Cheryl Cohen is a South African public health researcher who is a professor at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

. She looks to develop evidence-based policy to reduce the burdens of respiratory diseases. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Cohen investigated the rates of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in South Africa.

Early life and education

Cohen was inspired by her mother to pursue a career in medicine. As a child, she accompanied her mother on ward rounds in her local infectious diseases hospital. She eventually studied medicine at the

. She became aware that it was difficult to treat infectious diseases in Africa. In particular, it was difficult in securing antiretroviral medications for the treatment of HIV. She has described working in hospitals at the time as like being in a war zone. She decided that she would have more of an impact working in public health, so earned a MSc in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her doctoral research considered morbidity and mortality related to influenza in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Research and career

Cohen leads the Center for Respiratory Disease and Meningitis at the

National Institute for Communicable Diseases The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is the national public health institute of South Africa, providing reference to microbiology, virology, epidemiology, surveillance and public health research to support the government's re ...

. She oversees public health surveillance for respiratory diseases. In 2009, she established a national surveillance programme for respiratory infections. Her work revealed that the disease burden of influenza in South Africa exceeded that of high income countries. She identified that HIV positive individuals have an elevated risk of severe illnesses associated with influenza. She showed that the majority of adults hospitalised with influenza were also infected with HIV. Cohen found that young children were particularly susceptible to influenza, and recommended that future vaccination programmes focus on this demographic. When the

spread across the world in 2020, Cohen was well prepared for analysing the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2. She identified that around 85% of COVID infected people were asymptomatic. She also showed that

people living with HIV HIV-positive people, seropositive people or people who live with HIV are people who have the human immunodeficiency virus HIV, the agent of the currently incurable disease AIDS. According to estimates by World Health Organization, WHO and UNAIDS, ...

were more likely to suffer from severe forms of

, and that they were likely to shed SARS-CoV-2 for longer.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Cheryl Living people Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand University of the Witwatersrand alumni Alumni of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 21st-century South African scientists Public health researchers Year of birth missing (living people)