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Edward Anthony Nardell, MD

Professor in the Department of Environmental Health; Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine

Dr. Edward A. Nardell is a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is also an associate professor in the Departments of Medicine, Environmental Health and Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard Medical School.

He received his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine. He then completed a residency at Hahnemann University Hospital, followed by fellowships in pulmonary disease at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Medical Center (formerly Boston University Medical Center). He is board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary disease.

The author of over 110 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Nardell is a prominent researcher of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), with a particular focus on airborne TB transmission and control. He is currently studying the transmission of MDR-TB and the effectiveness of various control interventions in several research projects funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. He is also involved in a 5-year Fogarty Innovation Grant that uses new technological approaches to airborne infection control to train architects, engineers and physicians in air disinfection research in Peru, South Africa, and other high-burden countries. He is actively developing more efficient and inexpensive ultraviolet germicidal irradiation fixtures and a new environmentally-safe chemical vapor that may reduce airborne transmission. 

Dr. Nardell has served as president of both the Massachusetts Thoracic Society and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD), North American Region. He is also the incoming chair of the IUATLD Tuberculosis Section, Paris, and the recipient of the Chadwick Medal of the Massachusetts Thoracic Society.

Affliations

Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Dr. Nardell is a professor in the Departments of Medicine and of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate professor in the Departments of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is an associate in medicine in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), in both the Division of Global Health Equity and the Pulmonary Division. His research interests involve the control of tuberculosis under resource-limited conditions, with a focus on the pathogenesis of drug-resistant tuberculosis, its airborne transmission, and transmission control in institutions. He is recently tested interventions to prevent transmission of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) in a unique experimental facility in South Africa, in which large numbers of sentinel guinea pigs served to sample the air from a six-bed MDR-TB ward, part of an MDR-TB referral center. An early observation of this research led to new investigation on TB pathogenesis, specifically the possibility of transient TB infection in guinea pigs as well as humans. Another important finding is that effective treatment rapidly (within days) stops TB transmission, even due to MDR-TB. Further planned research will determine which drugs are responsible for this dramatic effect. Ongoing experiments are also studying the impact of inhaled TB drugs on TB transmission. Another long-standing research avenue is the application of germicidal irradiation to reduce airborne transmission. Dr. Nardell also is developing more efficient, less expensive UVGI fixtures for resource-limited settings. In addition, he has worked on developing and validating a computer-assisted design software package to facilitate planning of UV installations in buildings. He has also begun testing a novel, environmentally safe chemical vapor that may be effective in reducing airborne transmission.

Cool but dangerous: How climate change is increasing the risk of airborne infections.
Authors: Authors: Nardell E, Lederer P, Mishra H, Nathavitharana R, Theron G.
Indoor Air
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Preventing Transmission of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis-A Refocused Approach.
Authors: Authors: Nardell EA.
Clin Chest Med
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Air disinfection in measles transmission hotspots.
Authors: Authors: Nardell E, Nathavitharana R.
Lancet
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The Lancet Respiratory Medicine Commission: 2019 update: epidemiology, pathogenesis, transmission, diagnosis, and management of multidrug-resistant and incurable tuberculosis.
Authors: Authors: Dheda K, Gumbo T, Maartens G, Dooley KE, Murray M, Furin J, Nardell EA, Warren RM.
Lancet Respir Med
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Reducing tuberculosis transmission: a consensus document from the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe.
Authors: Authors: Migliori GB, Nardell E, Yedilbayev A, D'Ambrosio L, Centis R, Tadolini M, van den Boom M, Ehsani S, Sotgiu G, Dara M.
Eur Respir J
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Treatment as prevention and other interventions to reduce transmission of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Authors: Authors: Nathavitharana RR, Lederer P, Tierney DB, Nardell E.
Int J Tuberc Lung Dis
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Transmission of drug-resistant tuberculosis in HIV-endemic settings.
Authors: Authors: Khan PY, Yates TA, Osman M, Warren RM, van der Heijden Y, Padayatchi N, Nardell EA, Moore D, Mathema B, Gandhi N, Eldholm V, Dheda K, Hesseling AC, Mizrahi V, Rustomjee R, Pym A.
Lancet Infect Dis
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Process measure of FAST tuberculosis infection control demonstrates delay in likely effective treatment.
Authors: Authors: Le H, Nguyen N, Tran P, Hoa N, Hung N, Moran A, Mossawi HJA, Kak N, Ahmedov S, Brooks MB, Nardell EA, Tierney DB.
Int J Tuberc Lung Dis
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Droplets, dust and guinea pigs: an historical review of tuberculosis transmission research, 1878-1940.
Authors: Authors: Donald PR, Diacon AH, Lange C, Demers AM, von Groote-Bidlingmaier F, Nardell E.
Int J Tuberc Lung Dis
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Designing and Evaluating Interventions to Halt the Transmission of Tuberculosis.
Authors: Authors: Dowdy DW, Grant AD, Dheda K, Nardell E, Fielding K, Moore DAJ.
J Infect Dis
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