Abraar Karan

Abraar Karan is an infectious disease fellow and postdoctoral researcher in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, the Luby Lab, the Center for Innovation in Global Health, and the Woods Institute for the Environment. Dr. Karan worked on the COVID-19 outbreak for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in 2020, and the Monkeypox outbreak for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in 2022–23. He also served on the WHO-commissioned Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response's research team investigating early global spread of COVID-19, and helped with policy-writing for the Biden-Harris campaign on reducing COVID-19 in schools. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the following studies: a cluster-randomized controlled trial investigating whether air filtration and ventilation can reduce spread of COVID-19 in low-income homes in the Bay Area; piloting a low-cost rural surveillance system for detecting spillover of zoonotic diseases in Western Kenya.

Dr. Karan completed his internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in the Global Health Equity program, and have been working in global health since 2008. He co-edited the book, Protecting the Health of the Poor, and co-founded Longsleeve insect repellent, winner of the 2018 Harvard Business School New Venture Competition and finalist in the 2019 Harvard President's Challenge.

King Center Supported Research

2023 - 2024 Academic Year | Global Development Research Funding

Piloting the Feasibility of a Low-cost Rural Surveillance System for Zoonotic Diseases in Western Kenya

Improving the detection of zoonotic disease spillover is important for pandemic preparedness and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3d. A One Health approach combines the skills of veterinarians, epidemiologists, clinicians, and laboratory scientists to elucidate how these pathogens cross species. We aim to conduct a zoonoses serosurvey in a high-risk region around Mount Elgon National Park, Kenya with a focus on missed mild or asymptomatic filovirus exposures (Ebola, Marburg). We will then establish geographic heat maps; sample domestic animals from positive households; and pilot a surveillance system in communities with positive samples.