Kim Mulholland

UK; Professorial Fellow, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia; Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, Australia; MBBS, FRACP, MD

Kim Mulholland is an Australian paediatrician, trained at Melbourne University and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.

With post-graduate training in immunology, respiratory medicine and tropical medicine he joined the Medical Research Council Laboratories, Gambia in 1989, where he developed a program of research covering all aspects of the problem of childhood pneumonia. This included studies of the aetiology, clinical signs, and treatment of pneumonia cases, with particular reference to very young infants and malnourished children. These studies helped to guide WHO policy in the field and contributed to the development of the strategy of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), as well as guiding oxygen and antibiotic management for hospitalized children.

In the Gambia he also worked on several projects relating indoor air pollution to pneumonia. His Hib vaccine trials were the first to demonstrate the capacity of conjugate vaccines to prevent bacterial pneumonia, and paved the way for Hib vaccine introduction in Africa. After six years in the Gambia, he joined WHO HQ where he oversaw the development of standardized methods for the evaluation of pneumonia vaccines in developing countries.

At WHO he was also the focal point for air pollution in the Child and Adolescent Health Department and helped design the RESPIRE study. Since leaving WHO in 2000 he has continued to work in the pneumonia field with particular emphasis on vaccines.

He was one of the founders of the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia, and one of the leaders of the successful Hib Initiative project that saw the introduction of Hib vaccines into the poorest countries of the world. During the same period he established leading pneumococcal microbiology and immunology laboratories at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne, along with major field research programs in Vietnam, Fiji and Mongolia. In Mongolia he works with NCCD undertaking surveillance of severe pneumonia in children in 4 districts of Ulaanbaatar. He also leads HPV research programs in Mongolia, Vietnam, Ethiopia and India.

He has worked on RSV research projects for over 30 years and currently leads projects in Mongolia and Vietnam. He has led the typhoid research project in Fiji since 2012. He has been involved in the oversight of many vaccine trials, serving on steering committees or DSMBs for a range of vaccines including Pneumococcal, Dengue, RSV and Covid-19 vaccines.