Zubair is a PhD student and a Research Officer at the Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute of University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Before pursuing his PhD, he worked as an Associate Scientist at Programme for Emerging Infections of the Infectious Diseases Division at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). He specializes in epidemiological studies related to respiratory viruses (influenza and now SARS-CoV-2), designing and implementing surveillance for their pandemic preparedness. He has been engaged in studies to estimate the influenza disease burden among the priority groups for influenza vaccination identified by the World Health Organization. He has also conducted studies focusing on acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) resulting from infectious diseases like influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and clinical trials on influenza vaccine effectiveness in Bangladesh. His PhD thesis is focused on exploring occult influenza or COVID-19 infection in patients with AMI and the role of vaccination on recurrent adverse cardiovascular events by analyzing data from Australia and Bangladesh. As a research officer at the Biosecurity Program’s EPIWATCH Global Observatory, he contributes to daily outbreak scanning to inform rapid epidemic response globally.
Dr Abu Muhammad Zubair Akhtar
Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), Bangladesh Dental Collge, Dhaka Bangladesh Mater of Public Health (MPH), James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Research activities
For a complete list of publications please visit: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5054-9243 Akhtar Z, Islam MA, Aleem MA, et al SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus coinfection among patients with severe acute respiratory infection during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: a hospital-based descriptive study. BMJ Open 2021;11:e053768. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053768 Akhtar, Z.; Mah-E-Muneer, S.; Rashid, M.M.; Ahmed, M.S.; Islam, M.A.; Chowdhury, S.; Khan, Z.; Hassan, M.Z.; Islam, K.; Parveen, S.; Debnath, N.; Rahman, M.; Chowdhury, F. Antibiotics Use and Its Knowledge in the Community: A Mobile Phone Survey during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh. Antibiotics 2021, 10, 1052. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10091052 Akhtar Z, Chowdhury F, Rahman M, Ghosh PK, Ahmmed MK, Islam MA, Mott JA, Davis W. Seasonal influenza during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. PLoS One. 2021 Aug 3;16(8):e0255646. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255646. PMID: 34343203. Akhtar Z, Chowdhury F, Aleem MA, Ghosh PK, Rahman M, Rahman M, Hossain ME, Sumiya MK, Islam AKMM, Uddin MJ, MacIntyre CR, Cajander S, Frobert O. Undiagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infection and outcome in patients with acute MI and no COVID-19 symptoms. Open Heart. 2021 Apr;8(1):e001617. doi: 10.1136/openhrt-2021-001617. PMID: 33811137; PMCID: PMC8023755. Akhtar, Z, Aleem, M.A., Ghosh, P.K. Islam AKM, Chowdhury F, MacIntyre C R, Frobert O. In-hospital and 30-day major adverse cardiac events in patients referred for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in Dhaka, Bangladesh. BMC Cardiovasc Disord 21, 85 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12872-021-01896-9 Frøbert O, Götberg M, Erlinge D, Akhtar Z, Christiansen EH, MacIntyre CR, Oldroyd KG, Motovska Z, Erglis A, Moer R, Hlinomaz O, Jakobsen L, Engstrøm T, Jensen LO, Fallesen CO, Jensen SE, Angerås O, Calais F, Kåregren A, Lauermann J, Mokhtari A, Nilsson J, Persson J, Stalby P, Islam AKMM, Rahman A, Malik F, Choudhury S, Collier T, Pocock SJ, Pernow J. Influenza Vaccination after Myocardial Infarction: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Multicenter Trial. Circulation. 2021 Aug 30. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057042. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34459211. Islam MA, Akhtar Z, Hassan MZ, Chowdhury S, Rashid MM, Aleem MA, Ghosh PK, Mah-E-Muneer S, Parveen S, Ahmmed MK, Ahmed MS, Basher AK, Palit A, Biswas MAAJ, Khan Z, Islam K, Debnath N, Rahman M, Chowdhury F. Pattern of Antibiotic Dispensing at Pharmacies According to the WHO Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) Classification in Bangladesh. Antibiotics. 2022; 11(2):247. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11020247 Chowdhury F, Shahid ASMSB, Tabassum M, Parvin I, Ghosh PK, Hossain MI, Alam NH, Faruque ASG, Huq S, Shahrin L, Homaira N, Hassan Z, Akhtar Z, Mah-E-Muneer S, Fuchs GJ, Ahmed T, Chisti MJ. Vitamin D supplementation among Bangladeshi children under-five years of age hospitalised for severe pneumonia: A randomised placebo controlled trial. PLoS One. 2021 Feb 19;16(2):e0246460. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246460. PMID: 33606713; PMCID: PMC7894897. Mah-E-Muneer S, Hassan MZ, Biswas MAAJ, Rahman F, Akhtar Z, Das P, Islam MA, Chowdhury F. Use of Antimicrobials among Suspected COVID-19 Patients at Selected Hospitals, Bangladesh: Findings from the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic. Antibiotics. 2021; 10(6):738. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10060738 Chowdhury F, Shahid ASMSB, Ghosh PK, Akhtar Z, et al. Viral etiology of pneumonia among severely malnourished under-five children in an urban hospital, Bangladesh. PLoS One. 2020;15(2):e0228329. Published 2020 Feb 4. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228329