2024 Caroline B. Hall Lectureship Delivered by Dr. Gail Demmler-Harrison

Award highlights innovative research in infectious diseases affecting children in either an inpatient or outpatient setting

Gail Demmler-Harrison, MD, is the Caroline B. Hall Lectureship Award recipient for 2024. This annual PIDS award highlights innovative clinical and translational research on infectious diseases of children that is performed in either inpatient or outpatient setting, and focuses on the epidemiology, diagnosis, management, prevention, and treatment of such infections. The lectureship honors a founding member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Dr. Caroline B. Hall, who was a world-renowned pediatrician, researcher, and teacher.

The lecture, ‘Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV): Playing the Long Game’, was presented Thursday, October 17 at IDWeek (October 16-19), the premier scientific meeting for infectious diseases professionals. This year’s meeting was hosted in Los Angeles, CA and virtually.

“Dr. Demmler-Harrison has dedicated four decades to the research and treatment of viral infections of the fetus, newborn, infant, and child, particularly CMV,” said PIDS President Bill Steinbach. “She has helped us all provide better care for those with congenital CMV through her work studying the long-term effects of CMV on growth, development, vision, and hearing into adulthood, and the possible benefits of fetal and neonatal antiviral therapy for this condition. Dr. Demmler-Harrison has achieved world-renown for her work in cCMV. We look forward to hearing her unique story, in the image of Dr. Hall, and her research.”

Dr. Demmler-Harrison Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, Baylor College of Medicine and Attending Physician, Infectious Diseases Service and CMV Congenital Infections Clinic, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston Texas. She is a long-standing member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the author of hundreds of scientific abstracts and publications, book chapters, and other scholarly works, and is a co-editor of Feigin & Cherry’s Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, a major textbook in pediatric infectious diseases, now in production of its ninth edition.

Dr. Demmler-Harrison earned her MD at Texas Tech University School of Medicine. She completed her residency and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. Additionally, she completed a research fellowship into varicella-zoster virus at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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About PIDS

PIDS membership encompasses leaders across the global scientific and public health spectrum, including clinical care, advocacy, academics, government, and the pharmaceutical industry. From fellowship training to continuing medical education, research, regulatory issues and guideline development, PIDS members are the core professionals advocating for the improved health of children with infectious diseases both nationally and around the world, participating in critical public health and medical professional advisory committees that determine the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, immunization practices in children, and the education of pediatricians. For more information, visit http://www.pids.org.