Dr Kerrigan McCarthy is a specialist pathologist in the discipline of microbiology. She has a PhD in Public Health from Wits. She has worked at the NICD in quality assurance and mycology, and for a number of NGOs doing health system strengthening in the area of TB/HIV integration. She co-ordinated the national evaluation of the GeneXpert technology for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Since working at the NICD she has supported national and provincial responses to outbreaks, including listeria and SARS-CoV-2.