Contact details
Dr Peter J White
Lecturer in Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care
Email:
Dr Peter J White
Contact me. Download a list of my publications.
I am Head of the Modelling & Economics Unit in the Centre for Infections (CfI) of the Health Protection Agency. I have a part-time position in the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis & Modelling, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, at Imperial College London. The HPA Modelling & Economics Unit and CfI have a broad range of interests in infectious diseases. My personal research interests include mathematical modelling of the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections – including HIV – and TB, and the impact of health-care interventions. Currently my focus is on swine flu, and I am a member of the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and SPI-M modelling subcommittee, as well as the WHO Informal Network for Mathematical Modelling of H1N1.
In addition to lecturing to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Imperial, including on the MSc in Modern Epidemiology and Masters in Public Health, I give MPhil lectures at Cambridge University.
I am involved in a controlled trial in urban Peru of the effect of improved STI syndromic management, in collaboration with the University of Washington, Seattle, and Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Perú. With University of Washington, Seattle, I am investigating the impact of expedited partner therapy in a controlled trial throughout Washington state. Other studies of STIs and HIV involve University College London, King's College London, Queen Mary, University of London, University of Bern, UCLA and others. I am also involved in two projects investigating approaches to TB control, one in the UK (in collaboration with University College London & others) and the other in Perú.
The BBC (in its Panorama and news webpages) and the Times newpaper have reported modelling work from the Patsi study of the epidemiological impact of difficulties in obtaining STI healthcare in the UK, which shows how failing to provide adequate capacity to treat curable infectious disease (in this case, gonorrhoea) creates a vicious circle by allowing further spreading of infection and so creating more demand for treatment. In contrast, providing adequate capacity creates a virtuous circle where most potential spreading is prevented, keeping infection rates and demand for treatment low. Investing in increased capacity, to break the vicious circle, greatly reduces numbers of future infections and so offers cost savings as well as improving health. This work has also been presented at the House of Commons (UK Parliament). A summary for public-health officials and policy-makers is available here.
Recent workshops attended include:
Consultation on Metrics, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Research (MMER) for President Barack Obama’s new Global Health Initiative
DIMACS Workshop on Mathematical Models for Behavioral Epidemiology
ECDC Influenza A(H1N1)v modelling working group
WHO Informal Network for Mathematical Modelling of H1N1
BMGF Vaccine Modeling Initiative meeting, Pittsburgh.
NCCID HIV/STBBI Knowledge Synthesis and Exchange Forum, Toronto.
Meeting the Demand for Male Circumcision: An assessment of what is needed, Kampala.
Male Circumcision for HIV risk reduction: Decision Makers' Programme Planning Tool and Consensus Statement meeting, London.
Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors meeting, Seattle.
Department of Health (UK): Health Economics of Interventions in Sexual Health.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (UK): Economic Evaluation in Public Health.
LEAD International: HIV/STD & Eco-Health Systems, Dakar, Senegal.
I studied biochemistry at Cambridge, then went to Oxford for my MSc, before studying for my PhD in Stirling, with Prof Peter Hudson (now at Penn State) and Dr Rachel Norman. I joined the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College in 2002. Prior to becoming a lecturer I was a postdoc, funded by the Wellcome Trust and then UNAIDS. I took up my position at the Health Protection Agency in April 2009.
I am a volunteer leader of youth expeditions with Brathay Exploration Group, a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and a NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Crucible awardee 2006.
Imperial College's professional short course, Introduction to Mathematical Models of the Epidemiology & Control of Infectious Diseases, is aimed at public health professionals, policy-makers and researchers who want to learn about the basic principles and practical applications of mathematical modelling and modern quantitative methods, and has been running for two decades.
