Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics values the dedicated work of Reviewers and Editors who contribute to the high quality of published work, a fair review process and rapid turnaround times.
We thank all of our Reviewers for their time, commitment, and hard work.
In the current HV&I Reviewer Highlight, we are pleased to recognize Chandrakant Lahariya and his service to the scientific community.
Dr. Lahariya is a Primary Care Physician and Vaccines & Immunization specialist, with 20+ years of experience as clinician, academician, and vaccines specialist. He is currently Chief Physician and leads the integrated department of Epidemiology, Health Policy, Preventive Medicine and Paediatrics at Foundation for People-centric Health Systems, New Delhi, India. Following a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine from prestigious Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, he pursued Preventive Medicine training at Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi. He was awarded Diplomate of National Board by the National Board of Examination in India and was elected as a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) in India. Dr. Lahariya attended the Advanced Course on Vaccinology (ADVAC) in 2011. He completed a certificate course in immunology and vaccinology from Institut Pasteur, Paris, France in 2012.
In the last 18 years, Dr. Lahariya has worked closely with India’s national government to support drafting of the country’s first National Vaccine Policy 2011 and roll-out of six new antigens in the Universal Immunization program. He has extensive experience of working with, supporting and strengthening of National Technical Advisory Groups on Immunization and Committees to conduct causality assessment and establishing Adverse Events Following Immunization committees in multiple countries across Southeast Asia, Dr. Lahariya is author of a seminal paper on the history of vaccines and vaccination in India. In 2014, he received a ‘certificate of appreciation’ signed by the then-Director General of the World Health Organization for his work on polio elimination. In 2015, he was awarded the prestigious Dr. BC Srivastava Foundation Award by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Government of India for ‘translating community-based health research into public policy;’ this was in recognition of his work on strengthening India’s immunization program, among other community-based research on vaccines and other aspects.
Prior to assuming leadership roles at his current organization, Dr. Lahariya spent nearly 15 years with the WHO in India, Regional office for Africa and the WHO Headquarters in Geneva. Much of this work was focused on new vaccines introduction, post-introduction evaluation, supporting vaccine policy formulation and overall health systems strengthening.
Dr. Lahariya has been a member of numerous advisory committees in India and has served as consultant for UNICEF, the World Bank and many other national and international organizations. In the COVID-19 pandemic, he was India’s leading vaccine and epidemiology expert who guided the country’s pandemic response, and fought the infodemic through his writing in mainstream newspapers and appearance on the broadcast television. He is an associate life member of Indian Academy of Paediatrics – a professional association of around 40,000 pediatricians in India.
As an avid researcher, he has published nearly 200 highly cited papers in reputed national and international medical and bioscience journals. For the last 4 years, Dr. Lahariya has been listed among the top 2% researchers across the globe in the field of internal medicine and pediatrics. Dr. Lahariya’s current work and research focus is on adolescent and adult vaccination and successful introduction of new antigens in national immunization programms, with special attention on low- and middle-income countries.
