Ohnmar Aung, MBBS, MA

Ohnmar has over 20 years of experience serving as a physician and public health research scientist, specializing in reproductive health and infectious diseases of public health concern in Myanmar. Her research has focused on health seeking and exposure risk behaviors for infectious diseases including sarbecoviruses, HIV, malaria, and viral hepatitis. She has experience working in collaboration with the government ministries, universities, and international NGOs to advance One Health research approaches, conduct zoonotic disease surveillance, and facilitate outbreak response. As a member of the EpiCenter for Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence, Ohnmar is the principal investigator for an NIH CREID pilot project investigating ecological drivers of sarbecovirus spillover in Myanmar and Nepal. She also is actively involved in a recently awarded NIH project investigating sarbecovirus exposure patterns in communities in Myanmar with extensive wildlife contact, where she oversees research and surveillance activities, data analysis and reporting, and networking within Myanmar and the South-East Asia region.

Recent Projects 

• “Investigation of ecological drivers of sarbecovirus spillover in Myanmar and Nepal”
• “Investigation of sarbecovirus exposure patterns and development of pan-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody responses in high-risk cohorts in Myanmar”

Publications

• Exposure to diverse sarbecoviruses indicates frequent zoonotic spillover in human communities interacting with wildlife, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.02.015