Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology Unit
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Our Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology Unit provides expert care and support for children and young people with a wide range of infectious diseases and immunological conditions. Our multidisciplinary team of specialists is dedicated to offering the highest quality care, ensuring patients receive the most advanced treatments available in a child-friendly environment, in our dedicated ward Pinckney or as an outpatient or day case.
Content:
- Our services
- Our team
- Referrals
- Teaching
- Research
1. Our Services
We offer a range of services designed to diagnose, treat, and manage infectious diseases and immune system disorders in children and adolescents.
Diagnosis and Management of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunodeficiencies for hospitalised children:
- We manage children with bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic infections.
- Our expertise includes severe infections such as sepsis, meningitis, bone and joint infections, etc as well as HIV, tuberculosis, congenital infections and infections in the immunocompromised host.
- We work jointly with colleagues from other specialities at St. George’s University Hospital such as intensive care or surgery (general surgery, neurosurgery, ENT, ophthalmology or trauma and orthopaedics); including psychosocial care.
Immunodeficiency and Vaccine Services:
- Comprehensive diagnostics for primary and secondary immunodeficiencies.
- Management of conditions such as Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID), Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), and hyper IgE syndrome.
- Vaccination guidance for children with immunodeficiencies, who are on immunosuppressive therapies, or who have had previous reactions to vaccines (in close collaboration with paediatric allergy).
- We are the reference centre in South London for SCID screening.
Travel and Tropical Medicine:
- Pre-travel consultations for vaccinations and advice on travel-related infections.
- Post-travel assessments for children returning with fevers or other symptoms of tropical diseases, such as malaria or dengue fever.
Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Control:
- Our team works to ensure the appropriate use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial treatments within Paediatric at St. George’s University Hospital.
- We collaborate with infection control teams to prevent and manage healthcare-associated infections.
Specialist Clinics:
We run outpatient clinics for children:
- HIV outpatient service and adolescent clinic.
- Congenital infections
- Paediatric tuberculosis
- General paediatric infectious diseases
- Virtual fungal clinic
- Immunology clinic
- Vaccine clinic
2. Our Team
Our dedicated team includes Paediatric Infectious Diseases consultants, senior trainees, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Pharmacists and admin support.
Consultants
Katja Doerholt MD, PhD, FRCPCH
Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology.
Special interests: HIV, TB, pOPAT, Antimicrobial Stewardship, Immunology
Laura Ferreras-Antolin MD, PhD, FRCPCH
Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology. Speciality Lead
Special interests: TB, fungal infections and infection in the immunocompromised host, UASC, Congenital infections
Borbala Zsigmond MD, FRCPCH
Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology.
Special interests: Antimicrobial Stewardship, HIV, TB, autoinflammatory diseases.
Konstantinos Karampatas MD, PhD, FRCPCH
Locum Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology.
Special interests: Immunology, Neonatal and Congenital infections.
Prof. Amaya Bustinduy MD, PhD, FRCPCH
Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology.
Special interests: Global Health, tropical diseases and Parasitic infections.
Prof. Shamez Ladhani MD, PhD, FRCPCH
Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology. Epidemiologist for the UK Health Security Agency.
Special interests: Vaccinology, infection outbreaks, COVID19
Prof. Kirsty Le Doare PhD, FRCPCH
Honorary consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology. Professor of vaccinology and immunology.
Special interest: Global Health, vaccinology and Neonatal infections.
Clinical Nurse Specialists
Sharon Storey
Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist
Special interests: paediatric HIV, TB, Congenital Infections
Sarah Tizzard
Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist
Special interests: paediatric viral hepatitis, HIV, TB, Congenital Infections
Clare Gilmour
Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist
Special interests: Immunology, paediatric HIV, TB, Congenital Infections
Emma Le Boutiller
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Special interests: paediatric HIV, TB, Congenital Infections
Jaroslava (Jay) Alam
Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist
Special interests: pOPAT (Paediatric Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy) and venous access
Natasha Alleyne
Senior Ward Nurse
Pinckney Ward Manager
Secretary
Archana Pydegadu
Pharmacy
Efe Bolton
Holly Meegan
General Manager
Bethea Hanson-Jones
3. Referrals and Consult advice
We accept referrals from general practitioners (GPs), paediatricians, and other healthcare professionals for children with suspected or confirmed infectious diseases or immune system disorders. We cannot provide advice directly to patients or families without a formal referral from primary or secondary care.
Referral Pathway:
General practitioners:
GP can refer via ERS Paediatric Infectious Diseases @ St George’s University Hospital – RJ7
Or if they just need advice: []
Other health care professionals can refer via email: RMC@stgeorges.nhs.uk
Referrals for pOPAT can be done via the intranet:
- pOPAT form
With any queries about pOPAT please referred to: Jaroslava (Jay) Alam. Ex 0677, bleep 6088
Referrals for the assessment of UASC (Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children) can be done by filling in the form below and emailing it to: uasc@stgeorges.nhs.uk
- UASC referral form
We offer a consultation service to health care professionals in South West London. This can be done to our Paediatric Infectious Diseases registrar via Switch board or via email: tb/pidconsultadvice@stgeorges.nhs.uk. We will request a referral form to be fill in.
- Referral form
Resources for families:
Please see the patient information leaflets from the Trust website.
4. Education and work experience
We are actively involved in providing training opportunities for healthcare professionals and we are a National training centres for Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology.
Undergraduate
We collaborate closely with City St Georges University of London by supervising SSC (student selected component) placements and projects, offering insight and encouraging interest in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology.
Postgraduate
Our unit is actively collaborating in the training of junior doctors (one F1, three paediatric ST1-ST4 trainees and two to three St5-St7 trainees). Our junior doctors are involved in both inpatient and outpatient activities as well as in clinical governance, audits and research projects.
We have regular NIHR-funded opportunities for integrated academic fellowship (ACF) and lectureship (ACL) training in paediatrics and paediatric infection and immunology. These posts that are advertised annually combine paediatric training at St. George’s University Hospital with formal academic experience at SGUL to train academic leaders in Paediatrics, capable of developing further centres of excellence. Trainees gain clinical competence comparable with their non-academic peers whilst developing a competitive academic edge that increases their chances of success in higher training fellowship applications.
We offer an annual position for a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinical Fellow. This opportunity is open to senior trainees or early-career consultants from the UK and overseas who wish to expand their knowledge in this field for 6 or 12 months. For more information please, contact our secretary (archana.pydegadu@stgeorges.nhs.uk).
We accept overseas Observers. This role is particularly designed for overseas junior doctors who want to have experience in a tertiary care Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit in the U.K. Clinical observers are organised so there is a maximum of one trainee during the rotation. This junior doctor is involved in the inpatient and outpatients review as well as an audit/guideline review. For more information please, contact our secretary (archana.pydegadu@stgeorges.nhs.uk).
5. Research
We are involved in cutting-edge research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases and immunodeficiencies in children. Our Unit is closely related to the Centre for Neonatal and Paediatric Infection (CNPI), at City St George’s University of London which is an internationally recognised centre leading global Paediatric Infectious Diseases Research. The CNPI includes a research portfolio comprising a variety of projects and studies in children, with a focus on the epidemiology and treatment of vaccine-preventable diseases (Professor Paul Heath and Professor Shamez Ladhani), global antibiotic resistance and prescribing (Professor Mike Sharland and Dr Julia Bielicki), global neonatal health and maternal vaccination (Professor Kirsty Le Doare, Dr Kostas Karampatsas), Invasive Fungal Infections in children (Dr Laura Ferreras-Antolin), congenital infections, health inequalities and migrant health (Dr Nuria Sanchez Clemente), and on infant feeding, gut microbiome, and antimicrobial resistance (Dr Rosie Crane).
