| Helen Heffernan | |
| Field: | Microbiology |
Helen Mary Heffernan is a New Zealand microbiologist, specialising in antibiotic resistance. In 2020, she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to health. The Institute of Environmental Science and Research awarded Heffernan their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
Heffernan earned a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Otago.[1] [2] She worked at New Zealand's National Health Institute and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), a Crown Research Institute.[3]
Heffernan's research involved the development of cold chain standards, which are important for the safe management and storage of vaccines. She also carried out surveillance for infectious diseases, allowing the rate of spread of antimicrobial resistance to be slowed. Heffernan's research was the basis for vaccine programmes against haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcus and meningococcus.
Heffernan was a member a number of national committees, including the National Antimicrobial Committee, the Ministry for Primary Industries' Technical Advisory Group, and the Ministry of Health's Pneumococcal Surveillance Advisory Group.[4] She spoke about New Zealand's place in the 'global antimicrobial crisis' at the One Health symposium in 2017.[5] She also represented New Zealand at regional meetings in the Pacific, and at the World Health Organization's workshop on Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance.
In the 2020 New Year Honours, Heffernan was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to health. On her appointment, Heffernan asked New Zealanders to play their part to reduce antibiotic resistance, saying, "While antibiotics are essential medicines to treat bacterial infections, we overuse and misuse them and this contributes to resistance". On her retirement in 2018, after a 43-year career, ESR awarded Heffernan their Lifetime Achievement Award.[6]