Japanese encephalitis

Professor Torresi is an infectious diseases physician at Knox Private Hospital, Boronia; Epworth Eastern Hospital, Box Hill; Peninsula Private Hospital; and the Austin Hospital (Hepatitis Service), Heidelberg, Victoria.

He holds a PhD in Microbiology, and is an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Prof Torresi is head of the hepatitis research laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Peter Doherty Institute at the the University of Melbourne. His HCV vaccine research was funded through NHMRC, ARC, Australia-India Biotechnology Fund and ACH2. He also heads the Travel Medicine Service at Eastern Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine in Boronia, and serves as co-director for the Melbourne GeoSentinel Surveillance network.

As the chair of the ISTM Publications Committee and a member since 1997, Prof Torresi has authored 150 publications including original papers, reviews, and book chapters and books. He was also the chair of the Viral Hepatitis SIG of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases.

He is the chair of the 3rd Southern Cross Conference of Travel Medicine in (Australian College of Travel Medicine) in 2018 and 2017. He has served on several scientific committees including those of CISTM8, CISTM9, CISTM10 (as associate chair), 4th Regional ISTM - APICTM 2008 (as chair) and 7th Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference in 2010 (as co-chair).

Professor Joseph Torresi provides an overview of the epidemiology of Japanese encephalitis, and discusses the implications and importance of vaccination against this viral encephalitis.