Ms Kleynhans, Jackie

Jackie Kleynhans is an Epidemiologist in the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis (CRDM) at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, South Africa. She qualified from the University of Pretoria with a Master’s degree in Public Health through the South African Field Epidemiology Training Programme and has a background in medical science. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, working on her thesis that focuses on SARS-CoV-2 transmission and contact patterns.
At the CRDM, Kleynhans supports the development and implementation of epidemiological studies that includes assiting with protocol writing and logistics for field implementation, through to data management, cleaning and analysis, and the dissemination through reports, conference presentations and peer-review publications. She also actively participates in training activities at the centre and provides epidemiological support, mentorship and supervision to students and colleagues.
Kleynhans has a passion for learning, mastering new concepts and mentoring others. Her primary research interests include the epidemiology of respiratory diseases like influenza and COVID-19, vaccine impact studies, how social contact patterns influence the transmission of respiratory diseases, and modelling of infectious disease transmission dynamics.