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Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology

Department of Pediatrics

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Clinical Care


Clinical care in Pediatric Infectious Disease is based primarily at Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO), routinely ranked as one of the top 10 children’s hospital in the nation. Children’s Hospital is ranked in the top 20 Children’s Hospitals in the U.S. in all recognized specialty areas. The Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center is based at Children’s Hospital. The hospital is located on the Anschutz Medical Campus, which hosts six other health professional schools.

CHCO has the only Level 1 pediatric trauma center in a seven-state region. The hospital has four campuses and hundreds of outreach clinics extending from Montana to New Mexico. There are over 16,000 admissions, 600,000 outpatient visits and 170,000 ED/urgent care visits per year.

Providers in the Section of Pediatric Infectious Disease offer inpatient and outpatient in person consultation for patients hospitalized at Children’s Hospital Colorado and Children’s Hospital Colorado Springs. The Section provides telehealth consultation to hundreds of providers throughout a multi-state region.

An inpatient team (consisting of an attending physician, Pediatric ID fellow, pediatric resident, Physician Assistant, Antimicrobial steward, epidemiologist, and medical student) offer 24 hour/day consultation. Outpatient clinics are staffed by an Attending Physician, Physician Assistants as well as Pediatric ID fellows, residents, and medical students. An extensive primary HIV care and HIV research program also resides within Pediatric Infectious Disease. ID Fellow teaching sessions are held weekly. Active clinical and research collaboration occurs with the School of Public Health and the Colorado State Health Department. Many of our Pediatric ID fellows and faculty are actively involved in international clinical and research projects through the world.

The Section of Pediatric Infectious Disease plays a critical role in education of clinicians at all levels by participating in morning report and noon teaching conferences and joint conferences with Internal Medicine ID colleagues located on the same campus at CU Anschutz. Our Section of Pediatric ID also sponsors a yearly Pediatric Update conference held in Vail, Colorado as well as multiple other local teaching conferences. Our faculty, fellows and physician assistants regularly receive teaching awards for their commitment to medical education.

The section of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado has several faculty members at the forefront of research, education, and clinical care of children with emerging infections.  The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the expertise and preparedness work of our faculty members who have led the pediatric response at Children’s Hospital Colorado, throughout the state of Colorado, and the country.  Dr. Sam Dominguez earned his PhD in coronavirus research (prior to SARS-CoV-2) and is a Kawasaki disease expert who has received the title of “SuperHero” from the Children’s Hospital Association for his work leading the regional response to COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).  Dr. Chris Nyquist is the Chief Safety and Epidemiology Officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado leading our hospital efforts to detect, prevent, and control emerging infections such as COVID-19. Dr. Sean O’Leary is a vaccine delivery specialist who has led pediatric vaccine guidance and return-to-school recommendations for COVID-19.  Dr. O’Leary holds positions as liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society which sets nationwide vaccine policy and serves on the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID) with Dr. Nyquist.  Dr. Suchitra Rao has led the innovative Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) providing up-to-date local guidelines to diagnose and manage COVID-19 and MIS-C in real-time as evidence evolved and has been a key player in vaccine rollout.  Dr. Jessica Cataldi has become the statewide expert on COVID-19 precautions and procedures at schools and daycares.  On the global health front, Dr. Edwin Asturias has led the nationwide response to COVID-19 in Guatemala as a special advisor to the president and Dr. Eric Simoes leads global research efforts investigating SARS-CoV-2 and impacts on other respiratory viruses impacting children.

Prior to COVID-19, our faculty have made several major discoveries and advances in emerging infections that affect children.  The uniquely large regional referral area of our quaternary care pediatric center has allowed our faculty to detect signals of rare conditions and connect the dots to alert public health authorities of newly emerging diseases.  Dr. James Todd (professor emeritus) provided the first clinical description of Toxic Shock syndrome in the 1970s and has conducted some of the landmark research on understanding and improving treatment of the disease.  Dr. Mimi Glode (professor emeritus) conducted some of the initial basic science research on Haemophilus influenza B vaccine and contributed to the first treatment trial of IVIG for Kawasaki disease.  Drs. Harley Rotbart (professor emeritus) and Mark Abzug conducted landmark research on enterovirus infections in neonates and children, including developing the first PCR test for enterovirus diagnosis and conducting the first multicenter studies of treatments.  Dr. Abzug is a leader in the Collaborative Antiviral Study Group conducting ongoing multicenter research studies on congenital and perinatal emerging infections.  During an outbreak of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Dr. Dan Olson provided one of the first descriptions of the Stevens Johnsons’ like condition now termed Mycoplasma Induced Rash and Mucositis (MIRM).  His work now focuses on the impact of emerging infections including dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, and influenza in the global health setting.  Drs. Sam Dominguez and Kevin Messacar described one of the first clusters of enterovirus D68 acute flaccid myelitis, for which they received the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Astute Clinician Award, and have become national experts in AFM and enterovirus surveillance, epidemiology, and management.  Dr. Messacar serves as a member of the CDC AFM Task Force.  Our nationally recognized infection control and prevention program has detected several nationwide emerging infectious disease outbreaks due to their in-depth investigations into hospital acquired infections, including work leading to a nationwide recall of B Cereus contaminated alcohol prep pads, Serratia marscens contaminated heparin flushes, and Burkholderia cepacia in sinus rinses.

Our section activities in emerging diseases span from basic science and translational research, to clinical care and clinical trials, to epidemiology and public health.  In addition, our faculty are highly sought out national and international speakers and educators in their areas of focus.  Pediatric infectious disease trainees are involved in the clinical care of children with emerging infections under the supervision of our faculty with expertise in these diseases, surveillance projects to detect the emergence of new diseases, and preparedness efforts to rapidly respond to the next challenges as they arise.  Nearly all the research activities and publications on emerging infections by faculty members have included trainee co-investigators and co-authors as they are mentored into learning the skills to develop their own careers in pediatric infectious diseases. 

The Center for Global Health (CGH) at the University of Colorado (CU) serves to improve health and healthcare in communities around the world, through interdisciplinary collaboration within the University and with partners in research, education, and health services. Our pediatric infectious diseases faculty have been an integral part of the CGH efforts to conduct epidemiological, clinical trial, translational and pragmatic research in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Our faculty have led the development of the Global Health signature site and laboratory in rural Guatemala, carrying out research on vaccine-preventable diseases, arboviruses, diarrhea, tuberculosis, One Health (veterinary and vector), and natural history studies on Zika, influenza and more recently COVID-19. Recent and ongoing research include (but not limited to): 1) cohort studies of agricultural workers and their households to understand the burden, transmission, and outcomes (clinical and economic) of respiratory viruses and impact of vaccines, 2) a One Health study with veterinary and arbovirology collaborators from Colorado State University to study “xenosurveillance” as a mean to identify and study emerging infectious diseases in humans and animals, and 3) a cohort study evaluating neurodevelopmental outcomes of post-natal Zika infection. Other studies, including fellow projects, have evaluated diagnostics and outcomes in large tertiary hospitals in Guatemala City.

ID/CGH investigators are also conducting cardinal studies and many other settings throughout the world. These include HIV translational and implementation research in sub-Saharan Africa; respiratory virus epidemiology, pathogenesis and vaccine effectiveness in South Africa and Asia; development and implementation of the WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy; vaccine development, efficacy, and effectiveness in numerous settings; and many others.

The Center for Global Health offers a Global Health Fellowships (dual Fellowship for Pediatric Subspecialty Fellows) for trainees interested in carrying out global health research as part of their career. Indeed, CGH has become a hub for global translational pediatric infectious diseases research and is leveraging collaborations now with other academic centers in the US, Europe, and elsewhere to advance knowledge on epidemiology, diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for children and adults.

Our team members include:

  • Edwin J. Asturias, MD: Chairholder and Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology
  • Eric Simoes, MD  – Professor of Pediatrics
  • Samuel Dominguez, MD PhD – Director of the Microbiology Laboratory
  • Daniel Olson, MD – Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology, and Bioengineering
  • Lisa Abuogi, MD – Associate Professor of Pediatrics
  • Thomas Jaenisch, PhD – Associate Professor of Microbiology and Epidemiology
  • James Gaensbauer, MD, MPH – Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology
  • Many other mentees and collaborators

Department of Pediatrics

CU Anschutz

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13123 E. 16th Ave.

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Aurora, CO 80045


720-777-2715

Department of Pediatrics
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