Sabine Hermans

Sabine Hermans

  • Research Fellow
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health, Amsterdam UMC

As an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist with more than 10 years of experience living and working in various sub-Saharan African countries, Sabine Hermans’ research interests include HIV and tuberculosis (co-)infection, in particular recurrent tuberculosis, and optimal strategies of HIV and TB health care delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. Within the realm of HIV and TB, she specializes in the analysis of large-scale routinely collected data using up-to-date techniques, and prospective studies of the impact of health care interventions. Her expertise enables her to collaborate effectively with scientists as well as public health experts, mathematical modelers, clinicians, and policymakers. Her work analyzing a decade of routinely collected TB data in Cape Town, South Africa, and Kampala, Uganda has led to her current research focus on recurrent TB. She aims to determine the mechanisms underlying the increased risk of recurrent TB to identify better approaches for TB control, both in the area of TB vaccines and adapted screening or treatment approaches.

Other current work includes operational research on the implementation of Universal HIV Test and Treat (UTT) in rural Tanzania, and evaluation of a new stool-based PCR for diagnosis of TB in children and people living with HIV in Uganda, Mozambique, and Eswatini (Stool4TB study), and a prospective cohort study to implement and evaluate novel drug regimens for multi- and extensive drug-resistant TB in South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania (T2RiAD study).

KEY PUBLICATIONS

The impact of the roll-out of rapid molecular diagnostic testing for tuberculosis on empirical treatment in Cape Town, South Africa.
Hermans S, Caldwell J, Kaplan R, Cobelens F, Wood R. Bull
World Health Organ. 2017 Aug 1;95(8):554-563. doi: 10.2471/BLT.16.185314. Epub 2017 Apr 28.

The timing of tuberculosis after isoniazid preventive therapy among gold miners in South Africa: a prospective cohort study.
Hermans SM, Grant AD, Chihota V, Lewis JJ, Vynnycky E, Churchyard GJ, Fielding KL,
BMC MED 2016;14 (1):45

A Century of Tuberculosis Epidemiology in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere: The Differential Impact of Control Interventions.
Hermans S, Horsburgh CR Jr, Wood R,
PLOS ONE 2015;10 (8):e0135179

Temporal trends in TB notification rates during ART scale-up in Cape Town: an ecological analysis.
Hermans S, Boulle A, Caldwell J, Pienaar D, Wood R,
J INT AIDS SOC 2015;18 (1):20240

High Rates of Recurrent Tuberculosis Disease: A Population-level Cohort Study.
Hermans S, Zinyakatira N, Caldwell J, Cobelens F, Boulle A, Wood R
Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaa470, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa470