Center for
Global Health

International Scholar

Languages: English (native), French (intermediate), German (basic)

Bio statement

I have 35-plus years’ research experience in infectious diseases, principally malaria, dengue, and other arboviruses. My interest started in immunology –an experimental model of blood-stage plasmodial infection – which provided insights into immune regulation and vaccine design of mainstream relevance. I have progressively developed a broader and more clinical focus encompassing epidemiology, treatment, prevention, and control.

Current research collaborations involve colleagues in endemic countries in South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. I joined VinUniversity in 2021 as a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology.

I deliver research-engaged teaching of medical microbiology, immunology, and public health at all taught undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Recent global health projects

1: This study is one aspect of a fruitful collaboration on dengue with the colleagues from universities in Malaysia: Background: Dengue, a major global public health concern, is growing more prevalent. Extensive measures have been undertaken to prevent and control dengue transmission in Malaysia including understanding and modifying human behaviour. This study was designed to assist in planning an effective health intervention for dengue by measuring residents’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) in hotspot areas of Sabah, East Malaysia. Methods: A community-based and cross-sectional study was conducted at a known dengue hotspot in Sabah involving 463 residents aged 18 years and above. Information on the socio-demographic characteristics of the residents and their KAP towards dengue was collected using a structured pre-validated questionnaire developed by the researchers. In addition, residents were invited to participate in a dengue seroprevalence study using a dengue immunoglobulin (Ig)M and IgG ELISA kit. Results: Most of the residents correctly identified common signs and symptoms of dengue such as fever (84.4%), chills (70.7%), and nausea or vomiting (56.0%). Approximately half of the residents (51.3%) had good knowledge, 66.0% had a positive attitude, and 63.7% described their positive practice for dengue prevention and control, respectively. The dengue seroprevalence study included 200 of the 463 residents; IgG and IgM seropositivity was 74.1% (n = 63) and 7.1% (n = 6), respectively. Based on logistic regression analysis, locals and migrants differed considerably in terms of their knowledge and attitude towards dengue prevention and control, while gender and level of education were predictive of practice level (p < 0.05) among all sociodemographic variables examined. Knowledge was strongly correlated with attitude (p < 0.0001) and practice (p < 0.0014). Discussion: In order to effectively control dengue epidemics in Sabah, a proactive attitude and behavioural changes by community residents are both required. In order to effectively prevent and manage dengue transmission in this hotspot area, a coordinated collaborative effort between government and private sectors, housing residential committees and individual residents is essential.   2: This study is one aspect of an ongoing collaboration on antibiotic-resistant typhoid with colleagues from universities in Pakistan and Australia: Background: Increasing antibiotic resistance by pathogenic bacteria is observed in poor sanitary conditions. The peak incidence of typhoid occurs between 5–15 years of age. This is the most common bacteremic illness of children in Pakistan. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of drug-resistant Salmonella Typhi and S. Paratyphi A in children hospitalized or treated as outpatients at a tertiary care centre that serves Gadap Town, an extensive slum district of Karachi. Methods: A total of 275 peripheral blood samples were collected from children up to 14 years old who presented with clinical features of typhoid to Fatima Hospital, Baqai Medical University, over a two-year period. Samples were cultured for growth of aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria, identified by biochemical reactions. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion using eight different antibiotics. Results: Among all samples, 30 (10.9%) were positive for S. Typhi by blood culture. The rate of positivity was 23 (76.7%) cases for ages 5–14 years, three (10.0%) in each of age groups 2.0–2.9 and 4.0–4.9 years, and one patient (3.3%) aged 3.0–3.9 years. The majority of S. Typhi isolates were resistant to co-trimoxazole (66.7%), ampicillin (63.3%), nalidixic acid (60.0%), chloramphenicol (50.0%) and aztreonam (50.0%). However, most isolates were susceptible to ceftriaxone (76.7%) and ciprofloxacin (66.7%). There were 15 multidrug-resistant isolates but no typhoid-related deaths. Conclusion: Our findings show evidence of antimicrobial resistance by S. Typhi isolated from Karachiite children living in a poverty-stricken setting where water quality and sanitation are both unsatisfactory. Currently, Pakistan’s most populated city is recognized as a focus of typhoid cases. Therefore, this first report of the emergence of confirmed cases of multidrug-resistant S. Typhi from the only public hospital in its largest neighbourhood identifies a grave public health concern.   3. This study on pathogen early detection in Hanoi wastewater forms the start of a new collaboration on infectious disease surveillance in Vietnam with colleagues in the USA: Background: Monitoring the advent and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants of interest in a community could help local health authorities to make informed decisions in the best interests of the population’s health. Methods: Since the onset of COVID-19, pre-sewage treatment wastewater sampling has been harnessed as a non-evasive large-scale pathogen surveillance tool. Wastewater surveillance complements clinical diagnosis because between 7–14 days’ early warning detection of transmission by asymptomatic infected individuals is achieved without excessive resources and labor required for frequent human testing by an approved diagnostic microbiology laboratory. Results: The level of sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 detection in sewage currently approximates to one in 2,000 people, thereby being sufficiently accurate to identify the location of an urban outbreak to a close geographical proximity or large building occupancy. Discussion: The establishment of infrastructure for wastewater-based SARS-CoV-2 surveillance serves as an entry point for monitoring other pathogenic infectious agents (of viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasite origin) in resource-limited settings. Conclusion: This approach provides a more rapid and accurate early warning system for the outbreak of notifiable infectious diseases than more traditional public health surveillance systems. Furthermore, this technology should enable medical researchers to investigate horizontal transfer among enteric bacterial isolates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes, and even to detect chemicals or biomarkers that humans excrete during the course of infectious or metabolic diseases.

Selected publications

Taylor-Robinson A.W. Dengue cases in Hanoi, Vietnam: unseasonal surge foreshadows increased incidence that demands organized preventive action. Chulalongkorn Medical Journal 69, 3 pages, in press, 2025.

Taylor-Robinson AW. Combatting Plasmodium falciparum malaria in endemic settings: vaccination should complement rather than devalue low-technology interventions. Microbes and Infectious Diseases, 6, 6 pages, in press, 2025. doi: 10.21608/mid.2024.277749.1850

Taylor-Robinson AW. Mpox virus epidemic in Africa: is Southeast Asia at risk and what preventive measures should the region take? The example of Vietnam. Microbes & Immunity, 2(1), 4878, 2024. 8 pages. doi: 10.36922/mi.4878

Taylor-Robinson AW. Is vector competence testing of Aedes aegypti a valid tool to determine the transmission potential of yellow fever virus? New Microbes and New Infections, 62, 101550, 2024. 2 pages. doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2024.101550

Nguyen KQ, Taylor-Robinson AW. Combatting rabies outbreaks in Vietnam: high time to enforce restrictions on dog meat farming, a key source of transmission. International Journal of Infectious Diseases – Regions, 13C, 100490, 2024. 5 pages. doi: 10.1016/j.ijregi.2024.100490

Taylor-Robinson AW. Environmental health meets chronic and infectious disease management: tackling the impact of climate change on public health risks. International Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health Research, 5(4), 0101, 2024. 5 pages. doi: 10.61148/2836-2810/IJEPHR/0101

Nguyen HTH, Linh KB, Tran NT, Nguyen NTT, Hoang AP, Pham HH, Taylor-Robinson AW, Tran DQ, Nguyen HTT. The i-CanManage program to improve exercise and symptom management for Vietnamese women after cancer: A pilot randomized controlled trial protocol. Digital Health, 10, 1-12, 2024. doi: 10.1177/20552076241293974

Taylor-Robinson AW. Complex transmission epidemiology of neglected Australian arboviruses: diverse non-human vertebrate hosts and competent arthropod invertebrate vectors. Frontiers in Microbiology 15, 1469710, 2024. 13 pages. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1469710

Taylor-Robinson SD, Taylor-Robinson AW. Historical Vignette – David Taylor-Robinson: medical microbiologist and research pioneer of sexually transmitted infections. Cureus Journal of Medical Science 16(8), e66319, 2024. doi: 10.7759/cureus.66319

Sedarat Z, Taylor-Robinson AW. Helicobacter pylori outer membrane proteins and virulence factors: potential targets for novel therapies and vaccines. Pathogens 13(5), 392, 2024. 25 pages. doi: 10.3390/pathogens13050392

Nguyen HTH, Nguyen TKH, Linh KB, Dinh TTH, Taylor-Robinson AW. Digital home-based post-treatment exercise interventions for female cancer survivors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Health Informatics Journal 30(2), 1-34 , 2024. doi: 10.1177/14604582241263668

Le LTP, Nguyen AHQ, Ngo HTT, Wang X, Cunningham B, Valera E, Bashir R, Taylor-Robinson AW, Do CD. Current smartphone-assisted point-of-care cancer detection: Towards supporting personalized cancer monitoring. Trends in Analytical Chemistry 174, 117681, 2024. 19 pages. doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2024.117681

Taylor-Robinson AW, Muurlink O.T. Climate change and infectious diseases among vulnerable populations. In: Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. Volume 3, Part X Social Science Research and Climate Change, pp. 2057-2076. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_130-1. Springer Nature, 2023 (online), 2024 (print)

Taylor-Robinson AW, Nguyen KQ. Malaria in the Mekong Delta: Rationale, Implementation and Interim Effectiveness of Vietnam’s Control, Prevention and Elimination Program, 2015-2030. Pressbooks, 2024. Available at: https://pressbooks.pub/malariainmekongdelta/

Teck K-S, Guad RM, Taylor-Robinson AW, Liew CL-S, Mandrinos S, Duin EV, Marcus M, Chua SW, Ho HL, Lo ZZ, Gan S-H, Wu YS, Sumpat D, Awang MA, Rahman MS, Azzani M. Antibiotic use in a co-infection of respiratory syncytial virus and pathogenic bacteria in children in a resource-limited setting in northeast Peninsular Malaysia. Tropical Biomedicine 41(3), 310-315, 2024. doi: 10.47665/tb.41.3.011

Mogaji HO, Adewale B, Smith SI, Igumbor EU, Idemili CJ, Taylor-Robinson AW. Combatting anthrax outbreaks across Nigeria’s national land borders: need to optimize ongoing surveillance with epidemiological surveys. BMC Infectious Diseases of Poverty 13, 10, 2024. 7 pages. doi: 10.1186/s40249-024-01179-3

Oleribe OO, Taylor-Robinson SD, Taylor-Robinson AW. COVID-19 post-pandemic reflections from sub-Saharan Africa: what we know now that we wish we knew then. Public Health in Practice, 7, 100486, 2024. 5 pages. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2024.100486

Oleribe OO, Taylor-Robinson AW, Nwanyanwu OC, Morgan MY, Taylor-Robinson SD. Four years since COVID-19 day zero: time to evaluate post-pandemic control policies and practices in sub-Saharan Africa? Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 17, 505-511, 2024

Taylor-Robinson AW. Harnessing artificial intelligence to enhance key surveillance and response measures for arbovirus disease outbreaks in Australia. Frontiers in Microbiology, 14, 1284838. 5 pages. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1284838

Taylor-Robinson AW, Muurlink O.T. Climate change and infectious diseases among vulnerable populations. In: P Liamputtong, ed., Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health, pp. 2057-2076. Springer Nature, 2023. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_130-1

Tu NDT, Nguyen KQ, Taylor-Robinson AW. Healthcare in Vietnam: harnessing artificial intelligence and robotics to improve patient care outcomes. Cureus Journal of Medical Science 15(9), e45006. 8 pages. doi:10.7759/cureus.45006

Muurlink O, Uzzaman N, Boorman RJ, Kibria SB, Best T, Taylor-Robinson AW. Village doctors: a national telephone survey of Bangladesh’s lay medical practitioners. BMC Health Services Research 23, 964, 2023. 9 pages. doi: 10.1186/s12913-023-09972-w

Nguyen HTH, Hoang AP, Do LTK, Taylor-Robinson AW, Nguyen HTT. Postpartum depression in Vietnam: a scoping review of symptoms, consequences, and management. BMC Women’s Health 23, 391, 2023. 19 pages. doi: 10.1186/s12905-023-02519-5

Kumar P, Nguyen TH, Le PVV, Yan J, Zhao L, Allan BF, Taylor-Robinson AW. Envisioning urban environments resilient to vector-borne diseases: a protocol to study dengue in Vietnam. Exploration of Digital Health Technologies, 1, 17-27, 2023. doi: 10.37349/edht.2023.00004

Nguyen KQ, Taylor-Robinson AW. Vietnam’s evolving healthcare system: notable successes and significant challenges. Cureus Journal of Medical Science 15(6), e40414, 2023. 5 pages. doi: 10.7759/cureus.40414

Nguyen KQ, Taylor-Robinson AW. Could human-to-human transmission of avian influenza spark a public health crisis in Southeast Asia? Infection, Disease & Health 28(3), 249-251, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.idh.2023.05.004

Nguyen KQ, Taylor-Robinson AW. Two linked clinical cases of avian influenza in Cambodia: what threat to public health in southeast Asia does this pose? Microbes and Infectious Diseases 4(3), 773-776, 2023. doi: 10.21608/MID.2023.204080.1501

Nguyen KQ, Nguyen LMA, Taylor-Robinson AW. The global COVID-19 vaccine surplus: tackling expiring stockpiles. BMC Infectious Diseases of Poverty 12, 21, 2023. 6 pages. doi: 10.1186/s40249-023-01070-7

Taylor-Robinson AW, Liebenberg L. Research training experience of Vietnamese health sciences undergraduates visiting the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa. Pan African Medical Journal 44, 109, 2023. 6 pages. doi: 10.11604/pamj.2023.44.109.39039

Mogaji HO, Omitola OO, Bayegun AA, Ekpo EF, Taylor-Robinson AW. Livestock reservoir hosts: an obscured threat to the elimination of human schistosomiasis in Nigeria. Zoonotic Diseases 3(1), 52-67, 2023. doi: 10.3390/zoonoticdis3010006

Nguyen VT, Dao VC, Nguyen TH, Taylor-Robinson AW. Anthelmintic effects of betel nut (Areca catechu) extracts on roundworms (Toxocara canis) and hookworms (Ancylostoma caninum) isolated from Vietnamese dogs. Asian Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances 18, 8-15, 2023. doi: 10.3923/ajava.2023.8.15

Taylor-Robinson AW, Nguyen TH. Infectious disease surveillance in Vietnam: pathogen early detection in Hanoi wastewater. Exploratory Research and Hypothesis in Medicine 7, 397-400, 2022. 4 pages. doi: 10.14218/ERHM.2022.00089.

Taylor-Robinson AW. Pakistan floods: incidence of vector- and water-borne infectious diseases soars. Microbes and Infectious Diseases 3(4), 776-779, 2022. doi: 10.21608/mid.2022.166660.1392.

Nguyen KQ, Nguyen LMA, Taylor-Robinson AW. Global “flu-ization” of COVID-19: A perspective from Vietnam. Frontiers in Public Health 10, 987467, 2022. 6 pages. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.987467.

Clark NF, Taylor-Robinson AW, Heimann K. Could chlorophyllins improve the safety profile of beta-d-N4-hydroxycytidine versus N-hydroxycytidine, the active ingredient of the SARS-CoV-2 antiviral molnupiravir? Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 13, 1-4, 2022. doi: 10.1177/20420986221107753

Caffery LA, Muurlink OT, Taylor-Robinson AW. Survival of rural telehealth services post-pandemic in Australia: a call to retain the gains in the ‘new normal’. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 30(4), 544-549, 2022. doi: 10.1111/ajr.12877.

Sedarat Z, Taylor-Robinson AW. Biofilm formation by pathogenic bacteria: applying a Staphylococcus aureus model to appraise potential targets for therapeutic intervention. Pathogens 11(4), 388, 2022. 20 pages. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11040388.

Taylor-Robinson SD, Morgan MY, Spearman CW, Suliman AAA, Corrah T, Oleribe OO, Taylor-Robinson AW. Why SARS-CoV-2 vaccines still matter in Africa. Quarterly Journal of Medicine – Monthly Journal of the Association of Physicians 115(3), 191-192, 2022. doi: 10.1093/qjmed/hcac014.

Mohsin S, Aziz Q, Muurlink OT, Taylor-Robinson AW. Burden of antibiotic resistance among children with typhoid in Gadap Town, Karachi, Pakistan. Microbes and Infectious Diseases 3(1): 81-91, 2022. doi: 10.21608/MID.2021.87000.1174.

Mac Guad R, Sim MS, Carandang RR, Solidum JN, Taylor-Robinson AW, Wu Y-S, Aung Y-N, Low W-Y, Jeffree MS, Sekaran SD, Murugaiah C, Azizan N. Different domains of dengue research in the Philippines: a systematic review and meta-analysis of questionnaire-based studies. PLoS One 16(12): e0261412, 2021. 23 pages. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261412.

Caffery LA, Muurlink OT, Taylor-Robinson AW. Social disrupters: constructing a new way to deliver primary health services in a rural setting. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies 27(2), 237-257, 2021. doi: 10.3316/informit.254129427426908.

Mac Guad R, Mangantig E, Low W-Y, Taylor-Robinson AW, Azzani M, Sekaran SD, Sim MS, Azizan N. Development and validation of a structured survey questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, preventive practice, and treatment-seeking behaviour regarding dengue among the resident population of Sabah, Malaysia: an exploratory factor analysis. BMC Infectious Diseases 21, 893, 2021. doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06606-6.

Makanjuola RO, Bello AA, Sadiq FU, Ishaleku D, Oduwole KH, Taylor-Robinson AW. Comparative analysis of the unregulated sale of antimicrobial prescription medication by drug retailers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Abuja, Nigeria. Microbes and Infectious Diseases 2(3), 423-432, 2021. doi: 10.21608/mid.2021.71677.1142.

Mohsin S, Taylor-Robinson AW. Persistence of first-line antibiotic-resistant typhoid fever among Pakistani children: a growing concern for regional antimicrobial stewardship. Microbes Infect Chemother. 2022; 2: e1301.

Durga, P., Caffery, L. A., Muurlink, O. T., & Taylor-Robinson, A. W. (2022). Under the regulatory radar: Unregulated rural healthcare in Bangladesh and Australia. Health & Social Care in the Community, 00, 1– 9. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.13763

Muurlink OT, Taylor-Robinson AW. The ‘lifecycle’ of human beings: a call to explore vector-borne diseases from an ecosystem perspective. BMC Infectious Diseases of Poverty 9, 37, 2020. doi.org/10.1186/s40249-020-00653-y.

Gyawali N, Taylor-Robinson AW, Bradbury RS, Potter A, Aaskov JG. Infection of western gray kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus) with Australian arboviruses associated with human infection. Vector-Borne & Zoonotic Diseases 20(1), 33-39, 2020. doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2019.2467.

Clark NF, Taylor-Robinson AW. An ecologically framed comparison of the potential for zoonotic transmission of non-human and human-infecting species of malaria parasite. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 94(2), 361-373, 2021.

Clark NF, Taylor-Robinson AW. COVID-19 therapy: could a copper derivative of chlorophyll a be used to treat lymphopenia associated with severe symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection? Frontiers in Medicine 8, 620175, 2021. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.620175. 5 pages.

Browne JJ, Matthews EH, Taylor-Robinson AW, Kyd JM. Otopathogen interactions in the nasopharynx of children, and the predictive value of nasopharyngeal aspirate culture for the aetiology of upper respiratory infections. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 57(7), 1016-1022, 2021. doi: 10.1111/jpc.15370.

 

Last Updated: 09 January 2025