Background
Paul Fine trained originally in zoology, veterinary medicine, parasitology and epidemiology, and joined the staff of LSHTM in 1976. His major methodological interests have been in infection dynamics, family studies, genetics, and the evaluation of vaccines (efficacy, adverse reactions and impact), applied to a variety of infections. Much of his earlier work concentrated upon vertical (from parent to progeny) transmission of infections and upon measles and pertussis in the UK. He directed a large epidemiological research programme (the "Karonga Prevention Study") in Malawi from 1978-2006, concentrating at first upon leprosy, then tuberculosis, and ultimately HIV, and including demographic surveillance, vaccine evaluation, and studies of other infections in a rural population in northern Malawi. Since 1997 he has worked on a wide variety of vaccine issues, including the evaluation of non-specific effects of vaccines, methods for field evaluation of veterinary vaccines, the implications of the transmissibility of oral polio vaccine viruses for the polio eradication initiative, and methods for optimising vaccination schedules.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Teaching
He is involved in epidemiology-related teaching on several of the MSc and short courses offered by the LSHTM.
Research
Research
He has broad interests in infectious disease epidemiology, with particular emphasis upon vaccines (trials, safety and efficacy evaluations of BCG, measles, pertussis, mumps, polio), mycobacterial diseases (including genetics, immune responses, risk factors, vaccine and drug trials of leprosy and tuberculosis) and family studies (in the broadest sense, including both Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritance). He directed a large study of tuberculosis, leprosy and HIV in northern Malawi (the Karonga Prevention Study) from 1978 to 2006.
Keywords
Disciplines
• Epidemiology
Research areas
• Clinical trials
• Vaccines
Diseases and Health Conditions
• Infectious disease
• Leprosy
• Tuberculosis