Dr Tranprit Saluja – Consultant Microbiologist and Infection Prevention and Control Doctor at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

Dr Saluja – know as Taran – has made fighting infection her life’s work. In addition to leading Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust’s Infection Control Service as IPC doctor since 2017, the accomplished microbiologist is also deputy chair of the regional infection control forum, and an honorary senior lecturer at Aston University.

Her special interest is in the impact of infection on the body and how it can be fought off, antimicrobial stewardship and emerging antimicrobial resistance. When Covid-19 hit last year, Taran was at the forefront of the Trust’s response and has been splitting her time with a mix of clinical duties, on-call commitments, doing rounds and managing infection control. She is passionate about her role and using science to inform the path out of the pandemic.

She explained: “When a new virus comes along, science is essential to understand its battle plan, and it is the science which will determine our strategy to eventually beat Covid-19. Although it is inevitable we will experience set backs as the virus evolves, I am confident that our testing regime, sequencing  and robust infection control measures will ultimately win out over COVID as we understand more about it, and can therefore adapt our behaviour to prevent it spreading.”