Biography
Katharine S. Walter, PhD is an infectious disease epidemiologist interested in leveraging pathogen variation to characterize pathogen transmission dynamics. Her work focuses on transmission of M. tuberculosis in high incidence settings and the expansion of the Valley fever fungus under rapid climate change in the American West. Alongside her research, she writes about health inequity and environmental change for The Nation, Nautilus, and elsewhere. She is an assistant professor at the University of Utah.
Key Impacts
M. tuberculosis transmission dynamics in congregate settings: A genomic epidemiology study
While close exposures within a prison were related to pairwise genomic clustering, most individuals with TB had multiple exposures to other individuals with TB due to frequent movements by the prison system. Our results support the urgent expansion of prison-wide mass screenings, TB preventive therapy, and structural interventions to reduce transmission risk in prisons and other congregate settings.
Source: Conference 2024