Shikha Garg, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
Shikha Garg, MD, MPH currently serves as Lead of the Influenza Clinical Epidemiology and Treatment Team within the Epidemiology and Prevention Branch of CDC’s Influenza Division. As team lead, she is responsible for core domestic activities that include conducting population-based surveillance for influenza-associated hospitalizations, monitoring usage and impact of influenza vaccines and antiviral treatment on influenza-associated outcomes and identifying and exploring knowledge gaps in the clinical epidemiology of influenza.
Dr. Garg first joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Influenza Division in 2010. From 2015 to 2022, she served as the CDC lead of the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurvNET), which conducts population-based surveillance for influenza-associated hospitalizations in the United States. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Garg leveraged the FluSurv-NET infrastructure to create and co-lead the COVID-19-assoicated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET), which provided timely and robust data on COVID-19-associated hospitalizations throughout the pandemic. Dr. Garg served as the co-lead of the combined Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RESP-NET) until October 2022, when she began her current role as Lead of the Influenza Clinical Epidemiology and Treatment Team.
Dr. Garg earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. She received her Doctor of Medicine from the Chicago Medical School, completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes Jewish Hospital/Washington University, and a fellowship in adult Infectious Diseases from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. While completing her Infectious Diseases fellowship, she also earned a Master of Public Health Degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Garg is a Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service.