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| Dr Katherine Langan presenting at the 2016 CCS postgraduate symposium |
As a child,
Katherine Langan was intrigued by bugs – but not the type you caught in jars. Dr
Langan recalls being fascinated by infectious diseases since she was about 12 witnessing
the advent, then spread of HIV/AIDs in Australia. Even then she wondered what
could be done about it.
Dr Langan’s interest in ‘bugs’ took her to Liverpool to study tropical medicine in 2011 and to Bangladesh to see first hand the effects of malaria in one of the country’s major teaching hospitals. The hospital was an eye-opener: there was no running water, no electricity for much of the day, patients had to pay for everything they used and were washed and fed by their families. Dr Langan watched as malaria killed young people who arrived too late to be effectively treated.
Dr Langan’s interest in ‘bugs’ took her to Liverpool to study tropical medicine in 2011 and to Bangladesh to see first hand the effects of malaria in one of the country’s major teaching hospitals. The hospital was an eye-opener: there was no running water, no electricity for much of the day, patients had to pay for everything they used and were washed and fed by their families. Dr Langan watched as malaria killed young people who arrived too late to be effectively treated.
Now
an infectious diseases
specialist at The Alfred undertaking a PhD at the Central Clinical School, her preoccupation
is with Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
specifically in people with cystic fibrosis.
