Patel D, Peters MT, Stoll B, Levine OS, PENS study group. Risk factors and opportunities for prevention of early-onset neonatal sepsis: a multicenter case-control study. Pediatrics 2000;105:21-6. Mulholland K, Levine O, Nohynek H, Greenwood BM. Evaluation of vaccines for the prevention of pneumonia in children in developing countries. Epidemiol Rev 1999; 21:43-55.

Fiore AE, Butler JC, Levine OS, Elliott JA, Facklam RR. Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine effectiveness among children of ages two through five. Emerging Infect Dis 1999:5:828-31.