Dr Sarah Downs

Sarah Downs is an Epidemiologist and Project Manager for the Impact, Communication and Engagement team at Wits VIDA on the CHAMPS program. She leads efforts to communicate CHAMPS findings, translate data into action, and ensure alignment with community needs. Sarah has extensive experience in working with communities in the NGO sector and in health research. Sarah’s research focus is epidemiology of respiratory pathogens, child and maternal health, vaccines and diagnostics.

She holds a BSc (Hons), MSc in Molecular Biology (both UKZN) and a PhD in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases from Wits. Sarah’s PhD focussed on Streptococcus pneumoniae and other bacterial nasopharyngeal colonization after seven to eight years post-introduction of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for South African children. During her PhD, Sarah developed a high-throughput nanofluidic real-time PCR to detect and quantify 15 bacterial species and 92 Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes. Sarah was selected to participate in the Gates Notes Deep Dive on Pandemic Prevention, with Bill Gates.  

Her previous research roles include DNA analyst on the SADC ECORat project, medical scientist in hospital-based surveillance and clinical trials at Wits VIDA, and researcher at EViTOH studying human and zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Sarah has also served as a reference group member for a novel project for water-based COVID-19 epidemiology surveillance for non-sewered Communities.

Sarah is passionate about preventative health and has contributed to EPI vaccine literacy for caregivers, was involved in science communication through social media platforms, webinars, presenting at schools and NGOs on pandemic-related response measures, science communication, misinformation and vaccines. This work was featured on BBC radio and print, Global Citizen Africa, CNN, TIME, and other international media.