Barbara E. Mahon, MD, MPH

Adjunct Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Biography

Barbara Mahon is a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist who focuses on public health surveillance, outbreak detection and response, and vaccines. She has spent most of her career in public health practice at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and currently works at the Gates Foundation as deputy director for surveillance and epidemiology. Trained in the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, she has worked on respiratory, vaccine-preventable, and enteric infectious diseases and on multiple public health emergencies. Most recently, she led the CDC's emergency response during the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and then launched a new permanent CDC division, the Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, leading staff working on laboratory, epidemiology, surveillance, and global issues. She also worked on the emergency response to the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic, the 2010 introduction of cholera to Haiti, and many other outbreaks, including botulism, salmonellosis, Legionnaires disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), meningococcal meningitis, Zika, and others. She served as director of the CDC’s Division of Bacterial Diseases in the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, principal investigator for the Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine against Ebola (STRIVE), associate director for antimicrobial resistance in the foodborne disease division, and deputy chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch. She has also worked in academic pediatrics, academic epidemiology, and briefly in the vaccine industry. She loves teaching and is always happy to talk with students about careers in public health practice.

Publications

  • Published 7/1/2024

    McMorrow ML, Moline HL, Toepfer AP, Halasa NB, Schuster JE, Staat MA, Williams JV, Klein EJ, Weinberg GA, Clopper BR, Boom JA, Stewart LS, Selvarangan R, Schlaudecker EP, Michaels MG, Englund JA, Albertin CS, Mahon BE, Hall AJ, Sahni LC, Curns AT. Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Hospitalizations in Children <5 Years: 2016-2022. Pediatrics. 2024 Jul 01; 154(1). PMID: 38841769.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/26/2024

    Hall E, Mahon BE, Peacock G. The U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program: A look back and future directions. Vaccine. 2024 Sep 17; 42 Suppl 3:125628. PMID: 38280828.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/27/2023

    Lambrou AS, South E, Ballou ES, Paden CR, Fuller JA, Bart SM, Butryn DM, Novak RT, Browning SD, Kirby AE, Welsh RM, Cornforth DM, MacCannell DR, Friedman CR, Thornburg NJ, Hall AJ, Hughes LJ, Mahon BE, Daskalakis DC, Shah ND, Jackson BR, Kirking HL. Early Detection and Surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 Variant BA.2.86 - Worldwide, July-October 2023. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023 Oct 27; 72(43):1162-1167. PMID: 37883327.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/20/2023

    Regan JJ, Moulia DL, Link-Gelles R, Godfrey M, Mak J, Najdowski M, Rosenblum HG, Shah MM, Twentyman E, Meyer S, Peacock G, Thornburg N, Havers FP, Saydah S, Brooks O, Talbot HK, Lee GM, Bell BP, Mahon BE, Daley MF, Fleming-Dutra KE, Wallace M. Use of Updated COVID-19 Vaccines 2023-2024 Formula for Persons Aged =6 Months: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices - United States, September 2023. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023 Oct 20; 72(42):1140-1146. PMID: 37856366.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/13/2023

    Fleming-Dutra KE, Jones JM, Roper LE, Prill MM, Ortega-Sanchez IR, Moulia DL, Wallace M, Godfrey M, Broder KR, Tepper NK, Brooks O, Sánchez PJ, Kotton CN, Mahon BE, Long SS, McMorrow ML. Use of the Pfizer Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine During Pregnancy for the Prevention of Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Lower Respiratory Tract Disease in Infants: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices - United States, 2023. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2023 Oct 13; 72(41):1115-1122. PMID: 37824423.

    Read at: PubMed

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Other Positions

  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Websites

Education

  • University of California San Francisco, MD
  • University of California, Berkeley, MPH
  • Harvard University, AB

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