Dr. Jacob John is a public health physician and Professor at Christian Medical College, Vellore, where he serves as the Head of the Centre of Public Health. He holds an MD in Community Medicine from CMC Vellore and a PhD from Imperial College London. He teaches infectious disease epidemiology and vaccinology, with his research focused on the prevention and control of infectious diseases.
Dr. Jacob John has played a key role in supporting the introduction of Haemophilus Influenzae B, Rotavirus, and inactivated poliovirus vaccines in India through disease burden studies and vaccine evaluations. He currently leads national surveillance for enteric fever and typhoid vaccine impact assessment in India, contributing to active considerations for typhoid conjugate vaccine introduction into the universal immunisation programme.
Dr. Jacob John is a member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and WHO SAGE working groups related to Salmonellosis and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, supporting evidence-based vaccine policy decisions at both national and global levels. His work through the Centre of Public Health continues to advance public health research, education, and policy across India and beyond.
Publications
1. Bhandari N, Rongsen-Chandola T, Bavdekar A, John J, Antony K, Taneja S, Goyal N, Kawade A, Kang G, Rathore SS, Juvekar S, Muliyil J, Arya A, Shaikh H, Abraham V, Vrati S, Proschan M, Kohberger R, Thiry G, Glass R, Greenberg HB, Curlin G, Mohan K, Harshavardhan GV, Prasad S, Rao TS, Boslego J, Bhan MK; India Rotavirus Vaccine Group. Efficacy of a monovalent human- bovine (116E) rotavirus vaccine in Indian children in the second year of life. Vaccine. 2014 Aug 11;32 Suppl 1:A110-6. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.079. PMID: 25091663.
2. Rose W, Sindhu KN, Abraham AM, Kang G, John J. Incidence of dengue illness among children in an urban setting in South India: A population based study. Int J Infect Dis. 2019 Jul; 84S: S15-S18. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid. 2019.01.033. Epub 2019 Jan 24. PMID: 30685587.
3. Sindhu KN, Srinivasan M, Subramaniam S, David AS, Mohan VR, John J, Kang G. Why do participants drop-out: findings from a prospective pediatric cohort for fever surveillance established at Vellore, southern India. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2019 Dec 30;19(1) : 244. doi: 10.1186/s12874-019-0881-y. PMID: 31888513; PMCID: PMC6937945.
4. Kaliappan SP, Venugopal S, Giri S, Praharaj I, Karthikeyan AS, Babji S, John J, Muliyil J, Grassly N, Kang G. Factors determining anti-poliovirus type 3 antibodies among orally immunised Indian infants. Vaccine. 2016 Sep 22;34(41):4979- 4984. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.08.032. Epub 2016 Aug 24. PMID: 27566901; PMCID: PMC5038128.
5. Britto CD, John J, Verghese VP, Pollard AJ. A systematic review of antimicrobial resistance of typhoidal Salmonella in India. Indian J Med Res. 2019 Feb; 149(2) : 151-163. doi: 10.4103/ijmr. IJMR 830 18. PMID: 31219079; PMCID: PMC6563740.
