Anne A. Gershon, M.D.
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EDUCATION
Smith College, AB, 1960 ACADEMIC TITLE
Professor of Pediatrics SPECIALITY
Varicella-zoster virus infections and vaccines |
RESEARCH AND CLINICAL SUMMARY
Dr. Anne Gershon is Director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease. Her research has included epidemiology, diagnosis, immunology, latency, prevention, and treatment of varicella and zoster virus infections. Her studies with varicella vaccine, which examined the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in leukemic children and adults, were crucial to its licensure; the vaccine is now recommended for all healthy children in the United States. She is continuing to study the safety and efficacy of varicella vaccine and the zoster vaccine in the "vaccine era". She has also focused on HIV infection in children, particularly with regard to opportunistic infections. She has research funding from the NIH to study the growth and pathogenesis of VZV in cell culture, and latency of VZV in humans and animal models. Dr. Gershon has served on the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics ("Red Book" Committee) and the Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the CDC. She was a member of the CDC's Working Group for varicella vaccine and played a major role in recommending a second routine dose of the vaccine for all children. She is a member of the Councils of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society. She is currently President of IDSA. She is the author of over 250 publications and has edited 8 books. She is a member of a March of Dimes Research Committee Study Section.
OFFICE INFORMATION:
Anne Gershon, MD
630 West 168th Street
PH4-468
New York, NY 10032
Tel: (212) 305-9445
Fax: (212) 342-1578
E mail: aag1@columbia.edu
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Gershon AA, Chen J, and Gershon MD. A model of lytic, latent, and reactivating varicella-zoster virus infections in isolated enteric neurons. J Infect Dis 2008; 197 Suppl 2:S61-5.
- Gershon, AA. Varicella-zoster virus infections. Pediatr Rev 2008; 29(1): 5-10.
- Levin MJ, Gershon AA, Weinberg A, Song LY, Fentin T, Nowak B. Administration of live varicella vaccine to HIV-infected children with current or past significant depression of CD4(+) T cells. J Infect Dis 2006;194(2):247-55.
- Arvin A, Gershon A. Control of varicella: why is a two-dose schedule necessary? Pediatr Infect Dis J 2006;25(6):475-6.
- Quinlivan MA, Gershon AA, Nichols RA, La Russa P, Steinberg SP, Breuer J. Vaccine Oka varicella-zoster virus genotypes are monomorphic in single vesicles and polymorphic in respiratory tract secretions. J Infect Dis 2006;193(7):927-30.
- Stallings CL, Duigou GJ, Gershon AA, Gershon MD, Silverstein SJ. The cellular localization pattern of Varicella-Zoster virus ORF29p is influenced by proteasome-mediated degradation. J Virol 2006;80(3):1497-512.
- Nachman S, Gona P, Dankner W, Weinberg A, Yogev R, Gershon A, et al. The rate of serious bacterial infections among HIV-infected children with immune reconstitution who have discontinued opportunistic infection prophylaxis. Pediatrics 2005;115(4):e488-94.
- Dworkin RH, Johnson RW, Breuer J, Gershon, A. et al. Recommendations for the management of herpes zoster. Clin Infect Dis 2007;44 Suppl 1:S1-S26.
- Quinlivan ML, Gershon AA, Al Bassam MM, et al. From the Cover: Natural selection for rash-forming genotypes of the varicella-zoster vaccine virus detected within immunized human hosts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2007;104(1):208-12.
- Michalik DE, Steinberg SP, LaRussa PS, Edwards KM, Wright PF, Arvin AM, Gans, HA, Gershon, AA. Primary vaccine failure after 1 dose of varicella vaccine in healthy children. J Infect Dis 2008; 197(7):944-9.
- Breuer J, Quinlivan M, Al Bassam M, Gershon, A, et al: DNA sequence variability in Oka vaccine isolates. J Infect Dis 196:801, 2007
- Gershon AA: Vaccination to prevent zoster in the elderly. Epidemiol Infect 135:883, 2007
- Gershon AA, Arvin AM, Shapiro E: Varicella vaccine. N Engl J Med 356:2648, 2007
- Hambleton S, Steinberg SP, Gershon MD, Gershon, A. et al: Cholesterol dependence of varicella-zoster virion entry into target cells. J Virol 81:7548, 2007


