Burgess, Margaret Anne (1937 - )

Summary

Margaret Burgess is a pre-eminent paediatric researcher who made major contributions of international importance to understanding congenital rubella and its prevention, and to clinical and public health aspects of the control of vaccine-preventable disease. Her research focussed on rubella and measles, and she played a key role in adding varicella vaccine (in 2005) and rotavirus vaccine (in 2007) to National Immunisation Program. With colleagues she proposed the now-regular national serosurvey which examines age-specific prevalence of protective levels of antibodies to vaccine-preventable diseases at population level: this proved to be critical in the evaluation of the national Measles Control Campaign in 1998 under which all Australian primary school children had the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Burgess contributed to public policy on immunisation and infections diseases by serving on a number of advisory boards and committees. She also advocated for strengthened monitoring and reporting of vaccine safety. Burgess wrote over 270 research publications.

Details

Chronology

1971

Education - MD, University of Sydney

1972 - 1984

Career position - Norman Gregg Senior Research Fellow, Children's Medical Research Institute

1978

Career position - President, Paediatric Research Society of Australia

1984 - 2003

Career position - Senior Staff Physician, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney

1989 - 1995

Career position - Member, Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases, Department of Health, New South Wales

1992 - 1998

Career position - Associate Clinical Professor, University of Sydney

1992 - 2003

Career position - Member, Immunisation Advisory Committee, Department of Health, New South Wales

1996 - 2003

Career position - Member, Editorial Board, Communicable Diseases Intelligence

1997

Award - Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal

1997 - 2003

Career position - Member, Measles Elimination Advisory Committee

1997 - 2003

Career position - Director, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases

1997 - 2005

Career position - Member, Communicable Diseases Network of Australia and New Zealand

1998 - 2003

Career position - Professor of Paediatrics and Preventive Medicine, University of Sydney

1998 - 2005

Career position - Member, Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation

1999 - 2002

Career position - Member, Strategic Advisory Group of Experts for Vaccines and Biologicals, World Health Organization

2000 - 2005

Career position - Chair, Working Party on Varicella, Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation

2003 -

Career position - Emeritus Consultant Physician, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney

2003

Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to public health in Australia and overseas, particularly through the provision of policy advice to government and through undertaking research into vaccine preventable diseases and the control of infectious diseases, and to paediatrics.

2006

Award - Howard Williams Medal, Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Related entries

Published resources

Journal Articles

• McIntyre, Peter B.; and Forrest, Jill M., 'Margaret Anne Burgess: a remarkable paediatrician who pioneered research into vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases in Australia', Medical Journal of Australia, 204 (10) (2016), 389-91. Details