The JC School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is delighted to be hosting a seminar entitled “Computational Approaches for Dengue Epidemiology” by Professor Jue Tao LIM, Assistant Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine of Nanyang Technological University, on 12 April 2024. Please refer to details below:
Date: | 12 April 2024 (Friday) |
Time: | 16:30 – 17:30 |
Venue: | KCTCRC, 1/F, School of Public Health Building, Prince of Wales Hospital |
Speaker: | Professor Jue Tao LIM Assistant Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University |
Moderator: | Professor Kin On KWOK Associate Professor, The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
Presentation Abstract
Complex field trials to assess the intervention efficacy of vector control tools to prevent dengue are increasingly common. Wolbachia represents a new and promising class of tools to either supress Aedes abundance and/or reduce dengue transmission.
Here, Prof Jue Tao LIM will outline the development and application of synthetic control methods and trial emulation approaches to evaluate current large-scale, nonrandomized field trials of Wolbachia incompatible-insect technique (n > 500,000) to suppress Aedes mosquito populations and reduce dengue transmission in dengue-endemic Southeast Asia. The re-evaluation of field trials under the introgression approach using synthetic control methods will also be discussed. Additionally, extensions of these approaches to ascertain the spillover efficacy of these interventions on untreated areas will be outlined. Prof Lim and team demonstrate that Wolbachia can dramatically reduce Aedes abundance and dengue transmission across all study settings in both directly treated and spillover sites.
About the Speaker
Professor Jue Tao LIM is an Assistant Professor in the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at Nanyang Technological University. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics, as well as a Masters in Statistics. He obtained his PhD in Public Health from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health in 2021, where his work was focused on modelling the transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases.Prior to joining LKCMedicine, he was Head of Informatics at the Environmental Health Institute, National Environment Agency, Singapore. He has led the Informatics group which focused on translating and adapting tools from statistics, econometrics and computational epidemiology to conduct inference on the transmission dynamics of pathogens, such as dengue and SARS-CoV-2. Asst Prof Lim is a biostatistician and infectious disease modeller with a long-standing and deep interest in developing new models for infectious disease forecasting, transmission and control. He uses these tools to advise and design disease control implementation and policy, and has contributed to more than 40 publications in journals such as Lancet Infectious Diseases and Lancet Western Pacific and is involved in multiple local and international collaborations.
About the Moderator
Professor Kin On KWOK joined The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016. He obtained his PhD degree in Public Health Medicine from the University of Hong Kong in 2008. He is currently the concentration coordinator of Environmental / Occupational Health and Infectious Diseases in the Master of Public Health curriculum. In addition to supervising graduate students, he currently teaches two courses including Biostatistics and Practical Data Collection, Management and Analysis in the undergraduate curriculum. In 2018 and 2019, he has been awarded with “Teachers of the Years Award” by Faculty of Medicine, CUHK. His main publications are on infectious diseases epidemiology, infection control of emerging diseases and dynamics model in infectious diseases. He is currently the principal and co-investigators for several ongoing local and international research projects funded by University Grants Committee, Food and Health Bureau and Wellcome Trust. He is also Deputy Section Editor of Virology Journal, Associate editor of Frontiers in Medicine/Public health/Sociology/Psychiatry and Plos One and Guest editor of Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal and Vaccines.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he had done more than 300 interviews by many international media including Ignites Asia, the New York Times, Bloomberg, Nature News, NTV Broadcasting Company (Russia) and numerous local media including TVB, Now TV, RTHK, Headlife and South China Morning Post on various topics related to infection control and epidemiology of COVID-19, influenza, and other infectious diseases.